What do we want to do?

This page left for historical purposes. -- Mkille 20:57, 10 May 2013 (UTC)

There are several different dichotomies that help us define what Free Geek is and how we operate. None of these continua are absolute either/or decisions. But if we think about each of them we can narrow down a general direction we have consensus on.

Reuse vs. Recycling

Many people think of Free Geek as primarily a recycling center, but if you look at our Mission Statement and talk to people about the purpose of Free Geek, you'll soon find that recycling is less important to us that reuse. Through our adoption and grant programs and through our various sales activities, we encourage reuse over recycling at every possible point. Of course, by functioning as a recycling center we attract a large stream of incoming gizmos that are fodder for our reuse programs. Imagine two scenarios (neither of which is absolutely possible):

We find a way to magically only get the gizmos we can reuse, so we don't need to have a recycling program anymore. (Other organizations exist to recycle eWaste in a responsible way.)

In this scenario, Free Geek wouldn't have a recycling program per se, but adoption, hardware grants, and sales would all continue to fulfill our mission. We would still be able to educate people about technology in a "hands on" integrated way. This is still very much like the Free Geek we have today, albeit without a recycling program.

Even if we become the best recycling center ever, Free Geek stops reusing gizmos.

Without a reuse component our build and adoption programs would vanish. We might have a way to educate people about technology, but not in the same hands on way we do now. In this scenario Free Geek would change its character dramatically.

Conclusion: Free Geek needs both reuse and recycling programs, but it favors reuse wherever possible. If we have to choose in the future we would prefer to drift towards reuse.

Add your thoughts and comments here.

Production vs. Education

It seems that every time we adjust our procedures we need to pick between teaching people how to do something or maximizing our production abilities. Many of Free Geek's volunteer work can education people or be aimed at getting things done efficiently -- geared towards reuse and income. Of course, some people are most motivated by "doing what needs doing" and others are motivated by "wanting to learn something". These two tendencies are not always contradictory. Sometimes (and for some people) the best way to learn is to learn by doing, and in the end Free Geek needs to both educate and produce.

Conclusion: Free Geek needs to accent on learning through a hands on process, but we also need to recognize when something is necessary even if it's not educational, and we need to recognize when it's time to teach a purely academic class to supplement the hands on stuff.

Add your thoughts and comments here.

Sales vs. Adoption / Grants / Discounts

Bringing in money is needed to pay the bills and provide a decent standard of living for our staff. However, our mission mandates that we give stuff away for free. Fortunately we are operating in an abundant economy where there are usually too many things to give away and sell. This is a relatively recent development, but one that was predicted from the early days of Free Geek.

Conclusion: Free Geek can provide for both and the lines will blur over time. We need to identify the few types of items that are in scarce supply to make sure that some directly fulfill our mission and some provide the needed income to indirectly fulfill our mission.

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Serving Free Geek Community (Insiders) vs. Outsiders

As a public benefit corporation (i.e. a 501(c)(3) nonprofit) Free Geek must serve the larger community. One way we do this is by inviting that community to join us as volunteers, in essence we invite the community to be Free Geek by joining one of our programs. Another way is that we provide services to people and businesses who have very little to do with us on a regular basis, for example regular customers in the store and gizmo donors. This interaction plays out when we need to decide whether to sell something at full price on eBay or to offer it as a volunteer incentive or at a discount in the store. It could also play out in whether we offer educational services to non-volunteers, and if so do we charge for it? Free Geek also has toyed with the idea of offering free computers to volunteers from other organizations.

Conclusion: No conclusions here. Just the observations that we should define our boundaries and recognize how much we can and should offer to outsiders, and that we should be cautious of becoming too insular.

Add your thoughts and comments here.