Leadership

It is with great pride and with many, many thanks that we acknowledge the thousands of volunteer moderators worldwide. Each local group generally has two to six local moderators who, in turn, are helping millions of members to keep good stuff out of landfills and to develop stronger community ties.

Some 80 of these moderators volunteer further time to approve new groups for their state, province or country. In addition, there is a committed crew of some 20-30 moderators putting in countless hours for Group Outreach and Assistance, helping existing groups with day-to-day problems.

Another 2-3 volunteers take care of help@freecycle.org questions, 4-5 lead the worldwide moderator discussion groups FIOD and FLC, and there are 6-8 team leaders who do a great job in helping teams do their jobs. (There are also a few adhoc committees set up to deal with issues at hand.) There are a few more volunteers who help administer the Web site and our extensive database. Also, feel free to have a look at our org chart which is here.

Wow! Hats off to ALL these wonderful people!!

Deron:

The founder & Executive Director is Deron Beal. Clocking in at 6'6", he heads up the Freecycle basketball team and is a sucker for black & white cats. He is blessed to be able to work with all these good people from his base at the Freecycle HQ in Tucson, Arizona.

Dona:

Are there words enough to describe the global volunteer "VP" of The Freecycle Network? Dona is our Hub Coordinator globally which means she organizes the global leadership team of The Freecycle Network [i.e. all these other coordinators are on her team]. Deron couldn't do it without her. She brings with her the institutional memory and skills from having most recently been the Outreach Coordinator along with many other hats she has worn such as local group moderator which she continues to be as well. Dona doesn't just care for our Freecycle garden, but also puts a tremendous amount of time into her own garden, some "unschooling" and just being a Mom as well. Let it be noted that she also has other critters in her barn that she also manages to keep under her impressive wing, in addition to her hubbie (who is hopefully not in the barn)!

Alison:

Alison provides backup to Dona and helps keep things running smoothly between teams. She tends to be somewhat fearless about tackling big projects.

Simon:

The TM Team assists groups and the general public in using the Freecycle(TM) mark correctly; works to educate the press about proper use of the mark; and pursues infringement. At the helm of this team is Simon who, thankfully, is probably the most organized person within Freecycle. Thank you, Simon!

Jakkie:

In every state or region there is a Group Outreach and Assistance (GOA) volunteer. Each GOA team member works with existing volunteer group moderators when they are having issues with the local group. Jakkie volunteers as our head for this devoted international team.

Bernard:

Also in each American state, Canadian province, and country worldwide, there is a New Group Approver. The NGAs evaluate the need for, assist and approve new Freecycle groups. Bernard volunteers as our NGA Coordinator.

Steev (Senior Engineer):

Steev is our full-time tech staffer, based out of the "Global HQ" here in Tucson with Deron. Steev's other main project is raising a three-year old daughter.

Penny:

Penny volunteers as the Info Team Coordinator to help members and mods with any on-site Freecycle.org tech issues they may be having, whether it's something that can be resolved easily or something that needs input from Steev. She shows her brilliance by heading up the teams that answer all such questions. These teams include the Info Team, Wiki Team, Spam Control Team and the FAQs. Any issue is followed up on and resolved as soon as possible. Technical issues are tracked and members informed once resolved. Don't worry about a thing as Penny does all this with a cat perched by the keyboard making sure she's doing it right!

Sue and Becky:

Sue and Becky head up the Interim Moderator Team (the "IMods"). This team steps in and moderates local groups when a local volunteer steps down and they look after that group until new local volunteers can be found. It is a large team and they run a tight ship. They are ably assisted by Miriam, who handles mod recruitment for the team. Yay and go, team, go!