Staff inservice time

This page is a workspace for the committee appointed by the board to explore and plan logistics for an in-service period in early 2012. The goal is to close down most operations of Free Geek during part of the slowest time of the year in order to provide time for the staff to catch up on admin work, hold meetings, provide trainings, and otherwise regroup.

The Committee
The committee consists of two board members (laurel and Kathey), the collective-board liaison (Paul), and the non-collective-board liaison (vagrant). The idea of the inservice time was approved by the board, and this group was set "to figure out how many days, what will be done, budget impact and operationally how it is to be done." Board minutes 12/11 Basically, we need to generate a proposal for the board for the specifics and have it ready to roll out ASAP.

Logistics and cost
Some of these are factual questions that can be answered via the database (marked with [DB]) or require operations knowledge. The question of how long is needed may require more conferring. The minutes from the board meeting show a rejection of January that i (Ideath) do not recall, but at this point the end of January is probably the closest we could do and have sufficient notice.

Timing
When is the slow time of year?
 * volunteers [DB]
 * donations [DB]
 * store [DB]

How much time do we need?

If receiving and store were open half-day each day
 * how many people would it take to staff them?
 * which half-day would be better? [DB]

Cost
What is the average income in donations and sales from the time proposed? [DB]

What is the total staffing expense if all staff work their usual hours?

Would some staff welcome the option to work fewer hours if they don't have much admin work?

Activities

 * Admin time (basically all non-meeting time, though if the front-end operations are going to be open staff can rotate through)
 * All-staff meeting
 * how long?
 * who builds the agenda?
 * outside facilitator?
 * set goals for the meeting beforehand
 * Non-collective staff meeting
 * needs facilitator and agenda, should precede all-staff
 * Departmental meetings
 * if we hold these, they should be staggered due to personnel overlap
 * Staff trainings
 * consensus process? (someone on-staff? non-collective, perhaps?)
 * data security @ FG (database and donated materials)?
 * health and safety?
 * FG history?
 * Physical plant/organization/network work
 * get volunteers involved

Publicity
These can be prepared as soon as we have the date and other relevant details, and should be ready to go.
 * Signs for windows/bulletin boards
 * Get message out to all staff
 * Email to volunteer lists (which?)
 * Note at scheduling desk (paper slip?)
 * Voicemail message
 * Website
 * Newsletter? will there be one before then?