Council 2006 08

facilitator: Rev

scribe: wren

minutes checker: laurel

attendees: rev phil (facilitator), wren (scribe), eugene, martin, marie, laurel, matteo, seamus, richard/rfs, john vanost, bobby, ali, cid, shawn, dave, mark, oso

Consensus training (Shawn)

• documentation:
  • Meeting_Tips
  • Scribe
  • http://wiki.freegeek.org/index.php/Category:Meetings

• Why?: Consensus different fro 100% vote, Fosters harmony, battles groupthink.

• Roles:
  • Facilitator -- to keep discussion on track to decision. Queue/stack, twinkling, cutting people off
  • Presenter -- catch group up on topic and present path. Think about who it affects.
  • Scribe -- records decision so others can be caught up later. Correctness!
  • Minutes Checker -- since it can be hard to capture the discussion and type at once

Commitment: martin will do consensus training next month

Old Commitments

• shawn will present consensus training (done)
• oso will talk to liane and landlord (done)

Reports

Providence (Seamus, Dave)

Seamus: Would be accepting 1200computers/month in addition to 13~1400 we take now. So group formed to decide whether this would kill us. End goal is to come up with answer and roadmap then may morph into negotiation group with Providence. Donations will be on a per-system basis; question: how much? When all is answered it will need to come back not only for Council approval but also go to the Board.

Dave on what we've been doing: <definitions of "providence"> est 95% of systems would be reusable whether for sales, freekboxen, etc. Also Oso is looking at how to redesign the building to deal with the flow. cf. Working_with_Providence_NW

Meet every tuesday night at 7:15pm... somewhere in the building...

Hiring report

ali: I'm hired.

shawn: ali is filling the new job description approved by the Council last month. Lots of floor shifts and aiming for volunteer happiness.

Startups report (rfs)

28~29 July Intergalactic meeting and then some so-called "franchise" meetings since then. Had folks from Columbus, Chicago/Michiana, Olympia. Some of their questions are better answered by each other than us because they're so small. Big issue of the Intergalactic meeting was to get everyone to officially declare about using the Free Geek name or some other way of being affiliated. 8 applications from 7 groups in 6 cities. Gresham has moved towards wanting to be some other affiliate and not quite a Free Geek.

Issues: two conflicting groups in Oly. Penn who's always incommunicado unless desperate. Some groups are using majority rule, others use consensus, how to decide when we're all together.

Meeting again at 10:00am tuesday morning. The franchise list isn't entirely open but should request to be on it from http://lists.freegeek.org/listinfo or thereabouts.

Outreach (Rev, Shawn)

Outreach will tell you how to find interns. Went on Kink FM for an interview. Also in Christian Science Monitor. Free Geek DVD at OSCON, w00t! or something. Created a set of goals for grantwriting. Oso has a huge list of grants.

Meets every thursday (except third thursday) at 7:15pm here.

Forklift (rfs, requested by bobby)

We have loaners and loaners, still some wiring to work out. Don't have to pay for the current loaner. New one on order and should be here shortly. Noone's here from that committee.

Financial (rfs, requested by marie)

Marie: idea about where we are on budget since last time?

rfs: Can't give one right now. Issues with Calbag paperwork.

Space upstairs

We have the space since July. Still undecided on how to use it, on hold re the media grant which in turn needs decision in 2.5 months. Point questions to Oso.

Commitment: Oso will report on media grant and hence that space.

Business

Ambassadors (martin)

Background: were set up as ad-hoc committee for sending people places, e.g Uganda where we sent martin who is working on getting money to go again. Also for who goes to conventions, sits in booths, etc.

Issues: what if a convention in Columbus were to request someone not from the Free Geek there, but from us; what to do? What about when decisions need to be made quickly, especially online? What we want is a policy on how to deal with these questions and a group to send requests to.

shawn: Don't send requests to Intergalactic.

rfs: it's hard and will probably have to be on a case by case basis.

shawn: Outreach may be a good place to take things to.

Board positions

4 opennings (3 are two years, other is 1 year). Nominees: John Vanost, David Something (a lawyer from Nebraska whom Laurel is contacting), Ruben Doinly and Wes Kemper (who Phil's poking), and Laurel and Marie are planning on standing again. Only three are here tonight.

Board_Election_Checklist (we're behind schedule, next month we select them)

Board_Member_Interest_Form (renamed from the old name)

John: First came here for making signs sometime way back when, haven't been here in a while. Web programmer. Has been involved with Gracies Birdcage, Pinko's Copycenter, been around pdx for ~11 years. Was pseudo candidate last time around, but got out of it because of new daughter. Seamus has worked with him, thinks he understands the barely controlled chaos but still has some distance.

marie: should use synergy to post announcements.

rfs: I don't think this is a timeline issue, but rather an issue of getting people to do it.

Announcements

Rev: Thirsty Third Thursday tomorrow with Sophia's movies

Rev: bike movies wed 23 Aug

laurel: I'm taking down a fence this weekend

rev: sergio chavez says Knife and Son is playing at Acme tonight

ali: sign up for First Tech and say my name and we both give 10$