[Fg-general] FreeGeek March Monthly Meeting Notes

[Luke Closs]

My apologies for how late this is.

View it on the wiki:
http://wiki.freegeekvancouver.org/article/Monthly_Meeting_-_2009-03-10

==Free Geek General Meeting - 2009-02-10==
* Previous Meeting [[Monthly Meeting - 2009-02-10]]
* Next Meeting [[Monthly Meeting - 2009-04-14]]
* Date: Tues March 10th 2009 6:30pm-8:30pm
* Where: Free Geek, 1820 Pandora St. (back door)

==Agenda==

* Consensus Briefing

===Attendance===

* Luke, Dan, Adam, Len, Bernie, Ifny, Kim, Stephen
* Roles:
** Facilitator: Luke
** Scribe: Dan
** Notes checker: Luke/Ifny
** Regulator: Luke

===Old Business===

====HR====
Luke recapped HR meeting.  Decisions made on wages for full time
staff, breaks, buddy system.
Education coordinator position has been shortlisted.
Pedal Depot has moved, more space available.

====Finance====
March has been slower retail-wise.
$80k banked.  Money saved as cashables, yielding a higher rate of
interest than an on call account.

====Staff====
Positions - bookkeeper and another fell through, new recruit found
with some accounting experience.  Will be using GnuCash for
accounting.
New positions - store coordinator.  Creating another warehouse
position (like Adam's), suggested splitting up the responsibilities
between store co-ordinator and warehouse co-ordinator.  Exact mix of
responsibilities to be determined working with HR.
Adam is leaving.
Full benefits for all staff was priced at $300/month, Blue Cross and
another insurer offer cheaper coverage options that are being
investigated.
Steven visited Portland.
Had a run of illnesses with full-time staff this month.

====Strategy Meeting recap====
Goal was to determine and articulate values for FG.
Set time-bounded goals in production, HR, safety, software education.
These have been prioritized and delegated to workers.
Workers to figure out how goals can be realized (break down to
achievable actions), figure out logistic resource allocation and fit
them into operational timeline.
See values that came out of meeting.
Most attendants of strategy meeting agreed on successes and areas that
required work.

====Directors insurance====
Resolved a form needed to be sent in, waiting on details from Sean H,
to be mailed by Megan.

===Upcoming events===

* Dotto TV crew came in to cover work at FG, spent a day filming
operations.  Saturday March 14 11:30 on CityTV, 18min story.
* Thursday night, XX event for women in technology at Science World.
* Ifny doing workshop on how to free your computer; part of UBC
Responsible Consumption Week
* Earth day recycling event, picking up computer equipment for
recycling possibly at multiple locations.


===New Business===


===HR===

Want to have HR workers meetings more frequently, ideally with more attendees.
Proposed creating a permanent HR group, recruiting people to help in
these areas.  Meetings to be moved to a regular date.
Staff meeting day moved to Friday mornings to avoid meetings piling up
on Tuesday.
Luke, Ifny and Megan to determine next date for HR meeting.

===Space planning===

Ifny proposed a layout for the warehouse expansion, and presented a sketch.

Overview:

Warehouse dividing wall to stay. Volunteer stations to move to east
side (former PEDAL side) of warehouse, except dismantling (which will
expand to 5 spots). General receiving will no longer be done at the
loading bay.

Card sorting/testing, RAM, power station, network devices will all
leave the mezzanine and be put on the east side of the warehouse. The
phone desk will be dissolved for now and can be resurrected somewhere
else later. Mezzanine will retain build, laptop build, laptop
dismantling, data destruction, mini computer lab. A staff workstation
area will go on the platform by the back stairs.

The main pathway from the back door to the mezzanine will now be on
the east side. A 4' aisle will run up between the back of eval and
predismantle workbenches, and small dismantle benches on the other
side. The public will not be allowed to cross the west side.

West side will be used for building skids, shipping, and receiving
skids. Pallet racking will be moved to east side. Dismantling will
still be at the back, but will expand to 5 stations. Circuit board
will be on the other side of dismantling bench, with a 4' walkway so
staff can do quality control check of motherboard.


Resultant stations on the east side:
Receiving
Eval (expanded to 5 stations)
Predismantling (expanded to 3 stations)
Small dismantling
RAM testing/sorting
Card sorting/testing
Printer testing
Monitor testing

Set up a receiving table back entrance, attended by volunteers.

Equipment on table to be sorted.
Crates shelving moved by sorting table.
Set up pallet racks on long wall where Pedal Depot was.
Monitor testing alongside pallet rack.  Printer testing nearby.
Sorting area beside mural.
Eval and Predismantle area facing pallet racks, arranged to face
walkway with workers
backs to dividing wall, prevent collisions.

Discussed different ideas on arranging the dismantle areas.
Layout tries to improve flow of equipment, simplify pathways, and
minimize moving things around needlessly.

Steve recalled advice from Portland, try to keep as much on wheels as
possible for flexibility.

Suggestion to take down, move dividing wall around to increase space.
We will keep the wall to separate the skid-building side from
everything else. This will keep people safer.
Corner storage area (enacted by PD) will be removed by them, too deep
to be practical for storing components.
Testing zone could be set up between eval and pallet racks.
Discussed testing areas.  Having a dedicated testing zone would reduce
stacking but uses more floor space.  Different
preferences expressed for ideal working height.
Receiving area could also host a support volunteer, combines greeting
of external customers and support functions.

Concerns raised about moving all receiving to a desk inside the
building.  People dropping off equipment for recycling may find the
dock more convenient than walking up the stairs to an exclusive
receiving area.  But makes work for volunteers to carry equipment
upstairs.  Our own delivery people could still use the dock -
difficulty depends on the nature of equipment being dropped off (e.g.
individual items vs a skid)

Decision: Receiving is to be done on the table at the top of the
stairs. The table will be small to ensure that it has to be
continually sorted. There will be volunteers to help people dropping
off. The loading bay door is to remain closed or have the gate across
it so that people do not drop off there.

Areas to be allocated - sign in, reception, tool sign out.  Tool sign
out area suggestions - the mezzanine or near the sign in area.
Backlog of eval skids, suggestion to set up two eval areas
concurrently, putting a hold on small dismantle and recruiting
volunteers to get through them quickly.

===Transition logistics===

PD to be gone by March 15, mostly moved out already.

Suggest stop accepting deliveries for 2-3 days, give breathing space
to reorganize.  Getting through backlog is becoming a priority too.
Ifny reluctant to close dropoffs, difficult to get information out to
people.
More space allows storing more received equipment while getting
through backlog.  Suggestion to move equipment to storage.  Questioned
whether storage was still required (Maple Leaf), consensus was yes.
As reorganization proceeds more build fodder can be brought over.
Still require storage for at least a couple of months.
Need to build a new eval bench.

Relocate computer museum, get rid of redundant and useless items in
collection.  Move near the corner unit.  Sort computers into
categories.  Computer Museum computers to appear in Tron 2.
#1 priority is to set up receiving.  Once museum is moved a lot of
space will be freed, can set up pallet racking after this.  This
covers a big chunk of the warehouse work.
Covered equipment requirements for transition.  Rolling platform
unsuitable, suggested to get a couple of ladders to replace or renting
equipment as needed.  Ladders could be unsuitable for carrying heavy
loads.

Suggested: Move the server room out of the bathroom., above where corner
storage unit currently is.  - this was a suggestion that needs further
discussion to see how RAM testing and card sorting work out in that
corner.