Council 2009 08

When: 19 Aug, 2009
Place: Meeting Room
Facilitator: Kathey
Minute Taker: Martin
Scribe: Laurel
Minutes Checker: Dave
RT Jockey: Vagrant
Attendance: Laurel2.0, Dave, Vagrant, Laurel, Seamus, Richard, Kathey, Cliff, Ezra, Caitlin, Renee, Bert, Anne, Martin, Roy, Sophia, Shawn
Last meeting: 15 July, 2009

COMMITMENTS

• None
• [RT]

REPORTS

Requested Reports

• Classroom construction proceeds, as soon as next month
• Job descriptions up, being tweaked
• Funding - [Info and presentation]

  Council should choose the top priorities

BUSINESS

Online Sales Position: Seamus presented (OLD)

• Proposal discussion

  Commissioned salespeople would be paid to sell items online

• List Clarifing Questions
  • None?
• List Concerns
  • Previous decision not to do this disregarded? - No, it was always left open as a possibility.
  • Why isn't Sergio able to do more sales himself? - The demands on the floor took all his time.
  • How does high-money-makers effect other staff or volunteers? - Staff isn't worried about someone making MORE than current staff, but believe their oversight will take care of the issue fairly if it turns up.
  • Are there fiscal problems to clear up? - Staff and board will continue to research it and make sure to follow any rules that turn up.
  • Can we get a report or two about how it's going along? Once when it starts, once when it ends.
• Proposal:

  Accept the proposal as listed in the wiki. Hear back soon. Change name to not say "Contractor".

  • Decision adopted

Store Discount Policy: Dave presented (OLD)

• [Proposal discussion]

  Change discount policy to require 3hr/30days

• Brainstorm
  • disbursing hardware is important.
  • what about a post-adoption-only discount.
  • discount encourages volunteers who are straining on the staff. harrassment, abuse, laziness, volunteer issues and system exploits all come up when their only motivation is monetary.
  • would our volunteer base fall?
  • what other problems would come about if the discount fell?
  • making periferals available at a reduced cost helps a bunch for some people.
  • abusers collude and team up. they are jerks.
  • the discount is high on many volunteers' list of rewards
  • many volunteers also express frustration at the sense of being taken advantage of by the abusers
  • what about no discount?
  • more tiers of discount?
  • simple rules are better.
  • gift certificates issued at hour landmarks?
  • can we survey the volunteer base?
  • we cannot be seen as compensating our volunteers directly for their hours.
  • 3/4 of sales are no discount, 1/5 volunteer discount, 1/20 other discounts
  • what factors should go into this: volunteer incentives, ease of implementation, retaining the good volunteers while getting rid of the bad ones, disbursing cheap stuff to people in need, making money in the store
• Proposal:

  There exist problems with the current discount policy such that it is hurting free geek. Council has created this list of concerns and ideas. We want to ask more volunteers about this with a survey. Then, have the store make a proposal taking them into consideration for potentially radical changes in the discount policy.

  • Decision adopted

General Priorities: not really discussed (NEW)

• General Priorities

  ...

  • Do we need to ditch optimus prime's tools? Put them on the list.
    • Note: this is NOT what was said. I pointed out that Optimus Prime had developed tools for keeping track of and prioritizing things, and when their function was rolled back into council, the tools should have come too so the council could be effective. --Ideath 19:19, 30 August 2009 (UTC)
• Proposal:

  Homework - Read the information on the council list, answer questions that come up.

  • Tabled to the list and then next meeting.

Meeting Eval

• + it worked
• -+- specific people didn't show up
• +++++ things wentsmoothly
• - "reports" section is really amorphous. can requests be made beforehand?
• + we said we couldn't finish something, and that was right
• + ground rules followed
• + once our attention went to doing this right
• + scribing is fun, and the board didn't quit!

REMAINING COMMITMENTS

• Sergio - email council when commissioned sales start
• Seamus - email online sales with possible evaluation criteria
• Sophia, Ezra and Laurel - will survey volunteers about the discount

Next Meeting

• Facilitator: Ezra and Kathey
• Scribe: Anne
• RT Jockey: Laurel
• Reporters to other meetings?
• Date and time: 1915, 16 sept, 2009
• Place: Guess.
• List of unfinished business for the next meeting: