From FreekiWiki

Introduction

The staff handbook will be a collection of the essential policies and procedures we expect a staff member to be aware of. The online version will be the most up to date, but if needed we should be able to print out a hard copy for new staff members to formally agree to when they are hired.

Advances on payroll to staff members

Policy

Body that set the policy(s) on [lists.freegeek_meeting_Minutes Date Adopted].

There is no guarantee that Free Geek will be able to give an advance to a staff member, however we recognize that there will occasionally be a need for an advance.

• Advances should be cleared through the beancounters group.
• An advance should not exceed forty percent of the amount the worker normally receives in a paycheck (before taxes).
• Advances should not be routinely given out over several consecutive months.
• In no circumstances will an advance be given out if the beancounters group believes there will not be enough funds to cover the advance and the normal cash flow needs of Free Geek.
• If the total amount owed exceeds forty percent of the worker's normal paycheck (before taxes) or if there has been no payment in a three month period, then beancounters will arrange for automatic deductions that would pay off the debt within a year's time.
• Staff may get paid early: A staff member may receive an advance for up to her whole paycheck if it is paid back with her next paycheck.

Arriving Late and Cancellations

Policy

This is a long standing policy, set by the staff collective prior to 2005.

If the day that the staff member needs off or will be coming in late is the first time s/he knows or communicates about it, then the following procedure should be followed. The goal is to get the information to the people who will be most affected, if not the entire staff.

Do enough of the below so that you know the whole staff will be aware of your absence/lateness. Of course, if you've suffered a concussion and therefore can't get to a phone or email, we'll understand. Just do what you can.

• Send an email to staff AT freegeek DOT org
• Phone the front desk 503.232.9350 x102
• Try to make phone contact with a staff member by way of her/his cell phone

If phone contact is made with a non-absent staff member, the non-absentee must send an email to the staff list (if this hasn't already been done) and tell other staff at Free Geek, especially the front desk staff, as soon as possible.

Collective Member Review Policy

Purpose

The HR committee realizes that feedback is an integral part of making sure individuals in the collective are working in line with the mission and principles of Free Geek and therefore doing useful work. Many collective members have said that they would greatly appreciate such feedback. The committee therefore has decided to implement collective member reviews. The purpose of collective member reviews is to:

• Help collective members align themselves with the expectations that are placed on them,
• Assist collective members to acheive the self- and group-given goals for their positions,
• Give a forum for feedback on individual collective members, and
• Where appropriate, assist the collective in deciding whether to accept a probationary worker into the group.

If a member of the collective has difficulties with another, he or she should speak to the individual in person first if at all possible. The review should not, in most cases, serve as the first notification of problems.

The review should be a forum in which the person being reviewed is recognized for his or her successes as well as offered guidance from the rest of the collective on how to do things differently for the betterment of the organization. It's the responsibility of the reviewer to take into account time constraints, skill level, interests, etc. when suggesting improvements. The reviewer should work together with the reviewee to create a practical, reachable set of goals for him or her. These goals should be as specific as possible and should include the reviewee's own goals as well as those from the rest of the collective.

Procedure

Timeline

In order to provide timely and relevant feedback, the HR committee conducts a review of a different staff member roughly every other week. The schedule can be found here. Also check out the Regular Review Form and the Review Process.

In order for HR to get folks reviewed once a year, it has become necessary for HR to stick to a tighter review schedule. To this end, we've created some guidelines to help get us all on the same page about efficient timelines. HR will start a new review every Wednesday and allow feedback to be submitted for 10 days. After the reviewee receives the feedback, he/she has one week to meet with the reviewer and respond to questions/issues.

General

• All collective/probationary members must fill out review forms for each probationary review.
• All collective/probationary members should fill out regular reviews.
• Anyone on the Collective may suggest that HR conduct a review of any collective member (even for themselves).
• If an HR committee member has a review called for them by another collective member, he or she may not participate in choosing the reviewer
• Generally, only one HR committee member conducts a review.
• After each review has been completed, the reviewer will first report to the HR Committee and then to the staff at the next staff collective meeting. If the reviewee is a probationary member, the staff will then decide whether to accept them into the collective or ask them to leave.

