Talk:Town Hall Meeting 2012

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I am keeping track of the number of meetings we've had, the people who are responsible for making this happen, and the projects we've undertaken to make this happen.

It was decided that the Staff and Board should have substantial presence at the Town Hall meeting so we have planned to have the event on a Saturday during Free Geek's normal hours. In order to ensure that staff go (and don't suffer because Free Geek will be closed), the event will be held near Free Geek. We considered holding the THM on a Sunday, but too many staff (esp. Collective staff) said they wouldn't come.

We want to have an outside Facilitator do this meeting because it'll separate us all from the content so nothing gets personal. And it'll make sure we have a pro running the meeting, so the meeting organizers can spend time running around making sure things are going well.

Cynthia has taken it upon herself to organize the logistics end of the meeting. Liliana has been responsible for publicity and recruiting volunteer candidates. Liliana, Cynthia, Larry and Julie (Potential facilitator)

Larry, Cynthia, Liliana & Julie met on Wed Aug. 15 so discuss plans for the meeting. We are hoping for a meeting that encourages volunteer participation in planning. We are not decided that we want something that leads to lots of action, but we want to create a space for volunteers to act on their ideas if "the spirit moves them". Lots of emphasis on volunteer-directed projects that require very little staff oversight.

I (Liliana) have been creating updated versions of fliers, posters, and info-packets in Scribus and LibreOffice. I have converted the completed drafts to PDF and uploaded them to the wiki. They are located in the THM Depository and on my work computer.

List of things that I have needed to create/update for this event:

  • THM announcement flier for Volunteer BBQ (PURPOSE: Tell people that the THM is happening soon & tell them what it's for)
  • Nomination flier to put at the Front Desks and Thrift Store (PURPOSE: Ask volunteers to select [and self select] their candidates for Board Representative)
  • E-mail to the Staff, Regular Volunteers, and Front Desk lists (PURPOSE: Tell people this is happening, tell them the purpose and how they can participate)
  • THM Poster (PURPOSE: Advertise the event)
  • Candidate packet (PURPOSE: Give interested volunteers info about the Town Hall, FG Governance Structure, Volunteer Representative Position, New Director's Agreement, and get information from them to create the Voter's Guide)
  • THM Poster II (PURPOSE: Really make sure everyone knows what's happening)
  • Election Poster (PURPOSE: Ask people to vote)
  • Web announcement (PURPOSE: Obvious)
  • List of eligible voters (to be posted at Front Desk week before THM)

raw notes from tech sessions

Technology subgroup Town Hall Meeting September 22, 2012

4:00pm or so -- Session One Starts Introductions. 13 or so people: volunteers, staff, and board members.

Strengths:

number of laptops implementing installs teaching people to use open source internal software (database and testing software) breadth of experience with end users flow charts (the process by which we break down processes) software to replace flow charts progress in spec updates and implementation of hardware & software knowledge volunteer expertise and interest in technology FGdb willingness to keep teaching newer and more things (teaching program)


Challenges

system eval and triage process: keeping it updated, relevant to changing tech that comes through reliance on external organizations that have different goals (ubuntu, for example) explaining out specs and updates to volunteers shift toward integration and disposabilities, mobility staff have multiple duties so distro gets left unattended proprietary software (flash, etc.) being expected by end-users locking down of hardware (secure BIOS, iPhones, etc.) ongoing problem of a lot of offbeat or legacy items that people would love but is hard to handle

Change

What can we change in the next year? What are some action steps?

      • expand breadth and depth of programs and educational offerings
                • diversifying scope of gizmos worked on (reuse areas)
      • smart phones and tablets
  • promoting open software alternatives (to address proprietary software expectations) -- get involved in that process
    • create our own desktop that we are in control of (for end user experience)

R&D program

          • handheld gizmo dedicated staff (what Tom Mccann does)

continuing to use FGdb to automate staff and volunteer tasks

4:35pm or so -- Session Two Starts Introductions. 9 or so people: volunteers, staff, and board members.

Strengths:

open source software free infrastrcture ability to earn a computer attracts volunteers that may stick around we know a lot about technology collectively free software (not just OSS) we contribute back to (linux, ubuntu, debian) good reputation in the free software community very creative we inherit strengths from free and OSS gives us the ability to customize

Challenges

smaller computers (tablets): can we put linux on them? can we fix them? new tech is getting cheaper a lot of newer devices are restricted (disallow or discourage certain operating systems) issues with securing data on new devices diversion of the market -- many different forms of devices, rather than just desktops and laptops -- leading to fragmentation of OS a lot of rapid release cycles for software, making it hard to keep up with changes, breaking our old model of development upgrades can break the software install and we have little control over that optical drives solid state drives (data security) lack of a process

Change

What can we change in the next year? What are some action steps?

customize the update manager plan out our distro changes more in advance be more proactively involved in FOSS community to avoid surprises and influence direction

              • start volunteer groups to start tinkering with handheld gizmos

be more proactive in finding organizations to grant to volunteer group for solid state drive processes

    • task force for optical drives or tally which brands or years fails
  • how to make thrift store computers cheaper
    • make distro internships ongoing
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