
Disarray at the Hacker Dojo - dustball
http://www.mv-voice.com/news/2016/03/31/disarray-at-the-dojo
======
whbk
Wow. Marie Knox, the woman that has already admitted to stealing the money,
has her hands in a lot of different organizations in the Bay Area. She was the
cashier, website manager, and person responsible for ordering inventory at her
last position. Sure hope her past employers/nonprofits are all checking their
books closely now..

Good on Sudarshana Banerjee, who took her board responsibilities seriously and
uncovered this shortly after starting.

~~~
bickfordb
Or maybe this is a failure of the non-profit system: these charities are not
required to make their finances transparent by the government or their funders

~~~
nongaap
Transparency is very much part of the non-profit system. Non-Profits have to
annually file an IRS Form 990 (it's like an annual report) which discloses
finances and are required to have them available for public inspection during
business hours.

Sounds like Hacker Dojo was not following the rules already in place to
prevent this sort of abuse.

~~~
marincounty
It's not that difficult to abuse power in the non-profit system. I'm not
referring to blatant theft by an employee, but other shinagigans usually by
the founders--like mixing personal assets with the non-profit assets.

1\. Is the non-profit in Deleware? So many shady non-profits set up shop in
Deleware. When you read the requirements you will see exactly why. I've gotten
to the point, I will only listen to CA non-profits when it comes to donating.
California has some stringent requirements.

2\. Yes--they have rules, and procedures, but there's a lot of people who
don't follow the rules. The rules are getting harder to get around, but so
many non-profits are there for one reason. The reason--provide a job, and a
good wage to the founders. The Obama administration enacted rules that make
non-profits more transparent though.

3\. I have watched a few non-profit founders make, usually a husband and wife,
very rich. I could go on at lenght, but tired, and it seems like no one really
cares.

4\. When ever I get someone asking for money for their little non-profit, I go
to, forget the name--Guidestar. I download the free preview. I go to the
bottom of all the pages, and look at their 1040's. I then look for the one, or
two people making a lot of money. There's always one, or two individuals. I
get so discouraged, and wonder if anyone in these nonprofits really cares
about what they proclaim.

~~~
VonGuard
Don't bust on Delaware. My NP is registered in Delaware, as is the Apache
Foundation. Now, 5 years later, I wish I'd registered first in CA, but being
in DE is not a black mark. I did it there because Apache was there, so I
figured, good enough for them, good enough for us. Additionally, most US
businesses are registered in DE.

------
nongaap
Having seen first hand a similar situation unfold, the most heartbreaking
feeling is finding out a friend broke your trust. That said, you really can't
fix the issues and protect friends at the same time. Things have to be cleaned
up and trust restored.

The Board needs to be highly vigilant about pushing for transparency and
getting outside independent help to get to the bottom of things.

I repeat. Financial mismanagement and abuse is not something you try to fix
in-house. The reason being you really don't know who has had their hand in the
cookie jar (on purpose or accidentally) and there is going to be incentive by
some to not expose the skeletons and the laws broken.

People want to protect friends but the Board really needs to retain
professionals to run a forensic audit, get a full picture of what happened,
and put in the proper financial controls. Cost isn't an excuse. Many law and
accounting firms offer pro-bono services to non-profits, and I'm sure there
would be plenty of firms who would be happy to help Hacker Dojo clean things
up.

------
Animats
What a mess. I knew Hacker Dojo was having problems, but didn't know the
details. I was a member for a while a few years ago, at the previous location,
but just to take classes.

It's mostly a co-working space now. As of a year ago, people sat silently at
laptops under harsh industrial lighting, coding apps into the night. Now that
the get-rich-quick app boom is over, not sure what's going on there.

$199 per month is way too much. TechShop is only $125 a month, and they have a
full machine shop, wood shop, electronics benches, paid staff, etc. Hacker
Dojo is a bare space into which members bring stuff. I wondered where the
money was going. Now we're finding out.

