On Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 4:53 PM, Theresa Kehoe <[email protected]> wrote:
> OK, I'm going to make a snarky comment ... to keep tabs on volunteer
> hours, we need the volunteers to utilize our login sheet. Some
> volunteers (including Robert Citek) do not log their time. So this is
> always going to be an imperfect art.
Agreed. However, I don't think we effectively communicate why
volunteers should log their hours. I mentioned keeping tabs so to
avoid burn-out, but why else should a volunteer log their hours? If
it's just to give me some kind of bragging rights over someone else
("look, I've put in more hours than you, so I'm better"), then I'll
continue not posting hours. You can assume it's about two hours per
week.
>> 2) prioritize projects. We can't do everything, nor should we.
>
> Agreed. However, if we're teaching classes and advertising EAC
> computers to be given out at graduation, then we need to build EAC
> computers.
Rephrased: we award computers. If we had another source, we wouldn't
need to build them.
BTW, small nit: we probably don't want to say "give out" computers.
When I talk to potential donors, the last thing most want to hear is
that we are another hand-out program which fosters the "gimme"
attitude. Students "earn" computers and we "award" them.
> If we are supposed to generate a certain monthly amount of
> revenue from PC sales, then we need PCs to sell.
Rephrased: we need a revenue stream. If we could find an alternative
revenue stream, we wouldn't need to sell PCs.
> Also, your suggestions assume some things which I don't think are
> reflected in the reality of our shop, such as:
>
> 1) all volunteers put in the same number of hours.
The example was for illustrative purposes, but works for any number of
hours and volunteers.
> 2) all volunteers are willing to do all tasks.
Not assumed. That process works for a diverse set of tasks.
> 3) all volunteers are able and available to do all tasks.
Again, I don't make that assumption. Break it out into a grid: tasks
across the top, volunteer's name along the side.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pcV2OCtmINkeodWdPYEsRAQ
>From that grid we see that we have two people who can teach, one
person that can build EACs, and one person who can sell. From this
grid I would conclude that teaching is covered, that Joe should train
Mary on selling, and that we recruit volunteers for building EAC
machines.
It would also indicate that we may want to modify how we log hours.
In addition to hours, we may want to track the task worked on.
One could expand the grid to include days and hours available. This
isn't a perfect system, but it's something to build on.
> Bill puts in extra hours to get the
> graduate image built (Thank you, Bill!!!). I bring home hard drives to
> clone during the week. And somehow, some way, we manage to get the grad
> boxes built before week 6.
While I appreciate the valiant efforts of volunteers who put in the
extra time, I worry that we seem to be operating in crisis-mode almost
every session. What mechanism or process can we put into place so
that we avoid asking Bill, you, or any other volunteer to put in the
extra hours?
> Recruiting new volunteers? You betcha booties!
Once we have volunteers do we have a method of training them? If not,
then that's something I'd be happy to work on.
> Things would be a whole lot better if our "core" consisted of 20 rather
> than 6. I uploaded the hours for 2008 (.xls) to the bworks_staff files
> section, if anyone is interested.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/bworks_staff/files/Human%20Resources%20Committee/Volunteer%20Information/ByteWorks_Hours_2008/
How are we recording time spent outside of the shop, e.g. your time
building OEM at home and other volunteers that rarely venture into the
shop?
> I agree, we need to avoid burn-out. We also no longer have a ByteWorks
> Director, who worked 4 times as many hours as the "core" group does.
> So, either we recruit a new director, or we distribute a much heftier
> workload, or both.
Or we get 8+ new core volunteers.
> Thanks for your input, though -- good to hear what people are thinking,
> and good to hear some suggestions.
No problem.
Regards,
- Robert
