Talk:New Staff Member Orientation

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Revision as of 09:10, 15 January 2008 by Matteo (talk | contribs) (- page inclution on talk page)
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Shouldn't we have the buddy give the new person an explanation of our documentation system (or find someone to help do it)? Perhaps it can happen over time, but introducing a new person to RT, the wiki, the email archives, and the fgstaff directory on obsidian would probably be good things to do. Oh, and some basics about the database as well.

Shawn 18:12, 14 Jan 2005 (PST)


Moved to Orienting New Staff Members cause we use it for non collective members as well RfS 17:28, 21 Apr 2006 (PDT)

Old page text: Staff Orientation Howto

This document helps orient people who are new to the staff or core group, and starts to tell them all the miscellaneous stuff they should know. If you're looking for a more basic intro to Free Geek, try Tour Howto.

Our major programs:

FREE GEEK has two main, organized programs for new volunteers:

  • Adoption Program: This program is where people work 24 hours to earn a free computer and a class in how to use it. The program is designed for people with little to no computer experience, but is open to anyone. There is no prerequisite knowledge needed for this program. Participants typically work in receiving, basic testing, and recycling, and we show them whatever they need to know to do the job. Alternately, they can earn double hours for cleaning (we're not the cleanest bunch) or testing monitors.
  • Build: This program teaches people troubleshooting and computer building skills. Participants commit to building six computers for FREE GEEK and in the process learn about hardware assembly, software installation and configuration, and quality control. Builders need to know certain prerequisites that, if they don't already know, they can pick up at other jobs around FREE GEEK -- like card and motherboard sorting and system evaluation.

There are other volunteer opportunities outside of these programs at FREE GEEK, but they require a lot more self motivation and often a high tolerance for a chaotic environment. Some opportunities include:

  • becoming a tour guide
  • joining a Committee
  • after completing the Build program, they may be eligible to volunteer in Advanced or Network Testing, Mac or Laptop Build, or become a Build Instructor

Basic who's who

Staff Member -- someone who's been hired by FREE GEEK to work here. Includes "staff interns", "collective members", and substitutes

Outside Interns -- someone being paid by an outside agency to work here, i.e. SMS

Core Group -- The above two groups of people smooshed together with volunteers that come in and help run the place on a regular basis.

Volunteer -- Anyone who works at FREE GEEK, but isn't getting paid.


Mailing Lists

There are two mailing lists that all staff members need to be on:

  • <staff AT freegeek DOT org>
  • <core AT freegeek DOT org>

Core group members should all be on the core list. Any volunteer that people mistake for a staff member is a likely candidate for the core list. Ditto with folks that we suspect might have taken any arbitrary item (to do something legitimate with it) and we need to ask "does anyone know what happened to such-and-such?"

All people who have keys also need to be on the locks list (locks@lists.freegeek.org) - sign up at http://lists.freegeek.org/listinfo/locks.

Other Mailing Lists

A zillion mailing lists help FREE GEEK communicate with itself and run and you can sign up for them at http://lists.freegeek.org/listinfo/ .

Staff Meetings

Our schedule for staff meetings and such is:

Every Friday at 10.00 a.m. at FREE GEEK in the Meeting Room is our staff meeting. This is for collective members hired and paid by FREE GEEK. Unless you're sick, out of town, or have a creative excuse you're expected to be there.

These meetings end at 11.00 a.m. or a few minutes earlier in order to let us get FREE GEEK opened up on time.

Other Groups/Meetings

These meetings are open to anyone volunteering or working at FREE GEEK. The schedule for this can be found in the Room Use Calendar#Recurring Weekly Events.

Here's a handy (partial) list of groups that exist at FREE GEEK (see the Structure category for those that have been wikified):

  • ASS -- Administrators of System and Security, responsible for computer infrastructure and security policy.
  • Board of Directors -- the legal entity for FREE GEEK, decides legal and fiscal matters.
  • Coders -- People working on coding projects.
  • Community Council -- the groups that makes basic FREE GEEK policy decisions. Also coordinates between groups when needed.
  • Hardware Grants -- Decides which nonprofits asking for free hardware get it, and makes sure it happens.

Council and Board

Many people ask what is the difference between the Community Council and the Board of Directors. The Council is a group of volunteers, staff, and other workers who are in FREE GEEK on a regular basis and make general policy decisions for FREE GEEK. These policies are then implemented by the Staff and Core Group volunteers. The Board is a group of people that keep an eye on FREE GEEK's fiscal and legal issues. This is the group mentioned in our by-laws that is responsible for FREE GEEK as a corporate entity. Both groups' main purpose is to see that FREE GEEK's mission statement is carried out. Both groups have monthly meetings that are open to any FREE GEEK worker or volunteer.

Links to Meeting-Related Info

Staff Schedule

There's a schedule that covers the staff members and other workers and can be found online at http://web.freegeeks.org/staffsched and is maintained by Richard and Dave (not some arbitrary linux script that assigns us each randomly to strangely named jobs, even though that's the story we tell other people).

Howto Documentation

There used to be documentation for how to do everything at Free Geek on the web site. As of 12/05, we are actively moving this to the wiki. See Category:Howto.

(https://web.freegeek.org/howto/ is still available, with the original Howtos. Keep in mind that many of these are out of date.)

Free Geek Wiki Pages

Our wiki (named Freekiwiki) holds policy stuff, discussions of current events, documents that standing committees are working on, recipes, and random thoughts. You're looking at it!

Classes and Workshops

There are regular classes and workshops that make FREE GEEK run. There's a signup book at the front desk for folks who want to sign up. Basically:

  • Build workshops every day (11.30 and 3.30 Tuesday - Saturday)
  • Basic Command Line for Builders on Tuesdays & Saturdays
  • FreekBox Adoption classes on Thursdays & Saturdays

Times all subject to change, additions and subtractions.

Intern Reviews

When Free Geek hires interns, we give them a review 3 months after they started. The documentation/checklist for that process is at Intern Reviews.

Collective Member Reviews

When Free Geek hires collective members, they have probationary collective status until their 3 month review. The review process is detailed in Collective Member Review Policy.

Basic Stuff

Check FREE GEEK's web site out for things like our address and phone number, hours, what stuff we take and don't etc. http://freegeek.org/ .

The volunteer manual contains some basic codes of conduct that everyone at Free Geek should be aware of. http://www.freegeek.org/volman/ .

And of course ...

... there are many, many, many other things to learn -- this is just a start.

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