Council 2006 11

• Date: 15 Nov 2007
• Facilitator: Oso (standing in for Eugene)
• Scribe: Laurel
• Minutes Checker: Seamus
• Place: FG meeting room

Attendance

Oso, Matteo, Seamus, laurel, Marie, Ben, David, Edmund, Roger, Shawn, Dave, Richard, Michael

Old Commitments

• richard and laurel - pull together the O & P committee and plan meeting times. DONE
  • put pickups on the priorities agenda DONE
• oso will contact Iain about board intentions. EEP! CARRYOVER!

Reports

Building scout report

(RFS) Richard, Oso, Nathan and Matteo checked out a building nearby on Hawthorne that is available for rent. More visible. It's cheaper per square foot but bigger (about 3x bigger) - so it would be more rent. Has an elevator and a loading dock, but would need some accessability work and other substantial remodeling. Could rent out one floor.

This was mostly a "thought experiment" to see what sort of issues we'd have to consider if we were to want to move. No decisions are being made at this time. Our lease (3 year) is up in August.

can we get a cost estimate and start working on fundraising? the

well, this is still just exploratory. also, it would be a rental. we don't know whether it is possible to try to buy it.

why is it less expensive/sq ft than this building?

it's warehouse rate all the way through, while this building has spaces that are primarily finished office.

Hiring Report

• (Dave) In the middle of interviews; the committee hopes to have a recommendation by Friday. They got 80 applications for the Office Coordinator position.
• (rfs) Ali will have her 3-month review in early December. Jeff's will be in January.
• (rfs) Intern turnover: front desk ends Jan 27; receiving ends at the end of the year. both will probably be replaced. We'll get Katrina's input on how the receiving position should be structured.

Production Report

(Dave) Despite the donation slump, build hasn't slackened or run out. Build is building like crazy. We're giving out more and more in grants each month - in the 30s. Also, a new sales thing: we're starting to get requests for large numbers of legacy computers @ about $15-20 each.

Credit card report

(rfs) Credit card processing is working both at the front and in the store. We'll be looking at data at the end of the year to see if we should change anything, like get a PIN pad or something. Possibly ~20-30% of our intake may be plastic (estimate, number not yet known).

Business

Fundraising

(marie) Basic information about fundraising; she has handouts which people should check out. The video is a tool for people interested in fundraising, and there's also a form for people who have watched the video to donate money. Main point: most money for nonprofits comes from individuals, and people are going to give anyway. Make sure they know about freegeek, and they should give to us!

A fundraising committee has been formed out of the Outreach committee (see invitation on council and core email lists). This groups will probably meet monthly to strategize about fundraising. An email list is being formed.

R & D

(dave) How can FG move in a more agile way to take advantage of opportunities and innovate? Ideas may come up quickly that may not be appropriate for an exploratory program or something like that. Example: the legacy systems that are now being sold. R & D funds could pay for very short-term exploration/development of potential avenues.

how is this not end-running council to create exploratory internships?

it's much more scaled-down.

might one of these become something that we'd want to create a position out of?

it should be a smaller project, generally on the scale of a few weeks. there'd be no position created. structured a little like hiring temps. if in the end we decided it would create a position, that would go to council.

can't this be considered just discretionary staffing funding?

yeah

should we be secretive about our R & D because there are competitors now?

well, this is a conversation we should have

New Commitments

• Oso - contact Iain about the board's intentions and election CARRYOVER
• laurel - remind Oso about emailing Iain
• Dave - will do a consensus training on communicating agreement in January

Next Meeting

• Facilitator: rfs
• Scribe: shawn
• Minutes Checker:
• Consensus training: laurel, the role of the scribe
• Date and time: Dec. 20
• Place: Free Geek