Laura: Free Kittens

• It seems like our target audience perceives a free computer like a free kitten. It might be nice, but it takes a lot of stress and money to maintain it.
• Our focus should be on education, so we decided to set up the upstairs room as a classroom so we can teach classes. Laura will set up the room and Randy will bring a projector for a dry run.

Dave: Volunteer demographics tracking

• We need to track volunteer demographics. We need to know the income of the recipients and the volunteers, release of liability, description of their responsibility, and a description of EXACTLY what machine they will get for their 15 hours.
• Too much time is wasted on cherry picking.
• Laura will create the form as soon as Randy and Dave send her the information.

Randy: PC request from the reservation

• We aren’t responding correctly. Whenever we receive an email, it needs to be responded to and copied to everyone.

Randy: Warehouse Manger

• There are 3-4 people who want the job. We’re waiting for Pete to come back. Kyle will put an ad in Craigslist for a warehouse manager and for computer sales.

Randy: Salt Lake City School District- Intern program

• The school district provides interns who give us 40 hours and we give them a computer.
• They want to provide 30 interns. Can we do it? Ten in the program at a time: five for the first half of Saturday and five the second half.

Randy: New policy for volunteer redemption machines

• Volunteers are no longer allowed to cherry pick. We tell them up front, EXACTLY what they get. Part of that will be covered in the form.

Randy: Ebay Items

• Richard offered to help with the listings.

Randy: Warehouse Heater pilot lights?

• Heater, lights and roof: still three leaks. We are responsible to get the pilot light on.

Randy: Ergsoc.org web site

• The initial landing page should be the About Us page, not the blog. We’ll link to the others from that one. Laura will have Mike correct that issue.

Dave: Board member volunteers

• Dave is looking for people to volunteer for board members. We need new people. Think broader.

Randy: Christmas/Holliday Challenge

• Are we all willing to give away two computers this year?

New forms/documentation: Randy

• Bill of sale transferring liability for proper recycling: We have a form now, but we need to make sure everything that goes out has this form signed. It is mandatory on anything with a serial number. We need consistency on this.
• Eligibility for Microsoft Mar COA machines: We have the MS COAs in. They are charitable COAs, so they only go out to people of lower income level self reported is alright. We need a form still. The more we can document, the less issues we’ll have.
• Volunteer acceptance/release: How do we word it so that volunteers actually work and not cherry pick all day? Should we limit it to one computer a month? Maybe we should have volunteer commitment levels. We don’t want to discourage volunteers. Maybe we should have a way for volunteers to level up. People love it when it’s like a game.
• Inventory/reserve- Randy: The inventory list is maintained on the drop box. Randy suggested that we keep an eBay price list. We need to have a base of machines just sitting ready. We’re for selling all we can, but we need to have some machines in reserve. We should be tracking the volunteer income. We could use the point of sale software to track it.
• Machines set up for people should be marked. We have a drop box folder for 503c letters. The spreadsheet hasn’t been updated since we lost Dave full time. We need a want/build list and hopefully that will grow into an inventory list. We need a visual reference. Tracking outbound is really important. We need to add a computer into inventory only when it’s working and ready to be sent out.
• Status of ebay sales, walk in sales, and funds collected in the last few months: Craig created a spreadsheet of what we were selling on eBay, but we can’t tell what was sold. We need much more detail on what gets sold on walk ins.

UTOS- Dave

Next weekend Dave can be there all three days, but he really needs help on Friday afternoon. We’ll close the warehouse on Saturday to accommodate that. We are having an opportunity drawing for two computers in exchange for a donation. KiloPenny keychain is going to have to wait until next year, but we should work on it and incorporate it into our website. We need to encourage people to donate.

Policy for adding new board members:

3G board member: Give Get or Get Off. Giving time is a pretty valuable resource as well. We need to vote on new members in a closed meeting. It’s for a term of two years. And you and re-up for two more years and then you have to take a year off. The 3G concept is more useful when we have too many people who want to be on the board.

E-Waste meeting at the capitol wasn’t very inspiring.

