Notes from THM 2011 breakout group on community and volunteer experience

Report to the Free Geek Board of Directors 1st Annual Town Hall Meeting, Sunday, October 2, 2011

Community & Volunteer Experience

During the Community & Volunteer Experience breakout group, the involved volunteers focused on both Inreach and Outreach improvements. The main points in each category are listed below:

Inreach

1. Expanding Social Activities: Our volunteers brought up the idea of reinstating movie nights, social gatherings, and having more frequent meet-and-greet events.
2. The group also brought up the possibility of facilitating field trips to other non-profits and organizations with whom Free Geek works. This would help to increase Free Geek publicity, and allow for more fluid usage of volunteer hours.
3. Volunteers suggested that we institute volunteer 'Thank You' tokens for milestones and exceptional volunteering. (Free Geek t-shirts were an example.)
4. A mentoring project was brought up, wherein new volunteers are paired with more experienced volunteers to facilitate quicker learning and growth.
5. For areas where volunteers spend the majority of their time standing, the addition of cushion pads (similar to those that cashiers may stand on) was suggested.

Outreach

1. Our volunteers suggested that we spearhead an endeavor to create an offsite collection program, where Free Geek sends trucks & volunteers into local communities to pick up hardware donations, as well as spread the word about Free Geek. This was a point of discussion during later during

the meeting (see below).

1. The idea was posited to create a video spot for Free Geek in order to increase awareness about Free Geek (commercial-style, TV audiences?)

Discussion

At this point in the meeting, all groups were encouraged to discuss any and all ideas brought up in the initial breakout groups. Below are the ideas which pertained to the Community & Volunteer Experience group.

1. Volunteers would like more connection with other Free Geek Organizations across the nation (in order to share and learn from experiences).
2. Volunteers would like to expand Free Geeks reach beyond Portland and into other areas in Oregon.
3. It was posited that more attention should be given to the overall effect that the Community Service portion (i.e. Court-ordered volunteers) of our volunteer constituency has/is having on Free Geek.
4. Other volunteers voiced their agreement with the idea of an offsite collection event (as referenced above.)
5. For offsite collections, volunteers wanted us to consider the ways by which we will ensure data security.
6. Volunteers brought up the idea of canvassing for an offsite collection beforehand, so as to assure a high turnout.
7. As a point of contention for the offsite collection program: it was mentioned that offsite collections had been tried in the past, and it had proved to be resource-intensive and not very lucrative (most donations we unusable): volunteers suggested that we consider how to mitigate this difficulty when thinking of offsite collections.
8. As Free Geek grows, volunteers think that we should explore options to partner with other non-profit organizations (the Rebuilding Center was a common example), in order to allow volunteers to log volunteer hours through different organizations, and to solidify more institutional partnerships between long-standing organizations in Portland and beyond.