April 7, 2010 Communications Committee Meeting¶

In attendance: Will, Mark, Jess, Chris¶

Agenda¶

• Next meeting
  • Tasks for next meeting

• Council & Committee Communication
  • 501©(3) status changes
    • Discuss ways to best organize membership records
      • Need current and accurate hours
      • Need current and accurate membership status
    • Discuss ways to organize FR internal policies, notes, and documents
      • Wiki? Crabgrass? Hard copies?

• Shop Communication
  • Investigate phone providers
  • Possibly change provider to one that provides phone and internet
  • Cooperation with Creative Re-use
• Computer use in the shop
  • Digital records instead of paper?

• World Communication
  • Bike Stickers

Next meeting¶

Time/Location¶

• TBD

Tasks for next meeting¶

• TBD

Council & Committee Communications¶

501©(3) status changes¶

• Initial Thoughts
  • Caroline: We need to go through all our old meetings and notes to find policies on which we had a consensus.
    • Possibly a paid task.
  • Most pertinent policy areas with respect to non-profit status
    • Memership records
    • Transaction records (money, hours, parts, donations…)
  • How to begin process
    • A page has begun: Internal Policy
    • This list will turn into a table of contents style index of all internal policy
    • We noted a difference between Policy (more organizational) and Procedure (more practical—how to open shop, etc.). Policy gives way to procedure, so the final page will likely contain both.
    • Add, edit, and organize the Internal Policy page as you see fit

Shop communications¶

Internet¶

• We should email the volunteer list at large and see if anyone thinks internet is unnecessary in the shop
• Possible uses:
  • Look up policies, procedures, bike repair; maintain a shop log; track needed purchases (replace white board); track memership, shop use
• Considerations:
  • Who can use computer? Restrict access? Block social media sites?

Phone Providers and Internet¶

• Verizon
  • Checked the Verizon website and gave the 412-731-4094 phone number. Lowest price plan is $35/month for 1 year, for 1 Mbps/384 Kbps connection. Including basic phone service, the price is $50/month for 1 year. We may want to be careful about long contract terms considering the possibility of a move in the future.
• Comcast
  • They only offer bundles, and they seem to include cable TV although there might be a way to get just cable internet and phone for $40/month for the first 6 months. I think the price would go up to at least $60/month after the trial period though. Hard to lock down prices on the web site, I’d have to call to get an accurate price.
• Dialup?
  • Consolidated Communications, Stargate, Winbeam, others?
• Just a thought – if an internet connection alone is significantly cheaper than phone and internet, we could always set up the Google Voice account so that it would redirect to the greeter’s cell phone when they open the shop. This is fairly trivial to do, and enough of us carry cell phones, right? If anyone needs a google voice invite to see how this works, let me know – Mark

Cooperation with Creative Re-use¶

• Have made initial contact with Faye at Creative Re-use
• Possibility of splitting wifi costs (about $25 a month?)
  • Bill might be in our name
• Need to make sure we would be within range
• We would need a router
• Mark will follow up with Creative Re-use (?)

World Communication¶

Bike Stickers¶

• Used to mark bikes from FR, such as EAB
  • Commonwealth Press did it for free last time, but cannot do it for free again
    • Commonwealth Press initially quoted $150 for 1000 stickers
• Alternative group quoted $109 for 1000 including shipping. We need to send them an old sticker for them to scan in
• Consensus: We might be able to get a lower price from Commonwealth ($100)
  • We would prefer to deal locally and stay with the company who made the original design
• Will is looking into this