Nomination of Luis Montes for the Board

[Moheeb Zara]

I nominate Luis Montes (senior) for the role of Co-Champion should the upcoming vote-of-no-confidence of the current seat-holder pass.

A few HYH ago the petition was officially considered verified which means nominations are open, I believe the board will be announcing the scheduling of the actual vote soon. 

Luis has served on the board in the past, has been consistently involved, he has nominated countless cardholders who were all voted yes, him and Mala have kept Caffeine&Coworking running strong for nearly 15 years, every week without fail. 

Luis has also championed endeavors that led to the lab receiving upwards of 30K in donation. He has put tons of his own money and time into the lab.

The man lives and breathes HeatSync. It would be unfair not to mention that at times he can butt heads but he is always open to resolution and I've seen him admit when he is wrong (it is possible i swear). If you feel uneasy about this nomination for whatever reason I hope that you'll try and reach out to Luis directly, meet him for coffe/tea/beer/whatever and talk it out. If not for the sake of the vote, do it at least to meet him IRL and learn what an awesome, passionate (loud mouth :P), caring, and brilliant guy he can be. 

I've personally butt-heads with him at times but we have always found resolution and it has never affected our friendship. I am obviously quite biased, Luis mentored me and I am the engineer I am today thanks to him. 

Outside of the lab Luis fosters strong relationships with the community. He runs Bike Mesa with some amazing folks in the area, and he is known well throughout Downtown Mesa as a pillar of the community. I know having him on the board will help repair any damage to our reputation as well as open new avenues of community growth and collaboration. 

He has exemplified the idea of what it is to be a Champion at HeatSync. Everyone at HeatSync should be a champion, the formal board title of Champion is meant to act as the example others should follow. No body is perfect and we all have our moments, but I can confidently say that Luis will do the role well because he has in the past and continues to show up for the lab. At the end of the day he does care deeply about the ENTIRE membership and maintaining the values of the space. I believe he is someone who will never weaponize procedural authority or overstep in a way that would be counter to our do-ocracy and consensus based governance. I know that he will tackle serious issues with the urgency, compassion, and care that they demand. 

TLDR; Vote for Luis even if hes a donkey's butt sometimes he is HSL thru and thru. His contributions to HSL and the larger Mesa community have genuinely transformed this place in fabulous ways. I 100% love the guy, but even if I hated him I'd want him for the board because his track record speaks for itself. 

[Moheeb Zara]

Oh additionally he has been a champion of javascript to the larger global community with his work with nodebots and creative coding projects. I believe he is part of why web-usb and web-bluetooth became a thing. He has brought that back to the lab by getting folks like Sandeep Mistry, Noopkat, and others to come speak at the lab or lab adjacent events like IoTDevFest.

He also has run countless hackathons at the lab like nodebots day. 

[Mike Wolfson]

When I was on the board with Luis, he was a good dude and supportive of me and the mission of HSL.

I endorse him for board!

-Mike

[Milton Williams]

I fully endorse Luis even if this is a "just in case" nomination. I also served on the Board with Luis previously and we took on some tough projects together with other members, as members of the Lab. Like building our coworking tables and leading moving locations. Luis is super welcoming and is HSL to his core.

I have some questions for anyone nominated for the board that I am interested in. Hoping Luis can answer them for us, along with other nominees:

Are you accepting this nomination?

What drew you to wanting to serve on the board specifically, rather than staying involved as a member? (worded for a new board member, but still applies because it would be nice to hear your thoughts about being on the board previously)

How do you see the board member role as different from regular membership?
What does it mean to you to be a trustee for the membership? Can you give an example of a situation where that framing would change how you would act?
How would you describe the board's relationship to the broader membership?

How would you approach a situation where you believed a bylaw change was urgent and necessary? Walk me through your process.

What makes a code of conduct enforcement process feel legitimate to the people it governs and how would you personally ensure that it is applied consistently?