I agree with almost everything you say here, except that people don't work for free. I do work for free all the time. I don't care if I don't get paid for double digging a garden for a little old lady with a broken ankle. I do it for the little old lady. But, in this case, Hive is not a little old lady and Crimmy has provided professional services that should have been paid upfront. She's right when she says this is mostly her fault for not handling this before now. However, the quality of her representation and work that could be very difficult at times, as well as delivering solutions to problems that required she put up her own money to make them possible for Hive, is underpaid even at this ask.

While I work for free all the time, that does not mean I have not earned pay. I work for goodwill, and little old ladies with arthritic knees deliver plenty of goodwill for me. Hive is an institution and cannot have goodwill, but only the members of the institution can have goodwill.

That's my only disagreement with you here. Crimmy's work isn't a 'bad debt'. It's damn near a miracle for Hive, because, frankly, Hive doesn't deserve her acumen, competence, or diligence and perseverance. Crim is an asset fortune 500 companies desperately seek and too often can't find. Further, she has stated this is to enable her to continue her work on Hive's behalf, which is worth the price of her ask for even a couple months, much less two years, and if she says she will, she will.

I feel strongly she should be doing what it takes to formalize compensating her work going forward, because that avoids the missperception some folks have that there is anything about her ask that isn't fully deserved and far more valuable to Hive than the ask. The missperception is the result of that compensation not being determined up front, and that creates ill will that should be avoided in the future.

Mistakes were made, this proposal seeks to fix them, but Crim should not make this mistake again, and should state - no matter how hard it is to value - the compensation that she should be paid for this work from here on out.