Probationary Members of the Collective

When we hire someone into the collective, they are a 'Probationary Collective Member' first. A 'Full Member' is a collective member that has passed through the 6 month probationary period and the collective has agreed to grant full member status. The probationary member's initial 3 months will help the collective get to know them a little better. At 3 months an informal review will occur to check in with the probationary member, convey staff's feeling about their performance, and set goals for the probationary review at 6 months. All collective members must participate in this 3 month check in. The probationary member will also have a 'Buddy', someone to do check-ins with, ask questions of, and generally help them through the acculturation process (see Orienting New Staff Members for more info on the steps we take to acculturate new collective members). Then, at 6 months, they'll receive a review. When the reviewer reports on the review at the next staff meeting, the staff collective will decide whether to:

• Let the probationary member into the collective,
• Terminate the probationary member, or
• Give the probationary member a 3-month extension to work out issues that arose in the review.
  • If the probationary member is given a 3-month extension, the HR committee will assign a Resolution Committee to the probationary member.

If the collective decides to extend the probationary period, another review will be given 3 months later, or approximately 9 months from the original date of hire. The reviewer will again report to the collective, which will decide whether to:

• Let the probationary member into the collective or
• Terminate them.

Note that if, after their 6- or 9-month review, we terminate a probationary member, we don't expect that we'd want them to stay on for a transitional period (we also wouldn't expect that they'd want to!). In the end, though, we'll deal with this situation on a case-by-case basis.

When an individual enters the collective, they will be added to the Staff Review Schedule.

Confirmation Process

At the staff meeting following the 6- or 9- month review of a probationary collective member, we'll do the following:

• The entire collective listens to the report from the reviewer
• The reviewee then leaves the room so the collective can speak unhindered about how to proceed
• When granting a probationary member full status, the collective must come to consensus in order to move forward. If the collective cannot come to consensus the probationary member is not granted full status and his/her employment must be terminated.

Converting Interns to Collective Members

Policy

At the Council meeting September 15, 2004

An existing non-collective worker may be moved directly into a collective position that's sufficiently similar to their current work without going through a lengthy, biased hiring process if the collective can reach a unanimous decision (no stand asides).

notes

Context

The staff collective would like to be able to (in certain circumstances) move an intern or another paid person from a position outside the collective into the collective without going through an open hiring process. For example, Kathie and Marlin both started at Free Geek through the SMS program and (before we had a hiring policy) we decided to include them in the collective, rather than leave them hanging while we went through an open hiring process. The same might apply to interns paid by Free Geek.

We recognize that this could open us up to some scenarios we'd rather avoid, so we'd like the Council to help us formulate a policy on these matters.

The conversation in staff so far has hit several points, among them:

• We would want every member of the collective to be unanimously behind (consensus with no stand asides) having the person in the collective.
• We don't want to create a system that could become open to "nepotism" or whatever -- that is people's friends can slip in under the radar by becoming an intern and then "just sort of" tranisition to full staff members.
• We don't want to leave good solid candidates for a job hanging when they are already doing the job and have support of the current collective and the Free Geek community at large.
• We do want to outreach to diverse communities and fresh perspectives as needed.
• The current hiring process for a collective member tends to be more rigorous and usually wider open than for an internship position. This makes it easier for us to hire interns that are often people who need to build up a resume and have proven themselves as volunteers but we don't expect to qualify for a collective level position. We think that's a good thing (the ability to hire people who need to build up a resume), since there's no other place for them on the Free Geek staff, and we don't want that good thing to go away.

So taking all that (and more I'm sure) into account, what kind of policy can we create?

Determining Seniority Policy

Policy

This policy was proposed by a subcommittee of Geiner, Kathie, and Richard, posted to the staff email list, and then discussed and agreed upon at the weekly staff meeting on April 16, 2004.

Seniority is defined using a 'who started working as a paid collective member earliest' criteria.

If a worker ceases working at Free Geek for a period of more than one year, that worker loses their seniority. If they are re-hired within one year's time, their seniority remains intact.

Note

(Another twist we considered would have been to limit the number of times a person can be gone for up to a year without losing seniority. For example, we could have said it can only be allowed to happen once. The full staff has not talked about this yet, but could implement policy regarding it in the future.)

Current Ordering of Seniority

• Alison Briggs -- Laptop Build Coordinator
• Caitlin Collings -- Reuse Program Coordinator
• Darryl Kan -- Recycling Coordinator 2
• Dave Haskins -- Reuse Program Coordinator
• Liane Kocka -- Recycling Coordinator 1
• Laurel Bates -- Education Coordinator
• Luiz Sudbrack -- Tech Support Coordinator
• Meredith Blankinship -- Reuse Program Coordinator
• Richard Seymour -- That Man Behind the Curtain
• Sergio Garcia -- Online Sales Coordinator
• Tony Chiotti -- Sales Coordinator
• Valerie Madsen -- Office Coordinator

Free Geek Structure

Free Geek is governed by its workers and volunteers. It's a complicated place and there are numerous working groups and committees involved. Here's a rundown in a nutshell

Programs

These directly work to fulfill the mission of Free Geek. Some have meetings or associated email lists and queues in RT.

