Difference between revisions of "Budget Reorganization"

Revision as of 18:01, 27 June 2006

Working with Providence NW

This page has been requested to be deleted.
If you disagree, discuss on the talk page.
Whenever possible, could an Admin please remove this page?

In a scenario that may possibly bridge the gap between Crisis Driven Free Geek and Maximum Free Geek, we have been approached by Providence NW to take care of their constant stream of cast-off computers. This would be a huge increase in the amount of material coming in, and would require some (major, systemic) changes of us.

This has been discussed in the Council; the various Staff Standing Committees, especially Reuse, have been discussing the potential impact of such a commitment. Council formed a group to talk about the requirements of the project and what we would need to do to be capable of adapting to the change.

minutes from first meeting
June 26 meeting - delegated people to come up with space design proposals
July 11 meeting
July 18 meeting
August 1 meeting
August 15 meeting
August 29 meeting
Note: Providence planning meeting dropped, no longer pursued.

The Numbers

Counts of systems per month.

The Numbers Current and Projected
	current #	current $	future #	future $
Totals	1405	###	2605	###
Recycled	1212	###	###	###
Adopted/Granted	91	###	###	###
Sold in Store	87	###	###	###
Sold in Bulk	15	###	###	###

Dave's not finished number splat
	current #	current $	providence #	providence $	future #	future $
Totals	1405	###	1200	$20,500	2400	###
Recycled	1212	###	100	$500	###	###
Adopted/Granted	91	###	300	$0.00	###	###
Sold in Store	87	###	200	$40ea/$8000	###	###
Sold in Bulk	15	###	600	$20ea/$12000	###	###

Resource splat
	current	providence	future
Receiving staff hours	###	###	###
Receiving volunteer hours	###	###	###
Eval staff hours	###	###	###
Eval volunteer hours	###	###	###
Build staff hours	###	###	###
Build volunteer hours	###	###	###
Recycling staff hours	###	###	###
Recycling volunteer hours	###	###	###
Store staff hours	###	###	###
Store volunteer hours	###	###	###

Images

Here's an idea of how existing warehouse space could be used to minimize the impact of Providence:

Dave's Low Impact Whse Floor Plan

Image:Fg-floorplan low inpact.png

Dave's Low Impact Warehouse Floor Plan as sketched by Jim Fitterman

Image:Fgwarehouseafter.jpg

Providence Questions

This page has been requested to be deleted.
If you disagree, discuss on the talk page.
Whenever possible, could an Admin please remove this page?

For those who don't already know the background on these questions, see Working with Providence NW.

Questions we want to ask:

Payment

How much will Providence pay per system?

assuming an amount of $5, currently unofficial and open to negotiation

How will they pay? Invoice, cash or Check? Invoice (for sure)
What will be the best payment schedule for them? Monthly
How much is Providence paying per system to current recyclers (LegacyCorp)?

still unknown
Logistics

How many Systems per month? 1,200 computers and may grow
Will Providence deliver the stuff to us? Yes
How much other stuff to expect( monitors, etc) few monitors, some servers

Condition

What about hard drives? we will get a few
Will they leave the hard drive rails? yes
Will memory be included in the systems? yes

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

[freegeek-council] Council Minutes

(edited)

Seamus Campbell conform at gmail.com Wed Jun 21 23:09:45 PDT 2006

Free Geek Community Council June 21, 2006

Phil - Facilitator Seamus - Scribe

INTRO:

Attending: Michael, Kerm, Jac, Laurel, Debbie, Phil, Jeanne, John, Richard, Dave, Matteo, Steve, Seamus, Jim, Emily, Martin, Seamus, Wren, Rick,

Late: Jeff, Bobby, Sam

OLD COMMITS:

Shawn: announce next Providence mtg DONE

NEW BUSINESS

Providence:

Proposal from Providence meeting: "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. "

Minutes @ http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/Providence_Planning_06_2006

This is a huge issue that everyone should be aware of. There was some debate about whether this is a good idea for FG; whether we are ready to experience so much growth.

CONSENSUS: the Council agrees with the proposal above. CONSENSUS: the Council creates a new Providence working group to create plans to address the concerns identified by the previous meeting. The first meeting will be Tuesday, June 27th, at 7:15.

One concern was the initial scope of the working group. Some felt that we should empower the group to negotiate and begin implementation of the agreement with Providence, in order to make sure that our end moves at a business-like pace. Others noted that contracts are specifically the responsibility of the Board. It was also noted that Providence will probably spend another month putting together a Request For Proposal, and then the process of taking our response and finalizing would likely be at least another month, so we do not need to finish this discussion immediately.

For the time being, Council has not empowered the working group to do anything more than consider the obstacles and plan for how to deal with them.

JULY MEETING

Facilitator: Seamus Scribe: ???

Commits:

Providence working group will meet and report regularly to Council