[NPMUG] Goodwill CRC update, February 20

[Robert A. Donaldson]

Dear Mac friends:

Many thanks to Charlie Hutchens, Rich Fitzgibbon, John Hamill, Tucker  
Trainor, Bob Wray, Dave Sevick and first-time rookie Chuck Digruttolo  
for joining me at the Goodwill Computer Recycling Center today. Marty  
Swartz is currently spending his evening at home trying to figure out  
why at 550 mhz Titanium G4 PowerBook is overheating. Good luck with  
that one, pal....

Today was an exceptionally productive day with 24 Macs refurbished and  
7 non-functioning Macs de-manufactured into parts for recycling Our  
all-time total is now 1,707.

And today we exhausted a lot of 400 PRAM batteries we purchased last  
fall. Another 400, at a cost of $1,212.45, is on its way to us for  
next week's work day. These batteries are our major expense, and  
purchasing them is large quantities gets the per-unit price down. Many  
thanks to special anonymous friends who have made this purchase  
possible. We couldn't refurbish these Macs without the batteries.

As we pick through our unprocessed inventory, we note the end may be  
near for tray-load iMacs. It would appear there are less than 25 left  
in storage awaiting our attention. We'll be digging those out next  
week and getting them into the store ASAP.

We'll have another work day next Friday, February 27. The Mac sales at  
Goodwill's ComputerWorks store has picked up considerably, and we  
continue to get inquires, including one asking to purchase a lot of 50.

As a gentle reminder, please note Goodwill has finally re-instituted  
the security procedures they were using in the Lawrenceville facility  
before the CRC moved to the South Side. Security cameras have been  
activated, and the metal detector at the exit has been switched on and  
staffed.

Entry is only from the South 26th St. entrance. We cannot enter the  
ComputerWorks Store and go through the back door as we used to.

We are asked to stop at the reception desk at the main lobby to sign  
in to get a volunteer badge, then sign in to the log book at the CRC  
entrance at the metal detector.

We followed these procedures when we were in the Lawrenceville  
building, and it's taken Goodwill some time to re-install all the  
devices to cover the area with video surveillance.

These measures are to make sure data on disk drives does not get out  
of the building before the drives can be securely erased or destroyed.  
Goodwill is serious about this, as everyone should be. Any incident of  
data from the drives they are entrusted to wipe or destroy getting out  
would destroy the credibility of their operation, and lead to people  
sending computers elsewhere for recycling.

So please, check in. It takes two minutes, and we're not in any hurry.

Hope to see you there!


Robert A. Donaldson
radonaldson at mac.com
(H) 412-922-3303
(M) 412-477-9188