Ombudsman schedule

Free Geek Ombudsman is a role that is shared by HR. Each month an HR member takes on this responsibility. If the ombudsman is not present or unable to take a complaint, another HR member should be tapped to take the information.

What does this person do?

There will be one specific person each month who will act as Ombudsman, although, essentially, all HR members are Ombudspeople.

What this means: when someone has a complaint against Free Geek the designated ombudsman will:

• be responsible for making sure the complainer knows where to direct their complaint (usually to the HR list)
• follow up with the complaint.

For example, if someone comes to the Front Desk with a complaint about something that happened in the Thrift Store, the Front Desk staff can call the ombudsman up front and he/she will deal with the person (probably directing them to send an email to HR or something similar for documentation purposes). Afterwards, the ombudsman will corroborate said complainer's story with the Thrift Store and take it from there (maybe we'll have to discuss it in HR, maybe the complainer is a wackadoo, maybe Mercury is in retrograde, etc.).

If the Ombudsman is unavailable (i.e. in the midst of doing tech support, teaching a class, away from the building) then any other HR member can serve as temporary Ombusdman. To clarify, this does not mean that the Ombudsman will be responsible for handling all volunteer issues or minor complaints that are dealt with on the floor on a daily basis.

(Note: If a complaint is involves the current Ombudsman, then a different person who is on the HR Committee should be called instead and will act as an alternate ombudsman).

The schedule

• Sep 2008 -- Ali
• Oct 2008 -- Dave
• Nov 2008 -- Laurel
• Dec 2008 -- Richard
• Jan 2009 -- Tony
• Feb 2009 -- Ali
• Mar 2009 -- Dave
• Apr 2009 -- Laurel
• May and Jun 2009 -- Richard
• Jul 2009 -- Ali
• Aug 2009 -- Dave
• Sep 2009 -- Laurel
• Oct 2009 -- Richard

Announcement letter

• Send to regulars@ and paidworkers@
• Make sure to change XXX and YYY to appropriate values.

What does the Ombudsman do?

There will be one specific person each month who will act as
Ombudsman, although, essentially, all HR members are Ombudspeople.
For the month of XXX, YYY is the primary Ombudsman.

What this means: when someone has a complaint against Free Geek the
designated ombudsman will:

* be responsible for making sure the complainer knows where to
* direct their complaint (usually to the HR list)
* follow up with the complaint. 

For example, if someone comes to the Front Desk with a
complaint about something that happened in the Thrift Store,
the Front Desk staff can call the ombudsman up front and
he/she will deal with the person (probably directing them to
send an email to HR or something similar for documentation
purposes). Afterwards, the ombudsman will corroborate said
complainer's story with the Thrift Store and take it from
there (maybe we'll have to discuss it in HR, maybe the
complainer is a wackadoo, maybe Mercury is in retrograde,
etc.).

If the Ombudsman is unavailable (i.e. in the midst of doing
tech support, teaching a class, away from the building) then
any other HR member can serve as temporary Ombudsman. To
clarify, this does not mean that the Ombudsman will be
responsible for handling all volunteer issues or minor
complaints that are dealt with on the floor on a daily basis.

(Note: If a complaint is involves the current Ombudsman, then
a different person who is on the HR Committee should be called
instead and will act as an alternate ombudsman).