My name is Sanford Dickert, and I am running for New York Tech Meetup Organizer

As many of you know, I am running for the NY Tech Meetup Organizer. Since people have been asking questions, I wanted to provide a place for people to learn more about my thoughts on what I think NYTM can evolve into.

Due to the increasing "campaigning" I have seen for this role, I was suggested to redirect the nytechvision.com to this post, but support the NYTM Manifesto link and ask for your feedback.

VOTE: http://www.bit.ly/vote4nytmo

If you'd like to help in defining the future of NYTech Meetup and want to contribute to the NYTM Manifesto, please send me an email at sdickert at google's service.

Who Is Sanford?
My background ranges from Silicon Valley (from 1989 to 2000) to London (2000 to 2004) to DC (2003 to 2004) and New York (2004+) working in the technology arena - in startups (eGroups, gigabeat, Paypal, hotrecruit) to large corps (Accenture, Interoute) to politics (John Kerry for President) to NGOs/Academia (Stanford, Cooper Union, Purdue).

I have been behind a number of organizations all through out the years - focusing on the growth and improving the performance of the organizations - whether for corporates or communities. One I brought over from London was Decom - which you can see the details here.

My measure of success in creating and building organizations is always measured by the growth of the community - and the people within the community that I have helped improve over time. Being a teacher for more than twenty years (I started teaching when I was 14!) has aligned with the joy I feel in bringing about amazing people.

One unique thing I believe I have is that I am beholden to no organization, person or benefactor other than the NY Tech Community and the team I am with. Our success in NYTM and the NY Tech Community as a whole will be something that all of us are part of - and all of the benefits will be directed to the community at-large.

• Sanford Dickert - personal website for business
  
• Who’sAtCooBric: Sanford Dickert - Interview by Alex Linskler
• Contributing to New York Coworking and New Work City - a discussion about coworking and altruism
  

Endorsements
I don't usually ask for "endorsements", but recently, Tony Bacigalupo - a friend from cooBric and New Work City put this in his personal blog:

Sanford Dickert is a good friend, and his influence on coworking in NYC speaks to his ability to facilitate healthy growth by empowering people. New Work City and I are living proof that Sanford can positively influence a community while simultaneously staying away from monopolizing it so it can grow healthily on its own. He gave me what I needed to build what is, in my opinion, a kickass community that is going to continue to do a lot of cool stuff.

After Scott’s announcement, Sanford also did something commendable: he built a public manifesto, to be edited by anyone, and invited everyone to share their perspective. This is the kind of approach the organizer should take when running the whole Meetup.

Sanford is a busy guy, but so should everyone who is running for this position be— would we want to elect someone who had nothing else to do? What makes his candidacy intriguing is his penchant for delegation and for empowering the right people to take responsibility and do what they are best at. The organizer is going to have to pay their bills doing something else, so it will be critical that the organizer be comfortable delegating.

If you'd like to show your support for my candidacy in bringing about a stronger NY Tech Community - please comment below. Please: tell why you support either me or other people - the blog is available for the conversation - I am here to listen. And others are watching.

Manifesto
See it here: http://bit.ly/nytmm

The Manifesto is about bringing talent together to manage, maintain and grow the team of the NYTM such that we can see targeted content when need be, work with other groups and constituencies when possible - but never take our eyes off the ball in bringing quality content and events to the NYTM.

Basic platform
I believe the NYTM is fundamentally well-done and has a lot of positives. As I mentioned in an earlier post, there are few changes I would make. But the three fundamental metrics for the NYTM are presentation, education and collaboration. You can see these discussed in detail at the NYTM Manifesto (http://bit.ly/nytmm).

The future of the NY Tech Community is where I think the role has some influence - in so much as working with the community at large - both the 7500+ members, as well as the overwhelming number of people in the Tech Community found in other groups - this is where NYTM can help channel and elevate the NY Tech Community.

One major part of this platform is the vision of working together. As I mentioned in the presentation - there are a host of people looking to help grow this community - nine of them took the stage on Tuesday night.

If I am elected to the position, there is no way I will turn away the candidates from the stage to join me in building NYTM. The NYTM Manifesto describes a "council of Presidents" or an Executive Board - of which I believe the people within the community will fill and serve. I am fully behind making this happen - and working with all members of the community to make a stronger NY Tech Community.

You can see my vision presentation here: http://tinyurl.com/6qwyvf

You can see the video presentation here or watch Allen's below:



Prior Experience

• Co-organizer of cooperBricolage
• Co-organizer of New Work City
• former Adjunct Professor, Cooper Union and Polytechnic
• Director, Rawlings Atlantic Ltd and Inc.
• CTO, John Kerry Campaign
• Director of Product Marketing, eGroups (acquired by Yahoo!)
• Board of Advisors, Paypal
• Board of Directors, eZoka and SelectivesUK
  

And thanks for your support! Please feel free to add any endorsements in the comments.