[extropy-chat] WTA-BOARD: Not an umbrella organization

Tue Jun 8 03:28:08 UTC 2004

The WTA Leadership has apparently long since abandoned the idea of 
being an umbrella organization without informing anybody.  I believe 
that this is the root cause of all the differences among WTA Board 
members.  We simply did not agree on what WTA was supposed to be.

--
Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, CISA, CISM, IAM, IBMCP, GSEC
<HarveyNewstrom.com>
____________________________________________________________
> From: Harvey Newstrom <mail at harveynewstrom.com>
> Date: Sat Jan 31, 2004  5:54:37 am US/Eastern
> To: WTA Board of Directors List <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
> Subject: Re: [wtaboard] RE:  Who Really Wrote the Transhumanist FAQ?
> Reply-To: WTA Board of Directors List <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
>
>>  This will amount to an implicit acknowledgment that there is a 
>> status of covert war between WTA and ExI.
>
> Unfortunately, this war already exists.  WTA seems to have declared 
> war on Extropy Institute from day one.  The original FAQ said, "Many 
> transhumanists do not agree with all the political views of the 
> Extropy Institute .  The World Transhumanist Association was therefore 
> founded in 1998 by Nick Bostrom and David Pearce...."  The reason for 
> the WTA to be created is supposedly because many transhumanists don't 
> like ExI!  What kind of basis for forming an umbrella group is that?
____________________________________________________________
> From: "MIKE TREDER" <iph1954 at msn.com>
> Date: Sat Jan 31, 2004  10:49:07 am US/Eastern
> To: wtaboard at transhumanism.org
> Subject: Re: [wtaboard] RE: Who Really Wrote the Transhumanist FAQ?
> Reply-To: WTA Board of Directors List <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
>
> I joined the WTA in late 2001, around the time the decision was made 
> to form a Board of Directors and to become incorporated. I had never 
> been a member of ExI, but it seemed (and seems) pretty clear to me 
> that the WTA was originally formed as a breakaway organization, 
> intending to compete with ExI for members. The basis for this was that 
> the WTA would be more inclusive politically, as well as 
> geographically, ExI being seen at the time as somewhat 
> Calif-USA-centric.
>
> Only later, I believe in early 2002, was the idea of becoming an 
> umbrella organization discussed in our online fora. There was some 
> debate about it, and I don't think it was ever settled by a vote. But 
> to my knowledge *that* is the time when the umbrella concept came into 
> being -- about two years ago, not five or six years ago.
____________________________________________________________
> From: Harvey Newstrom <mail at harveynewstrom.com>
> Date: Sat Jan 31, 2004  7:36:32 pm US/Eastern
> To: WTA Board of Directors List <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
> Subject: Re: [wtaboard] RE: Who Really Wrote the Transhumanist FAQ?
> Reply-To: WTA Board of Directors List <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
>
> I think we need to clarify our role as an umbrella organization and 
> try to figure out how we can start helping our affiliate organizations 
> instead of attacking them.  ExI is our biggest affiliate, and as an 
> umbrella organization we should be working with and promoting them 
> most.  I think we need to work more towards service to the 
> transhumanist community instead of demanding service from the 
> transhumanist community.  We need to develop documents and 
> infrastructures that are acceptable to all our affilitate, and try to 
> cleanup and get rid of such that are divisive instead of inclusive.
____________________________________________________________
> From: iph1954 at msn.com
> Date: Sat May 22, 2004  10:06:41 am US/Eastern
> To: "WTA Board of Directors List" <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
> Subject: [wtaboard] Stuck in the middle
> Reply-To: WTA Board of Directors List <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
>
> On the WTA -- Holey umbrellas, Batman! If this group was formed with 
> the
> intention of being a gathering place for the numerous fragments of the 
> >H
> movement, it appears to be failing in that mission, as evidenced by 
> Harvey's
> initial survey findings. Either we must redouble our efforts to become 
> a
> *welcoming* community for (almost) all flavors of >H thought and 
> activity
> (which might mean that James could not be our ED), or we must rethink 
> the
> whole umbrella strategy and just make the WTA what it actually seems 
> to be,
> an activist organization that is part of, but not representative of, 
> the
> greater >H community.
____________________________________________________________
> From: "J Hughes" <jhughes at changesurfer.com>
> Date: Sat May 22, 2004  2:02:52 pm US/Eastern
> To: "'WTA Board of Directors List'" <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
> Subject: [wtaboard] In support of a cooling off period
> Reply-To: jhughes at changesurfer.com, WTA Board of Directors List 
> <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
>
> The question is how strategically
> important it is to keep some of the small, marginal groups from being
> annoyed as we move ahead. I guess if I had to choose between between 
> the
> largest, most mainstream and most influential transhumanist 
> organization and
> being an umbrella of transhumanist groups I would want us to choose the
> former.
____________________________________________________________
> From: Harvey Newstrom <mail at HarveyNewstrom.com>
> Date: Sat May 22, 2004  4:11:09 pm US/Eastern
> To: WTA Board of Directors List <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
> Subject: A major shift in WTA mission?
>
> The WTA FAQ <http://www.transhumanism.org/resources/faq.html> says,
>> A rapidly expanding family of transhumanist groups, differing 
>> somewhat in flavor and focus, and a plethora of discussion groups in 
>> many countries around the world, are gathered under the umbrella of 
>> the World Transhumanist Association, a non-profit democratic 
>> membership organization.
>
> On Saturday, May 22, 2004, at 02:02 pm, J Hughes wrote:
>
>> The question is how strategically
>> important it is to keep some of the small, marginal groups from being
>> annoyed as we move ahead. I guess if I had to choose between between 
>> the
>> largest, most mainstream and most influential transhumanist 
>> organization and
>> being an umbrella of transhumanist groups I would want us to choose 
>> the
>> former.
>
> This seems to be a major shift in the WTA mission.  James clearly has 
> chosen the former.  I clearly have chosen the latter.  Most of our 
> conflicts seem to stem from these two incompatible visions for the 
> WTA.  I think the Board needs to decide if we are going to continue as 
> an umbrella organization, or abandon that vision for the new vision as 
> James has laid out for us.
>
> 1) WTA should strive to be "the largest, most mainstream and most 
> influential transhumanist organization."
>
> -or-
>
> 2) WTA should strive to be "an umbrella of transhumanist groups."
____________________________________________________________