• Adoption Program - Work 24 hours, earn a computer
• Build Program - Learn to build computers, keep the 6th you assemble
• Gapsters - Computers intended for free internet access which we supply to coffee shops & other public places.
• Hardware Grants - Grants out computers and other hardware to non-profits
• Thrift Store - Reuses (in the form of sales) many inexpensive gizmos and a few fancy ones, too.

The Big Three

decision-making and work-doing bodies

Board of Directors

The board is responsible for fiscal and legal oversight of the organization. It is made up of people elected by the Community Council.

Community Council

The council is open to all volunteers, staff, and other interested community member. It looks at the long term picture of Free Geek and sets general policy. It coordinates policy making between the various working groups as needed. (See the Founding Document of the Council for more details on the scope of the council.)

Staff Collective

The staff collective is responsible for day to day operations and is made up of hired staff members.

Working Groups

Groups are volunteer driven and are designed to support the various programs at Free Geek. They tend to meet after hours and have associated email lists and queues in RT.

ASS

Volunteer system administration

<ass AT freegeek DOT org>

Coders

Volunteer programmers

<coders AT freegeek DOT org>>

Core

Volunteers working in the day to day operations of Free Geek. ("The Core" is more of a descriptive term than a cohesive working group.)

<core AT freegeek DOT org>>

Hardware Grants

Volunteers helping to distribute hardware to organizations (apart from the Build and Adoption programs).

<grants AT freegeek DOT org>

Community Builders

In charge of room use, tabling, relations with neighbors, and networking with other organizations.

<commies AT freegeek DOT org>

PR

In charge of media outreach & relations, ads & marketing, the main Free Geek website, and corporate donations solicitation

<pr AT freegeek DOT org> OR, if someone from the media is asking, then <press AT freegeek DOT org>

Inreach

In charge of tours, volunteer rewards, core breakfast, front desk, public email addresses (like Volunteer@ and Info@), and large donation thank you notes.

<inreach AT freegeek DOT org>

Events

In charge of Free Geek parties and festivals, like Geek Prom, Geek Fair, and the holiday party.

<events AT freegeek DOT org>

Optimization and Priorities group

A Council workgroup which discusses what we're already doing and how we can do it better, compares proposals for expansion, & helps people turn their ideas into reality.

Standing Staff Committees

These standing committees of the Staff Collective are designed to oversee all the areas of Free Geek, implementing policies that are set by other groups and making policy suggestions to those other groups. Each committee has a mailing list and a queue in RT. Standing committees are ongoing. Ad hoc committees are temporary.

Standing Action Committee

Mission: Building and equipment security, staff and volunteer safety, supply, waste removal, and the sale of scrap material.

Programs: Recycling, receiving, maintenance and design of the physical plant, building security, general safety, relationships with neighbors.

Email: action at freegeek.org

Likely Suspects: Liane, Darryl, Cliff

Standing C7 Committee

Mission: The standing committee structure, liaison with board and council especially regarding policy development, financial considerations.

Programs: Policy development, load balancing of the committees, liaison with Free Geek Community Council and Free Geek Board of Directors, nominations to the various committees, proposals concerning changes to the committee structure itself; volunteer and staff scheduling; accounting and financial oversight.

Email: c7 at freegeek.org

Ad Hoc Events Committee

Mission:

Programs: In charge of major Free Geek parties and festivals, like Geek Prom, Geek Fair, and the holiday party. Meets seasonally, as needed. Generally, monthly for a few months before an event, then every other week, then weekly, then freak out right before the event.

Email: events at freegeek.org

Standing HR Committee

Mission: Provides oversight for those areas of Free Geek pertaining to the health and well being of volunteers and staff.

Programs: Human resources, volunteer and staff discipline, procedures regarding theft from Free Geek, mediation between conflicting parties, staff and intern reviews, health care and benefits packages, employee manual, oversee the hiring process, trainings.

Email: hr at freegeek.org

Likely Suspects: Richard, Laurel, Dave, Ali, Valerie

Standing Inreach Committee

Mission: To oversee aspects of volunteer coordination, provide avenues for volunteer feedback and appreciation, and to create a welcoming, accessible environment for all volunteers and donors.

Programs: In charge of tours, volunteer rewards, front desk, public email addresses (like Volunteer@ and Info@), and large donation thank you notes. In charge of room use, the Free Geek computer lab.

Email: inreach at freegeek.org

Likely Suspects: Liane, Jake, Caitlin, Valerie, Darryl

Standing Education Committee

Mission: Facilitating access to information through documentation, training and support.

