Maximum Free Geek

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This is a thought experiment, not a plan. As a thought experiment, we don't need to pay too much attention to pesky little details like how much this would cost. Rather we can assume that it's possible that we might have to do something like this for financial reasons, or we might drift towards something like this scenario without intending to. In thinking about the Meta Question we go through the exercise of fleshing out what Free Geek would look like if we were open all day long, seven days a week.

Basic Projections

Assuming we are still using the current space and we want to increase production to a maximum (open ~11 hours per day 7 days per week), staff would have to increase to provide coverage for the extra time we are open. Using current ratios of coverage and adding in some leeway since we're understaffed I've made some basic projections. (See the end of this page for what I did to come up with this stuff.)

How many people on staff?

• 12 people working 20 hours per week.
  • 4 would be collective members.
  • 8 would be intern positions
• 24 people working 32 hours per week.

• 36 people on staff total.

This allows for a slightly higher staffing ratio than what we have today and it includes more interns per staff than we now have (which I think is good, right?).

The schedule

Let's say that our hours of operation are 9:30 am to 8:30 pm, we arrive 15 minutes early, we leave 15 minutes after close, and each day has three shifts in it:

• Morning: 9:15-1:15
• Afternoon: 1-5
• Evening: 4:45-8:45

This allows for 15 minute overlap between shifts. 32 hour people would need to cover eight shifts per week. 20 hour people would have to cover 5 per week. If someone works two consecutive shifts, we'd add an extra hour to one end or the other and have them take a lunch break, something like how we do it now.

Communication / Seeing other people

Right now if you're a 32 hour worker, you're probably here 4 out of 5 open days (80% of the time we're open). That means 20% of the stuff that goes on happens when you're not here.

In the scenario, you'd be here 8 out of 21 shifts (38% of the time). 62% of the stuff that goes on would happen while you were away. That means we'd all be three times as far out of the loop.

We'd have to be more disciplined with email communication, transitioning between shifts, etc.

Committees

• 28 people would serve on standing committees:
  • 4 people would need to serve on at least one committee
  • 24 people would need to serve on at least two.

If committees have about the same size and makeup as they do now, there could be 17 of them. My gut says it'd be less than that, so let's say there's a dozen standing committees and maybe two ad hoc committees at a time. (Right now there's 8 standing committees and 1 ad hoc committee -- Resolution.)

Staff Meetings

Weekly staff meetings would probably be for communication between committees. There'd probably need to be a monthly all staff meeting that would last longer. Could 8 interns and volunteers run Free Geek for two hours while we all met?

Office Space

All those people would need a place to sit. We would probably be sharing more offices and taking over artists' space above the warehouse or meeting room. This would mean an increase in rent or a reduction in rental income.

How I Guessed This stuff

(Eye glazing base data follow in case you want to see how I pulled this scenario out of thin air. You can skip the rest of this if you want.)

• If we were open 11 hours a day, 7 days a week, that's 77 hours (40 current multiplied by a factor of 1.925).

• Today we have 479 paid hours on the schedule. If we added 12 hours to the Tech Support Coordinator, added a 32 hour Office Coordinator, a 20 hour System Administrator, and two 20 hour interns that would be 581 hours per week on the schedule and I think we'd feel very well staffed for our current hours of operation. That is, we can operate like we are now best with 479-581 hours per week on the schedule.

• So 479-581 multiplied by 1.925 is 922-1,118. I'm averaging and skewing downward a little to get a nice round 1,000 hours per week.

• There are a few combinations of 32 hour workers and 20 hour workers that add up to 1,000 hours per week and seem like they maintain something like our current ratio of 20 to 32 hour workers in the collective with an increase in the number of 20 hour interns.