The manufacturers might step up, but Pete isn’t very hopeful. California is the only state that is doing it right.

Money- Randy

• Randy has just been depositing money into the bank, but he’s working blind right now. He has no way to access that. We need petty cash and we need to track things.
• Status of Fundraising/Grants- Has Malia applied for grants yet? It’s a lot of effort at the start. She needs some more info to finish the grant writing. She is doing a lot more than just writing grants. She is making progress, but she is feeling a bit overwhelmed. For many grants, you don’t just send in a letter.

Landlord: or lack of one – Pete

• Gas leak? Supposedly fixed, but the pilot lights need to be relit.
• Front of warehouse: new cement? The dock is unusable. Pete is going to get cement contractors to get bids on getting it fixed.
• Lights? They are our responsibility to replace the light bulbs. The difficulty is getting the bulbs and changing them because they are so high. Pete is going to talk to Feldt lighting.

Interns:

• Salt Lake City School District: Are we going to host again this year? Lars says he wants to do it again. They are meeting with him on Oct 6th. The district pays them yo be here for 40 hours and then we give them a computer at the end. It worked really well last year.
• UVU- Spanish program: Are we going to host again this year? Dave doesn’t remember exactly who sent the students down. They just showed up one day. Sometimes they have to do community service time. Dave is going to check his email to see who he has to contact that.

Monitors:

Randy might be able to get a truck for us for the monitors.

Executive director: what went wrong, why, what we’ve learned, and what we need to do/not do when we hire the next one.

• The primary mission communicated to previous director was to move inventory. As a result the primary mission of ERGS suffered. The next director needs to balance the two issues. One side supports the other, so we need both. The previous director didn’t want to be supervised. The next director needs to realize that they work for the board. Our processes need to be followed. DBANing the machines is important. The previous director wasn’t very familiar with the processes. We need to be more committed to training the new director. We have a lot of stuff that needs to be sold, but we also need to serve the community. Should we split those job tasks?
• Dave as ED? He is feeling just a little burned out right now and can’t do it all.
• We haven’t gotten any response to the ED posting. We need someone to get the grant writing done. That is the most important.
• We need consistency with pickups, open doors, and selling. We need a warehouse manager as well, but we can’t afford it right now.

Warehouse cohabitation:

Things are a little better with Richard.

Electricity Usage:

Be cognizant of the electricity use. Don’t leave stuff DBANing over the weekend.

Housekeeping:

Randy would like to see an upcoming events spot on the blog. Also he needs to be able to change the wiki. Additionally Randy got new locks for the doors.

Retail Space:

We also need a retail space once we get a budget for it.

Attended: Pete Ashdown, Randy Everett, Dave Turnbull, Kyle Waters, Craig Shepard, Laura Moncur, Matt Reeve and Richard Thompson

It has been a year since we first appointed officers, so it’s time to reinstate them. Although Matt Reinbold will remain on the board until he leaves town, Laura is taking over the position of Secretary. Kyle will remain in the board as a trusted member, but Randy will take over the Treasurer position. Matt Reeve is joining the board.

Craig Shepard is our new Executive Director. He has lots of experience with eBay so he’ll be helping the donation side of ERGS.

The clutch on the truck is broken. Replacement is $1100. We looked at new trucks priced at $2000. Craig is going to research these new trucks to see if it’s worth the extra money for them. If they aren’t better, we’ll fix the one we have. Craig is contacting Utah Dave to see if he is willing to donate his truck for our pick ups. Craig will also put the truck on eBay for $1000 to see if we get any bites.

We sold four computers on walk-ins and two on eBay.

We are dbanning our free hard drives and marking them, so when we sell them, the data is wiped. Randy would like to have an automated way to log the wipes.

We also need a release of liability for everything that goes out the door so we won’t get in trouble if these monitors/computers end up in a landfill. We need manual serial number tracking. We need an inventory tracking system. Randy will look into that software.

Monitor storage: Metech charges 18 cents a pound to recycle monitors. We are about full. Craig will contact Metech to negotiate with them to take the monitors for free in exchange for the green boards. Depending on the recycled reimbursement for green boards, it might be better to not use Metech. Storm Castle is offering more for recycling and they are approved.

