Workshop guide

This is a guide for leaders of volunteer workshops. It contains a lot of information specific to FCS, and will need editing if we shop work in other spaces. It should contain everything you need to know about running a workshop.

If it doesn't, then it needs to be updated. You can edit it yourself, or contact one of the other contributors (see the 'View History' tab) for help.

If you don't have the answers necessary to update this guide, then please cry out for help on the FGSEA Google group or our IRC channel, #freegeek-sea on freenode.net or webchat.

Preparation

Before you arrive

Announce the event

The Main Page contains a green sidebar on the right-hand side labelled Upcoming Events which contains a list of events by date. You can choose the date of the workshop you want to lead from there, and click the 'e' link to pre-populate it with the usual template information. From there you can edit it as normal.

Currently you must have a wiki account in order to lead workshops.

If the date / workshop you want isn't in the list, you can create it manually by creating a page of the form `YYYY-MM-DD_FCS_Workshop` and adding template {{FCS_Workshop}} at the top. Then hit `Show Preview` and you should be able to add your information according to the embedded instructions.

When you're filling out this information, do some thinking about what you want to accomplish in this particular workshop. Keep in mind that many of our volunteers are experienced IT people who are not in the Build program- when people like this show up, talk to them about what they're planning to do and try to have some guidance or tasks for them to work on if they haven't brought anything with them.

Please don't waste volunteers' time: it's the most precious resource available to us.

Once you've signed up to lead in this way, you can then announce the workshop (and the fact that you'll lead it) to the FGSEA Google group. It might be best to wait until two or three days before the meeting to make this announcement. If you are an op on our IRC channel, #freegeek-sea on freenode.net or webchat then you can also add it to /topic; if you're not an op then you can ask koanhead or delimiter to add it.

When you arrive

On arrival, boot up gundam and sign in to our IRC channel, #freegeek-sea on freenode.net or webchat. There is usually someone on the channel on Saturday where you can ask questions and announce anything interesting you might find or do. If you don't have an account on gundam then you can sign in on the Guest account or as `freegeek`. If you need privs contact koanhead to talk you through it.

Also open up the Volunteer Hours Sheet and record volunteer arrival and departure times. Don't forget your own times! We need this information so that we can provide it to grantors as evidence that we're providing service to the public.

You'll need the following:

• Volunteer Orientation packet
• Volunteer Application form

All the necessary paper forms should be on the wire shelf above the printer. If any are missing, you can print out more from gundam.

Worksheet Links

Inventory sheet

Volunteer hours sheet

Orientation

All new volunteers (anyone showing up for the first time) should first read the Volunteer Orientation packet and fill out the Volunteer Application form. Look for them on the wire shelf or print out more as needed. Each workshop will begin with a New Volunteer Orientation. Please see New Volunteer Orientation HOWTO if you are conducting a workshop and need guidance on how to conduct an orientation.

Once the orientation is complete, it's up to you and your volunteers as to what to do next. Most volunteers will probably be doing a Build and will need assistance or instruction. This may or may not leave you time to do something else. Following are some ideas:

• Dismantling
• Data Destruction
• Identification
• Recycle runs
• Assembling new machines
• Installing OS

Any of these things are appropriate for volunteers with little or no IT knowledge, after having basic Safety Training and some instruction from us. When you have more experienced, IT-knowledgeable volunteers available, you will probably want to have them working on other stuff. Many of these folks will come in already knowing what they are working on: this is fine, and you as Lead can serve as a point of co-ordination to help folks work together, get things unlocked, and so forth.

Most of the time volunteers will need some guidance as to what tasks to pursue; making the best use of skilled volunteers' time requires some forethought. See Projects for ideas, and write your schemes down under the 'Agenda' sub-head on your workshop's wiki page.

Room Layout

The room's layout keeps changing over time. As of March 2015 we have a large set of shelves on the west wall next to the door which mostly holds parts. On the north wall beside the same door is the intake shelf, with a plastic table to its right and the outgo shelf to the right of that. For fun, let's call that plastic table the Eval table. When a volunteer is ready to Build, this is where it begins. If you have volunteers who have completed the preliminaries then you can start them here on teardown or Eval. There are other tables in the room. The main work table is near the middle of the room, but will be moved soon because it's hard to work around it.

The layout is evolving. Please remember to update this information when you make a change!

Hardware

Tools live on the wooden shelf on the south wall, to the right of the table. There are Torx bits, a full Torx driver set, screwdrivers, wrenches, tweezers, and other tools. There are also several cans of air for dusting. Frequently someone brings in a vacuum cleaner, but we don't own one yet. Leads should make sure all these tools get put away at the end of the session.

There are several shoebox-sized plastic bins for parts. Mostly they are labeled but this is a work in progress. This space can use more organizing and better labeling. Please document any changes here!

Recycling

We have still to coordinate our recycling efforts. Total Reclaim closes at 16:30, 3R closes at 18:00. Meetings nearly always run later than that, so we need to work together to get the recycling done. We need to keep parts moving out of inventory so that we can receive new donations.

After the workshop

It's a good idea to take notes during the workshop of things that happen. It's useful to keep these notes on the workshop's wiki page so that they are available as a reference in the future.

After the workshop it's a nice idea to send an email with a summary of the events of the workshop along with a link to the relevant wiki page with your notes. The workshop template has a section labeled ==What Happened== for this purpose.