Stream fishing

Overview

Since Free Geek's inception, volunteers (and staff) have wanted to get things out of the "stream" (total flow of gizmos in, around, and out of the building). Many of these requests are unique to the person asking and not part of an established process of panning from the stream to send to the store. Over time, these requests got to be really inconvenient for coordinators to fulfill. Additionally, a few volunteers were making most of the requests and doing so nearly daily. It has long been recognized that making exceptions is a powerful volunteer retention tool (as it is a way to confer merit and/or status). The idea was to make a system flexible enough to allow exceptions, but rigid enough to discourage regular use. There was a related goal of cutting down on "mommy and daddy" behavior by volunteers (asking multiple staff people for a favor or exception until the volunteer gets the "best" answer). All the power to grant exceptions is in the hands of the coordinator actively working with that volunteer. All the power to price the goods in question are on the store coordinators. By separating those who allow exceptions from those who price the excepted good, there is a robust check against outright corruption (intentionally pricing valuable items well below their value).

Policy

A production or recycling coordinator can choose to allow a volunteer to purchase a good out of the stream by filling out a Stream Fishing Form (located in an envelope behind the door into the TARDIS). It is *highly recommended* that exceptions are limited to goods that would not normally make it to the store and do not have a high market cost. No coordinator is required to ever make an exception.

History

This policy was part of a reuse committee decision in early (January) 2009. Sadly, those minutes seem to be missing.