[frgeek-michiana] Lab Notes, 3/1/05
- From: Tom Brown <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: FreeGeek Michiana <frgeek-michiana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 03 Mar 2005 21:36:37 -0500
Present: Albert Boits, Rick Tribble, John Mansfield, Tom Brown
:: FreeBox Class
Terry and Jackie taught the FreeBox class last Saturday. I filled in for
Terry for the first hour. Terry's son was competing in a miniature soap box
derby.
Six people graduated. Terry said the students were very quick and most of
them tested immediately after the instruction ended. One of the FreeBoxes
came back Tuesday with a bad video card. I swapped it for a box we had just
put together. The recipient was very pleased to get such good service. She
expressed an interest in volunteering, and I hope to see her next Tuesday.
We are receiving more calls again. Terry, Jackie and I are emphasizing that
our best source of referrals are the FreeBox recipients themselves and ask
them to recruit for us. I think the strategy is starting to work. Jackie is
handling the booking and doing an excellent job. Still, we should craft a
marketing plan this year.
:: More Gaylords for Warehouse
John is going to add gaylords on pallets to the warehouse. The plan is to
keep the material sorted and ready to recycle. When our space fills up,
we'll transport the already sorted material to a recycler.
John is continuing to investigate free transport to a recycler in Madison,
WI. The firm handles computers, monitors and peripherals, demanufactured or
not -- a one stop vendor. General Sheet Metal Works schedules regular
deliveries to a Toro plant in Minnesota, I believe. The recycler is only
slightly out of the way. John thinks we can ship pallets for free when
there is empty space on the trailers.
:: FreeBoxen for Class
Because of the weather, Albert and I thought we were the only volunteers
Tuesday evening. We decided the two of us would try to put together 8 boxes
for the class. Rick and John showed up not long after Al and I set up the
fellowship hall for refurbishing. I think we finished 9 boxes with 45
minutes to spare. We had a good time talking and working.
:: Paperwork
I've fallen behind in paperwork since Jan underwent surgery. The truth is
I'm not much inclined to do paper work anyway and was already behind. I'm a
very busy guy too. But I'm doing a little every day and will eventually
catch up. If we have enough volunteers next Tuesday, I'll assign someone
the task of entering volunteer hours in a spreadsheet for the United Way
report. Or, I'll do it while others are building FreeBoxes.
:: The Monitor Problem
We have a monitor problem. FGM is not receiving enough money in disposal
fees to pay for recycling monitors at their end of life.
FGM has given away over 100 computers. Very few of them were donated with a
monitor disposal fee. We require recipients to sign an agreement to return
the computers when they are broken or no longer useful. If every monitor is
returned when it dies, we can expect to spend $1000 (100 x $10) in
recycling costs, not to mention transportation. And, we are distributing
FreeBoxes at a faster rate than ever before.
Rick proposed that we charge a $10 deposit to encourage recipients to
return the monitors at their end of life. I think Rick has a good idea. If
successful, it would keep more monitors and their toxic components out of
the landfill and water supply. But it doesn't cover our disposal liability.
Al, John and I think we might need to charge $10-$15 dollars for each
FreeBox. The fee would be set aside for disposal and not as a deposit.
Would recipients return monitors in that case? We don't know. We're open
for ideas. The current plan is to offset losses on monitor disposal with
recycling revenue and donations. It is not a good plan, but the only one we
have.
A second problem is monitors are running low. Right now we have more
computers than monitors. Most of the monitors at the church are not good
enough. Olin dropped off 14 or so at the warehouse a few weeks ago. They
need testing.
:: Board Meeting
Please submit agenda items for our next Board of Directors meeting. We
should pick a date and time and hold one soon.
Tom
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