The Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative
started with a message posted by John Zelson, of the Corporation for National Service, to neighbors-online, a Philadelphia mailing list for neighborhood activists, on 5 July 1996: Getting Computers into Communities (for info on neighbors-online and other resources for neighborhood activists see Mail Discussion Lists.

Dave Butler saw John's message and brought it to the attention of Stan Pokras, director of Nonprofit Technology Resources (NTR). Stan answered John with an offer to share resources, and the Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative was born.

Background
NTR provides computer support to nonprofit orgs in the Philadelphia area, and is affiliated with Community Technology Centers' Network (CTCNet), of which Stan is the Philadelphia Coordinator, and the Technology Resource Consortium (TRC), of which Stan is the Vice Chairman. Dave Butler had volunteered in June of 1996 to be NTR's Volunteer Coordinator. Dave was then a student at the Computer Learning Center (CLC), where he recruited most of his volunteers (see Background on Dave). NTR was (and is) a small operation with Stan Pokras as its sole full-time staffer. In spring of 1996, NTR had secured some office space through the City of Philadelphia in an under-utilized building. NTR's primary funding source is fees charged for technical support and classes.

Computer Reuse at NTR
NTR already had begun a computer reuse project in the fall of 1995. Stan Pokras, starting with a handful of donated equipment and one dedicated volunteer (Chris Warburton), had set up a procedure for refurbishing computers and tracking inventory. One project which NTR completed in 1996 involved setting up 15 DOS workstations for a community access center which had obtained grant funding to spend $100 on each workstation. Each computer has $29 worth of software, an early graphical interface called GeoWorks, which runs on a 640KB DOS platform. We used donated CPUs and purchased a few memory chips, 40MB hard drives, floppy drives, keyboards and mice, to set up 15 machines suitable for educational use. (I believe the $49 version of GeoWorks includes a word processor and spreadsheet.) In June Dave Butler had brought in some fellow classmates from the Computer Learning Center as volunteers to bolster the project, but things were moving slowly before John Zelson's vision for the Corp for National Service linked in.

July
On 11 July John Zelson wrote: 'I have scheduled a morning meeting with Gail [Greene, Mayor's Office of Community Services] ... She is working on a project with at-risk youth fixing equipment ...'

August
On 3 Aug Stan wrote to introduce John, Dave and Gail to Len Finkelstein, 'Len is an educational administrator who has worked at the top levels of the public schools here in Philly and in Cheltenham Township. On a vacation last year he discovered a very well organized project in San Francisco that supplies large numbers of reconditioned computers to the schools ...': computer re-use. With support from the City, Stan and John assembled an advisory team to guide the new reuse effort, Stan secured additional space in the building, and Dave got volunteers to help round up some well-worn office furniture the building manager had stored away.

September
On 12 Sep John Zelson wrote that he had secured over 100 donated computers, mostly earmarked for agencies he supports. And he reported on the previous day's meeting of the advisory team (see Computer Reuse/Recycling in Philly. John secured transportation and muscle to move the equipment. NTR provided space for storage and repair work, and partitioned the space to allow various orgs to keep separate piles of equipment.

One issue yet to be resolved is how to develop a logical way of sharing equipment. Perhaps we should consolidate all donations, and credit each participant for each donation of equipment (and volunteer time, maybe).

October
By Oct NTR's reuse effort had picked up, with more donations trickling in, and a handful of CLC students contributing a few hours every week, mostly afternoons, to work on the NTR equipment. John and a few volunteers had begun putting in a few hours each week to get a few machines into service right away.

On 3 Oct 1996 Ed wrote to several mailing lists Computer Reuse in Philadelphia: Thanks to John Zelson and Others

On 17 Oct John wrote to the advisory team and technicians ' ... more details about the project, taken from our volunteer package -- 1. Overview 2. Technical Terms 3. Very basic fixit procedures ... ' (see Recyclers Info).

Dave Butler posted on 23 Oct an invitation for anyone interested in learning to refurbish computers to join a workshop scheduled for 30 Oct. Also in this bulletin is an invitation to join Pat Stingley in NetDay activities in northwest Philadelphia, wiring John B Kelly Elementary School and Lingelbach School.

Dave Butler posted on 25 Oct more about opportunities to work with Pat Stingley, a Network Engineer for Pep Boys: NetDay Philadelphia -- Many Work Days Ahead. Dave includes an account of a long Sunday morning he spent working on the project, touching up old PCs with a sponge and bucket, passing network cable through a hole in the wall, and trying to guide a lost bird out of the library.

Prior to the workshop of 30 Oct Dave wrote to Stan and John about distribution and funding issues. Afterwards John reported on the 30 Oct meeting and announced that Pat Stingley would join the effort, using NTR's space to store and repair equipment donated by Pep Boys for NetDay projects in area schools.

November
By early Nov John Zelson had scheduled 2 weekly 2-hour workshops (Wed eve and Fri morn) to work on the Corp for Natl Svc equipment pile, and to teach hardware evaluation and repair to anyone willing to learn. John recruited most of the participants (averaging about 10 per session) from agencies served by the VISTAs he supports. The schedule for these workshops is not convenient for most CLC morning students. So there is not much overlap between the CLC volunteers and the workshop participants.