Programs: Education, documentation, liaison with Distro group, technical support, Free Geek library.

Email: grok at freegeek.org

Likely Suspects: Caitlin, Luiz, Laurel, Meredith

Standing PR Committee;

Mission: Do PR, see here for a limmerick and haiku

Programs: In charge of media outreach & relations, ads & marketing, the main Free Geek website, membership development, tabling events and networking with other organizations.

Email: pr at freegeek.org

Likely Suspects: Laurel, Caitlin, Ali, Tony, Luiz

---

Standing Production Committee

Mission: Manage the flow of gizmos to ensure effective reuse by overseeing Build, Mac Build, Laptop Build, Advanced Testing, Printer Reuse, and Hardware Grants

Programs: Build, Mac Build, Laptop Build, Advanced Testing, Printer Reuse, Hardware Grants

Email: production at freegeek.org

Likely Suspects: Ali, Caitlin, Dave, Sergio, Meredith, Jake, Sophia

Standing Propagation Committee

Mission: Outreach to organizations to promote reuse of hardware and use of Free and Open Source Software.

Current Staff Members:

Programs: Liaison with Free Geek startups (the replication of Free Geek elsewhere), liaison with GAP volunteers, Hardware Grants.

Email: propagation at freegeek.org

Likely Suspects: Richard, Vagrant

Standing Sales Committee

Mission: To oversee long-term planning of retail and online sales

Programs: Thrift store, bulk and online sales

Email: sales@freegeek.org

Likely Suspects: Ali, Dave, Ebeth, Francisco, Luiz, Tony, Sergio

Standing Technocrats Committee

Mission: The selection or creation, maintenance, and technical security of hardware and software used at or installed by Free Geek.

Programs: Liaison with Coders group, liaison with ASS group, liaison with Distro group, selection of software commonly used at Free Geek, computer security, technical infrastructure.

Email: technocrats at freegeek.org

Likely Suspects: Richard

See the Perpetual Meeting Calendar for meeting times and attenders.

Ad Hoc Staff Committees

From time to time, there are also ad hoc committees that meet while needed before disbanding. Examples of this would be:

Interview committee

Recommended by HR and approved by the collective to interview people applying for paid staff positions

Resolution Committee.

Recommended by HR and approved by the collective to bring to resolution issues that could result in the termination of a staff member if not dealt with.

Review Panel

Recommended by HR and approved by the collective to coordinate reviews of collective members.

Hiring Policy

http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2003-April/000474.html

1. Priorities -- The Council work group Optimus Prime formulates hiring strategy and policy, including setting priorities about which positions should get filled first.
2. Job Description and Criteria -- The Council discusses positions as they come up, reviewing and developing jobs descriptions and the criteria for hiring people to fill positions.
3. Implementation -- The Staff then implements Council policy and does the actual hiring.

(Note: We also discussed the reality that there are different kinds of vacancies. In some cases, people are already working at Free Geek either unpaid positions or positions paid from outside sources. If the "new" position simply amounts to a change in funding, an actual hiring process may not be needed, but this gives rise to new complications. For instance, there may be more than one person in the Free Geek community who can do the job, so an internal process is still needed).

The staff has developed a Hiring Checklist as a procedure to implement the above policy.

Locks

Policy

• HR committee on December 20, 2006
• Staff amended this to cover paid interns on March 28, 2008

After hours when there's no event or meeting only authorized keyholders can be in the building. A keyholder can make instance by instance exceptions to this rule, providing keyholder stays in building and is responsible for those persons. Such exceptions should be reported to the staff list for review.

Notes

To Receive a Key

• All staff collective members should have keys
• Paid interns are granted keys as needed
• Core volunteers who need a key must first
  • be approved by staff via staff meeting
  • oriented to closing procedures
  • added to the locks list
  • Given a code to the alarm system and instructions on how to use it
  • Introduced to every-one via the locks list.

Purging the locks list

The combination or locks may be changed when we suspect security has been breached. When the locks or the combination is changed, everyone will be removed from the locks list and re-added as they make it known they need access (and if necessary, are re-approved).

History

We used to have a combination lock box with a key inside, now we issue keys.

See also

• Keyholders
• Residence Policy
• After Hours Access Procedure

Paid Internship Policy

Policy

This was approved at the Free Geek staff meeting of May 21, 2004. based upon an ad hoc committee report and policy proposal. The Staff Categories policy enacted in March 2007 changed things a bit.

It's noteworthy that, prior to March, 2007, the term "Exploratory Interns" was used in the place of "Exploratory Workers", and these workers were considered another type of paid intern. Just to help you through all that older documentation.