> From: James Hughes <james_j_hughes_2000 at yahoo.com>
> Date: Sat May 22, 2004  5:13:34 pm US/Eastern
> To: WTA Board of Directors List <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
> Subject: Re: [wtaboard] A major shift in WTA mission?
> Reply-To: jhughes at changesurfer.com, WTA Board of Directors List 
> <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
>
> Actually I think we started moving away from being an
> umbrella almost immediately when we eliminated
> "organizational memberships" in favor of "chapters"
> and "affiliates" about a month after adopting our
> constitution in January 2002.
____________________________________________________________
> From: "Giulio Prisco" <giulio at prisco.info>
> Date: Sun May 23, 2004  2:10:35 am US/Eastern
> To: "WTA Board of Directors List" <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
> Subject: RE: [wtaboard] A major shift in WTA mission?
> Reply-To: WTA Board of Directors List <wtaboard at transhumanism.org>
>
> I never believed too much in the vision of the WTA as an umbrella
> organization. The correct way to run an umbrella organization is 
> admitting
> all members of the participating organization, and staffing the Board 
> with
> delegated representatives of the participating organizations. This is 
> not
> what the WTA has alswys done: recruiting independent members and asking
> membership to elect a Board.
> The question is not if we are going to continue as an umbrella 
> organization
> but if we are going to become one.
____________________________________________________________