According to their web site, they're in the midst of a move, with the old
location closed. It's not clear if the new location is open yet. Marie Knox
(yes, the accused thief) is in charge of the move logistics.

~~~
mtviewdave
The Dojo is still at 599 Fairchild (it's second location, where it's been
since 2012). The lease will run out end of May. The Dojo has a potential new
space in Santa Clara, though they have not signed a lease yet.

Marie Knox has been suspended, so I suspect the web description of her being
in charge is merely out of date.

FYI, membership is $195/month. And yes, with TechShop at $125, and Founders
Floor in downtown San Jose at $200/month, $195 seems far too high for what you
get at Hacker Dojo.

~~~
swimfar
They have different membership levels:
[http://www.hackerdojo.com/Membership](http://www.hackerdojo.com/Membership)

The $195/month is for people who use it as their office all day. If you're
only there on evenings and weekends it's only $100/month.

------
emarkz
From the trenches of those Dojo Members seeking to regain control of our
nonprofit... In my opinion:

The last executive director was brought in to fund raise via grants and
sponsorships, and failed miserably, instead raising that $400K ($300K + $100K
stolen), off the backs of it's members by doubling membership fees, and
converting a quarter of the Dojo into a private VC incubator.

He also wasn't an entrepreneur or a hacker, but more the slick politician
type, and killed the Dojo culture, driving away most of the best volunteers
and people, by ending member voting, spying on members, and banning anyone he
didn't like (at the slightest of excuses at times). This and the previous
board ignored members complaints, until he let the corporate status lapse, and
there was no corporate veil for the board to hide themselves behind.

And now we are at war with this board, trying to gain back control that
existed as a gentleman's agreement between the founders and the members, but
wasn't written in the bylaws because clueless lawyers were consulted.

Also - the $30K number is a made up number by the most recent board member,
who bought his board position, and is the most responsible for harassing the
recently resigned whistleblower member. There are few to no records kept of
the purposes of expenditures. If all unaccountable expenditures were added up
- it'd be double or triple that $30K number...

Lesson: Bake your culture into your DNA, or when the good King era ends, the
bad king era will begin...

Kind of blows my mind that in Silicon Valley - the Valley of the Disruptors,
Hackers build an organization utilizing 100 year old feudal corporate antique
autocratic bylaws.

Don't tell me we can't smart phone app, wisdom of the crowd, self govern our
own hacker asses.

~~~
mtviewdave
Having been a member the Dojo until recently, and a fan since they opened, I
disagree with a lot of your characterization, and am going to give Ghufran the
benefit of the doubt. However, this is important:

>Lesson: Bake your culture into your DNA, or when the good King era ends, the
bad king era will begin...

What I see at the fundamental problem with the Dojo is that, baked into its
DNA, is the belief that legal compliance and good management are not really
important. The Dojo had to leave its old space because they were so in
violation of Mountain View building codes that it would have taken hundreds of
thousands of dollars to bring them into compliance. A problem that could have
been easily avoided if they had bothered to talk to the City about code
compliance before moving into that space.

And now they've demonstrated a lack of interest in basic financial governance.

I wish Ghufran, and the new board, the best in terms of turning the Dojo
around. But I worry that the disinterest in compliance and management is so
integral to Dojo culture that it will have another (completely avoidable)
crisis in 3-4 years.

------
calcsam
It's pretty clear that Hacker Dojo isn't the strictest about accounting. Just
look at their membership fee -- $100 / month, pay if you want.

That said, Hacker Dojo doesn't work because recurring revenue > expenses. They
work because of the tremendous goodwill they've built up in the community and
a devoted base of supporters who are willing to help.

Organizational controls should be aimed to strengthen that support -- too much
formalization around process risks killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