Definition of Paid Internship

• Paid, or Job Experience Interships are designed to help people learn skills and gain some resume quality experience.
• Paid Interns are paid hourly. Unlike Staff Collective members, they do not receive health care, vacation, sick, retirement, or holiday benefits.
• Paid Interns, along with other staff and key volunteers make up Core.

Types of Paid Internships

There are two types of Paid Internships at Free Geek:

• Job Experience Internships -- designed to help people learn skills and gain some resume quality experience.
• Exploratory Internships -- designed to help Free Geek develop procedures and explore possible new positions.

NOTE: The Staff Categories policy enacted in March 2007 changes this a bit.

Duration of Internship

Paid Internships are limited to six months with a review mid term.

• We set Paid Internships to a maximum length of six months, with a 3 month review. However, if necessary, the collective can decide to extend the internship once for specific period not to exceed three months. This option should be rarely used.
• The internships are limited to a single term because we want to extend the opportunity for a paid internship at Free Geek to as many of our community members as possible.

Expectations for Paid Internships

• Job Experience Interns are expected to work on the day to day functions in the area to which they are assigned, including training volunteers in that area if appropriate.
• Exploratory interns are expected to develop and document areas to which they are assigned, working with volunteers and other staff members in doing so. Additionally, Exploratory Interns are expected to formally report to the collective and to Council.
• Collective Members, by contrast, are expected to understand how the various areas of Free Geek interact and work on the long term goals of the areas to which they are assigned.
• It's a good idea for paid interns to take on a project towards the end of his/her internship. This project could be created during the intern's review. The skills, aptitudes, and personality of the intern should help determine the shape of the project.

(NOTE: This does not preclude interns from working on the longer term goals. It is simply out of the scope of expectations for the internship job descriptions.)

Becoming a Collective Member

Free Geek always holds an open hiring process for collective positions, even if a prospective collective member is already an intern. However, there a mechanism for circumventing that in exceptional cases.

Changing Between Types of Worker

If we change a Job Experience Internship into an Exploratory Position, or vice versa, we will go through a standard hiring process, including developing and posting a new job description.

Notes

Related policies

• Converting Interns to Collective Members
• Staff Categories

Hiring Paid Interns

Paid intern hiring committees should keep in mind that we're hiring for "aptitude, not experience". This should be reflected in all facets of the hiring process, including hiring criteria, interview questions, and thinning, and candidate choice.

Past Experiments

There was a type of collective member that was somewhat similar to the idea of an Exploratory Intern, where the compensation for the position is linked to the amount of income it brings to the organization. This model was used both for the Sales Coordinator and the Printer Coordinator positions. From Council email list, July 2002:

Since FREE GEEK can not risk a full salary for the job, the salary would have to come from increased [income from their activity]. Here is a plan that limits FREE GEEK's risk, encourages the sales coordinator to increase sales, and works up to a regular staff position:
The position would receive compensation on a monthly basis. The compensation would be based on the income brought in from [their activity] based on the following schedule:

• 25% of the 1st $1,000
• 40% of the amount over $1,000
• 50% of the amount over $2,000

The salary would go to a maximum of whatever the prevailing salary of FREE GEEK staff (currently $1,000).
If the [position] could maintain enough of an [increase in] income to justify her salary, then the position would transmogrify into a regular staff [collective] position. At this point the Sales Coordinator would share in all the standard responsibilities of FREE GEEK staff and work a standard (staff determined) schedule. Before this point, the Sales Coordinator would be have the above responsibilities and be required to attend staff meetings and would work whatever schedule necessary to bring the sales income up to a reasonable maximum for FREE GEEK.

Policy needs to change name from intern to apprentice.

Receiving and depositing money

Maybe we can subsume this and certain other money-related items under a "Money Handling Policy" or "Accounting Practices Policy"? Ali 21:31, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

The jobs of receiving money for Free Geek, recording it in the books (or accounting software), and depositing that money should be split between at least two separate people. Under normal circumstances:

• The C7 committee designates who on staff can receive money and who can do the books.
• The C7 committee recommends to the board who can deposit the money.
• C7 should design appropriate procedures for tracking money that comes in.
• The person receiving the money (receiver) is responsible for following procedure, recording the amount and other information, and putting the money in a secure location.
• The person doing the books (bookkeeper) is responsible for following procedure and correctly entering the transactions in the books (or accounting software).
• The person depositing the money is responsible for getting the money safely to the bank and reporting the deposit information to the bookkeeper.

It is likely that the receiver and the bookkeeper will be the same person. If a check comes in the mail it should be given to a receiver. Front Desk and Thrift Store staff must be able to be receivers.

Resolution Committee

This was developed over several years and finally agreed to at a staff meeting on September 4, 2009.

