2014-10-13 TPC Board Meeting

A board meeting--occured

RSVP

 * 1) Ann (User:Susy)
 * 2) AaronPeterson (talk) 15:19, 22 September 2014 (PDT)
 * 3) Mark Foster
 * 4) User:Boxcutter

Overview
Monthly meetings are the 2nd Monday of each month. Board meetings are quarterly and occur at the end of Monthly meetings. All meetings are free and open to the public.

Agenda

 * Need regular sources of donations and consistency in reporting of progress. --Jon
 * Need consistency in coordination and oversight of volunteers. --Jon
 * We have super simple organizational tools like the Lead signup list that are not being used - it takes 5 seconds to add your name to the list on the Wiki. --Ann
 * Website policy, Some website changes should require a board action, some requires offers approval, some can be trained volunteer adjusted, some can be community adjusted.   If we have a simple guiding policy it can enable quick action, and stop random people from changing things like... say the mission statement..
 * Mission statement: Do we have one?  Can I propose a rewording of it?
 * What is our dban wipe policy? DOD Short?  Person starting it and person completing it signs the disk?
 * I will have a method of tracking hardware on the wiki to show.
 * Official Facebook page / group Events listed on facebook.
 * Do we have official documentation of permission to use FreeGeeks policies and procedures? if they go on the wiki, is it ok to have them be in the public domain...?
 * At this point, I would propose that Board Members are required to rotate as leads with a minimum of at least 1 rotation every 8 weeks to backfill the lack of volunteer leads. (Jon)
 * Website:
 * automatically authenticated wiki users?
 * Namespaces to protect official works.
 * Phone number, Can we get a vonage phone or some other phone system that can be a mailbox and or forward to someone who is on call?
 * Sickness policy, We should at least ask people to stay home if they are sick, and have sanitation wipes.
 * Many of the people who need our services will have special health needs
 * Free Geek Branding and kit deployment.
 * Computer labs, AaronPeterson (talk) has located a place that could use proper network mounted home directories and ldap authentication, LTSP is probably the right solution, but it gets hard with hodgepodge computers.
 * and another place to to deploy a public Kiosk computer.
 * Stop the 50 word requirement for an about page.

Ideas
(Sorry that this is a bit of a manifesto AaronPeterson (talk) 02:57, 21 September 2014 (PDT))
 * Use a WRT54G to operate as a door sensor / button with a tap to indicate how long guests are welcome / simple web server to indicate that the workshop is open at unusual times, and track if it is actually happening
 * WikiHowto can solve most of the hardware database issues, personnel tracking, etc, if we setup easy conventions and templates.
 * Use velcro plant ties to wrap cords
 * Modify the FCS lab arrangementso that there are two work areas, so that people do not shout across the room.
 * We can have a boisterous area, and a quiet area.. If we can use the lab that can be the quiet area. A bit of rearrangement of furniture can help people talk quieter.
 * Increase quality control, Aaron has come across 3 bad computers in a row, including the one he bought for his grandpa (it was just the video card, so he removed it and it was good enough).   What we can do is insist on a memory test of every computer.
 * Desktop intake Laptop intake Device intake Visual status indication of computers... A simple card on each computer can have spots for colored dots( or checklist) that can indicate progress of computer. This card can be much smaller than a half sheet of paper.
 * We need to be including new coin cell batteries in all of the computers that are over a few years old. These coin cells die after a few years, and well within 5 years, these computers will need service again... for a preventable maintenance issue.
 * Computers we release to the unsuspecting need to support sse2 instruction set (all 64bit computers do this, some pentium 4's do, but no athlonXPs)Otherwise chrome won't work.
 * Software
 * We need to version bump to 14.04... if it doesn't work on old hardware, it is a bug that needs to be reported, and on a case by case basis 12.04 could work... Think of the users who will still be using these computers 6 years from now
 * XFCE does not support "accept/cancel" which is a basic need for a real world computer system. Neither does Mate, Cinnamon, LXDE and old versions of gnome.  I have great difficulty supporting these systems, or even using them because of this.
 * Kubuntu is the only acceptable environment I've found in a while. fluxbox or enlightenment might be..

Wiki
 * Conventions to use
 * themes
 * extensions
 * namespaces
 * make automatic account that doesn't have access to the front page or any fgs namespace pages, or templates.
 * https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Creating_pages_with_preloaded_text

Attendance

 * Elcaset
 * JT
 * Mfoster
 * Boxcutter
 * Injigo
 * Ann
 * AaronPeterson

Topics/Ideas Discussed

 * 1) Wiki changes/communication


 * 1) Discussing teams of two.
 * 2) have a person for recruiting.
 * 3) being a member, means participating every so often.


 * 1) methods to recruit
 * 2) posting fliers
 * 3) Wearing Tshirts


 * 1) What is our statement of purpose


 * 1) Methods of communicating

We will discuss phone on the board email. voice is going into hangouts
 * 1) Phone...


 * 1) Volunteer Lead Sign in Sheet.

commitments to sign up every 6 to 8 weeks.
 * 1) Should we call people people...

volunteer orientation procedure. Need it on wiki or whatever.
 * 1) Procedures


 * 1) Reports--
 * 2) Every Event is it's own report.
 * 3) (the wiki is a database)
 * 4) names and such.


 * 1) We need to show that we have participated.
 * 2) mandating is not pleasant


 * 1) Email Wiki Accounts was raised, and no action was taken.
 * 2) People don't want to encourage people to report their attendence.
 * 3) Note, that meetup.com does this.(Comments by AaronP)
 * 4) Note that we can have it be optional
 * 5) This will help with attendence etc.


 * 1) We are planning to copy the Portland groups wiki to our wiki


 * 1) Elcaset is moving soon, and may have changing roles

Motion to base build procedure on portland, then move forward.
 * 1) technicality, What is their license?


 * 1) Sodo makerspace
 * 2) 15-20 people
 * 3) opportunity to have a class
 * 4) Maybe do our monthly meeting once every 6 months.
 * 5) also workshops for exposure.
 * 6) donating computers to sodo
 * 7) and training
 * 8) clinics are possible where people bring their own kit in