Hardware Testing Instructor Responsibilities

Always Remember: Supporting Hardware Testing volunteers is our number one priority as staff instructors! This means:

• Welcoming incoming volunteers at the beginning of the shift
• Introducing yourself to volunteers you haven't met before, or whose names you don't remember
• Giving volunteers choices about the kind of work they want to do that day, based on HT's needs, when possible
  • Appropriately engage each volunteer in an appropriate task, trying to get all tasks covered
  • Which volunteers are present during your shift? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Do they want to learn something new? Match up their interests with priority tasks
• Teaching volunteers how to test different kinds of gizmos, based on their interest, or facilitating another volunteer to teach them (as appropriate)
• Making them aware of their resources, *especially* our documentation, but also Google, the FG wiki, other volunteers, and you!
• Being available for any questions that they may have
• Remaining patient and friendly while maintaining good boundaries
• Providing volunteers opportunities to work on special projects, as is needed and appropriate
• Be sure to thank volunteers for their work as they leave

Oversight Checklist

Beginning of Shift

• Check meetingwords.com/whiteboard
• Prioritize tasks based on current stock, Store and Build needs - and update the white board
• Welcome volunteers and direct them to prioritized tasks
• Hard Drives - swap tested drives, load drives to be wiped
• Remember to delegate! But if no volunteers are available:
  • Swap RAM
  • Sort Incoming
  • Sort boxes of power supplies that come from Receiving, routing them to other areas
  • Sort small Hard Drive Lock Box into big Hard Drive Lock Box

During Shift

• Be available to answer volunteers' questions and to support their endeavors
• Hard drive testing:
  • Pull and label all tested hard drives. Recycle the failed ones.
  • Stock all the machines. Your goal is to keep TARDIS as free of unwiped hard drives as much as you can.
  • Repair failed machines as necessary
  • REPORT PROBLEMS WITH MACHINES WHEN THEY HAPPEN (either to those with the know-how to fix 'em or in RT)
  • Remember to never leave unwiped drives unattended anywhere in Hardware Testing

End of Shift

• Make sure volunteers clean up their areas and that the area is neat and organized for the next shift
  • This includes emptying all yellow recycling bins - make sure all volunteers are familiar with this process!
  • This also includes taking destroyed hard drives to Recycling when the bin is full or close to full
• Make sure that all wiped hard drives are brought to TARDIS and sorted according to size (empty green bin!)

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End of Day

• Lock up all hard drives - remember to check Store Returns bin & Incoming shelves
• Put away testing equipment
• Set up hard drives to test over night, but not on the weekend/holidays
• Load RAM to be started the next morning (unless a volunteer did it)
• Turn off all unused computers and LCD monitors
• Empty small Lock Box into big Lock Box and make sure it is locked
• Make sure TARDIS is locked - BOTH LOCKS

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End of Week

• Shutdown any hard drives that are still running & return them to the big Lock Box
• Turn off the TARDIS's ceiling fan

Hardware Testing Tasks

• Power Supply Sorting
• Card Sorting
• Hard Drive Testing - Instructor Only
• External Hard Drive Enclosure Testing
• External Optical Drive Testing
• RAM Testing
• Motherboard Testing
• Processor Testing
• Video Card Testing
• Network Testing
• Wireless Keyboard & Mice Testing
• Wireless Cards - PCI and laptop PC Bus
• Empty Recycling Bins