1. A resolution committee (RC) is composed of members of the staff collective selected by the Human Resources committee (HR) when a problem or group of related problems involving a staff member arises and reach(es) a critical level.
   • The procedure for establishing a Resolution Committee:
     • HR committee recommends that a Resolution Committee be set up and suggests the committee's make-up; HR also suggests the scope of the Resolution Committee.
     • The staff collective discusses, and approves, these recommendations.
2. An RC is always created within the framework of any current grievance and discipline policy as agreed to by the staff collective. This policy is not outlined here, but must be followed by the RC. (This would include documentation of incidents, warnings, meeting professional goals, etc.)
3. An RC is charged with the task of resolving the problem(s). The RC's first duty is to specify the scope of the problem(s) and communicate that to the staff collective and any others are likely to be directly affected by the problem. The staff collective should raise any concerns, including changes in scope and the appropriateness of the RC's formation at the first available opportunity. The staff collective may require the HR committee to dissolve the RC, re-form it, or adjust its scope.
4. An RC is empowered to communicate with all other groups, committees, and individuals at Free Geek for the purpose of investigating the problems within its defined scope.
5. An RC must propose a recommended strategy for resolving the problem as quickly as possible and in the best interests of Free Geek as a whole. This strategy should be outlined in specific steps that can be implemented to address the problem.
6. The RC may put items on agendas of any group at Free Geek in order to bring the problem(s) to resolution. These items should be dealt with by those groups as items with a high degree of importance.
7. An RC may recommend to the staff collective that a staff member be terminated, removed from the collective, and/or change his/her employment status at Free Geek. In the case of termination, the reason for termination must be specifically described and the decision must be considered by the whole staff collective. The person under consideration for termination must be able to speak, but is not allowed to block the decision of the larger group. The person under consideration for termination may choose a representative, either a third party or another member of the staff collective to speak on his or her behalf as well.
8. An RC must report on its findings in writing to the staff collective and any others are likely to be directly affected by the problem.
9. An RC is automatically dissolved when its recommended strategy is proposed, items have been placed on the appropriate groups' agendas, and its written report has been provided to the staff collective.

Staff Categories

In general staff means anyone who is paid by Free Geek to work at Free Geek. (Note: often when people use the term "staff" they use it as shorthand for "staff collective".)

Workers that get paid through outside agencies (i.e. paid job training programs) and volunteers (even volunteer interns and core volunteers) are not considered staff.

Collective positions

This is the group of people who are hired on a long term basis to oversee all the day to day work at Free Geek. While each member has areas of specific responsibility, each member also takes responsibility on some level for the whole thing. That is, while other staff members can say "not my department -- go bug someone else", collective members have to at least know where to direct issues, and ultimately deal with them if needed. Collective positions are salaried and come with benefits (health care, paid holidays, vacation/sick days, and 403(b).)

Probationary collective members vs. full collective members

Collective members have a six month probationary period, after which they are full collective members. During the probationary period the individual and the collective need to decide if the person is a good match for the position and the collective. When figuring out how long someone has been in the collective we go by the date they were hired into the collective (not the date they gained full status).

There are some concrete duties that all collective members share:

• a collective member must serve on at least one of the Standing Staff Committees. (A full time member serves on two of these committees.)
• a collective member attends and participates in staff meetings, including rotating through the facilitator and scribe roles.
• a collective member takes responsibility for overarching management of organization.
• a collective member has to deal with volunteer complaints and discipline problems as they arise, rather than pass them off to someone else.
• a collective member participates in peer reviews of other staff and collective members.
• a collective member coordinates volunteers as an expected part of their job.

(See the Collective Level Expectations page for a more detailed list.)

Non-profit Apprentices

Non-profit Apprentices (NPAs) are staff members that work for a limited amount of time in a targeted area. These positions are aimed at people needing job skills, for example young people right out of high school or college. Apprentices are usually part time workers, and they usually work for about nine months. NPAs are paid an hourly wage. Being an apprentice at Free Geek does not lead to a position in the staff collective.

Exploratory positions

Exploratory positions are paid positions that are set up so we can try out a new program and see if it merits a new collective position, an internship, or something else. Workers in these positions are paid an hourly wage.

Substitutes

Substitutes are people that fill in when the schedule has gaps in it due to staff members leaving, getting sick, or taking vacation or leave. There is no guarantee of work continuing or regular work. Substitutes are paid an hourly wage.

Committed non-collective positions

Committed non-collective staff members are paid to work at least 24 hours per week and have negotiated a commitment to work at Free Geek for at least one year with the staff collective. These positions are paid an hourly wage. They receive a week's paid time off (for vacation and sick days) per year, and receive Free Geek subsidized health care benefits.

