Council 2006 09

in attendance: seamus, laurel, kerm, zea, john, matteo, dave, eugene, richard, shawn, roger, jon, marie, ali, jeff, oso, martin, wren, aaron, phil, tallwes, bobbie reports:

   - pawc
       founded in 2003, share resources and knowledge.  we are
       members.   PAWC has had trouble meeting quorum, wants to
       change.  looking at a board-like structure.  wants our input on

the future shape of things.

       nov 9th, 6pm meeting to decide on future structure (@
       people's)
       sat, nov 4th, 7:30pm party and raffle (@ freegeek)
       matteo and shawn are our delegates, talk to them if you would like

to be more involved.

       pawc cards are expired but occasionally still honored.  future

work on this theme will be done.

       pawc has done promotion and education for collectives.
       pawc needs more people showing up to their meetings with
       energy to support their community.
   - media grant
       mt hood cable grant for a media project.  grant was
       tentatively offered with huge caveats - mostly that they could not

cover the necessary staff costs. tried to find an

       additional grant to cover this, but failed.  renegotiated,

freegeek would need to pay for a total of ~$15k. many

       volunteer teachers.  free access to their studio.
       cost overruns?  hopefully not.  future after the coordinator is

done? the students would be required to teach it into the future.

documentation?  required by the grant and part of the general

tone of the project, so hopefully.

       are there hidden costs in the in-kind donations?  if they fall

through, the project will be falling apart and so will be

       scrapped.  shorts won't be that bad, though.
       the coordinator goes away at the end of the year, but they will be

expected to perform some floor shifts for integration purposes.

       will coordinator responsibilities bleed into staff?  more
       likely into the volunteers.
       will teach the students how to do documentary film making. we gain

public image.

       our finances will need to be determined first.
       goal to use open source.
       how does this compare to our other priorities?  we don't
       know.
       council is in charge of overall spending priorities.
       this will be presented to the board with that context.
       does the timeline for this mean we should jump?
       regardless of it fitting in, if we could do it, we would.
       CONSENT
       what are our priorities?  convene a priorities and budget
       meeting tuesday night, push this to the board for final
       approval if that committee agrees it is our priority.
       CONSENT
   - laptops
       rocks!  lots of organizational improvements, sales and grants are

more than tripled for two of the last three months.

       working with ebay for future sales.  looks sustainable, but we're

not sure. volunteers are far more active in laptops. 3 more months to decide to keep the position.

   - providence
       space usage proposals are being worked on.  providence has been

quiet. rename?

   - startups
       4 more freegeeks to come soon.

old business:

   - board elections
       laurel and marie are losing their positions.  both are running for

reelection. jon and aaron are in the room. iain was not present but expressed interest. questions for the candidates: what nonprofit work experience makes you a good choice?

       aaron: has done volunteer work with a few other coops and a bunch

with us.

       jon: volunteers with a publishing house for many years now. do you

have any of the specific skills we are looking for? aaron: beancounting.

       jon: company running.  long experience with freegeek, but not as

close as some.

       why not just be a normal volunteer?
       jon: has a bigger picture position about things.
       will occasionally having to make emergency email decisions work

for you? have you read the board member expectations and feel that you can make them?

       jon: sure.
       aaron: unknown.
       http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/New_Director_Agreement
       are you okay with the legalities implied by the position?
       jon: sure.
       aaron: probably.
       okay, there are four slots open.  discussion deleted.
       put laurel and marie on the board.  CONSENT.
       put jon on the board.  CONSENT.
       postpone the decision of the forth position for a month
       (giving aaron a chance to read his responsibilities and answer

questions about them, iain a chance to respond to questions, anyone else a chance to apply). CONSENT. new business:

   - office coordinator
       kathie is retiring, we want to change her position into the office

coordinator.

       http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/Office_Coordinator
       were other staff priorities considered?  no.  straw poll?  4 of 5

collective members say yes. 1 abstained.

       would this cover hours other than the front desk?  yes.
       we would want to hire before december.
       put this to the budget meeting on tuesday.

next meeting:

   reports:
       - budget priorities
   agenda:
       - interns (martin)
       - board elections
   commits:
       - seamus will convene budget meeting on tuesday.
   facilitator: phil
   scribe: seamus
   consensus trainer: ali