Converting Interns to Collective Members

Working Policy

At the September 15, 2004 Council meeting we decided the following:

An existing non-collective worker may be moved directly into a collective position that's sufficientrly similar to their current work without going through a lengthy, biased hiring process if the collective can reach a unanimous decision (no stand asides).

Current policy will be revisited in the next council meeting, but can be used if necesary.

(The decision was not revisted at the October council meeting.)

Context

The staff collective would like to be able to (in certain circumstances) move an intern or another paid person from a position outside the collective into the collective without going through an open hiring process. For example, Kathie and Marlin both started at Free Geek through the SMS program and (before we had a hiring policy) we decided to include them in the collective, rather than leave them hanging while we went through an open hiring process. The same might apply to interns paid by Free Geek.

We recognize that this could open us up to some scenarios we'd rather avoid, so we'd like the Council to help us formulate a policy on these matters.

The conversation in staff so far has hit several points, among them:

• We would want every member of the collective to be unanimously behind

(consensus with no stand asides) having the person in the collective.

• We don't want to create a system that could become open to "nepotism"

or whatever -- that is people's friends can slip in under the radar by becoming an intern and then "just sort of" tranisition to full staff members.

• We don't want to leave good solid candidates for a job hanging when

they are already doing the job and have support of the current collective and the Free Geek community at large.

• We do want to outreach to diverse communities and fresh perspectives

as needed.

• The current hiring process for a collective member tends to be more

rigorous and usually wider open than for an internship position. This makes it easier for us to hire interns that are often people who need to build up a resume and have proven themselves as volunteers but we don't expect to qualify for a collective level position. We think that's a good thing (the ability to hire people who need to build up a resume), since there's no other place for them on the Free Geek staff, and we don't want that good thing to go away.

So taking all that (and more I'm sure) into account, what kind of policy can we create?