Nothers

There have been other staff positions than those listed above. For example we have had "contract workers" cover many of the duties of build coordinator, tech support coordinator, and printer coordinator in the past. These people are paid an hourly wage.

Notes

Ideally, a worker collective is an egalitarian group of people where everyone has equal access to decision making. There are limits to how pure we can be with this ethic, however. For instance, we need substitute coverage that is by nature very part time and sporadic, and it's impractical to bring all substitutes, however temporary their status, into the collective.

Another issue arises when someone who contributes well to Free Geek but does not want to take on the added responsibilities that go with being in the collective. Too many people like that fosters a situation where the collective shrinks in size to the point where it's a small group of managers compared to a larger pool of workers, even though no one in the collective wanted that to happen!

In developing the Collective Level Expectations page, the staff collective agreed that collective members must be scheduled for 28 hours per week normally, though can go as low as 24 hours on a temporary basis if approved.

See Also

The staff collective has approved a Staff Ratios policy that uses these definitions.

Movement between categories

This chart illustrates current practice for paths between categories. Solid lines indicate paths that have been taken and are still current practice from time to time. The grey dotted lines indicate a path that has been taken in the past, but is no longer current practice. The dashed green lines indicate paths that have not been tried or need additional thought before continuing.

Bubbles with grey borders are not existent at this time. Those with black borders are currently existent.

None of these paths speak to the process of actual mechanics of moving from one category to another. For example, this chart does not show that there is a hiring committee and/or a collective decision involved in moving someone into the collective, though that is the case.

Staff Discipline Policy

Scope

This policy addresses problems with Free Geek staff collective members that affect Free Geek as an organization.

This should include escalating steps designed to deal with problems before they get out of hand, and if necessary, bring problems to a satisfactory and fair resolution without trampling on anyone's rights.

The intention of this policy is to solve problems by working directly with collective members in a humane way.

When does this apply?

The following actions are examples of what might bring the staff discipline policy into play. It isn't a complete list.

• Job performance.
• Repeated tardiness or absence, especially without adequate warning.
• Stealing.
• Violation of Free Geek policy.
• Physical or verbal abuse towards another staff member or volunteer.
• Illegal activities.
• Bringing firearms onto the premises.
• Falsely stating or making claims of injuries or illness.
• Sexual harassment.

Note about avoiding conflict on a grand scale: reviews and individual-to-individual.

One-on-One

Less formal talk between the disciplinee and another staff collective member. This might happen a few times. In serious cases, this step can be skipped.

Formal Meeting

Small group of people that documents what has already happened, including a summary of informal and one-one-discussions that have transpired. Formal Staff Discipline Meeting Procedures are followed. This step might happen a few times.

Written Agreement

If the situation requires it a written agreement will be produced by the formal meeting. This is an agreement with the disciplinee about how to rectify the problems. A hard copy must include the date and be signed by the disciplinee and a representative of the formal meeting.

Resolution Committee

A resolution committee is a formal committee whose makeup is suggested by HR but finalized upon by the staff collective. This commitee has the power to suggest termination and put items on the agendas of any Free Geek meeting in order to see that the problems get resolved.

See the Resolution Committee page for details on how a resolution committee works.

Action by Whole Collective

• An RC may recommend to the staff collective that a staff member be terminated. In this case, the reason for termination must be specifically described and the decision must be considered by the whole staff collective. The person under consideration for termination must be able to speak, but is not allowed to block the decision of the larger group. The person under consideration for termination may choose a representative, either a third party or another member of the staff collective to speak on his or her behalf as well.

Leftover notes snippet

First thing Resolution Committee would do is state why we're in the place we're in: legitimate or no?

1. Talk to the person to raise issues and get their side of the story.
2. Talk to the person as a delegation of the HR committee and create a written agreement.
3. Form a resolution committee to deal with the issue and consider termination of the staff member.

Staff Vacation Policies

Policy

Current version approved at a staff meeting on June 19, 2009. (Previous version at staff meeting April 4, 2008.)

Rate of Accrual

Collective members accrue Paid Time Off (PTO) as combined sick and vacation time at the rate of 3.6 weeks per year. This is a straight fraction of every hour paid that works out to 0.0692 hours for each hour worked. Committed non-collective members accrue PTO at the rate of 1 week per year (0.0192 hours for each hour worked). There is no difference between sick and vacation time in terms of accounting.

Taking hours before they have accrued

Staff members must have already accrued PTO prior to taking it. In the event that a negative PTO balance is nevertheless accrued, the balance will be converted into dollars at the worker's current pay rate and docked from their pay on their next paycheck. If this creates an unreasonable hardship for the worker, that worker may apply for an advance on their payroll.

