Difference between revisions of "Council 2006 05"

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−
* Date:  
+
In attendance:
−
* Facilitator:
 
−
* Scribe:
 
−
* Minutes Checker:
 
−
* Place:
 
−
== Attendance ==
 
  
 +
  - shawn f. (facilitator)
 +
  - stacy (co-fac)
 +
  - bil
 +
  - shawn p.
 +
  - laurel
 +
  - matteo
 +
  - tony
 +
  - seamus
 +
  - oso
 +
  - jim
 +
  - sophia
 +
  - tim
 +
  - rob
 +
  - jesse
 +
  - dave
 +
  - jeanne
 +
  - martin (scribess)
 +
  - jeff
 +
  - pete
 +
  - john
 +
  - kermit
 +
  - rick
 +
  - nathan
 +
  - scott
 +
  - others were late
  
−
== Old Commitments ==
+
Previous Commitments: 5-10 min
  
−
== Reports ==
+
  - Staff: Report on Volunteer program  DONE
 +
  - Phil: train more tour guides on how to talk about monitors.
 +
    CARRYOVER
 +
  - Martin: get Uganda pics posted to the web (this is a request from
 +
    Pete!)  IN PROGRESS
 +
  - Jeff S. (et al): meet to resume space usage discussion.  DONE
 +
  - ????: (scribe missed this.) Jeff S. requested that somebody speak
 +
    about an Advisory Board. There was some discussion at this
 +
    meeting, not sure if anybody committed to look into this further.
 +
  - Matteo (et al): Convene to discuss hiring priorities.  DONE
 +
  - All: discuss receiving internship on email list and elsewhere, in
 +
    preparation to make a decision next month.  DONE
 +
  - Mark will announce a web site he's aware of about board
 +
    nominations. (correction: non-profit information) CARRYOVER ++
 +
  - Stacy, Laurel, Pete, All will think about possible Board
 +
    nominees, and refer them to New Director Agreement. CARRYOVER ++
 +
  - Martin: Convene a group to discuss blind linux distro needs
 +
    assessment.  CARRYOVER +INFINITY
 +
  - Martin: Convene the ambassador's group (forgotten) CARRYOVER ++
  
−
== Old Business ==
+
Reports: 5-10 min
  
−
=== Item 1 ===
+
  - Grantwriters:  we got another grant!  yay!  we're on tv.  we will
−
*presenter's name
+
    have video cameras.  phil has a job!
−
*summarize presentation
+
    wait - we hired phil?  he said he didn't want a job!  and don't
−
*record conversation
+
    we have a policy about not letting grants specify that we hire
−
**(use asterisks, not hyphens. It translates better to wiki.)
+
    someone?  what's up, accountability?
  
−
== New Business ==
+
Business
−
copy from email list's agenda additions
 
  
−
=== Item 1 ===
+
  - Council/Staff interaction on hiring etc. (Pete) 15 min
−
*presenter's name
+
      concerns about role-blur between council and staff.  council is
−
*summarize presentation
+
      critical of staff, but that is good on some levels.  staff needs
−
*record conversation
+
      to be transparent on their decision making processes to council
 +
      to promote trust.  council needs to focus on big-picture issues,
 +
      and then articulate them well to staff and core.
 +
      sophia: shawn's report on staff hour usage was good
 +
      oso: i perceive turf wars going on.  simple mission statements
 +
      for different groups will clarify.
 +
      laurel: (reads the council definition from wiki and bylaws)
 +
      martin: has a proposal relating to this later
 +
      steve: we need to very clearly define the group roles, or the
 +
      democracy will interfere with the functioning of the
 +
      organization.
 +
      nathan: where is the lack of trust?
 +
      pete: hugest is that council is not in on the everyday
 +
      discussions that staff have, and so staff don't take them into
 +
      account.  not mistrust of motives.
 +
      oso: proposals drive council, and everyone has the power to add
 +
      them in.  process is out of control.
 +
      laurel: staff deal with implementation.  council deals with
 +
      concepts.
 +
      jeff: not a question of motives.  volunteers don't always feel
 +
      their concerns are address and responded to (later).  staff make
 +
      lots of decisions, but where are they published?
 +
      jim: isn't hiring staff's function?  how would you limit
 +
      proposals and preserve democracy?
 +
      rob: you guys seem to be doing fine, no?
  
