Laptop Exploratory Position

Purpose

Determine if a full time laptop program coordinator can sustain itself financially

Hours

24-32

Duration

6 months

Reports due to staff and council at 3 and 6 months

Justification

Freegeek's laptop repair program is poorly organized and sporatically operated. Only 3 hours a week of paid staff supervision goes into the program, and that is mostly spent on physical organization and supply stocking. Yet, when quality technical effort is spent with the laptops, the strong demand for even the oldest hardware always returns to us as significant monetary rewards. As an example, one particular volunteer puts out between 4 and 8 laptops in a day of work, each of which sell for (before discount) between $50 and $100. Sales have also been primarily for full, working systems, while a market for parts on ebay is as yet untrodden. Still, this reward has not enticed us to further staff the area. This is unreasonable. we not only need to explore every avenue for reuse possible, but we owe it to our community to offer paid positions when financially viable and consistent with our mission. my personal prediction is that the laptop program will more than sustain itself, and will contribute significantly to our organization's long-term financial health.

Considerations

Laptop income may only be so high while we still have the surplus left over from the years of not being able to repair them efficiently. Once that surplus has been exhausted, we may find the incoming stream of laptop hardware is not enough to sustain the position. This possibility should be reported on by the intern.

Responsibilities

Organize the laptop area (Black Hole) to maintain and increase workspace and efficiency
Recruite (from within freegeek) able students into the laptop program
Laptop program development (process refinement, documentation, relevant outreach)
Provide laptop repair education
Do laptop repair
Explore other underattended hardware and its possible reuse
Participate in reuse and grants committees
Research and ensure responsible recycling of laptop parts

Required Skills

Interest in and aptitude for laptop hardware repair
Familiarity with the freegeek build program
Patient, friendly volunteer management
Ability to teach technical skills
Some familiarity with consensus process
Trustworthy and able to work unsupervised
Frugal or otherwise able to work for our wages

Hiring

   full, open hiring, with the idea that the internship could
   easily prove itself to be worth an equivalent collective position.

budgeting: |

   http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/Laptops_Program_Planning_Sheet