[Noisebridge-discuss] E-Waste / Donations discussion

[Zach]

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