Development Group Report 2017 05

Development Group Report : May 2017

78 Members - we have welcomed 7 new members since our last report

Task 54 - Definition of Terminology

Development Group Report : May 2017 78 Members - we have welcomed 7 new members since our last report

1. Task 54 - Definition of Terminology

We have been discussing defining the terms ‘autonomy’, ‘owner’ and ‘non-profit’. The wiki Glossary has had the following added:

• Non Profit (nonprofit) Group - group with a not-for-profit aim to facilitate free giving and receiving items for reuse in a local community, free to use by its members.
• Owner - Volunteer who takes on full responsibility for a local group, including being able to recruit and demote other Volunteers, control the membership list etc. Some groups work with just one Owner, but others choose to have a team of Owners.

And added to Basic Requirements of a Freegle Group:

Autonomy
We use the word 'autonomy' quite a lot. In Freegle terms this means: Advantage of being able to deal locally with local issues, adapting groups to local conditions (e.g rural or urban or innovation), and keeping our ethos of being a collective of like minded people who support grass roots initiatives in reuse of resources. Local groups must work to http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Basic_Requirements_of_a_Freegle_Group and http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Freegle_Volunteer_Agreement A group membership list belongs to that local group except when the group has been abandoned as per http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Abandoned_Groups_Procedure . Groups may choose to leave Freegle, or Freegle may choose to no longer be associated with a group, as per http://wiki.ilovefreegle.org/Disaffiliation_Procedure Otherwise local groups can be run as the volunteers see best for their community.

Task 63 - Decision Making Processes

We have noted the summary points from this discussion and will try to implement some of the comments into future work on procedures etc.

Task 65 - Offers First: Best Practice

We polled on new wording for Best_Practice#Do_you_restrict_the_number_of_Wanted_posts.3F to include guidance on whether groups should have an ‘Offer first’ rule. The new wording agreed is:

Do you restrict the number of Wanted posts or make a member post an offer before allowing a wanted post?

Best Practice:
As long as the post is legal and free, equally accept a wanted or an offer as a first post from members. People that want other’s unwanted stuff are essential for your Freegle Group to work. Wanted requests should be encouraged and not overly restricted.

Because: (for Offer First):

• It's discriminatory to expect an offer first.
• Extra hurdles - especially on a first post - potentially stop all freegling by a member.
• It's very easy to fake an offer, or offer something silly, and get round an 'offer first' rule.
• It doesn't take into account people who may have freegled elsewhere before moving to your area.
• It disregards new member responses to other people's wanteds.

and (generally):

• Some members prefer to answer a request for something rather than place it as an offer on the group.
• Encouraging people to freegle should help them consider freegling in the future when they have things to offer; it can be inspiring to receive an item, so encourages subsequent offers.
• Wanted posts often remind people that they have that item languishing unused so will respond with an offer.
• People - including us - overestimate the number of Wanted posts. Most groups have more Offers than Wanteds.

All volunteers are welcome to join Development Group - http://freegle.in/Development - and participate in discussions and decisions.

Jacky
Development Coordinator

Links

• Development Working Group
• Previous report Development Group Report 2017 04
• Following report Development Group Report 2017 06