To preface, I found a few threads about TGG when I was searching for info on pumping station one and other hackerspaces. Since I like to see whats new with TGG in hopes they're turning it around, I ended up here:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/opinions-about-'the-geek-group'-on-youtube/ reading the posts about their Youtube videos. Since i'm late for the show, but I have information about the topic I thought I'd start a new topic.
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So here's what I know.
I was around for the transition of TGG moving into Grand Rapids and prepping the space. I showed up a few times to help out then volunteered for about 4 days straight at an hour each way. I didn't have the time commitment of a lot of members, but I am a young person absolutely in love with the maker/hackerspace scene and really wanted to get involved with a group.
A lot of us were, in fact the very thin guy that was helping me haul around transformers was on summer vacation and had saved a few thousand dollars so he could fly to the US from Belgium and volunteer moving stuff. That's how important we thought it was.
I wont talk about any of the work that me and the other volunteers were doing that was probably illegal. We were building something cool, and we felt good about it. I don't believe you can fault nonprofits too much for doing what they can with what they have, so if that's flying around the rumor mill, I think its defensible from our perspective.
Here's my first Boden story: After about 4 hours hauling transformers around downstairs, me and a skinny, incredibly nice kid from Belgium? (Olivar?) we head upstairs and Boden came over to thank us. He went to give us a few dollars (which was nice, and we hadn't expected anything) Pulled out his wallet and said "Oh fuck,
I'm as broke as a Nigger" then gave us three dollars to split.
That was the first time I really talked to him and the fact that he acted like that so casually to people who he had just met (we had met before, but he didn't remembered me) threw up some flags since we're in the rough approximation of a school.
After that I started watching him a little more. I noticed the gun he keeps strapped to his side (Michigan is an open carry state). I saw him cozying up with student interns (Over 18). I started hearing people grumbling about how donation money was going into his pocket (This was from members, and I didn't stick around long enough to see that for myself). And seeing him swearing at volunteers.
Any of these things on their own are fine. Maybe having a gun isn't bad. Maybe he has a salaried position, since he does spend a lot of time there. Maybe she was smart enough to make her own choices. Maybe putting together a hackerspace on a tight budget with volunteer help is stressful.
But you keep adding it up over the limited time that I was there and it starts painting a pretty unflattering picture at an abnormal velocity.
After I came back to Kalamazoo I asked around, tone neutral if anyone had heard of TGG. If the answer was yes, the next thing that came out of there mouth was always something about what "Duck" (Boden) had done, about not paying their taxes, or buying groceries with donation money or about being an egomaniac, or his temper. At best I heard ex members who talked about their "Love hate relationship" with him.
Most recently, TGG came up and a friend of mine who was involved mentioned how duck would "fly off with almost no provocation and start waving his gun around". I had a hard time believing it, so I ask who he heard it from. His response? ; "I saw him do it. A few times".
It takes me a minute to absorb the idea that a man in charge of an educational environment has the habit of losing his temper and swinging a gun around. No one will deny that he's got a gun and few will deny his temper. That on its own is pretty troubling
What about the other members? Paul Kidwell is kinda gruff, but he was never anything but polite to me. Seemed fatherly and smart as all hell. I didn't talk to Lis Bokt very much, but she seemed to be pretty competent at what she did. Captain Badass, the operations guy (Nickname; I think his name was Dave) was always enormously kind to me, even when I saw him years apart.
And that's the thing that really kills me. The people that buy into it and believe in the mission. Dave was always talking about how close they were to opening to the public and how it was always around the corner for over a year. He really bought into all the shit Boden was spewing. He told me how he was going to get hired on. I saw that among a lot of the members.
This is someone who was living off from virtually nothing, and totally eating up the dream that Boden was selling. And that's how I think Boden kept everyone on hook. He really sold the dream. And he's fucking good at it.
I remember the first time I went there I went to Boden and said I'd like to volunteer (probably 3+ years ago), and he asked what I was good at. I said I'm "alright" with computers.
His response? : We'll make you great.That's the kind of shit that really sticks with you when you're young looking for something to be a part of.
And I believed it. That's why I'd drive 2 hours a day to go and move shit for as long as I could afford it.
I bought it.And that is what pisses me off, because looking back now, I think its a total crock.
I think TGG is stuck, because the other board members cant do much without him. The execs are a closed group and they don't seem to have the personalities to lead, so they're doing the best with what they have and unfortunately that's Boden.
In the old thread:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/opinions-about-'the-geek-group'-on-youtube/msg300746/#msg300746 in Reply #144 he went on a microtangent about how the only people who spoke out were going to be ex members who were kicked out.
Well, that's wrong. I showed up as an interested curious person excited to have access (And to build!) the kind of educational space I always wanted to have growing up.
And in the end it just sort of turns my stomach that people are buying in to his puppetry and donating absurd amounts of money to this, because even in an incredible space and talented membership and a tremendous capacity to do good, he's
earned a really shitty reputation and he's still the one running the show in a city, state, and nation which really need what TGG
could provide
In the few years I've been showing up and asking, tone neutral, about TGG, never once has anyone said anything positive to me about Boden.
Not one single thingI left out a fair bit and I'm sorry if I got any names wrong. Feel free to ask questions or add your own stories. I'm sure others have stories that go one direction or the other. I'd really like to know if its been cleaned up, because it doesn't much look like it has.