Merit Badges (Thrift Store)

Merit Badges are an experiment in volunteer/staff training being rolled out in the Thrift Store. It is in its beta stage, but we are going to start using it and develop the program on the fly. Individuals' progress will be tracked on The Sash.

You Know You Want It.

The basic idea

A four-tiered path to mastery based loosely on the Cub Scouts' model, where there are four milestones, each requiring a subset of training, education the the demonstration of skills.

The first implementation will be rather unattractive and scrappy, as we prototype the tiers/steps. Once we settle on a workable model, we will put work into making the system more usable and attractive.

The Tiers

The Path to Mastery

Rubber Band Ball	Pricing Gun	Atari 2600 Game Controller	The Whistle

The basic framework is as follows:

Enter the program

The first step to working in the store is to go through the basic orientation. This includes tiny, fussy steps such as:

• signing a volunteer agreement
• getting on the store email list
• Printing out a merit badge sheet (the doc that would be used to track progress. may be physical, may live here)
• Arranging a schedule

Milestones

These represent the four major leaps forward. Each milestone would have a set of four required badges, and four elective badges. Once the appropriate badges have been received, the final step to advancing to the next milestone is to effectively train another person in x-amount of required badges (2?).

Badges

Badges represent specific areas of learning. They may require full understanding of a particular area, or could be further broken into basic, intermediate and advanced levels. Each Milestone would have four critical badges that would be required. Additionally, there would be a list of potential elective badges, representing useful, non-critical skills that we need to have around, but don't need every single person to accomplish.

Worksheets

Each badge would have a corresponding "worksheet," essentially a list of specific skills that need to be trained in order to earn the badge.

The worksheets gauge small steps and ensure all areas are covered.

Overview

The skills required to run the store properly are divided into four tiers with an ascending level of difficulty. Tiers have individual subjects of focus that are called badges (based on the scouts' Merit badge system). At the end of each tier a trainee will recite an oath.

The Rubber Band Ball (First Tier)

• Prerequisite: Please complete Oreintation first.

Represents an ability to perform basic support tasks in the Thrift Store.

Please note that the degree of understanding expected is in parenthesis

• Processing (100%)
  • Determining what goes in which bin
  • Cable wrapping
  • Shrink wrapping
  • Cleaning monitors
  • System Badges/Price tags
  • Which items get price tags/which don't
• Neatening (100%)
  • printing labels
  • location of tape, tags, paper, pens, rubber bands, other basic supplies.
  • taking out trash and recyling
  • cleaning floor, glass, and counters
• Putting things away in the store (100%)
  • Bargain Bin
  • Network devices
  • What goes in the case
  • Cables of all kinds
  • The free box
• Stocking the store from other areas of FG (80%)
  • Returning stuff to Receiving
  • Shopping from Basic testing
  • Shopping from Advanced Testing
  • Shopping from Receiving
  • Shopping from the Warehouse
  • Location of Paper, Tape, Credit Card paper, and Staples reloads
• Recite Rubber Band Ball Oath

The Price Gun

• Prerequisite: Teach another cadet two rubber-band ball badges.

Represents an ability to perform basic customer service, sales and cash-handling functions.

Badges are based on Simpsons characters.

• Basic Pricing (80%) (Comic Book Guy)
  • All items that can be priced using basic price guide.
  • Bargain Bin items.
  • Tested by pricing a set basket of items.
• Basic Till Operations (80%) (Apu Nahasapeemapetilon)
  • Entering transactions.
  • Entering CC transactions.
  • Learning proper gizmo types.
  • Comments and Description fields
  • Recent Purchases (how to spot abusers and uphold policy).
  • Determining which items are "as-is" and which are exchangable
  • Processing exchanges issuing and applying store credits.
  • Tested by ringing up set baskets of items.
• Basic Customer Service (80%) (Gil Gunderson)
  • Engagement (greet, help, thank)
  • Managing expectations (know when to fold 'em/LWIA)
  • Basic Scripts for FAQs
  • Managing and answering the phone
  • Learning Store Policies.
  • Explaining Policies without conflict
  • Deferring all exceptions/questions to 2600s and Whistles.
• Advanced Gathering (20%) (Bumble Bee Man)
  • TARDIS (RAM, HDDs, systems), optical drives, the Treehouse, other items from recycling (pc fans, heat sinks, etc.)
• Plus two elective badges
• Recite Price Gun Oath

The Atari 2600 Game Controller

Represents an ability to perform full range of support, customer service and cash-handling tasks in the Thrift Store.

(Badges named for charismatic mega-fauna?)

• Advanced Customer Service (20%)
  • Selling systems
  • Enforcing policies (saying "no").
  • When to fetch (special trips to get items from "the back").
  • System returns/tech support intake.
• Advanced Till Operations (20%)
  • Searching for sales
  • Credit Card snafus
  • Closing and Counting the till
  • Processing Store Returns over $10
• Advanced Pricing (20%)
  • Researching high-end and oddballs (not on the list)
  • Pricing Systems and Laptops
  • Maintaining price list (spotting what's out of date)
• Advanced Stocking
  • Displaying wares/creating signage
  • Printing labels and store documents. Filing them/putting them away.
  • Improving existing displays.
• Plus two elective badges.
• Recite Game Controller Oath

The Acme Thunderer

Represents an ability to perform all duties required to run the Thrift Store in a Jedi-like fashion.

The equivalent of knighting someone. The whistle requires the unprompted handling of a store kobayashi maru. Someone with a whistle can be scheduled to work a shift, solo. It's hard to imagine an instance where a whistled person wasn't getting paid, frankly. Existing subs would likely get a fast-track through this stage, given the demands of their regular positions. Easy to test-out, as any paid position here requires similar attributes...

These aren't so much trainable skills/tasks for volunteers, but qualities that need to be observed under fire; once you get so far, we start to keep an eye out for potential "whistletude." Obviously, the hardest thing to codify.

Possible areas for badges:

• Demonstrate diplomacy and wit,
• project management.
• brush-fire extinguishing (making an angry customer leave happy, without capitulating
• creating effective signs
• suggesting and implementing procedural/structural changes that improve production/flow
• suggesting and implementing changes that improve customer experience and sales
• documentation (the scribe?), etc.

Electives

A long list of things that scouts could pick and chose from according to their interests/skills. Offer a spread of crafty/tech/OCD/and easy.

A few suggestions:

• Production
  • Package mouse balls
  • Burn Distros
  • laminate 2032 cards
• File System development
• Documentation
• Making Ethernet cables
• Safari Guide (the pith helmet)