We are talking to the legislature to get the laws changed, but the bill died in committee because the manufacturers fought it. Kyle is going to continue working on that.

We are giving the monitors away. Craig is going to put an ad on Craigslist announcing this.

Craig needs some boxes to send out computers. Dave will talk to his dad to see if he can get some donations.

There is a gas leak under the stairs. The paving is falling apart. The lights are out. Pete is going to talk to the landowner about these issues.

The Make Group is going to come and disassemble some printers this Wednesday.

Need a clear division between the games, Rich’s stuff and ERGS. We need colored tape or paint to delineate between the groups. We also need to open up the blocked doors. We need a 7 foot corridor. Rich will paint the boundary of his area. Pete will talk to Chris about his areas. Rich is also looking at tool chests to make sure their tools don’t walk off. Randy will talk to Snap On.

Craig will be organizing our things to help with flow. Rich, Chris and Pete need to draw the lines and we’ll follow them. Pete will add Rich to the board list.

Shelving is a concern. The food shelter might donate their old shelves. Kyle is going to talk to his work about donating their old cubicle calls.

Do we have a set schedule? 8-5 M-F Dave will give Craig access to the schedule.

Pete will call a sign maker this week.

The board agreed to offer a grant writer 10% of any grant money they get for ERGS. Advertise on Craigslist for grant writers.

Laura will give Craig access to the blog.

Next Board Meeting is Saturday 09-25-10 at 10 am

Present Board Members: Dave T Laura M, Pete A, Randy E, Matthew R Non-Board Members: Chad, Todd, Matt

TODOs:

• Matt – post board minutes to blog; Post notes
• Laura – who owns the facebook fan page?
• Dave – call Rocky Mountain Recycling if they take ABS
• Pete – will check on liability
• Pete – will send email to freegeek to see if they have a code of conduct
• Matt – cook up propaganda for volunteers
• Randy – see if neighboring lots have snow removal, see if they will also do our lots
• Pete – will throw out to Xmission vendors to see if they would be available to help volunteer specific services after the computers have left the door
• Pete – will ask sign contact about getting sign for front
• Pete – will talk to Xmission printer, see if we can get business cards
• Randy – see if we can get truck skinning in exchange for placement along roadside and dumpster
• Randy, Dave – working on building donation relationship with the U of U
• Randy – building relationship with Intermountain Health Care
• Randy – will contact MAR, try and get new account
• Pete – will contact school district contact about whether Glendale still needs to be picked up
• Matt – need to work on press release, blurbs, sexy copy, elevator pitch on how to donate, contribute, list of recipients
• Dave – print schedule for the door of hours
• Dave – contact Fraser Nelson to re-publicize to non-profits
• Laura – talk to Thom Allen about getting table at podcamp

Past Business Board member challenge results

• Laura had non-committal responses
• Randy – could have given 10 away
• Matt, gave away two computers, one to low-income family with child at community college
• Dave placed 2 with local bishop

Policy

How to decide what to recycle? Throw away?

• POLICY: board member approves if something should get stripped down.
• stuff is tagged by volunteer, then goes to board member for determiniation
• have Sam look at it, determine if it could be useful
• have already taken a load to the recycle; 350lbs. For $8 (steel)
• recycler will put the bin here so we don’t have to haul
• currently splitting copper, steel
• plastic will probably have to go to GRS
• ABS plastics are difficult to finding a recylcer
• Will strip wires, get more for clean copper than dirty copper, a task for unskilled volunteers

Underaged Volunteers

• problem with volunteers is a problem with management
• there may be a question of liability
• need an ejection policy
• POLICY: being disruptive is grouds for dismissal
• process for new user orientation

Donation

• set limits on what is acceptable, or not
• how do we determine? (more for organization, not necessarily for education or non-profits) what we take for refurbishing and what we recycle (which incurs some costs)
• just doing professional level wipe of hard-drives is a $50 value
• POLICY: for organizations CRTs: $5, computers older than p4: $3, anything that is broken: $3
• we need to continue reaching out for donations to ensure adequate hardware to distribute

