This meetings blog is meant to keep everyone up to date to what was discussed at Velocipede collective meetings.

Volunteer Meeting Notes: may 2k10
June 5, 2010

ben,
joe,
ginny,
gabby,
anton,
tim,
lars,
noah,
peter,
boson

Volunteer meeting:

Types of Volunteers:
general - don’t know much
averagely competent
actual shop mechanic

Lars: its not just the level of mechanical competency, but rather we have levels of people skills

Ben G: I see two things: level of interest towards the betterment of shop and actual technical skills.

joe: we _do_ need to have some mechanical, shop oriented people.

Lars: in many cases, people are not volunteering cuz they want to; rather its to get shop membership/credit.
there are people who do want to volunteer and have an ongoing relationship w/ the shop.

Anton: I do think technical skills are a huge part… that is a part of our mission; to pass down the technical skills… we really shouldn’t  be okay w someone just building shelves for 3 hrs a mo.  to maintain membership.

Joe: having an extra ‘class’ might be too confusion and moot.

Noah: I like having the 3 classifications: (relate to MD food co op that had super volunteers w/ additional privilages but have been vetted)

Joe:

Noah: some people tend to come in for a social reason.

Ginny: Do we want to be taskmasters? (ie: if you’re signed in the you need to be doing something)

Lars: there are a selection of people who do the barest minimum

Peter:  we need to have a really simple system.  We can’t stop waste and theft, we can lessen the effects.

Gabby:  is that something we want to enforce?

Peter: I think we should feel empowered to confront people.

Noah: bothered by the lack of autonomy… ex: andy coming in asking us what needs to be done.

Ginny: actually I never experienced anyone as a taskmaster.  I don’t think that’s our problem.

pete: I would say that our strength is having a volunteer coordinator.    I guess I feel saddened that lars don’t feel empowered to kick people out of the shop… we’re responsible for this project, so we should have that power.

Gabby: this is a problem:  sometimes a person comes in wanting a look around and then their friends come in and then it becomes a crowd.

Joe: we SHOULD have someone who can lead other people around.

Tim: I’d like to address NOT the people who are NOT volunteering but the ones who are volunteering and the discrepancy in what they get back.

Joe: a lot these problems can be solved by having super vol’s…

Lars: if we formulize the super vol role, we probably should have a seperate day for supervolunteers…

Peter: I like this but I have problems: the people who do this might not need the rewards. at the sailing center, but sometimes symbolic appreciation works well.

Ben: someone having concerns about

+ -

+
simple
less regulation and more managable.
vc knows what everyone is doing.

-
some people earn too many hours for tasks since they take too long
some people just sit around
everyone has to check in w/ VC no matter what level of competancy
different levels of education not determined by vol.
staff members(aka super volunteers)  lose shop time as a resource.

Super Volunteers:

peter: do the super volunteers WANT to be IN a committee?
Ben: part of the super volunteers is to put people who don’t want to lead… maybe they don’t want to be in a committee tho?

-people who have skills and interest who can help us staff a shop or run a committee (ie: mechanic, accounting)
-dedicated volunteer
-someone who we have a higher level of trust that we can give more responsibility.
-they have an understanding of our mission/ideals/etc.

requirements:

benefits:

shirts for super volunteers
name tags
different shop credit (worth more)
more than 50/50 on stuff
on name board

super vol night:
ben: I don’t think we need a full competent range of people.since we trust the people and they got skills

keys?
+
get access anytime
don’t further strain collective members’ time

-
higher level of trust
expensive

what constitutes a super volunteers?
-active in commitee
-additional level of vol time.
-vetting

gabby volunteers to head up super volunteer coordination
ginny will look into printing shirts
peter will look into name tags

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