Free Geek and the PAWC
From FreekiWiki
This paper, entitled Free Geek and the Portland Alliance of Worker Collectives, was written by Honna Veerkamp for a PSU class in December of 2005.
Inside the unassuming warehouse of Free Geek, located at SE 10th and Market, a buzz of activity is happening. Fifteen paid staff and 20-60 volunteers work here each day assembling and disassembling old computers. There is no boss. They manage this non-profit computer reuse and recycling center together.
Free Geek gets used computer donations, rebuilds them with open-source software and gives them away to community organizations and volunteers. They also teach volunteers to build computers. Free Geek is five-years-old and 95 percent self-funded. They scrape by, recycling scrap metal, running a computer “Thrift Store” and asking for donations.
The 15,000 square foot warehouse is a maze of workstations. Computer parts are piled everywhere and there is a din of constant movement.
Above the reception desk, the wall is decorated with record-sized disks that look like mirrors. “Hard drive platters,” says volunteer coordinator, Shawn Furst.
About 400 people volunteer at Free Geek every month, working between one shift and every day. They help with every aspect of the organization including democratic decision-making.
Open to staff and all volunteers, the Free Geek Council governs the organization. They make policy and set long-term goals using a consensus process that attempts to synthesize everyone’s input. Unlike voting, all members of the group must agree to a consensus decision for it to pass.
Though it may be unusual for a non-profit to involve employees and volunteers in business management, Free Geek is not unique as a democratically run business. It is one of 13 Portland businesses that make up the Portland Alliance of Worker Collectives, or P.A.W.C.
Collectively run businesses are managed and often owned by their workers. Workers cooperate to make decisions rather than relying on a boss to call the shots. Cooperatives may be owned by workers, producers, or consumers but owners have equal shares and usually hold common values. Though coops are not always collectively managed, the terms collective and cooperative are often used interchangeably.
Part of a growing, international cooperative movement, P.A.W.C. is connected with regional and national networks of worker coops. It was formed in 2003 to increase mutual support between collective businesses in Portland. P.A.W.C is made up of member businesses that each have a delegate, but meetings are open to anyone from those businesses. Those in attendance make up a council, which makes decisions for the organization.
Businesses do not pay dues but they must meet certain criteria to join P.A.W.C. They must be controlled by their workers and either worker or community owned. Additionally, they must be incorporated. Lori Burge, delegate for People’s Food Coop, says that this is to create consistency and to distinguish between worker collectives and volunteer activist collectives.
“We want to create sustainable jobs and make our jobs more sustainable and so the focus of our organization is to have workers who gather their livelihood be part of the organization,” she says.
A wide variety of businesses make up P.A.W.C. Information about these businesses and resources about cooperation are available on their member-business maintained website, www.pawc.net.
P.A.W.C. is exploring ways for its members to support one another. Already, they have held workshops and produced group marketing. Furst, who is a delegate for Free Geek, says that the support that the organization can provide to new collectives is also very important.
P.A.W.C. has created a special, proto-collective, status for newly formed collectives and helps them to incorporate. The Green Bean Collective, a catering company, is the first such collective. Zea Ewart-Bean, Green Bean’s delegate, says she’s excited about the resources that are available through P.A.W.C.
Delegates say that a long-term goal is to have an office where they can keep reference materials. They are also investigating providing joint health insurance for workers. Furst is excited about the potential for P.A.W.C., as it gains name recognition, to lobby and affect local government.
Meanwhile, P.A.W.C., delegates will continue to finesse the organization, collectively shaping it into a model of cooperation among cooperatives that supports and compliments the work of each individual collective.
Back at Free Geek, space is precious. A long walkway winds through the warehouse, packed with mountains of dead monitors, ceiling-high shelves of computers, and cramped work-benches. It opens to a large, spare room with nothing but tables and chairs. “That’s our meeting room,” says Furst. “We use it all the time.”