~~~
dahdum
The goodwill was a huge part of why I continue to pay the membership despite
hardly ever going. Finding out my dues were embezzled have certainly soured my
opinion. I think transparency is more important than formalization.

~~~
striking
Keeping it informal and keeping it transparent aren't even related in my
opinion. You can keep goodwill payments while being transparent about how the
payments are being used.

------
alricb
_" At a hacker space, when you walk in, you've got to assume people are trying
to crack (your computer). They can't help it," he said._

Poor little hackers, they have no self-control.

Also, isn't it standard practice in the US to present audited financials to an
annual general assembly? With $300k in the bank, you should be able to afford
to hire a CPA, no?

------
OliverJones
I've been part of other not-for-profit orgs with countercultural missions.
It's always been possible to get a few members -- not on the board -- to step
forward and do a yearly audit of the books. These audits aren't high-end
finance work products: you'd have to pay big bucks to somebody like PWC for
that. But they do spot stuff like misuse of payment cards.

It's interesting how members who have finance experience, and members who want
to learn something about finance, both step forward. A good volunteer audit
can be part of the educational mission of the org.

------
inDigiNeous
As a Finnish person visiting Mountain View last year, I spent 2 weeks at
Hacker Dojo coding on my project.

Very creative atmosphere there, and something that really doesn't exist here
in Finland at that scale. Kinda sad to hear their name is being dragged down.

I felt it's a bunch of good people there, got to meet some of the people
running the place too.

The next big thing could rise from places like Hacker Dojo, I wish them all
the good and hopefully finding a new place.

------
godzillabrennus
The folks behind Hacker Dojo existing have stellar reputations. I'm sure they
will sort this out.

Hacker Dojo also has incubated the Hackers/Founders COOP which is also a solid
organization.

------
brbsix
There's a brief bio here:
[http://behindthedojodesk.blogspot.com/p/about.html](http://behindthedojodesk.blogspot.com/p/about.html)

One interesting quote: "My role and what I do has grown beyond what it was
originally envisioned to be at Hacker Dojo, and frankly I'm not sure if there
are too many terribly hard lines around what I do and don't do."

I get the feeling that she didn't have much in the way of supervision.

------
educar
Are there any other places similar to Hacker Dojo in the bay area?

~~~
simoncion
I know of a few. There are likely several that I don't know about:

Noisebridge in SF [https://noisebridge.net](https://noisebridge.net)

TechShop in SF, SJ, and several other non-Bay Area locations
[http://www.techshop.ws/](http://www.techshop.ws/)

Ace Monster Toys in Oakland
[http://acemonstertoys.org/](http://acemonstertoys.org/)

Sudo Room in Oakland [https://sudoroom.org/](https://sudoroom.org/)

~~~
educar
I have been to some of these.

noisebridge - it's a very good place but the last two times I was there it was
quite dirty. it also had homeless people (nothing against the homeless but
it's not the right place for them) which made it hard to work there.

TechShop - is not a computer hacking place. mostly for mechanical/engineering.

I will try the other two, thanks for your suggestions!

~~~
simoncion
> noisebridge - it's a very good place but the last two times I was there it
> was quite dirty. it also had homeless people...

Have you been there since this happened?
[https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Reboot](https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Reboot) The
character of the place has changed dramatically for the better.

Anyway, happy to help.

------
mathattack
Fraud is fraud. Happens in non- prof is too. Sometimes more because people
assume honorable intentions and the pay is less. Shame to lose the space.

------
GFK_of_xmaspast
That's a real shame. I only went to talks there a couple of times before
moving away, but it seemed like a really special kind of place.

------
ZanyProgrammer
I remember back in 2012 there was indeed a lot of good will in the Valley
towards Hacker Dojo when they needed to move. From everything I've read, I
fear the HD name is too tarnished. Its a shame, their new location is quite
nice.

------
drdeadringer
I am amazed in reading this.

Granted that the last time I was involved at HD was their 2012 move and
shortly after, but at the moment I feel like I have rediscovered something in
the middle of an implosion or hyper-political tempest.

------
deepnet
I withdraw any opinion I have on this matter, it was uninformed and those on
the ground obviously know more - I misinterpreted the article.

~~~
dang
We detached this subthread from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11401801](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11401801)
and marked it off-topic.