Process

Snow Clearing – cleaning up snow – will talk to landlord

Internet Coupons

• Pete has them printed, will bring them down
• if they go fast may have to consider something like promo code
• would help offset the $15 for modem (something like having to pay the modem fee but, in exchange, get 3 months of Xmission dialup free)

Preferred Vendor Lists

• problem is that people are getting computers, but need to be able to refer other volunteers for things like setting up DSL.
• Kind of falls into volunteer database (Matt – demonstration at February Board meeting)
• New requests for technical help (setting up Internet, configuring wireless, running cables, etc.) will blast it across member mediums (facebook, twitter, blog, email)
• Reminder to continue networking, can find new ways of helping

MAR Program – Randy will see if they can just start fresh, there is something misconfigured with our account

Publicity

Sign for front of building – Pete will contact his sign guy

Shirts – Chad’s friend Scoop offered 100 free shirts

Business Cards ­- Pete will talk to printer, just a simple design with web address, phone

Local Trade Groups

• need to be a presence at events
• man table at groups

Financial

Bills

• heat bill for last month was $500
• Dave will need to get a job this spring

Grants

• haven’t submitted any yet
• a number of grants are only for non-profits operating a year or more
• Board is near 100% for contributing back to the organization

Update on Online Sales

• tried selling video cards, got $1.50
• Sam has been taking junk laptops and creating an inventory list on what’s there
• DVD drive sold for $10.50
• All sale results are updated in board member accessible spreadsheet for all board to see, progress will be tracked there
• MAR systems that were set aside for previous order seem to be abandoned, because they don’t have the same legal stipulations as those machines from the school districts there is the possibility of selling on KSL for revenue

Tax Prep

• we have to file a 990
• pete will check on what is required for 990
• contributions from board members need to fill out “in-kind” letter

Future

Saturday Coverage

• Matt will be in on Sat. jan 23
• Saturdays will now be 8-4
• Laura will be Sat. jan 30th 10-3pm (Dave to open and close)
• Please update the calendar with work shifts for coordination
• Pete will do Feb 6th

Next Meeting – February 20th, 10am

At this point ERGS has placed close to 200 computers with non-profits, 15 to 20 with individuals.

Present Pete A, Laura M, Matthew R, Kyle W, Randy E, David T

Inventory Systems

• do we really need it?
• there is an argument for transparency, being able to say where things go
• would inventory cause more trouble than it is worth?
• anything of value goes in the cabinet locked up
• kyle thinks it very important but Randy, Dave don’t know if we have the resources
• need better documentation, pictures when computers are in picked up
• do need to track donations in the rough, except for the schools which is just a constant flow
• schema for the inventory, what is the timeline? possibly make it a community project
• need to discuss schema outside the board meeting
• on December 19 LUG will do Linux installs (on a Saturday) (Clint Savage)

Process

School District asked that we remove etchings in addition to labels from machines refurbished from school district’s stockpile

MAR program

• daily conversations, account doesn’t work, still working on getting it fixed
• next meeting, a price list of MAR list that could be upsold on machines that going out (Randy)

Fundraising

Miscellaneous

• need to put fundraising letter in html template
• initial email push has gone out, nothing has showed up in paypal yet
• grants want to know how many board members give, starts with the board
• people want to give to opportunities instead of needs
• need a one sheet; a story, a picture, a call to action (Pete said he can work on it, Laura)
• Pete will get his appeal out to his board member friends this week
• agreed on flickr tag #ergs
• need to get a photographer to come down and take some profession photos
• have a big, fundraising event in the next 6th months

eBay?