−
== New Commitments ==
+
  - Hiring Priorities Report/Recommendation 10 min
 +
      http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2006-April/001545.html
  
−
New commitments, and Carry-Overs copied from above.
+
      PROPOSAL: Assume $11,000 per quarter surplus.  distribute as
−
* name - commitment
+
      follows:
−
* name - commitment
+
          - core breakfast
−
* etc.
+
          - +12 hours of floor shifts
 +
          - laptop intern @ 24/hrs per week
 +
          - 75% of remaining surplus towards pay raise
 +
          - 25% of remaining to build operational reserves
 +
      then have the grant writing priorities:
 +
          - forklift (as needed)
 +
          - baler
 +
          - vehicle
 +
      laurel: structure for opening up grants for discussion will
 +
      help transparency
 +
      nathan: laptop intern hiring is moving ahead according to
 +
      process.
 +
      oso: other things can happen and are even in the works...
 +
      nathan: hr committee talks about this a bunch
 +
      scott: how much of a pay raise?
 +
      not much, 5-8%.
 +
      pete: how certain is $11,000?
 +
      we're setting it into the budget like that.
 +
      tim: advanced receiving intern needs to be considered.
 +
      jeff: we could meet again next quarter on this if our numbers
 +
      are too far off.
 +
      seamus: the board didn't get to meet over these, so will need
 +
      to approve this.
 +
      CONSENSUS - PENDING BOARD APPROVAL
  
−
== Next Meeting ==
+
  - Free Geek franchising and trademark issues (shawn?) 10 min
−
* Facilitator:  
+
      trademark our name so not just anyone can use our name.  come
−
* Scribe:  
+
      up with a process by which organizations can join freegeek
−
* Minutes Checker:  
+
      "intergalactic".  lots of new startups that need help through
−
* Reporters to other meetings?
+
      howtos and checklists and applications.  some freegeeks are
−
* Date and time:  
+
      already established, and will need to give name rights over to
−
* Place:  
+
      us, and then be grandfathered in.
−
* Unfinished business for the next meeting?
+
      jeff: who's in charge of this?  so far, c7.
 +
      oso: wiki pages on all this.  "intergalactic" will likely
 +
      eventually become its own organization.  how will we enforce
 +
      all this?  we want an anual or bianual meeting of the
 +
      intergalactic congress.
 +
      shawn p.: what issues will the congress address?
 +
      review new applicants, share information, shared governance of
 +
      freegeek principles
 +
      jim: higher level governance body means we become a peer.
 +
      steve: stop our name from being used for evil
 +
      kermit: defend our name
 +
 
 +
  - Big corporate donors of stuff (i.e. Providence) (dave?) 10 min
 +
      http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2006-May/001632.html
 +
      This is in the works, but providence wants to switch recyclers
 +
      to us (!), which means ~1200 systems a month, moderately high
 +
      quality, no harddrives, ...  so what does it take for us to
 +
      deal with this and not crumble?  they need to make a $5/system
 +
      donation so that we can be open another day, cover recycling
 +
      better, seek external storage, get a baler...  we would benefit
 +
      from this on many levels (production, recycling income, average
 +
      spec).  gresham could take some of the surplus.
 +
      seamus: what's our current production?
 +
      400 systems
 +
      seamus: how many can we possibly make?
 +
      500-600
 +
      seamus: are we selling higher spec machines already?
 +
      yes
 +
      oso: bulk sales of systems get things out quickly.
 +
      jeanne: lincoln city can take systems too, hopefully.
 +
      jeff: how will we be addressing increases in build?
 +
      increased storage space, extra day open.
 +
      kermit: will providence have to approve moving systems to other
 +
      freegeeks?  similar systems move quickly.
 +
      shawn: no harddrives
 +
      we'll just use the smaller ones from recycled systems
 +
      ???: ebay
 +
      nathan: there is a working group for this which everyone
 +
      interested, and we will all need to work together to address
 +
      this.  we may also attract other large donors.
 +
      shawn: this group will continue meeting.  announcements will
 +
      follow.
 +
 
 +
  - Internship hiring guideline proposal (martin) 5 min
 +
      http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2006-May/001627.html
 +
 
 +
      PROPOSAL: add to the hiring priorities a reminder that paid
 +
      internships create inequity, can be misleading, and should not
 +
      be used unless:
 +
        - the position is low stress
 +
        - the position is necessarily temporary
 +
        - we are unsure of our need for the position in the long term
 +
      in the third case, we should, prior to hiring, define a clear
 +
      set of criteria by which we later decide that a position become
 +
      permanent or not.
 +
 
 +
      jeff: does this change the method to hiring?
 +
      laurel: in September of 2004 we decided Staff could move a
 +
            non-collective member into the collective by unanimous,
 +
            non-stand-aside agreement.
 +
      nathan: how is this different from the normal method?
 +
      martin: we want to make the method we use formal.
 +
      jim: what if the internship changes the criteria?
 +
      martin: we'd have to go into an open hiring or otherwise follow
 +
      policy.
 +
      nathan: should we decide this here or at staff?
 +
      dave: maybe this should go through HR.
 +
      martin: council had many months of decisions about this, and so
 +
          sees a need for a policy.
 +
      seamus: well, we need to talk about why we have interns, and
 +
          then decide about interns
 +
      rick: needs to be more clearly stated about the way of interns.
 +
      pete: concern: a big part of the problem has been communication
 +
          between interns and the staff about the criteria.
 +
      martin/pete: that council need to have a word in the criteria.
 +
      pete: a big priority is that the intern have a good sense, when
 +
          hired, about what's going on.
 +
      oso: granted, it's not gone smoothly in the past, and we're
 +
          trying to avoid some of this. On the staff level, it's
 +
          appreciated, due to a variety of reasons, people were
 +
          dropped and not supported, and that didn't work.  but
 +
          there's a lot more staff oversight to prevent exactly what
 +
          you're talking about. we learned from those failures.
 +
      seamus: we need more conversation
 +
      martin drops propopsal -- carry over to next month.
 +
 
 +
  - Receiving Coverage (martin) 10 min
 +
      seamus: +12 hours of floor shifts with an emphasis on
 +
      receiving.
 +
      nathan: basic receiving is fine, advanced receiving is falling
 +
      apart.
 +
      oso: staff should be able to handle it at this point.
 +
      dave: basic receiving is not handled fine - we're hiring temps
 +
      too much
 +
      PROPOSAL: table this to staff
 +
      tim: i want to pay attention to ebay, but could help do both
 +
 
 +
  - Space usage report/decision regarding process (jeff) 10 min
 +
      http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2006-May/001605.html
 +
      oso: no decisions were made, we just made "might be" plans for
 +
      the long-term...  nothing will hold up over time.  we will
 +
      announce further meetings.  we have  proposals at this time.
 +
      TABLED till next meeting.
 +
 
 +
  - Propogation of concerns (martin) 5 min
 +
      http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2006-May/001628.html
 +
 
 +
      PROPOSAL: when anyone is approached with a concern, question or
 +
      idea, it should be taken to the group of most specificity which
 +
      would sensibly be interested and/or responsible for addressing
 +
      it.  that group is then responsible for addressing it within a
 +
      month.  after that, the requestor is given the opportunity to
 +
      go to a group of less specificity with both the original issue
 +
      and to address the failure in the responsiveness of whatever
 +
      group was tasked with their issue first.
 +
 
 +
      TABLED till next meeting.
 +
 
 +
  - Core program (jeff) 5 min
 +
      TABLED till next meeting.
 +
 
 +
  - Accountability (jeff) 5 min
 +
      TABLED till next meeting.
 +
 
 +
Next Meeting:
 +
  When: June 21st, 7:15pm
 +
  Commits:
 +
      - Phil: train more tour guides on how to talk about monitors.
 +
        CARRYOVER
 +
      - Martin: get Uganda pics posted to the web (this is a request from
 +
        Pete!)  IN PROGRESS
 +
      - Mark will announce a web site he's aware of about board
 +
        nominations. (correction: non-profit information) CARRYOVER ++
 +
      - Stacy, Laurel, Pete, All will think about possible Board
 +
        nominees, and refer them to New Director Agreement.  No more
 +
        carryovers allowed. CARRYOVER ++
 +
      - Martin: Convene a group to discuss blind linux distro needs
 +
        assessment.  CARRYOVER +INFINITY
 +
      - Martin: Convene the ambassador's group (forgotten) CARRYOVER ++
 +
      - Oso: report on how phil got hired
 +
      - Shawn: will announce next providence meeting to core, council,
 +
        board
 +
      - martin: will carry over the hiring priorities proposal.
 +
      - staff: report on receiving coverage
 +
  agenda:
 +
      - Internship hiring guideline proposal (martin)
 +
      - Space usage report/decision regarding process (jeff)
 +
      - Propogation of concerns (martin)
 +
      - Core program (jeff)
 +
      - Accountability (jeff)
 +
  facilitator: stacy
 +
  scribess: seamus

Revision as of 09:00, 17 June 2006


In attendance: 

  - shawn f. (facilitator)
  - stacy (co-fac)
  - bil
  - shawn p.
  - laurel
  - matteo
  - tony
  - seamus
  - oso
  - jim
  - sophia
  - tim
  - rob
  - jesse
  - dave
  - jeanne
  - martin (scribess)
  - jeff
  - pete
  - john
  - kermit
  - rick
  - nathan
  - scott
  - others were late

Previous Commitments: 5-10 min 

  - Staff: Report on Volunteer program  DONE
  - Phil: train more tour guides on how to talk about monitors.
    CARRYOVER
  - Martin: get Uganda pics posted to the web (this is a request from
    Pete!)  IN PROGRESS
  - Jeff S. (et al): meet to resume space usage discussion.  DONE
  - ????: (scribe missed this.) Jeff S. requested that somebody speak
    about an Advisory Board. There was some discussion at this
    meeting, not sure if anybody committed to look into this further.
  - Matteo (et al): Convene to discuss hiring priorities.  DONE
  - All: discuss receiving internship on email list and elsewhere, in
    preparation to make a decision next month.  DONE
  - Mark will announce a web site he's aware of about board
    nominations. (correction: non-profit information) CARRYOVER ++
  - Stacy, Laurel, Pete, All will think about possible Board
    nominees, and refer them to New Director Agreement. CARRYOVER ++
  - Martin: Convene a group to discuss blind linux distro needs
    assessment.  CARRYOVER +INFINITY
  - Martin: Convene the ambassador's group (forgotten) CARRYOVER ++

Reports: 5-10 min 

  - Grantwriters:  we got another grant!  yay!  we're on tv.  we will
    have video cameras.  phil has a job!
    wait - we hired phil?  he said he didn't want a job!  and don't
    we have a policy about not letting grants specify that we hire
    someone?  what's up, accountability?

Business 

  - Council/Staff interaction on hiring etc. (Pete) 15 min
     concerns about role-blur between council and staff.  council is
     critical of staff, but that is good on some levels.  staff needs
     to be transparent on their decision making processes to council
     to promote trust.  council needs to focus on big-picture issues,
     and then articulate them well to staff and core.
     sophia: shawn's report on staff hour usage was good
     oso: i perceive turf wars going on.  simple mission statements
     for different groups will clarify.
     laurel: (reads the council definition from wiki and bylaws)
     martin: has a proposal relating to this later
     steve: we need to very clearly define the group roles, or the
     democracy will interfere with the functioning of the
     organization.
     nathan: where is the lack of trust?
     pete: hugest is that council is not in on the everyday
     discussions that staff have, and so staff don't take them into
     account.  not mistrust of motives.
     oso: proposals drive council, and everyone has the power to add
     them in.  process is out of control.
     laurel: staff deal with implementation.  council deals with
     concepts.
     jeff: not a question of motives.  volunteers don't always feel
     their concerns are address and responded to (later).  staff make
     lots of decisions, but where are they published?
     jim: isn't hiring staff's function?  how would you limit
     proposals and preserve democracy?
     rob: you guys seem to be doing fine, no?

  - Hiring Priorities Report/Recommendation 10 min
      http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2006-April/001545.html

      PROPOSAL: Assume $11,000 per quarter surplus.  distribute as
      follows:
         - core breakfast
         - +12 hours of floor shifts
         - laptop intern @ 24/hrs per week
         - 75% of remaining surplus towards pay raise
         - 25% of remaining to build operational reserves
      then have the grant writing priorities:
         - forklift (as needed)
         - baler
         - vehicle
      laurel: structure for opening up grants for discussion will
      help transparency
      nathan: laptop intern hiring is moving ahead according to
      process.
      oso: other things can happen and are even in the works...
      nathan: hr committee talks about this a bunch
      scott: how much of a pay raise?
      not much, 5-8%.
      pete: how certain is $11,000?
      we're setting it into the budget like that.
      tim: advanced receiving intern needs to be considered.
      jeff: we could meet again next quarter on this if our numbers
      are too far off.
      seamus: the board didn't get to meet over these, so will need
      to approve this.
      CONSENSUS - PENDING BOARD APPROVAL

  - Free Geek franchising and trademark issues (shawn?) 10 min
      trademark our name so not just anyone can use our name.  come
      up with a process by which organizations can join freegeek
      "intergalactic".  lots of new startups that need help through
      howtos and checklists and applications.  some freegeeks are
      already established, and will need to give name rights over to
      us, and then be grandfathered in.
      jeff: who's in charge of this?  so far, c7.
      oso: wiki pages on all this.  "intergalactic" will likely
      eventually become its own organization.  how will we enforce
      all this?  we want an anual or bianual meeting of the
      intergalactic congress.
      shawn p.: what issues will the congress address?
      review new applicants, share information, shared governance of
      freegeek principles
      jim: higher level governance body means we become a peer.
      steve: stop our name from being used for evil
      kermit: defend our name

  - Big corporate donors of stuff (i.e. Providence) (dave?) 10 min
      http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2006-May/001632.html
      This is in the works, but providence wants to switch recyclers
      to us (!), which means ~1200 systems a month, moderately high
      quality, no harddrives, ...  so what does it take for us to
      deal with this and not crumble?  they need to make a $5/system
      donation so that we can be open another day, cover recycling
      better, seek external storage, get a baler...  we would benefit
      from this on many levels (production, recycling income, average
      spec).  gresham could take some of the surplus.
      seamus: what's our current production?
      400 systems
      seamus: how many can we possibly make?
      500-600
      seamus: are we selling higher spec machines already?
      yes
      oso: bulk sales of systems get things out quickly.
      jeanne: lincoln city can take systems too, hopefully.
      jeff: how will we be addressing increases in build?
      increased storage space, extra day open.
      kermit: will providence have to approve moving systems to other
      freegeeks?  similar systems move quickly.
      shawn: no harddrives
      we'll just use the smaller ones from recycled systems
      ???: ebay
      nathan: there is a working group for this which everyone
      interested, and we will all need to work together to address
      this.  we may also attract other large donors.
      shawn: this group will continue meeting.  announcements will
      follow.

  - Internship hiring guideline proposal (martin) 5 min
     http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2006-May/001627.html

     PROPOSAL: add to the hiring priorities a reminder that paid
     internships create inequity, can be misleading, and should not
     be used unless:
        - the position is low stress
        - the position is necessarily temporary
        - we are unsure of our need for the position in the long term
     in the third case, we should, prior to hiring, define a clear
     set of criteria by which we later decide that a position become
     permanent or not.

     jeff: does this change the method to hiring?
     laurel: in September of 2004 we decided Staff could move a
           non-collective member into the collective by unanimous,
           non-stand-aside agreement.
     nathan: how is this different from the normal method?
     martin: we want to make the method we use formal.
     jim: what if the internship changes the criteria?
     martin: we'd have to go into an open hiring or otherwise follow
     policy.
     nathan: should we decide this here or at staff?
     dave: maybe this should go through HR.
     martin: council had many months of decisions about this, and so
         sees a need for a policy.
     seamus: well, we need to talk about why we have interns, and
         then decide about interns
     rick: needs to be more clearly stated about the way of interns.
     pete: concern: a big part of the problem has been communication
         between interns and the staff about the criteria.
     martin/pete: that council need to have a word in the criteria.
     pete: a big priority is that the intern have a good sense, when
         hired, about what's going on.
     oso: granted, it's not gone smoothly in the past, and we're
         trying to avoid some of this. On the staff level, it's
         appreciated, due to a variety of reasons, people were
         dropped and not supported, and that didn't work.  but
         there's a lot more staff oversight to prevent exactly what
         you're talking about. we learned from those failures.
     seamus: we need more conversation
     martin drops propopsal -- carry over to next month.

  - Receiving Coverage (martin) 10 min
     seamus: +12 hours of floor shifts with an emphasis on
     receiving.
     nathan: basic receiving is fine, advanced receiving is falling
     apart.
     oso: staff should be able to handle it at this point.
     dave: basic receiving is not handled fine - we're hiring temps
     too much
     PROPOSAL: table this to staff
     tim: i want to pay attention to ebay, but could help do both

  - Space usage report/decision regarding process (jeff) 10 min
      http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2006-May/001605.html
      oso: no decisions were made, we just made "might be" plans for
      the long-term...  nothing will hold up over time.  we will
      announce further meetings.  we have  proposals at this time.
      TABLED till next meeting.

  - Propogation of concerns (martin) 5 min
      http://lists.freegeek.org/pipermail/council/2006-May/001628.html

      PROPOSAL: when anyone is approached with a concern, question or
      idea, it should be taken to the group of most specificity which
      would sensibly be interested and/or responsible for addressing
      it.  that group is then responsible for addressing it within a
      month.  after that, the requestor is given the opportunity to
      go to a group of less specificity with both the original issue
      and to address the failure in the responsiveness of whatever
      group was tasked with their issue first.

      TABLED till next meeting.

  - Core program (jeff) 5 min
      TABLED till next meeting.

  - Accountability (jeff) 5 min
      TABLED till next meeting.

Next Meeting: 

  When: June 21st, 7:15pm
  Commits:
     - Phil: train more tour guides on how to talk about monitors.
       CARRYOVER
     - Martin: get Uganda pics posted to the web (this is a request from
       Pete!)  IN PROGRESS
     - Mark will announce a web site he's aware of about board
       nominations. (correction: non-profit information) CARRYOVER ++
     - Stacy, Laurel, Pete, All will think about possible Board
       nominees, and refer them to New Director Agreement.  No more
       carryovers allowed. CARRYOVER ++
     - Martin: Convene a group to discuss blind linux distro needs
       assessment.  CARRYOVER +INFINITY
     - Martin: Convene the ambassador's group (forgotten) CARRYOVER ++
     - Oso: report on how phil got hired
     - Shawn: will announce next providence meeting to core, council,
       board
     - martin: will carry over the hiring priorities proposal.
     - staff: report on receiving coverage
  agenda:
     - Internship hiring guideline proposal (martin)
     - Space usage report/decision regarding process (jeff)
     - Propogation of concerns (martin)
     - Core program (jeff)
     - Accountability (jeff)
  facilitator: stacy
  scribess: seamus
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