Free Geek Structure
Free Geek is governed by its workers and volunteers. It's a complicated place and there are numerous working groups and committees involved. Here's a list of some of them:
Programs
These directly work to fulfill the mission of Free Geek. Some have meetings or associated email lists and queues in RT.
The Big Three
- Board of Directors
- The board is responsible for fiscal and legal oversight of the organization. It is made up of people selected by the Community Council.
- Community Council
- The council is open to all volunteers (including staff members). It looks at the long term picture of Free Geek and sets general policy. It coordinates policy making between the various working groups as needed. (See the Founding Document of the Council for more details on the scope of the council.)
- Staff Collective
- The staff collective is responsible for day to day operations and is made up of hired staff members.
Working Groups
Groups are volunteer driven and are designed to support the various programs at Free Geek. They tend to meet after hours and have associated email lists and queues in RT.
- ASS
- Volunteer system administration
- Coders
- Volunteer programmers
- Core
- Volunteers working in the day to day operations of Free Geek.
- Distro
- Volunteers defining what software goes on the boxes we build.
- Hardware Grants
- Volunteers helping to distribute hardware to organizations (apart from the Build and Adoption programs).
- Grant Writing
- Volunteers helping to write grants for Free Geek.
Standing Staff Committees
These standing committees of the Staff Collective are designed to oversee all the areas of Free Geek, implementing policies that are set by other groups and making policy suggestions to those other groups. Each committee has a mailing list and a queue in RT.
- Action
- Mission: Building and equipment security, staff and volunteer safety, supply, waste removal, and the sale of scrap material.
- Programs: Recycling, maintenance and design of the physical plant, building security, general safety.
- Current Staff Members: Christen, Guy, Kathie, Liane, Oso, Rick
- Meets: Every other week (1.5 hours)
- C7
- Mission: The standing committee structure, liaison with board and council especially w/r/t policy development, financial considerations.
- Programs: Policy development, load balancing of the committees, liaison with Free Geek Community Council and Free Geek Board of Directors, nominations to the various committees, proposals concerning changes to the committee structure itself; accounting and financial oversight, health care and benefits packages, liaison with Free Geek startups (the replication of Free Geek elsewhere).
- Current Staff Members: Dave, Oso, Richard, Shawn
- Meets: Every other week (1.5 hours)
- HR
- Mission: Provides oversight for those areas of Free Geek pertaining to the health and well being of volunteers and staff.
- Programs: Human resources, volunteer management, volunteer and staff discipline, procedures regarding theft from Free Geek, mediation between conflicting parties, volunteer and staff scheduling, staff and intern reviews, volunteer acculturation and training, employee manual.
- Current Staff Members: Dave, Nathan, Richard, Shawn
- Meets: Every week (1 hour)
- Knowledge Bees
- Mission: Facilitating access to information through documentation, training and support.
- Programs: Education, documentation, liaison with Distro group, technical support, Computers for Kids.
- Current Staff Members: Kathie, Liane, Martin, Michael
- Meets: Every month (2 hours)
- Outreach
- Mission: Oversight of outreach, public relations, and associated fundraising.
- Programs: Fundraising, grantwriting, outreach, advertising and marketing, parties, festivals and other events, community building, relations with the neighbors, relations with the non-profit and social change communities, membership development, the Free Geek website, the reception area, public email addresses, media relations, advertising and design of donation pickups; liaison with NAP group.
- Current Staff Members: Christen, Liane, Oso, Shawn
- Meets: Every other week (1.5 hours)
- Reuse
- Mission: The testing, building, refurbishing, and sales of reusable equipment.
- Programs: Freekbox, storebox, grantbox production, build, testing maintenance and development; retail sales, eBay sales; printer refurbishing and sales; locate, evaluation, and put oddball hardware into reuse; wholesale or bulk sales of to-be-recycled parts; liaison with Hardware Grants group; development of receiving policies with a goal of maximum reuse.
- Current Staff Members: Dave, Guy, Matthew, Nathan, Rick, Steve
- Meets: Every week (1 hour)
- Technocrats
- Mission: The selection or creation, maintenance, and technical security of hardware and software used at or installed by Free Geek.
- Programs: Liaison with Coders group, liaison with ASS group, liaison with Distro group, liaison with GAP volunteers, selection of software commonly used at Free Geek, computer security, technical infrastructure.
- Current Staff Members: Martin, Michael, Richard
- Meets: Every month (2 hours)
Ad Hoc Staff Committees
From time to time, there are also ad hoc committees that meet while needed before disbanding. Examples of this would be:
- Interview committee
- Recommended by HR and approved by the collective to interview people applying for paid staff positions
- Resolution Committee.
- Recommended by HR and approved by the collective to bring to resolution issues that could result in the termination of a staff member if not dealt with.
- Review Panel
- Recommended by HR and approved by the collective to coordinate reviews of collective members.