Why We’re Updating Our Bylaws
Our RISE event last May in Oakland brought together 70 SVN stalwarts, supported by many scores of others who couldn’t attend but subsequently engaged. The outcome was a strong desire to resurrect what was great about SVN, acknowledge the faults and harms that were perpetuated, and create an open, transparent, democratic, well-functioning organization that promotes the participation of all members and accountability for the members of leadership and staff.
An open working group of 13 folks spent three months developing a draft set of SVN Bylaws. The key attributes are:
Membership-centric. The power of SVN has always been its members. The SVN organization was successful at collecting dynamic social venture practitioners and facilitating their collective action. The outfit faltered, accelerated by ASBN’s conduct, when top-down leadership replaced member engagement. The rejuvenated SVN is set up to focus on the Membership and its desires for the community.
Member-respectful. SVN long spoke about the obvious benefits of welcoming the full range of modern society into our work. However, actual practices worked to limit who was invited and who chose to stay. The rejuvenated SVN acknowledges these harms, and commits to ensuring that leadership and members alike treat each other, reflecting our mission of a heart-centered network.
Member-inclusive. To actualize these lofty goals, the draft Bylaws seek to bake in diversity, inclusion, equity and justice– to inspire our best and prevent sliding into business as usual.
Member-empowered. The SVN Board of Directors is to be elected by the Membership - accountable to the community and transparent in operations, finances, programming, policies, and behavior.
Simply, the proposed bylaws make clear that the membership determines the strategic direction of the organization through an annual meeting and election of the board of directors, which is charged with operational activities but cannot be imposed on the membership.
So, a critical step is for the membership to adopt bylaws. This version is intended as a strong draft, open to critique and improvement. That said, the Bylaws can be modified by the Membership at any annual meeting. So the goal is get this right enough to rejuvenate the organization, be open to improvements as we collectively operate under this sunshine and celebrate how far we’ve come with the commitment for constant improvement.
Fittingly, these proposed Bylaws cannot be imposed on the Membership, but would need to be adopted at a proper meeting.
This is an important step in laying the foundation for the rejuvenated Social Venture Network. This foundation matters: to create a structure that respects the community, facilitate good works within it, bring about Best Practices and guard against abuse. Like most fundations, it’s not glamorous but needed to enable an organization worthy of the goals and aspirations of the Social Venture Network.
