[Fg-general] Proposal for April 2009 Meeting: Weekly "internal" day

[Luke Closs]

== Proposal Summary ==

As a temporary measure, FreeGeek would reserve one day a week for only
a "skeleton crew" of volunteers plus staff.  This day would be used
for internally focused activities.

== Proposal Details ==

FreeGeek is in desperate need of staff time and attention to move
forward several initiatives:
* HR activities - hiring/reviews
* Strategic Initiatives - action items coming out of Strategy meeting,
preparing for future initiatives
* Policy Catchup - we still lack many policy documents and do not
appear to be making progress on them
* Grant Activities
* Store Research and Competitive Analysis

So I propose that as much as possible, FreeGeek "shuts down" to the
outside world 1 day a week.  Realistically, people will still drop-off
hardware on this day, and the Store will likely still see customers,
so we may wish to schedule a minimal numbers of volunteers to help
with the bare necessities.  This "down day" would in theory free up
Staff to work on some of the critical long term and important tasks.

This proposal makes the _ass-u-mption_ that staff do not get to these
tasks because of constant volunteer related activities.  This *may
not* be true!

I worry that FG has grown too quickly, and that we're imposing too
much pain on ourselves.

So i am proposing that we *slow down* now, so that we can *go faster*
later.  I suggest this is a temporary measure, perhaps 3 months,
before we revert back to normal.


== To implement this proposal ==

Staff + Volunteers decide:
* Which day would be the best to go internal?
* How long should this last?


== Questions and Discussion for the Group ==

* Is this a good idea?

* If this proposal won't help staff make progress on important issues,
what else should we try?