Council 2006 01

• Date: January 18, 2006
• Facilitator: Christen (Xen)
• Scribe: Liane

in attendance

Xen (facilitator), Clout (eating chips), Oso (making up numbers), Liane (scribe), Wren (having some juice), Pete (shuffling papers), Martin (being healthy), Dave (snack department), Laurel (kicking the juice for the laptops), Seamus (helping), Matteo (very quiet so far), Debi (brought us some local wine), Steve (knows geography), Bill (is nice), Bobby (ebay!), Hi Shawn!, Hi Wes!,

check in

Martin is leaving for Uganda soon, no more makeup for Xen, Overall happiness

commitments

• Marie will add OSDL/nonprofit stuff to wiki. in progress

• Marie will create a video that can go on the web, etc. in progress

• Dave, Debi, and Oso have useful media info to get on wiki.

Pete will follow up. c/o

• Bobby, Dave will harass eBay sellers to give FG credit. in progress

• Martin, Wren, Clout, Wes will convene to do needs assessment for blind linux distro. c/o

• Martin will send email to schedule a meeting

• Martin or Oso will get Ambassadors minutes on wiki c/o

Note: DONE during meeting. Ambassadors20061216

Reports from Other Meetings

Build

there are minutes, technical difficulties, great production, great volunteers, Dave does weird things in his office

PAWC

read the minutes on Council list, ad in the Alliance, GO PAWC!

Recycling

read the minutes on Council list, too many details to list here we may be getting a baler, we may make more money

Outreach

story in Lifestyles NW, will be good. Design Technica web site will also have a story soon.

Press Kit - Pete is working on it, would like some feedback from all of us. check the wiki Press_Kit

Board

bylaws are fixed (per request, see last Council meeting), talked about budget, decided on staff members who can sign contracts, adopted a basic budget. Find the minutes at: http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/directors/2006-January/000659.html

old business

Budget/Program Planning

there are lines on the chart, Oso shows the Current_Budget, we spent more in 2004 than we made, 2005 looked better, there is a fundraising goal of $80,000, there are program planning sheets on the wiki. We dream child large, or adult small.

new business

staff retention by Martin

• the gist of it: staff needs to be made happier, but not with money, since we don't have any, what do we have? Computers and gadgets. Staff would be allowed one computer per year, choose your favorite from the tardis, may not slow down production needs, may take a while, hardware grants would oversee, staff leaves on good terms, they get to keep the laptop and the computer, get fired and burn in the Black Hole! and give the stuff back
• What about including paid interns? People seem to like the idea.
• Grants group hasn't talked about it yet, but it should be done by lottery, not all at once, would be lowest priority in production
• Debi is happy!
• There are concerns about the implementation of the proposal, would it slow down production, could we make money with them? Staff would build them themselves, only after all other needs are fulfilled (store, grants).

PROPOSAL:

All paid staff will be able to apply for a nice computer for their home through the hardware grants group once a year. Staff will be allowed to choose a favorite out of the tardis, it then gets built, but will be on the lowest priority for production.If staff leaves on good terms, they get to keep the computer and their work laptop, if they get fired, they have to give it all back.

DECISION: We have consensus! Hurray for consensus!

Legislation in Washington and Oregon

Pete and Oso present.

Legislation to be proposed this term in Washington:

Every new computer will have $10 to $15 surcharge with it, then they'll

set up collection and recycling centers with GoodWill, HP, and other businesses

• There are worries if we miss the boat on this one, FG might become

obsolete, all the social benefits, reuse, Open Source may fall by the wayside, - sad!- Oso has been involved with a similar idea here in Oregon, emphasizing(?) reuse over recycling, with the idea of orgs that do reuse get more money, but commercial computer recycling businesses didn't like the idea and Karen Menace (Minnis?), the Speaker of the OR House, killed the bill

• We're starting to be involved with legislature in WA and OR,
• Pete says we got to hurry and get involved, because the pieces are in place already and the Republican Party big business is supporting it($$$), so it is reasonably likely it will pass.
• FGOly is starting to work on it,
• Pete says, FGPDX should be the example to what FGOly could do, since they only have been there a year, when it gets presented to the legislature
• Will there be competition? might be good, we get a ton stuff, but are only scratching the surface, we will not advertise too much because we would get, you know, filled up
• look at Legislation wiki page for more

Beautification

• There is a wiki page about that: http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/Beautification
• add your projects!
• Oso has a new idea of Musical Chairs, as related to piles of stuff, because staff members might take over an area and will be responsible to keep it clean- Please all participate in keeping FG clean
• Announcements about work cleaning parties should go to core, action, maybe social, up on a central construction planning wiki, and on a flier on the bulletin board at the front- (As a side note, not many Council members cleaned up their own clutter after the meeting - tsk, tsk, tsk! Thanks, Pete, for cleaning up!)

Next meeting

• Date: Feb 15th: Council20060215

uh oh, everything falls apart

• facilitator: Pete
• scribe: Laurel (Pete minute checker)

new commits

• Marie will add OSDL/nonprofit stuff to wiki.
• Marie & Phil will create a video that can go on the web, etc. (by March 3rd Thurs)
• Dave, Debi, and Oso have useful media info to get on wiki. Pete will follow up.
• Bobby, Dave will harass eBay sellers to give FG credit.
• Martin, Wren, Clout, Wes will convene to do needs assessment for blind linux distro. Martin will send email to schedule a meeting
• Martin or Oso will get Ambassadors minutes on wiki (DONE) Ambassadors20061216
• everybody give feedback on Press Kit