[Flyingbrickvolunteers] Hey everyone!

[Alison]

Hey yall. I just wanted to send out an email while I am back in town for a
few days. I am flying out of Richmond at 6am on the 31st for Portland
Oregon! I am super super excited and terrified at the same time!

I first of all want to thank everyone who has been helping with the library
because without yall the library couldn't really function! so thank you for
all that you do, no matter how big or small you feel your contribution is!

I secondly just want to bring up some ideas about TFB, before I take off for
a good 6 months. I won't be able to make it to meetings and probably won't
have much internet access (but folks are always welcome to call me!!) so
this is just a way for me to express this stuff before I take off. Included
are a few proposals, that maybe someone could bring up at future meetings,
since I don't expect or think that we should vote on it through email.

Sorry if any of this comes off as negative, I don't mean it to, but there
are a few things that I feel really need to get addressed, and that we need
to make sure we are not overlooking, etc.

xo
<3
**

*
1. Open hours/checking stuff out*
I propose that:
- the list of folks doing open hours every month be visibly posted somewhere
in the library, and have 2 folks (and cell phone numbers if they have them)
signed up for each set of open hours. It would be each persons
responsibility to know who they are doing open hours with and to call them
if they don't show up and find out why. If someone can't do open hours, I
feel it should be *their* responsibility to actively find someone else to
take their place, in addition to sending out an email with a kind of call
out for someone to do open hours last minute if they can.
*
reasoning:* the buddy system rules, and that would give new folks and good
opportunity to "shadow" someone who may be more experienced doing open
hours.
Also, that way, when folks can't show up, someone can easily get in touch
with them.

Also, when checking people out, its really important that who ever is
volunteering write down the stuff for them. there have been several "check
out" entries that don't have phone numbers and email addresses, or is
missing other things. and while the person checking stuff out may be a well
known volunteer/friend to whoever is doing the checking out, someone else
who may be contacting folks about over due books might not just have their
phone number on hand. so please completely fill out the check out form
legibly, it makes stuff a lot easier, in the long run, I think.

I also propose that we start using a check out sheet for the chairs and the
projector, so that we don't forget who has it, or who knows who has it. We
should also count the number of chairs and make sure that amount leaves and
returns to TFB.


*2. Folks not showing up to meetings/open hours, etc.
*There were two meetings today that pretty much no one, with the exception
of like 2 folks, showed up for, and I have been told that folks have also
not been showing up to do open hours. (I haven't been around so if this
isn't true feel free to correct me! )

What this says to me is that maybe folks really need to think about their
capacity and energy level for doing things they agree to do. I understand we
are all really busy and sometimes stuff just comes up ,which is totally
fine! it just sucks that folks aren't showing up for stuff for whatever
reasons, and maybe that means things need to slow down or things need to be
done differently. I am not really sure.

this is not something I have an answer for, so it's kind of up to the group
to talk about this and come up with some concrete solutions. But I just
wanted to put it out there for discussion I guess, because I feel like its
stressful for people to be dealing with this stuff and that is no good.

Also, Nathan and I have been talking about how it's also an issue of
legitimacy. We don't have that many open hours to begin with, so if someone
is taking the time out of their schedule to come by the library and no one
is here, then that can be extremely inconvenient and it makes us seem less
committed/serious. If we want other folks to take our group and it's
endeavors seriously then it's important that we be consistent and committed
as well. Otherwise we just look like a shoddy group of anarchists/activists
who don't "know what they're doing".

One of the major criticisms I have heard of lots of radical spaces/projects
is that the people involved don't take it seriously as they want other
people to take it.


*3. Donations to the library
*I got to the house last night and there were wet magazines all over the
front porch, that I assume someone had dropped off? anyone know where they
came from?
people randomly dropping off stuff is not a good way to recieve donations,
and from the beginning I have been really adamant about letting people who
want to donate know that they can't just come and leave random boxes of
books on the porch or in the library. What happens is that people do that,
and no one knows where they came from, so they sit on the front porch and
get rained on, or boxes of random stuff just sits in the corner for months.

I think it'd be a good idea for everyone to come to some kind of agreement
about the process for donating books and how to handle the inevitable box of
random books that is bound to show up every once in a while. it sucks
because often the folks living at TFB get stuck dealing with it. So just
another thing to think about. Nathan, upon reading this email before I sent
it out, decided to make a sign to put on the front porch as a kind of
temporary solution.




I understand that some of the stuff I am proposing/bringing up may seem
really unimportant or really tedious or weird, but I really feel like a lot
of processes that Hermelinda and I hashed out in the beginning are getting
over looked or forgotten about. Which I understand because It takes practice
to remember every little thing that you should do, but I think that these
things are really important in order to keep the library flowing smoothly,
and in a way that is the most non-authoritarian as possible.
Also, if people feel like these processes need to be rewritten or re-hashed
out and changed, you guys totally have the power to do that. Hermelinda and
I came up with the policies/processes for stuff as a starting point and i
think we both anticipated them eventually being changed or expanded upon
anyway...


if anyone wants to chat about this stuff the best thing would be for you to
call me, because I don't really have a lot of internet access
804 586 4853

Thanks for reading all of this! I appreciate you guys so so much and I know
that I am leaving the library in good, capable, amazing hands!!

keep loving, keep fighting, in solidarity
Alison Self
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.aktivix.org/pipermail/flyingbrickvolunteers/attachments/20100330/c0f7411d/attachment.htm>