[Noisebridge-discuss] E-Waste / Donations discussion

subbes subbes at gmail.com
Sun Nov 1 04:48:47 UTC 2015


IDK, but the sort of meandering decision-making process implied by the
phrase "proposal ideas" doesnt strike me as v doocratic. were the
e-waste shelves doocratically trimmed?

-s
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On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 7:46 PM, Zach R <organicunity at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for chiming in guys.  A few thoughts I have to add / share:
>
> So all that said, I have some proposal ideas (combining what other people have said):
> 1) Make an Incoming Donations section and have it clearly marked
> 2) Have a list of a couple volunteers to organize this and the the hackershelves on a semi-regular basis ( at least once or twice a month )
> 3) Make a list of donations we want to actually refuse (this should be easier than what we want).  i.e. I can recommend we refuse:
>
>           a) almost anything beige
>           b) cracked GLASS LCDs of any kind (parts-swapping for these is near impossible)
>           c) any printer that isn't a new laser printer or touchscreen / bluetooth.  (i.e. made prior to 2005)
>           d) old work equipment from the 1980s (oscilloscopes, voltmeters, etc).
>           e) routers without USB ports (omg we have so many)
>
> 4) Have a clear sign of donation guidelines visible in the space & where the hackershelves are
> 5) Have the hackershelves along a wall like before (it is SO much easier to organize this way) - that will take some work though.
>
> so I guess thats my 2 cents.
>
> -Zach
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Patrick O'Doherty <patrick at patrickodoherty.com> on behalf of Patrick O'Doherty <p at trickod.com>
> Sent: Saturday, October 31, 2015 1:56 PM
> To: Zach R; NB Discuss
> Subject: Re: [Noisebridge-discuss] E-Waste / Donations discussion
>
> to throw my $0.02 cents in here.
>
> one thing I've been doing for a few months is asking folks who want to
> donate stuff to noisebridge to first find a community member who wants
> to accept it / take care of it at the space, usually by emailing the
> discuss list.
>
> A decent chunk of what's being thrown out in each e-waste cleanup is not
> valuable, and arguably should *not* have been donated in the first place.
>
> I'm all for NB having more hardware, but given that in the last year
> we've trimmed the amount of space dedicated to hardware donations and
> project shelves, I think we should instead ask that all hardware
> donations first have a sponsor. This is I guess very much like Henner's
> idea of having some volunteers take care of the inflow.
>
> Again to clarify: this isn't to say that hardware shouldn't be donated,
> or that we shouldn't take old things, I just don't think we should
> accept them by default unless someone wants to use them / cannibalize
> their parts for other projects in the space.
>
> curious to know what people think about such a policy?
>
> p
>
> Zach R:
>> Hey all,
>>   So there was some tension in the space today regarding some hardware donations I brought over.  After talking to some people I learned that there was an E-Waste cleanup effort recently, and that some members donated their time to haul stuff away.  I would like to take the opportunity to open this topic up for discussion among the community.
>>
>> I was told tonight that E-Waste has been a problem at NB, and this was news to me.  I was also told the regular collector of E-Waste (the phone number on the E-Waste bin by the elevator) does not do pickups anymore.  This also surprised me because he did a pickup earlier this summer when I called him... Well, I called him again tonight and he is says he is completely okay picking up E-waste.  I scheduled a time with him for Wednesday afternoon and I will take it upon myself to meetup with him and update via the list what is going on there.  He seemed more than happy to haul stuff away when I talked with him tonight.
>>
>> I would come to the meeting tomorrow night to talk about this more if I didn't have a prior engagement.  Tuesday nights are usually my busiest of the week.  But I would like to ask these questions to the community:
>>
>> 1) How much donations should we allow in the space?  What are the items we don't want and who should we turn away?
>> 2) How should E-waste coordination for pickups happen?  (I am willing to take on a role in this)  What is a "Plan B" if regular E-waste people are unavailable?
>> 3) How often should E-waste get picked up?
>> 4) How should the hackershelves be organized to facilitate keeping the space clutter-free? Who decides what will stay and what goes?
>>
>> In regards to the last one, there are a bunch of vintage oscilloscopes on the hackershelves now.  There is also a very large printer on the top, and other items I would personally vote to remove.
>>
>>     I think communicating about these questions with as many people as we can will make sure there is enough input on this.  I would hate to see NB become a place that refuses donations and is hardware anemic.  We do not receive anywhere near the donations we used to back in say, 2012 and earlier.  I am able to bring some quality stuff into the space (I brought in 5 laptops last week that were all gone without a couple days) and I would like to continue supporting NB this way.
>>     One of my favorite things to do for the community is to provide hardware, and it is also immensely helpful for my classes.  There are countless people that have benefited from the donations we receive and the hackershelves and donations have proved to be incredible valuable to many, many noisebridge people in positive ways.  Let's find a way to keep this sustainable and working for everyone.
>>
>> Best,
>> Zach
>>
>>
>>
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