Others

Staff members not referred to above do not receive PTO benefits.

Limits on PTO accrual

• Staff collective members earning PTO time must take it within two years of having earned it.
• Unused PTO time that exceeds that limit must be scheduled or will be lost to the collective member.

Vacation Notification

Workers should use common sense in announcing general vacation plans as far in advance as is possible within reason.

Workers must request vacation time in advance with the specific times they will be away from work clearly stated. This should be done as a regular schedule request (sent to schedule@freegeek.org) with the words "vacation request" made clear in the request. All requests should be posted to the staff schedule as soon as feasible.

If there is enough lead time, discussion should take place at an HR meeting, rather than on the list.

Approval

The HR committee can can grant or deny specific vacation requests. However, the staff collective may override such HR decisions. When denying a vacation the the reason for denial must be clearly stated. HR must make efforts to accommodate any worker asking for vacation providing the worker has accrued the hours required for the vacation and gave a reasonable amount of notice. However, HR may set a maximum number of staff allowed to be away simultaneously (on vacation or otherwise). The current number is 2. If a vacation request would cause more than that number to be away at the same time, then the request will be denied unless overruled after discussion at an HR or staff collective meeting.

In the event that workers want overlapping vacations, the staff may determine that there is a conflict and will need to decide which worker may take the vacation. In that event the following procedure must be followed:

• First, the contending workers should be asked to try to work out the conflict.
• If the conflict cannot be resolved, the staff should grant vacation using the following priority:
  • Already approved requests receive the highest priority.
  • If neither request has yet been approved, the worker with the most seniority receives the next highest priority.
  • In the event that two workers have equal seniority, the vacation will be decided by a coin toss.

Payment to exiting staff members

• If a staff member is owed PTO when he or she resigns, is laid off, or is otherwise terminated the amount of PTO owed shall be calculated and reported to the staff member, and the amount shall be included in their final paycheck.

Vacation procedures

(This is a list of steps that can be taken to ensure the above policy is followed.)

• Staff collective members will tell their paid interns about these policies (as will the intern's buddy).
• It is the responsibility of each collective member to review this and schedule vacation time before reaching the maximum PTO accumulation. Available hours accrued appear on pay check stubs and in the payroll reports.
• Upon hiring a new collective member, their maximum accrual amount will be reported to them.
• The HR committee will review all collective members accumulated vacation time owed at least twice per year and notify all collective members that are approaching their maximum.

Accrual Chart

This table shows sample amounts of hours allowed to accumulate, depending on the accrual rate and the number of hours worked per week:

weekly collective committed
hours  0.0692     0.0192
-----  ------     ------
24     173        48
28     202        56
32     230        64
36     259        72
40     288        80

Old staff vacation policies

The following policies were superseded when we adopted the above text.

Asking for vacation

The process for getting vaction days approved

Limits on Vacation Accrual

How much vacation can staff members build up?

Retroactive Vacation Credit

What about the folks that were working here before we had a vacation policy?

Who do we invoice?

Policy

Anyone can be invoiced. We currently don't check credit. We encourage people to pay via cash, check, or credit/debit card rather than us invoicing them.

This was decided at a C7 meeting on October 14, 2006.

How do we invoice them?

See the procedure for Invoicing Donors.

Writing Checks

Policy needs a little attention. Ali 20:57, 21 July 2010 (UTC) Need to clarify if this means Collective member.

I split this into three roles and brought it up to our current practice. I used beancounters to approve the bookkeeper, and the staff collective to approve who could write (not sign) a check. In the past we've had volunteer interns do some of the bookkeeping type work (under staff supervision), and we've talked about outsourcing bookkeeping to contractors as well. RfS 00:39, 23 July 2010 (UTC)

Policy

Body that set the policy(s) on [lists.freegeek_meeting_Minutes Date Adopted].

• When a check needs to be written one staff member, approved by the beancounters, should write the check. A person authorized by the staff collective should record it in the books. A staff member, authorized by the board, should sign the check. This is meant to ensure that at least two different people on staff know why a check was written. In no case should a person who signs checks be tasked with entering transactions into the books or reconciling the books.

Notes

• As of 2010, Liane and Caitlin are the two authorized check signers.

Technical notes on adding policies to the handbook

We can include all relevant pages in a single document without duplication using the following syntax:

=Staff Discipline Policy=
{{:Staff Discipline Policy}}

Most if not all included pages are Policy pages. The Policy pages should all have a simular format. If a page you are including is not a policy page, then see if you can format it in a simular way.