Announcements about weekly workshops, meetings and other events are posted on bulletin boards at the Computer Learning Center, and emailed to advisory team members and others who have expressed interest in volunteering in the computer reuse effort. Many of these announcements are also posted to Usenet news groups and mailing lists (see Distribution List).

Here is an announcement posted widely by Dave Butler on 5 Nov 1996: Computer Recyclers Needed at NTR in Phila. By the following week John Zelson had designed a web page and a newsletter banner announcing its location. The banner tops this announcement posted by Dave Butler on 12 Nov 1996: Phila Computer Reuse Collaborative schedule

Dave Butler has become a shameless publicity hound, and an embarassment to his friends, in his quest to recruit more and more volunteers. On 22 Nov, he trumpeted to the world, Phila NetDay News: Faith Goldstein, Pat Stingley front page photo. It was a big story -- in the Germantown Courier, a weekly community newspaper.

December
Dave Butler posted on 6 Dec 1996 a bulletin which included some thoughts from Len Finkelstein, a member of PRC's Advisory Team.

John Zelson sent on Mon 9 Dec an Advisory Team Update to current and potential Advisory Team members. Later that night John met with Dave Butler, Terry Robinson and Ken Dewey to discuss specific needs of the program. We need to develop and Organization Chart and formalize the process of tracking participation through questionnaires and sign-in sheets. We aim to submit an application in early January for the VISTA program to support our effort.

John Zelson sent on 18 Dec a Computer Reuse Update which Dave forwarded to the rest of the world.

On Fri morn 20 Dec, the scheduled workshop was lightly attended, and John and Dave took the opportunity to do some more brainstorming. We plan a mini-newsletter, with up to 50 snail-mail recipients, and must gather contact info for this mailing list. We plan soon to offer instructional sessions apart from the workshops. These We need to formalize the process of tracking inquiries and key contacts to ensure that we do not ignore valuable resources. 'What ever happened to ... ?' 'I didn't answer -- I thought you were going to!' If you are one of our missing links please contact us again.

Dave Butler posted on 21 Dec a bulletin which included an announcement of an Internet Discussion in Germantown section of Philadelphia, upcoming on 16 Jan.

January 1997
Dave Butler posted on 2 Jan 1997 Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative Schedule. On 8 Jan Dave forwarded to the Advisory Group some info on Communet, the Community and Civic Network Discussion List, with a sampling of messages re recycling computers.

NTR Director Stan Pokras and the Advisory Team for the Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative have been preparing a proposal requesting support from VISTA volunteers.

The job development capacity of this program is attracting great interest.

On 13 Jan Stan responded to a message on neighbors-online, a mailing list for 'neighborhood activists from all parts of Philadelphia':

'Several organizations are working to build a project to be known as the Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative that will recondition donated computers and place them into schools and nonprofit organizations. One of our aims is to involve low-income people in the process as a way of introducing them to computer technology. We would be pleased to hear from any organizations that would like to have such activities as part of their job readiness program.

'We are now writing a proposal to Vista for three staff to coordinate this work. One of these roles will be specifically to coordinate with agencies that might benefit from our training component as part of their program of services. If all goes well we will begin our startup operation in the spring.'

On 19 Jan Dave Butler wrote in his Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative Schedule:

'Please contact Dave Butler if you're interested in joining the Advisory Team or in reviewing the VISTA proposal. For a very detailed (long-winded) background on the Advisory Team and the development of the reuse effort, check out Dave's new web page, History of the Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative.'

On 19 Jan Dave wrote to Kathi Smith and the VOLUNTEERS mailing list to answer some questions Kathi sent me on 3 Jan, following my REUSE notes to the mailing list. The answer is that all the documentation I can provide is included in the History of the Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative web page, which debuts 19 Jan. Thanks, Kathi, for these provocative questions!
I would be most interested in how you set up the reuse program in the first place. 1) How do you get volunteers to repair equipment 2) What facility are you using for storage & repair 3) To whom and how do you distribute computers? 4) Do you have funding & if so, from what source?

E-Mail Discussion Lists
Philadelphia Reuse Collaborative scheduling notes and other announcements are posted periodically to several electronic mailing lists, and to some regional Usenet news groups:

• neighbors-online list host Ed Schwartz says, 'If you want to keep in touch with neighborhood activists from all parts of Philadelphia, you can subscribe to neighbors-online -- an email list that brings us all together. Send a one-line message -- subscribe neighbors-online -- to majordomo@libertynet.org.'
  
• penn-neighbor mailing list, "... aimed at creating a dialogue among people working to improve urban and suburban neighborhoods throughout the Commonwealth of Pennnsylvania ...' To join this mailing list, send mail with body subscribe penn-neighbor to Majordomo@world.std.com.

To Contact Nonprofit Technology Resources
call Reginald Mosley or Stan Pokras at: 215-564-6686.
Or send an email message to Stan.

This page designed by Dave Butler, Computer Guide