Structure Group Report 2010-01-13

STRUCTURE GROUP REPORT 13th JANUARY 2010

Our group currently has 51 members, and is open to any member of Freegle UK Central who would like to join: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/Freegle-Structure/

The spokespeople for this group are Edward (Edinburgh), Neil (Northampton N&C) and Jacky (Great Yarmouth). The owner is Jacky as Neil removed himself as owner on December 8th 2009.

This is a summary of discussions since our last report of 16th December 2009 from message 1461 to 1764.

Organisational Structure

The mandate was given to Structure to continue with the production of a formal governing document for Freegle in the second poll. The next stage is to clarify the basic criteria of what it means to be a Freegle group and will form the majority of the question in the next poll. This turned into a very long discussion as we realised how difficult it is to be absolutely clear about wording. We had the services of a proof reader this time round who made some very sensible suggestions. We have also put the wording on Central for a 2 day discussion before the poll goes 'live' following a thread about the need to engage discussion from as wide a group as possible on issues. We hope this will help to get very important but sometimes seemingly pedantic issues clarified and agreed.

Mission Statement

We have an ongoing discussion about the desirability for a succinctly worded 'mission statement' to head up any formal document that is drawn up. Any suggestions from Central for this would be warmly welcomed.

'Other Groups'

The question of 'other groups' (eg. Cafe groups) has been raised in the next poll as we didn't feel it was worth spending a lot of time on this suggestion unless Central wishes the group to do so at some point.

Regional Groups

Questions about the role of regional groups in the structure of Freegle resulted in a suggestion that this be thrown open to general discussion on Central. The question was raised on 5th January but has only elicited 4 responses to date. We would encourage any comments about this to be aired on Central - the original message was no. 6513, further comments messages 6516, 6520, 6521 and 6550.

Published Information and Email Addresses

A suggestion to have documents for moderators - guidelines, handbooks, policies etc - drawn up as transparently as possible resulted in asking Tech working group to discuss the setting up of a Wiki for the moderators' handbook. We assume that group will report to Central on the feasibility of this.

A suggestion made to both Structure and Tech about using Google Apps for Freegle specific email addresses was welcomed by the group. Tech are setting this up.

Freegle Name

A timely reminder about the original poll commitment to review the Freegle name resulted in including a question about this in the latest proposed poll. There was another question raised about use of the Freegle name regarding setting up local groups that would be able to apply for grants etc. There was no real conclusion for this other than a request not to use the Freegle name in such a way as to reduce options for the main organisation.

Copyright and Licensing

This discussion has stalled due to the pressure of messages about the next poll on Freegle criteria. This is still a live topic, though, as we need to look into how to secure flexible, workable solutions, but to retain security for Freegle.

Comments Received on Poll 2

This is still a pending item on the group as we are aware that comments made in Poll 2 have been logged, noted, but not discussed. One suggestion was to put these in the hands of the Reps to initiate conversations on Central, but nothing has been decided as yet. Promise we won't forget this!

Ownership of Central Groups

The 'Who's Who' spreadsheet details ownership of groups as previously discussed - http://tinyurl.com/y8pvres . The Structure group has ended up, though, with just one owner, which is not ideal! This has yet to be discussed, but any thoughts from Central about the issue of ownership of central groupz would be appreciated.

Working Group Reports

The intention of this group is to put this report out as a Special Notice on Central and also to lodge a copy in the files of Central and Structure groups. There has also been discussion about summaries of working group progress being more widely available in the spirit of openness and celebration. Any comments or thoughts about this proposal would be welcomed.

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Sent out as a Special Notice on Central 13.1.10

Back to Freegle Structure or Structure Group Report 2009-12-16 or forwards to Structure Group Report 2010-01-27