[CSL board] ACTION: senior tech grant / Fl wage

[Josh Harding]

I will entertain a motion to hire Dan a the senior technician per our
commitments on the Boomer Grant. It is important that this go through soon -
if someone could make the official motion, second, and people weigh in as
quickly as possible, it would be greatly appreciated.

It seems to me there's more discussion to be had - see below for a few
items. However, having Dan hired for the boomer grant is definitely the best
option available to us, in my opinion.

Based on Dan's breakdown (below), 25% of Dan's time can be devoted to the
boomer project given the current staff. 25% would ideally be 10 hours, which
sounds like it's just enough for boomers, once things settle in on the
project.

It seems like the biggest risk is Dan's time in the next few months. He'll
be training a Vista (which will add to his load, not relieve it), taking on
John's portion of tech support and bringing the boomer volunteers up to
speed... Infrastructure improvements can stop for a while, but our servers
and our clients both need love. Unfortunately, there's only one of Dan, and
it sounds like he'll adding more to his workload than is being relieved.

Dan - How do you feel about things right now? Do you have any concerns in
regards to your available bandwidth? Is there anything that we as a board
can do to reduce your load?

Do we need more skilled labor for the next few months? Does anyone have
ideas on how to get labor? It seems like that person would have to be either
very technically competent or a CSL alum to reduce the load, rather than
adding to it with yet another person for Dan to train.


On 12/18/06, Dan MacNeil <dan at thecsl.org> wrote:
>
> A bit of new news. The grant is setup to reimburse us for grant related
> expenses. We can apply for cash advances once a month and up to 30 days
> before we anticipate expenses.
>
> > How is your bandwidth currently allocated?
>
> 20% overhead/wasted motion/restarting things/travel
> 25% routine inquiries / correspondence
> 15% day job
> 10% project of the moment (utec, boomer/vista grants)
> 10% supervising or thinking of supervision
> 10% learning (linux journal debian-isp listserv,openspf.org etc)
> 10% tech support
>
>
> > [time saved not working for CS dept.]
> 6 hours of wasted motion, 8 hours not doing CS stuff.
>
> > [time needed to fulfill grant]
>
> Most of January, 15 hours a week after that doing site visits.
>
> > How will losing the extremely competent and trustworthy
> > John in a few  months and receiving an unproven VISTA
> > impact your bandwidth?
>
> It's actually a bit riskier than that. Erich is extremely self taught.
> He doesn't have a HS diploma or GED. A condition of his final acceptance
> is getting his GED. We will have a struggle to convince the corporation
> for national service to accept him. (CNS is upstream from Paul & Peter)
>
> We could wind up with nobody, which would be worse than somebody not as
> good as John
>
> John does roughly the same amount of tech support that I do and spends
> the rest of his time on learning/helping other agencies/project. In his
> absence, infrastructure improvement and maintenance would stop. I could
> double up on tech support
>
> > How's the process going? What should currently be
> > underway (I think) is: advertising, publicizing,
> > recruiting volunteers, and starting the process of
> > scheduling.
>
> We're not on the grant timeline, We'll probably slip 3 weeks. but I
> think Mass-Serve is ok w/ that.
>
> I've spent a fair amount of time thinking about things. The volunteer
> recruiting piece is tough, but I'm in the groove after the last VISTA
> push and I'm hopeful about the new magic of craig's list.
>
> This week I want to get the CL ad posted, emails to current customers &
> NPA list out, some phone calls made.
>
> With luck Jerhico road will take the grant, turn it into a press release
> and get us a story in the Lowell Sun and Boston Globe.
>
>
> Josh Harding wrote:
> > Link cover letter: http://thecsl.org/links/0002.pdf. The letter and
> > application are both great!
> >
> > Dan: A few questions -
> > How is your bandwidth currently allocated?
> > Do you have a mental equation for how much bandwidth will be freed by
> not
> > working for cs.uml.edu and how much you will spend fulfilling this
> grant?
> > How will losing the extremely competent and trustworthy John in a few
> > months
> > and receiving an unproven VISTA impact your bandwidth?
> > Will we need additional help?
> > How's the process going? What should currently be underway (I think) is:
> > advertising, publicizing, recruiting volunteers, and starting the
> > process of
> > scheduling.
> >
> > I definitely think using the grant money to pay you would be well spent
> and
> > well deserved. My only concern lies in making sure that we can do a good
> > job
> > on the boomer project - you're committing a significant amount of your
> > already busy days...
> >
> > Josh
> >
> > On 12/16/06, Dan MacNeil <dan at thecsl.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> We need to hire a senior tech as a condition of the Boomer grant. My
> >> contract with CS Dept ends Dec 31 and will not be renewed. I'd like us
> >> to hire me.
> >>
> >> After the recent 14% Romney good-bye cut, the boomer grant budget is
> >> approximately:
> >>
> >>         $12,600         # senior tech
> >>         $2,520          # equipment
> >>         $1,680          # advertising/overhead
> >>
> >> As a board member you should read the relatively short grant:
> >>
> >>         # grant
> >>         http://thecsl.org/links/0001.pdf
> >>         # cover letter
> >>         http://thecsl.org/links/0001.pdf
> >>
> >> There is a meeting at the Service Allience on January 05, when we will
> >> learn the details of the payout. I've (just) emailed a request for
> >> unofficial word on the payout dates.
> >>
> >> If people are generally inclined to hire me, A board member should
> >> volunteer to prepare a contract for board approval and the signatures
> of
> >> me and our El Presidente and I
> >>
> >> Past staff contracts are at:
> >>
> >> http://thecsl.org/sys/finance.d/detail.d/contracts.d/csl_staff.d/
> >>
> >> David Siegal's contract is probably the best model. Given that the
> grant
> >> explicitly has overhead taken out. $12,600 may be a good number.
> >>
> >> This weekend, I'll finish the financial reports. I'd be surprised if an
> >> updated financial picture effects this decision very much.
> >>
> >> DAN DAY JOB
> >> For 4 years, Tom Costello and Ken Kleiner have been kind enough to work
> >> very carefully with University/Union/State rules and paid me on the
> high
> >> end of the student worker pay scale.
> >>
> >> This is no longer possible. My last day of work for the CS Dept is
> >> 12/31/06.
> >>
> >> Sometimes the Lawd-Gee-z-ass has good timing.  Assuming board approval,
> >> 6 months of work for the boomer grant will pay slightly more than I
> will
> >> have made these past 12 months. (I didn't work full-time over the
> summer)
> >>
> >>
> >>
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>
>