Council 2008 06

When: 18 June 2008
Place: FG Meeting room
Facilitator: Dave/Oso
Scribe: Laurel
Minutes Checker:
Attendance: rfs, Jeff, MK, Kathey, Jon, laurel, Cliff, Luiz, Dave, Vagrant
Last meeting: [Council 2008 05]

COMMITMENTS

• martin and matteo - finish setting up a secure wiki for the building group - CARRYOVER
  • matteo finished it & sent out an email to the building group to let them know they can sign up.
  • Vagrant has shut down the server; need to figure out what happened with that.
  • Jeff will pester matteo about getting that back to life.
• Dave and Marie and Oso - write up something about the (financial) value of our work in the community - CARRYOVER, but Dave estimates that we save the community $7-800k in donated materials (roughly equal to our annual budget).
  • Dave has the numbers that he came up with, would like someone to look them over. Oso and Marie have not contacted him about them. If anyone wants to look over them, he'll send them.
• Seamus will talk to BAN and try to get process rolling - CARRYOVER
  • Seamus is working on contacting vendors to figure out stuff. Ali is available to help out.
• Oso will fill out conflict of interest form and share with the group - CARRYOVER.
• Laurel will edit the stuff-to-do-before-meetings page - CARRYOVER
• laurel will work on the Council Orientation document - DONE
• Vagrant will share feelings about the marketing/communication/outreach position with the hiring committee - CARRYOVER
• Staff will communicate budgetary requirements for Marketing Coordinator to Board - DONE

CONSENSUS TRAINING

The dangers of direct responses

(Vagrant)

What is a direct response?

a request to jump the process in order to get your information heard right away.

• While going through the phases of consensus, sticking with the process can make things go more smoothly. For example, it's a good idea to get all clarifying questions on the table before starting to address those questions, so they can be grouped.
• Could be helpful to write down what you were going to say so you don't forget while you wait to speak.
• Direct responses can lead to more confrontational interactions, focusing on the participants rather than the group.

Can direct responses be useful?

maybe, but you should be careful with it. The facilitator can decide to make exceptions based on the situation.

REPORTS

State of the Onion

(Richard) Darryl Kan is hired; tool retention is way up. The warehouse is almost finished; stuff has shifted around. All the external locks have been changed. Currently hiring for hardware donations internship. 3 reviews coming up soonish; employee manual has been updated. The store is awesome. Technocrats have been shuffling meetings, may soon have volunteers helping out. ALSO: The Portland City Council unanimously passed a resolution to give their computers to us. http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/State_of_the_Onion

What kind of tracking will we have to do?

It may be that we have to give all these computers away, and make sure they don't end up in the thrift store. This could be a big logistical challenge. The administrative rules have yet to be written, so there's some negotiation still to be done. In the interest of consistency, trying to make the process as similar as possible to our existing process will still be our best bet & a good priority in negotiations.

===General Priorities=== http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/General_Priorities

Toronto

(Kathey) Good subway, and it was raining. The city was indeed clean.
FG Toronto is promising. There are great volunteers with good connections, but the organization needs more of a commitment to good communications. They arranged to have a training in nonviolent communication, but it hasn't worked out yet.

BUSINESS

TITLE: PRESENTERS NAME (NEW/OLD)

• Link to relevant conversation.

  (Summarize Presentation)

• List Clarifing Questions
  • Question - Answer
• List Concerns
  • Concern - Questions Which Clarify the Concern
• Proposal:

  (final proposal)

  • Decision adopted (with Unresolved Concerns Listed - AKA Stand Asides) | Send to Committee (if creating a new committee list intrested people)

REMAINING COMMITMENTS

New commitments, and Carry-Overs copied from above.

• Name - commitment - status (discussion points if necessary)
• Name - commitment - status (discussion points if necessary)

Next Meeting

• Facilitator:
• Scribe:
• Minutes Checker:
• Reporters to other meetings?
• Date and time:
• Place:
• List of unfinished business for the next meeting: