Free Geek Vancouver/HR

Free Geek Vancouver Interim HR Workgroup Report

March 3rd, 2008

Prepared by: Paul Teehan, Volunteer Sean Hill, Director

1.Background

Free Geek Vancouver (“FG”) has depended entirely on volunteer labor for most of its existence. Around the beginning of 2008, the organization's finances were sufficient to begin paying wages to some full-time volunteers. Preliminary budgets suggested the organization could hire three full-time workers at wages of $1500 per month each. Two full-time volunteers were converted to employees at this wage. A third position was discussed at the general meeting on February 12th, 2008 but consensus could not be reached.

At a contingency meeting on February 19th, 2008, it was decided to strike an interim HR workgroup to interview FG employees and volunteers in order to define FG's job descriptions. The workgroup consists of Sean Hill and Paul Teehan. As stated in the minutes, the mandate of the group was:

- Define FG's job descriptions

- Bring a fresh view to FG's operations

- Interview people on-site in order to determine tasks that need to be done, and tasks that are being done and how they are currently filled

- Consider what jobs can be done by volunteers and which require paid staff

- Keep in mind that there are people already working.

This report represents the draft recommendations of the HR workgroup.

2.Principal recommendations

Based on the work that is currently being done and that needs to be done at Free Geek, we have recommended four full-time positions, listed in detail later in this report. They are: recycling & facilities coordinator, reuse & infrastructure coordinator, revenue & finance coordinator, and communications & volunteer coordinator. There is an obvious problem in that the original budget provided for only three full time staff at $1500 a month each. Updated financial numbers will be provided at the meeting on Tuesday March 3rd, but it is very unlikely that four employees can be paid at this wage. The solution to this problem will be some combination of the following: - Raise more money, and/or

- Lower the monthly wage, and/or

- Scale back operations or convert paid work to volunteer work

We feel it is beyond our mandate to propose a solution this problem without first having feedback from the membership. However, we are prepared to offer our recommendations at the upcoming meeting.

3.Job Descriptions

The job descriptions are provided below. In making these divisions, we referred to the Free Geek mission statement: Free Geek is a not for profit community organisation that recycles used technology to provide computers, education, internet access and job skills training to those in need, in exchange for community service. In particular, we would like to note that while revenue generation is a vital part of operations, its purpose is primarily to support the other endeavors, namely reuse and volunteer programs, which allow Free Geek to fulfill its mission.

These roles are intended to define spheres of responsibility. No coordinator is necessarily expected to perform every task within their sphere as many tasks could be taken up by volunteers. The coordinator is merely responsible for making sure that all tasks are covered.

3.1.General tasks

All coordinators are responsible for the following as they apply to their own spheres of influence:

- Organization and cleanup of space

- Cleaning

- Community standards compliance

- Volunteer supervision

- Instruction

- Education

- Safety compliance

- Documentation

- Policy and procedure writing

- Station posters

- Shop wiki

3.2.Recycling & Facilities Coordinator 

This position is primarily concerned with managing the flow of hardware in and out of the warehouse. Facilities has been tied to the Recycling Coordinator due to geographic convenience. Realistically, the facilities responsibilities should not take a great deal of time.

Responsibilities:

- Recycling

- Receive donations and refuse unacceptable donations

- Route good hardware to eval stations

- Organize and sort recyclable hardware

- Build and organize skids

- Plan and arrange outflow pickups

- Facilities

- Waste (garbage, cardboard)

- General supplies: kitchen, bathroom, office

- General maintenance

3.3.Reuse and Infrastructure Coordinator

This position is concerned with managing the flow of hardware through the various testing and evaluation stages to its various destinations (build, store, hardware grants, or back to recycling). Inflow pickup coordination has been placed with the Reuse Coordinator under the assumption that they are an expert in knowing what the organization needs to fulfill its mission of distributing hardware to those in need. Traditionally, it has been managed more from a revenue-oriented viewpoint. It could be argued that the Revenue Coordinator has the best expertise to 'value' the potential pickups monetarily; this is a topic for further discussion.

An infrastructure coordinator is included on a part-time basis primarily for maintenance needs. New infrastructure development should be undertaken only as time allows.

Responsibilities:

- Reuse

- Eval 1 & 2

- Testing

- Build

- Gathering

- Assembly

- Installs

- Sorting

- Hard drives

- Repairs

- Laptops

- LCDs

- Rerouting

- Store stock

- Hardware grants

- Planning and arranging inflow pickups

- Infrastructure

- Maintenance

- Testing stations

- Database admin

- Network admin

- Hard drive wiping station

- Development

- Ticketing system

- Asterisk server

- Software engineering

- etc

3.4. Revenue and Finance Coordinator

All financial-related tasks are collected into this position. This position has the primary responsibility of bringing in and increasing revenue, and managing expenses.

Responsibilities:

- Revenue

- Store sales

- Phone sales

- Online sales

- Rentals

- Pricing research

- Stocking

- Scrap/recycling revenue

- Finance

- Paying bills

- Rent

- Payroll

- Other bills

- Bookkeeping

- Sales recording

- Expense recording

3.5.Communications & Volunteer Coordinator 

This position is responsible for interfacing between Free Geek and the outside world, administrating the volunteer program, and ensuring some other administrative tasks are handled.

Responsibilities:

- Communications

- Outreach

- Hardware grants

- Media inquiries

- Public inquiries

- Interfacing with other non-profits

- Trade shows and booths

- Provincial recycling program

- Promotional materials

- Posters

- Cards

- Website

- Content

- Events listings

- Education

- Windowsless Wednesdays

- Workshops

- Grants

- Research

- Writing

- Event planning

- Operational

- Operations meeting coordination

- Pedal

- Landlord

- Official

- Permits

- License

- Insurance

- Document filing and storage

- Volunteer

- Interviews

- Scheduling

- Database maintenance

- Orientation

- Tour

- Intro

- Safety

- Sign in/out

- Feedback