Re: Carma does not accumulate

On Tue, 2006-10-03 at 22:16 -0700, Zac Imboden wrote:
> I read this in the FAQ section of our site:

It's great you are going through the site like this, Zac.

> "Use it or lose it. Carma does not accumulate."
> 
> That's a bit vague. Do Carma points expire? If so, when? I'm assuming  
> this means if you don't work and lose your membership privileges, you  
> also lose any outstanding carma points. Is this correct?

The board will be discussing the carma system at next Wednesday's
meeting.  I will send this to the announce list as well.  All members
are encouraged to attend the board meeting or submit their comments
before Wednesday by emailing me, posting to the general list, or editing
the board agenda.

Here is what we will be discussing this Wednesday:

Old carma-
Members must submit good faith estimates of hours worked at the co-op in
months (or years) past into carma tracker by 12/15/06.  A member may use
old carma to buy co-op biodiesel, subject to availability, etc.

I'd also like to discuss capping the use of old carma to half of a
member's allocation.  Right now 16 gallons every two weeks is the max
any member can buy.  I think it is fair to allow up to half of that (8
gallons) to be bought using old carma. This is in the spirit of a
decision previously agreed upon.

In further respect to those that have given so much time to the co-op in
months and years past, I propose that we do not expire old carma.

New carma-
New carma must be entered within 15 days of working.  New carma points
should expire within 45 days if not used. Here is the reasoning:
1) We produce a limited amount of fuel
2) We use all the fuel we produce
3) The value of carma is directly related to how much we produce
4) We should be working just enough to keep our vehicles fueled

Oil carma-
If we value all work equally our system is both simple and fair.  One
exception to this /might/ be oil collection.  Should oil collectors
should get carma based on the amount of oil they drop off instead of
time spent collecting?  If so, perhaps 1:2.5 is a reasonable ratio - 1
jug = 2 carma points.

Carma ratio-
We need to determine a fair value for carma.  Since the number of hours
worked as well as production will vary from month to month, the ratio of
carma to gallons must be dynamic.

I propose we calculate the value of carma based on the last 30 days of
production divided by the last 30 days of total co-op carma, rounded
down to the nearest whole number.  So if we produced 450 gallons of
biodiesel and a total of 200 hours of carma were logged in the last 30
days, 1 point of carma would equal 2 gallons.

> If this is correct, I could update the site to be a little more  
> specific.

Sure.  We'll probably want to expand that section after the board
meeting next week.

-B
-- 
Brian Jamison
President, Board of Directors
GoBiodiesel Cooperative