Talk:General Priorities
Thoughts on prioritization
Establishing priorities will never boil down to generating just one list, highest to lowest. It will always be more complicated than that. For instance we might have a list of three things we want to do in this order:
- Hire Tennis Ball Coordinator
- Start tennis ball collection program
- Give away tennis balls to the needy
These three are "projects" are interrelated. They are therefore arranged in order of dependency since we need to do one before we can do the other. Abstractly the highest priority might need to be done later than a lower priority, but the lower priority must be done first since the higher priority depends on it. We would want to consider all three as a package, maybe even integrate them into a single proposal.
Considering real world constraints
- Hire Tennis Ball Coordinator (costs $50,000 per year)
- Start Ping Pong Ball Collection Agency (costs $500 per year)
- Start Basketball Collection Agency (costs $600 per year)
These three items are unrelated, but we need more money for the highest priority item (item 1). We might look at our books and decide that we only have enough cash for items 2 and 3.
We might also decide that items 2 and 3 are income generating, and therefore (if successful) could financially allow item 1 to be established. This kind of converts the list into a list of interrelated projects.
Fundable or not?
- Hire Tennis Ball Coordinator (costs $50,000 per year, but the Pollywog Memorial Foundation might fund 50% of this)
- Start Ping Pong Ball Collection Agency (costs $500 per year, and we'd have to use our own money)
- Start Basketball Collection Agency (costs $600 per year, and we'd have to use our own money)
If we have enough money, we'd write the grant and commit to doing item 1, but that creates a condition ("if we have enough money"). We need a note about that included with the proposal, something like: "If it appears we can raise $25,000 for the project, we should apply for the Pollywog Memorial Foundation grant to fund the rest. If that is successful, then this is a very high priority."
Types of priorities
- Things we are already doing -- List D
- New things we are committed to doing (assuming we have enough resources to do them)
- New things we would like to do (assuming enough resources)
- Things which there is no consensus around (yet) -- List E
RfS 09:49, 25 October 2006 (PDT) Each of those might require separate lists. Lists 2 and 3 should be vetted by the fundraising group.
Council is updating priorities
This table compares Council's brainstorms on FG priorities with two other sources: The General Priorities List, (current as of 2008) and Program Planning Sheets (more out of date). Each column has items not mentioned in the other columns.
| Council Priorities: | General Priorities From the Wiki Page: | Other Priorities (Outdated?) From The Wiki: |
|---|---|---|
| grant away 50% more computers (in the next year), and track some how better who we give them to. | Tennis Balls -- Technocrats | |
| more classes, currently we have 9 classes a week. more serious classes. track classes (people who show up. promote open source to grantees. | Fundraising -- Outreach | |
| expand tech support, keep it free. | Grantwriting -- Outreach | |
| reduce the amount of time it takes to get into a program (build, adoption) eliminate bottle necks. | Media Outreach -- Outreach | |
| coding help. Coding project manager. | System Administration -- | |
| project managers for not day to day functions. produce thing that are useful out side of Free Geek. | Alt build -- Reuse | |
| 1 year grant plan. | Computers for Kids -- Knowledge Bees | |
| We also discussed: When will the Store need more space. There are many options pertaining to ways to grow the store. | Corporate Donation w/o vehicle -- Reuse | |
| produce code useful outside of free geek? -- staff | Corporate Donation w/ vehicle -- Reuse | |
| americorps -- Council | Movable Storage -- Action | |
| ADA compliance for bldg -- Council | Printers -- Reuse | |
| someone to set up capital campaign -- Council | Online Sales -- Reuse | |
| raise staff salaries -- Board | Move to a new building -- Outreach | |
| more formalized education -- staff | Volunteer Pickups -- Action | |
| thanking & encouraging volunteers -- staff | Media Lab -- Knowledge Bees | |
| Advanced Receiving -- Reuse | ||
| Coders -- Technocrats | ||
| Emerging Media -- Knowledge Bees |