Multi-Collective Free Geek

In thinking about the Meta Question we go through the exercise of fleshing out what Free Geek would look like if we were open ten hours per day, six days a week with three collectives forming the staff, rather than one.

This is a thought experiment, not a plan.

Basic Projections

Assuming we are still using the current space and we want to increase production to a maximum (open 10 hours per day 6 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?

• 20 collective members working between 20 and 40 hours per week.
• 10 interns working 24 hours per week on average.
• 5 substitutes picking up the slack when needed

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

• 35 people on staff total.

This allows for a higher staffing ratio than what we have today and it includes more interns per staff than we now have.

The schedule

Let's say that our hours of operation are 10 am to 8 pm, we arrive 30 minutes early, we leave 30 minutes after close, and each day has three 4 hour shifts in it, each shift overlapping with the next by 30 minutes:

• Morning: 9:30-1:30
• Afternoon: 1-5
• Evening: 4:30-8:30

40 hour people would need to cover a maximum of nine shifts per week (allowing for some administrative time. 20 hour people would be able to cover 4 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 35 hour worker, you're probably here 4.5 open days (90% of the time we're open). That means 10% of the stuff that goes on happens when you're not here.

In the scenario, you'd be working 40 hours and be here 10 out of 18 shifts (55% of the time). 45% of the stuff that goes on would happen while you were away. That means we'd all be four and a half times as far out of the loop as you are now.

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

Collectives

Receiving and Recycling

All of the Action Standing Committee's functions. Manage the main stream of gizmos (from receiving to recycling).

Production and Sales

All of the Reuse and Knowledge Bees Standing Committees' functions. Pull from the main stream of gizmos for triage, refurbishment, sales, and granting.

Education and Administration and D

All of the C7, HR, Outreach, Propagation, and Technocrats Standing Committees' functions.

Staff Meetings

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

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.