Build Meeting - 2009-06-06

Build Meeting 2009-06-06

Present

• Alec (Minutes)
• Stephen S
• Christine H
• Patrick C
• Kirby J
• Raymond F
• Peggy T

Agenda

• Review from last build meeting
• Moving people into build
• Moving computers out of build
• Review tracking procedures against Vancity grant

Minutes

• Review from last build meeting
  • (Alec) Benches have improved since start, but still some trouble keeping clean from day to day
  • (Stephen S) Still need more racks; Stephen will put in request
  • (Alec) Build du Jour and feedback board working OK, but needs more attention from builders
  • (Stephen) Builders, when they come in, should review their sheet in the book.
  • (Stephen) QCers should be marking their volunteer number on the builder's sheet next to the system ID
  • (Stephen) New builders should QC six machines before they start building. After that, not necessary to record QCs on QCer's builder sheet.
• (Stephen) Moving people into build
  • (Stephen) Last stage: prospective builder needs to demo to someone else how to run each pre-build station, with someone there to assess.
    • (Alec) Who assesses?
    • (Stephen) Currently only me. Need to go through build instructors and get them ready.
    • (Alec) I committed to document assessments, but haven't even done orientation; cannot document yet.
    • (Stephen) Can we use Alec as a guinea pig?
    • (Alec) Cannot; will be gone next three weeks. Stephen or David?
    • (Stephen) Yes; or Kirby (Kirby agrees). Patrick may be available.
    • (Alec) When can this happen?
    • (Kirby & Stephen) Maybe Tuesday. COMMIT.
  • (Stephen) Is there anything else we need to get someone in pre-build to do?
    • (Alec) Yes, we need to give them a build orientation. I've been doing this ad-hoc. I can document it (COMMIT).
    • (Stephen) Yes, we need to get them to QC 6 machines.
    • (Alec) I've been assigning builders to QCs when time is limited; maybe need to stop (i.e. keep more ready for QC for new builders)
  • (Alec) Need to consider how to graduate current builders to make room for new ones.
    • (Alec) One restriction identified before we could bring in new builders is the paperwork back-log; we now have builder sheets for all builders (or should) so that's good.
    • (Alec) Have builder(s) coming in without being scheduled; need to let them know that they must schedule.
    • (Stephen) Have a commitment for number of builders graduated; can we consider people who came in before January to be in this situation?
    • (Alec) No; I don't think anyone who wasn't included in the red binder (with all their machines) can be considered graduated.
    • (Kirby) What happened before the red binder?
    • (Stephen) Seat of the pants.
    • (Alec) Stephen, this probably falls to you: review builders in red binder; find potential graduates (i.e. all QCs and 6 builds; machine taken home?); offer them build instructor consideration so that they can continue.
    • (Christine) What options to finished builders have besides build instruction?
    • (Stephen) Laptops.
    • (Alec) We'd need to keep existing good volunteers building on Thursdays; only have room for one or two new builders at a time, just to keep things from getting too crazy.
    • (Stephen) Thursday is our only full day.
    • (Alec) That's all I see; don't know what happens other days.
    • (Stephen) We do have someone scheduled for a build instructor pretty much every day.
    • (Alec) Who?
    • (Stephen) Steven; David; Devenne.
    • (Alec) Need to make sure these are solid builders before they become build instructors.
    • (Stephen) Have several builders that would be good candidates
    • (Alec) OK; depends on reviewing the binder. Stephen, can you do this?
    • (Stephen) Yes (COMMIT)
• Review tracking procedures against Vancity grant
  • (Stephen) Review of goals of grant: (From Vancity grant)
    • Reduce waste by diverting from waste stream
    • Reduce consumption of virgin materials and energy expenditure
    • Facilitate skill-sharing, collaboration, interdependence, ...
    • Provide opportunities for personal development
    • Empower and galvanize the greater community by providing sustainable computer alternatives, ...
    • Provide sustainable, accessible, community-based software to the public
    • Utilize the power of social production and decentralized non-market cooperation to generate a more equitable distribution of technology and related skills.
  • (Alec) These divide into three rough categories that need to be reflected in the reporting:
    • Community development
    • Production / supply of machines
    • Waste diversion / environmental
  • (Alec) Estimates provided in grant:
    • 15 machines per week (750 per year)
    • 100 - 130 volunteers graduated.
  • (Stephen) Started tracking machines going out around the beginning of April.
    • (Alec) Consistently?
    • (Stephen) Have not been tracking for the last couple of weeks. Will go through receipts in store to find out what went out from there in the meantime.
    • (Stephen) Need to formalize a system for tracking machines that go out each day.
    • (Alec) Who does that? Staff QCer?
    • (Stephen) No; it should be tracked when it leaves build, not when it's ready to leave build. E.g. when it goes to the store; when we have an adoption class; etc.
    • (Alec) I sometimes move stock down to the store, but none of us (build instructors) have anything to do with adoption or grant dispersal.
    • (Alec) When I move a machine down to the store, I've been keeping a tally as per Stephen's system; not sure where those numbers go from there. May I suggest starting a second binder
    • (Stephen) Yes (COMMIT)
    • (Christine) What about $20 boxes? Do they need a staff QC?
    • (Stephen) They don't get a seperate QC, but they do get a staff QC.
    • (Stephen) Once we get more power, we can put terminals by build.
    • (Alec) ...then the question becomes, what do we put on those stations for tracking etc.? Not an instant solution.
    • (Alec) That covers builders and machines for reporting (at least interim); implicitly, we can estimate waste from there as per the grant's methodology. What else do we have to cover?
    • (Stephen) That's all I could find in the grant application.
    • (Alec) There's also a survey mentioned on the grant. What about that?
    • (Stephen) That's part of the graduation. There is a survey that goes to adoption graduates; Stephen will modify to suit build graduates. (COMMIT)
• All Other Business?
  • (Alec) Next meeting Wed 17th; I will not be attending. Lots to review -- this may represent our first batch of graduates.