Freegle Reps Report 2010-11-15

This Report is a summary of the Reps activities from 24th October until 15th November. There were approximately 550 posts on the Freegle Reps Yahoo group between the seven currently serving Reps.

Increasing Volunteer Involvement

We discussed a number of aspects of this:

• Some working groups and teams would benefit from more people to share the work. We are working on a “Situations Vacant” list for regular circulation. We will also make use of the Skills Survey results to prompt individuals to apply for posts on this list.
• As well as sharing the work, some groups would benefit from better organisation of the work that needs doing. We did further work on the Working Groups Practices, in collaboration with Structure, and this is now on Central for comment.
• We would like to get more groups represented on Central - partly because it increases involvement, and partly as a fallback for the problems we’re having with mailing -owner addresses. We have asked the Central owners to run with this, asking for additional help if required.

If you’ve not completed the Skills Survey, please do so at https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEhtMXJkRE9LSmlJNGl2QzEyZ2tIOHc6MQ

Reps Matters

• We spent significant time discussing and answering a number of questions from the Ombudsman and Panel about Carol’s suspension. This unresolved situation continues to have an effect on the morale of the group.
• We took a pass through our task list to clear off items which had been completed. We agreed that we need to use this more effectively in future.
• We have set up some email addresses for Reps at ilovefreegle.org so that we can put them on business cards.

Group Applications

• We were approached by a group owner who was standing down. A replacement owner has been found locally.
• We have been asked by the GAT to consider an application where the applicant may be unsuitable. This is ongoing.
• We had some discussions with GAT about possible specialist groups.

Technical Matters

• We discussed the importance of getting the bulk mailing working so that we can move forward on the items awaiting polling.
• We are in contact with some Freegle volunteers who are considering developing a replacement site. We have been asked not to reveal information about this, so are limited in what we can say. We have expressed the view that this should be discussed openly on Tech.
• We had some discussions about replacement web hosting, which is up for renewal. This moved to the Tech group, and Paul is leading getting this organised.
• This led to a discussion about how to pay for such expenses; there are financial procedures which are queued up for a full volunteer poll which, if approved, would allow opening a Freegle bank account. This discussion has been taken to Structure.
• We discussed whether the republishing and Facebook work should be made available to other reuse groups. This is a decision for the developers (currently Edward); the intention is to do this when it’s suitable.

Media Matters

• We had discussions with the organisers of the GovToday conference, and arranged free attendance for councils We got some good contacts at this, and it’s good to raise our profile with more mainstream organisations.
• We registered with and had discussions with the London Community Reuse Network. Cat, Paul and Liz (Enfield) will be going to their Christmas event to form closer links.
• We discussed a couple of possible awards to apply for, but decided against doing so, partly for lack of time, partly because we thought our chances of success with those particular awards were low, and partly because some required payment.

Miscellaneous

• We discussed the debate on Structure about the Governing Document, and how best to move it forward. Peter is leading this task on Structure.
• We did our regular checks that nobody is trying to register Freegle as a trademark.
• We discussed possible confusion arising from maps existing both on Google, and on the ilovefreegle.org site.
• We were approached to link with a commercial site. We had previously decided not to link to such sites at present, and replied saying so.
• We accepted an offer from Mike (Gillingham) to update the Member FAQ on the website (which has been outstanding for some time). This is awaiting resolution of a technical issue about links.

Reps

Back to Freegle Representative Group or Freegle Reps Report 2010-10-23