• what to do with the high end equipment, that which isn’t appropriate for individuals (like high end routers)
• concern is that it is time intensive
• there is a ergs account created
• Randy is mr. ebay, wants help with shipping and determining value
• have a spreadsheet with all costs, revenue broken into a spreadsheet
• volunteers to help to shipping
• q.how do we decide what to sell on ebay for revenue stream, what do we keep? a. its whoever is here, let their expertise make the decision
• need to associate the paypal account with the ebay account

Publicity

Website

• used to have unified look with wiki, but now identity is split
• todo: matthew will see if there is help directly from Automattic in skinning WP for ERGS

Getting Press

• is it time to contact tv, newspaper (pete will contact trib, desnews for Dec 19th event)
• Board Member Challenge: approach an area service orgainization, ask if they could use 2 computers for the holidays for people in need, 2 families before Christmas, 3 months xmission dialup access, 1.8, 2 GHZ, p4, dvd read/write, 40gigs, 1 gig

stickers for the machines – not only dontated by ergs, but bring it back when its done

saturday board member coverage at the warehouse

• becomes a long day
• try and donate a saturday, need to spend one with dave, randy to get tasks defined, learn the process
• start in January

Price/redemption list

• randy created a sample list for hours for getting stuff
• need the redemption list converted to spanish

status of getting state to change surplus policy

• won’t get in this session
• if not will get it in committee over the summer

status of power/electricity upgrades

• kyle will have cost for them next week
• as for landlord, gutters are growing plants, west side is broken
• move the “for rent” sign

need to get a sign for the building Charlie from CFK has requested 50 computers with MAR licensing – will hold machines for two weeks to pick up

next board meeting the 16th, a Saturday in January

MatthewReinbold: SHAZAM!

dturnbull left the room (quit: Ping timeout: 180 seconds).

MatthewReinbold: do we have enough people here or has the meeting majority requirement already been filled?

Randye left the room (quit: Ping timeout: 180 seconds).

thinbegin [a646d069@webchat.mibbit.com] entered the room.

MatthewReinbold: howdy

Randye [~windows7_@ergs.dsl.xmission.com] entered the room.

MatthewReinbold: welcome Randye

dturnbull [~Administr@ergs.dsl.xmission.com] entered the room.

MatthewReinbold: Hi Dave!

MatthewReinbold: it was getting lonely in here. Pete just sat there in austere silence. (I’m assuming he was busy with something else )

Randye: we are having some strange network issues down here…so we might keep dropping…

MatthewReinbold: k

MatthewReinbold: do we have enough to screw in a lightbulb? or, more importantly, have this count as a board meeting?

Randye: I think we have numbers

dturnbull: yeah, we have a quorum

thinbegin: are the board members going to id themselves?

thinbegin:

MatthewReinbold: Matthew Reinbold – Secretary, Linguist

Randye: Randy Everett= What is my title?

thinbegin: heh

MatthewReinbold: “Harbinger of BOOM!”

MatthewReinbold: next?

dturnbull: I’m Dave — vice president . . . of awesome

thinbegin: lulz

Randye: first order of business.. what date in Dec works best for the next board meeting?

dturnbull: so, we’ve met the technical requirements of the by-laws. shall we schedule the december meeting and then adjourn, or would you like to actually discuss some things?

MatthewReinbold: with so few here, I say we just try and hit a Dec date, otherwise other’s input will be left out

dturnbull: OK

MatthewReinbold: Saturday, 12/5?

MatthewReinbold: maybe 10am?

dturnbull: That works for me.

MatthewReinbold: anyone else? thoughts?

Randye: works for me..

dturnbull: pashdown: you have one of the busier schedules — does it work for you?

dturnbull: unum: are you still around?

MatthewReinbold: poke…. POKE…. oh wait, this isn’t facebook

dturnbull: lol

dturnbull: thinbegin: have you been down to the warehouse yet?

Randye: no poking while online… so that on your own time

thinbegin: no, i haven’t yet…

thinbegin: meant to over the weekend, but didn’t get a chance

Randye: you should come down…

MatthewReinbold: I heard the Internet is 30% poking…

dturnbull: it’s been polking along here, today

thinbegin: sure will. promise

dturnbull: our connection keeps dropping

dturnbull: this is the longest uninterrupted time we’ve had in a couple of hours

MatthewReinbold: well, do we need a vote to make saturday’s time official? not sure if Pete and unum are still on…

Randye: I vote yes… 12/5 at 10:00am

dturnbull: I think we can set a schedule w/o a vote — I just hoped they were listening in case it didn’t work for them

MatthewReinbold: yes here. that’s two. what do we need – 5?

dturnbull: but 12/5 @ 10 works for me

MatthewReinbold: that’s 3

Randye: kyle ? Pete?

