[FreeGeek] June 2nd, Monthly Meeting Minutes

[David Repa]

Free Geek Vancouver Monthly Meeting Minutes, June 2007

Meeting date and time: Saturday June 02, 2007 at 117 East 2nd Ave.


* Old Business

The hardware drive netted 40 monitors, 20 computers, and 10 boxes
misc. $208 made. Most people who came did so after hearing about FG
through appearances at Earth Day, and some from Sierra Legal Defence
Fund, who noted it in their offices.

RCBC Conference in Whistler (in the Westin hotel). David and Ifny
attended for 2 days, and presented on FG's model of operation. This
was met affirmatively, and generated a lot of interest. David and
Ifny also met the founder of the Basel Action Network, and found some
contacts with Computers For Schools, who are currently doing 2 - 3 FG
donations per week.

Club Day at Simon Fraser University; FG became an official "club" and
so can put a drop-off point at SFU, and get a tiny bit of funding for
it.

Hackathon; 8 FGeeks showed up, and made some new friends among very
clever programmers. As such FG Vancouver now has many more links to
its web site, and is moving up in the Google search results.

Supplying the Greater Vancouver Regional District with a working 5
1/4" floppy drive; the GVRD needed one of these to copy old data
relating to spring floods. FG supplied it, and got a nice story for
the FG web site out of it. GVRD employees also donated a bunch of old
hardware.

GVRD Zero Waste Conference; Ifny attended. Word is spreading, and
Ifny found many new contacts.

Bank balance showing $980; growing each month. That was derived
mainly from monitor fees, but there are lots of old monitors piling up.

New location: rent is $2000 per month, with utilities included.

Business license: David and Ifny went to City Hall to establish
proper zoning classification. This took two days, which is much less
time than it usually takes.

Media: David did a live 6-minute interview on CBC Radio One on either
May 8 or May 9. The head of the Salvation Army heard this, and called
to request a meeting. Another guy called and donated a "mint" C64.

FG was also mentioned in the Langara College Voice, Tooth & Dagger,
the North Shore News, and on the 30 Days of Sustainability web site.

* New Business

Free Geek has a new phone number: 604 879-GEEK (4335).

Bert from 36 Zero Waste will visit soon to offer his opinion on
process (ie sorting, and planning for intake, dismantling, etc), and
to show us how to properly stack monitors.

The current plans for the location are:

Separation of warehouse and retail is required by the City of
Vancouver. The front of the location (entered from 2nd Ave) will thus
become a sort of lounge, which can be used for workgroup meetings.
Access to the back (entered from the alley) will be possible but
limited.

Security: we need some bars for the front door and windows. Ifny
knows someone who will make these, if we supply the metal.

The washroom is not handicapped accessible. We need a wheelchair
lift, so we will look for a grant to get one. Until then, there's a
24-hour gas station on the corner.

The wiring also needs work; we have to install new electrical outlets
for testing assembled systems.

The neighbours in the building are: audio geeks who make speakers, a
silkscreen studio, a recording studio, and some guys who make
surfboards.

There will soon be an Operations workgroup.

Report from Gerald on the Recycling workgroup, and its discussion on
working with 36 Zero Waste. The workgroup does not wish to use the
word "partnership" with or for anyone. Preferred terminology is
"working relationship" or "the people handling our materials" or
suchlike. (Final wording is a job for the Content workgroup.) That
aside, the Recycling workgroup wishes to work with 36 Zero Waste.

This led to a discussion of logos and links on the FG web site. We do
not wish to see anyone else's logo on the FG web site. We will
provide links to other sites, but not on the FG home page. These
links will open in a new window.

This led to: Do we wish to provide a FG "badge" that other web sites
can display to link to FG's site? We agreed that this is a good idea,
but further discussion was deferred until we talk to FG Portland
about permissions (since they have trademarked the Free Geek name).

* New Events

June 9, FG booth at Champlain Heights Community Centre, needs people.
June 16, hardware drive in the same location, needs people.
June 17, FG booth at Commercial Drive Car-Free Day Fest, needs people.
June 28, "Bike Shorts" Movie Night at the Vancouver East Cinema, needs
people.

All of these will be announced on the general mailing list.June 2nd