Talk:Tour Howto

This page looks like a good resource for new tour guides. A few points:

• There's lots of links that could be added to this page, like System Evaluation, Adoption, etc., so that tour guides, when they're looking at this on the wiki, can refer to these additional wiki pages if they need more info on the different volunteer jobs at Free Geek.

• Something else I'm concerned about is listing the specs of Freek and Grant Boxes. The specs change so frequently that it's good to just point to one place (which is often the web page at http://freegeek.org/freekbox.php - I think it's a little out of date right now). Otherwise you'll have to continually remember to update this page. Since this is a quickie-notes kinda page for tour guides, why not just instruct them to look at the boxes' keeper tags? Yea, you won't get info like hard drive size, but you will get speed, and it'll be apparent that a monitor, etc. comes with the machines. Shawn

  You can use the templates {{FreekBox Specs}} {{GrantBox Specs}} {{StoreBox Specs}} to show detailed specs for the various boxen build productes. RfS

Rev toughts on the Bob tour

I joined Bob's tour and took notes. Then we talked. Here is a listing of some of the topics that came up

• Intro
  • we both ask why our tourists are here. I sometimes ask how they heard of FREE GEEK. We could consider having some data gathered at this point
  • Bob Takes care to mention that there are 3 primary ways to initally be involved with FREE GEEK
    • Adoption revphil says 3 primary stations recieving, recycling, testing. Bob simply states that we will use you where we need you. Ok, maybe rev is being a little too meticulous.
    • Build revphil: 60-100 hours to get thought the program and build all your computers. So if you want to earn a computer, but would like to learn to build, go in the adoption program, then when you are in the Build program you will have a linux system to play with at home.
    • Half-price Thrift Store shopper. Only 4 hours and you get great deals. Sure some people only volunteer the minimum ammount of time and then just get the discount. But others will continue to volunteer for other reasons.

      (I'd add that there are numerous other ways that people can be involved, i.e. coding, hardware grants, teaching adoption classes, just sweeping up ...) RfS

• Receiving the circulation system
  • it is good to point out the documentation on the walls and our database
    • our database is used to track where gizmos are and how many hours volunteers have accrued.
  • it may be worth mentioning items we do not accept (TVs, copiers, fire alarms, jerkfaces)
• Testing
  • revphil talks about what a FreekBox is,, and other freegeeks.
    • Some things are not specific to any department and could be mentioned anytime it is convenient.
• Sorting Terminology, Jargon, and other annoying hurdles at the start of Build
  • often a bottleneck in the Build Program due to limited space, staff.
• Macpile
• Advanced Testing
• Recycling
• Eval
• Build
• Self-empowerment is good
  • we have geeks of all ages, genders, education levels, anyone can learn
• we encourage 4 hour shifts, but we are flexable with our schedules
• what does "open source" mean? What is Linux?

Some other common pitfalls among tour guides:

• too many specifics
  • often tour guides come from a specific department where they excelled. Because of people's natural tendancy to talk more about things one is familiar with, some aspects could be underrepresented, while others overstressed.
• being heard
  • Talking and walking: guides if they are talking should be facing their audience, if they are moving that can be challenging, or dangerous (walking backwards).
  • FREE GEEK is a beehive of activity. But often some places are busier than others. Recogizing when to stop and talk is a challenge
• blocking traffic
  • a tour guide must be prepared to herd their tourists to prevent others from interruption as much as possible
  • watch for large loads, bottlenecks, forklifts, and people carrying monitors and lazer printers.
• the past is behind us.
  • sometimes a little reflection on how far we have come is informative. sometimes it is just depressing. certain topics are less useful to future volunteers than others.

FIGURES

On second thought, there's enough TEXT. I'm going to distill this down to FIGURES --Phil (?) from content page, 12/05

Seems like a good plan to have figures available. Tour participants often seem to ask things like "how much stuff have you recycled," etc. IMHO this is a role that can be at least partially served by the Stats and Testimonials page. I would like to see this document focus more on the route, and ways to introduce programs, and not get too cluttered with statistics. The statistics can be gathered at Stats and Testimonials and that way, they'll be updated in a central location. --Pete 10:44, 26 Dec 2005 (PST)