MatthewReinbold: well, while we wait – have you read about the CrunchPad implosion? so sad: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/30/crunchpad-end/?utmsource=feedburner&utmmedium=feed&utmcampaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utmcontent=Google+Reader

dturnbull: I pinged Pete in a separate chat

dturnbull: seperate?

dturnbull: I never could spell that word

MatthewReinbold: two a’s – separate

dturnbull: well, let’s publish the time to the mailing list. I think we’ll get more feedback there.

MatthewReinbold: Dave, you want to send out the note?

dturnbull: I will

Randye: Okay… so did we meet our requirement of a meeting this month? if so I vote we end the meeting and next month have a real board meeting… 2nd?

dturnbull: we can vote to adjourn the meeting — I’m pretty sure all we need is a majority of the board members present

MatthewReinbold: k. If we’re done, I’ve got to go. I’ll plan on talking with all of you on Saturday. 2ndeded

Randye: all say Yea

MatthewReinbold: Yeh!

dturnbull: yeh

Present

Randy Everett

David Turnbull

Pete Ashdown

Matthew Reinbold

Laura Moncur

Kyle Waters

Action Items

• Matthew will compile list of those that have received computers so far
• Matthew will work with Dave to create necessary forms for volunteers, donations
• Randy will approach contact about possibility of seeing equipment disposed in conjunction with the county; may be possibility of lower rate per ton
• Dave will be getting another large box for steel recycled items
• Randy will get Matthew legaleese on Microsoft licensing for documentation of legitamay on OS installs

Policy

• ERGS will accept all donations within the Salt Lake Area, even if the equipment doesn’t meet the minimum refurbished spec.
• Items that fall below minimum spec will be recycled
• Minimum system specs for computes distributed by ERGS are at least 1GHZ processor, 1GB RAM, 40GB harddrive

Introduction Pete began the meeting by thanking the group, specifically Randy and Dave, for the tremendous amount of work that has been accomplished so far. The booth at the Open Source Conference was successful in not only raising awareness but soliciting pledges to help out. Nearly 80 organizations have asked for assistance of some sort.

Forms

• Two types of forms are needed. The first is some kind of documentation to validate service donating to the group. The second is to recognize hardware donations.
• One record keeping possibility will be to use spreadsheets to keep track of numbers, merge out into thank you letters
• print up forms at kinkos, with the carbon copies?

Minimum System Requirements/Acceptance Policy

• There were some concerns about handling hardware that may be previously ‘harvested’ or fall below refurbishable condition. The decision was made to accept these donations anyway with the understanding that we will be able to best pass on the equipment to the proper recycling outlets.
• Current rate is $4k for 10 tons of recycled hardware
• Dave will be getting another large box/receptical for steel items

Computer Processing Flow

• Workspace for processing computers from reception to delivery continues to be refined
• Imaging of computers from network share is now configured
• Can process 8 computers simultaneously and have them completely configured in 8 minutes.
• Machines leave ERGS having their default home pages set to the ERGS website and a custom made ERGS desktop wallpaper

Web Based Inventory Management

• would be nice to have some kind of web based inventory management
• key would be having drop down forms instead of fill in the blank text, keep taxonomies consistent

Machine Refurbishment Discoveries

• Most common hardware failure discovered now is on board video is dead
• This may have been the reason why we inherited boxes of unused video cards from CFK
• When prepping machines for labs it is preferable to use the smaller form factor boxes
• Also, on lab machines, may be able to get by with smaller hard-drive sizes

Letterhead

• Dave created a letterhead
• Need to see if laser jets currently in inventory are operational; if so, could be used to print on nice stationary for donation inquiries
• Letterhead template is located in the ERGS dropbox storage