Talk:Merit Badges (Thrift Store)

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I made this Luiz 21:40, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Pre-pre-beta categories

(This is the ongoing repository for tasks we want the merit badge system to explicitly cover)

  • Wrapping (making stuff available for sale)
  • Outbox (taking stuff out of the store; trash, recycling, adv testing, receiving, extra boxes, free table)
  • Presort (simple sort)
  • Sort (more advanced)
  • Putting stuff away
  • Pricing
  • Cash Handling and Till
  • Sales
  • Dealing with crappy situations
  • Answering the phone (?)
  • Restocking
  • Cleaning, tidying, and makin' pretty

we shouldn't forget to rewrite "running the store" if this gets anywhere

Task Dump

(Sorting above tasks into bins representing the level of difficultly)

Easy Tasks

  • Wrapping
  • Greeting
    • I really like this inclusion--allows for interaction without cust.serv. training. Tonyc 06:50, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
  • Sweeping
  • Neatening

Medium Tasks

  • Sorting
  • Stocking
  • Selling Gizmos (not computers
  • Customer service

Hard Tasks

  • Pricing
  • Answering the phone
  • Cashiering
  • Selling Computers


Putting out brush fires

(its own task, category, and merit badge w/ yoda)

Animals for Merit Badges

  • Tobacco Hornworm Pupate
  • Brine shrimp
  • Banana Slug
  • Gopher
  • Armadillo
  • Bobcat
  • Lemur
  • Wolverine
  • Bonobo
  • Yoda

I made this:Tonyc 06:48, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Tony's Thoughts

I envision a similar system to this, but I've been thinking about it a bit differently.

I see this as a four-tiered path, based on the cub scouts' tiers of

  • cub
  • wolf
  • bear
  • weeblo

What we call them is irrelevant, really, but for time being I've been thinking of the tiers in terms of inanimate objects, with the actual merit badges (the small steps) being animals/puns/general silliness.

Here's my tier framework:

(I'm just starting to populate this list of tasks with animals. Please chip in with suggestions. Tonyc 07:25, 15 April 2009 (UTC))

The Mouse Ball

  • basic tasks and general support of store operations
    • basic stuff (volunteer agreement, get on email list, etc.)
    • triage of incoming stuff (the drone bee)
    • putting away triaged stuff (the squirrel)
    • very basic pricing
    • neatening (the nesting beetle [or something like that])
    • taking stuff from the store to receiving (junk)/AT (returns)
    • gathering basic items from areas in FG (keyboards, mice, monitors, cards, power supplies) Raccoon.
    • stocking materials such as paper, labels, tape, shrink-wrap.

The Price Gun

  • intoduction to customer service, till operations
    • pricing more items
    • printing from dead trees
    • basic till/cc operations
    • basic customer service training
    • stocking systems and tardis items

The Abacus

  • continuation of training in same areas
    • pricing systems
    • researching oddballs
    • advanced till operations and opening/closing procedures
    • advanced cust. service (selling systems, handling difficult customers, phone)

The Whistle

  • the equivalent of knighting someone. Someone with a whistle can be scheduled to work a shift, solo. These aren't so much trainable skills/tasks, but qualities that need to be observed under regular operations; once you get so far, we start to keep an eye out for potential "whistletude."
    • Needs to demonstrate diplomacy and wit (the bonobo?),
    • project management (the ant?)
    • system-level improvements (the fiji banded iguana? [can't think of anything here, but I like the name: FBI])
    • effective and appropriate use of mom-jokes (the Tony?)
    • brush-fire extinguishing (making an angry customer leave happy, without capitulating [the buffalo? orca?])
    • creating effective signs (the honeybee?)
    • suggesting and implementing procedural/structural changes (this may be asking too much [])
    • documentation (the scribe?), etc.

Of course all animal/pun thoughts are placeholders. But the ideas are sound.

Each tier would involve earning a set of merit badges, each representative of an area of training.

There would be required badges, and a set of elective badges at each tier. To advance to the next tier, the volunteer would need to receive all of the required (duh) and a set number of electives.

Electives could include things such helpful, but non-critical tasks as:

  • making ethernet cables
  • burning distro cds
  • pckging mouse balls, etc.

The electives would not need to happen in any order. They would exist as a list of helpful skills, but could be filled simply by numbers (four per tier?). Hopefully, the differences in individual workers and a well-designed list will lead to a robust and diverse set of skills and interests (god I feel like I'm writing a resume!).

This is all a work-in-progress, btw!

Implementation

Each trainee would have a sheet posted in a public place to display their progress.

The details of specific badges/requirements would live on the wiki.

each merit badge and tier earned would be recorded on the paper sheet, via applying a color sticker, (which involves the cooperation of our fickle mistress, Dazzle). Alternately, the whole thing could live on the wiki. Or instead of custom, dazzle-dependent sticker, it could rely on filling in symbols on the sheet by hand.

Advancements of tier levels would involve a ceremony and a trinket. Woo-Hoo!

The badges would allow for easier and more effective co-cooridination of our volunteers (clearly visible paths to mastery for the trainer/trainee).

Also could include a yoda step to actually achieve the next tier, involving training someone else on so many badges (requiring someone train a whole tier would be silly, imho).

If this protocol actually proves effective, we might budget some things to see it through, such as volunteer rewards (actual, acme thunderers) and aprons to affix badges to. The store would be a classier place if everyone wore a shop-apron.Tonyc 07:47, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

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