Providence Planning 06 2006

• Date: 13 June 2006
• Facilitator: Shawn (and then Seamus)
• Scribe: Liane
• Minutes Checker: laurel
• Place: FG classroom

Attendance

Jeanne, Liane(scribe), Shawn(facilitator), Michael W., Steve S, Dave, Laurel, Seamus, Matt, Matthew, Matteo, Kerm, Sergio, Iain(Bellingham), Jim, Oso, Ben, Cliff, Richard

What has happened so far

• Staff meeting minutes which include some details and preliminary figures/estimates
• Call for this meeting

other document passed out at the meeting?

Information from communication

This communication is ongoing, via Liane and Oso. We would receive 1200 systems a month in weekly shipments, plus some monitors and little stuff, they'll have ram, maybe even hard drives, though hard drives are a difficulty because of their security needs.

• it would double systems, but not monitors
• most likely a couple of hundred of the same make/model
• most likely we'll get $5 per system, for sure monitor fee
• they would bring them to us, on our schedule as we can deal with them
• a staff person could go to their warehouse to sort the stuff to make it easier for FG to unload and send to the right place inside of FG
• we would invoice them

Some changes if we do it

(What could happen)

• receiving change
• open another day
• changes in eval and recycling
• everyone could get awesome computers, P4s and stuff
• the percentage of to be recycled systems might go up, from 65% to 80%
• huge potential for bulk sales

Further Questions for Providence

To add to Providence Questions

• What do they mean by ethical recycling? some of our stuff goes overseas, but they need to know that we do what we can to deconstruct and process here
• How big will the batches be? remove hard drives at the warehouse
• What is the process? letter of intent/RFP/how fast?
• Can we start slow, and get our program going before we go full force?

Ch-ch-ch-changes

The assembled group then semi-brainstormed a list of potential changes that might help or be required in the transition that this commitment would entail. They were categorized as so:

Staffing

• add about 55 hours just to be open another day(full day)
• 8 hr staff for volunteer recruiting
• one 4 hr staff to go sort
• 3 8hour staff for day of delivery
• extra people will be needed up front to get this all going
• be open another day but with limited stuff going on
• stipends for volunteers (travel, food and gratitude)
• hire noncollective members/Interns
• Americorps

Programs

• change eval: do the diagnostic process in build, eval in situ?
• more education would be needed
• more build coordination
• WE NEED AN EDU-COORD.
• process of build could be split into Assemblyline BUild and Custom Build (or) the Trouble(shooting) Squad
• Barter systems with other non-profits, they send us people who deserve cornputers, (people could volunteer fewer hours, because they already volunteer with other npos)

Facilities

• new or additional building, (Oso: with a roofgarden)
• container (20ft) buying to put in parking lot & increase storage space
• more building rental for offices
• straight flow through
• baler
• more/reorganized shelving
• forklift
• vehicle
• reduced printer program/ups land/black hole
• diagnostic area in warehouse
• move monitor testing
• improve ventilation system in recycling
• fence off the parking lot / cover parking lot
• Classroom = Build
• White hole = Classroom
• upstairs studio = offices
• elevator to make upstairs handicapped accessable
• meetingroom = classroom

We have a reservation!

So that's a lot of changes. The floor was opened for reservations. Laurel jumped into the conversational void with an eloquent "well, yeah, but it could kill us."
More coherent people then said:

• (Matthew): I have trust in FG to continue to remain itself while it continues to grow at an amazing rate.
• Can we really handle this much stuff coming in the door? most likely there will be a crash and burn
• What if we start it and then have to back out? it will be a trial, and we'll have invested a lot in the change.
• (Dave, optimistic): My concern is that we're too concerned
• will it kill FG first culturally and then technically?
• (Laurel): We need to make sure the process of change is transparent to people who will be affected.
• killer amount of work ahead of us; we'll need to act soon; we are sssllloowww when we decide stuff
• scheduling for meetings will be difficult
• let's not back out- we might not get the chance again. If we flake on a business offer like this, others businesses will know.
• Adherence to the mission might have to override sacrifices in culture
• change is never easy
• is everybody and their brother going to contact us with these kind of offers, then what do we do?
• we really need to work out the technical problems before we can go ahead with this; just because this group says go ahead, that doesn't mean everything has been solved.

In solution

With a contract in hand from Providence we could get a small business loan from a bank and buy tons of excellent chocolate for staff and volunteers; METRO might have loan available for that, too. We WILL have to get more efficent and add more hours in areas. Wholesale sales and so on will get the stuff out the door.

Printerland, Recycling, Shelving, System storage could be more efficent

Dear council,

The group came to consensus on the following recommendation to council:

We agree that the Providence proposition falls within our mission, but if the concerns enumerated in the minutes can not be addressed then this proposal does not fall within our capacity.

We suggest the council create a working group to create plans to address these concerns.

The council may be asked to empower the working group, with a mission and guidelines to make some decisions as needed to make sure things go at the speed that businesses require.

• a working group would work on priorities
• come up with a plan that says whether we can do it and how we'll go about it
• Jim is interested in being the Volunteer Project Manager to deal with communications and eveything else, and he wants to have a meeting with everyone who wants to work on solving the issues, this week
• let's call it the Providence Committee

New Commitments

• Oso will send email to Providence to ask the questions we still have, and report the answers to council

Next Meeting

We expect this to be determined after the council meeting on Wednesday.

• Facilitator: TBD
• Scribe: TBD
• Date and time: Providence Planning 06 27 2006
• Place: TBD
• Potential agenda topics : overall plan, man power needed, how much money do we need upfront, changes in the building