General Priorities

Explanation

This is document compares all the program planning sheets and is maintained by the Optimization and Priorities group. It is reviewed and approved by the Free Geek Community Council. It should assist us in deciding which projects to push forward as we expand, and which to cut back on if we need to contract.

The Impact/Effort Grid

This is a tool that we use to help us prioritize possible projects. There are nine cells arranged like a tic tac toe game. The higher the expected net positive impact of the project, the higher it appears on the grid. The higher the effort (usually cost in staff hours) the further to the right it appears. The highest priorities will the the things that appear up and to the left, and the lowest priorities will be the things that appear down and to the right.

At the current time, the only items included in the impact/effort grid are programs that would expand Free Geek's activities. That is, the things we are already doing are not included here. (See sublist "D" below.)

Infinite Resources List

The infiniite resources list takes the items from the impact/effort grid and arranges them into one long list, from highest priority to lowest. The higher something is on the list the more likely we've carefully examined it and compared it to the items surrounding it. The lower the item is on the list, the more likely its exact position should be take with a grain of salt or two. It is called the "infiniite resources list" because we assume that there is enough time and money to do everything on the list (something we know not to be true).

At the current time, we have not put anything onto this list, but we plan to do so at our next meeting.

Sublists

There are several sublists. Each item from the infinite resources list appears only on one sublist.

• List A is the list of things we would like to do even if we have to actually pay for it ourselves.
• List B is the list of things we would like to do only if funds could be raised to pay for part of the cost.
• List C is the list of things we would like to do only if funds could be raised to pay for all of the cost.
• List D is the list of things we are already doing. At some point these may be integrated into the impact effort grid and the infinite resources list.
• List E is the list of things that there is general agreement we don't want to do, either because they have already been completed, or because there is no consensus around proceeding with the program or project.

Impact/Effort Grid

I disclaim that the order within the boxes has any priority-derived meaning.

	Low Effort	Medium Effort	High Effort
High Impact	Tennis Balls Program Planning Sheet		Corporate Donations Program Planning Sheet w/ vehicle
Medium Impact	Grantwriting Program Planning Sheet	Enterprise Build Program Planning Sheet Computers for Kids Program Planning Sheet System Administration Program Planning Sheet Volunteer Pickups Program Planning Sheet Corporate Donations Program Planning Sheet w/o vehicle	Education Program Planning Sheet Printers Program Planning Sheet
Low Impact		Coders Program Planning Sheet Advanced Receiving Program Planning Sheet NAP Program Planning Sheet	Emerging Media Planning Sheet Vehicle Pickups Program Planning Sheet w/o corporate donations

Infinite Resources List

1. (put stuff here)

Sublists

List A (want to do)	List B (need some $$$)	List C (need all $$$)	List D (already doing)	List E (won't do/already done)
(put stuff here)	(put stuff here)	(put stuff here)	Advanced Linux Advanced Testing Audio Visual Basic Testing Build Corporate Donations Data Entry External Sales GAP Hardware Grants ISP Job Experience Internships Program Planning Sheet ??? Laptops Online Sales Recycling Tech Support Tenant Subletting Volunteer Internships Wholesale Program	Gulu University Aid Collaborative Technologies

History

• April 2006
• August 2005