Phone Conversations
Phone conversations with Juliana:
1. Geraldine phoned to discuss the need to change rooms (the other room was in the middle of what would be their “Children’s Church” area, and the thought was that it would be disruptive for children and lab users), as well as to request some further advice on printer and table decisions. We discussed the size and features of the new room and decided that it would probably work, pending further investigation.
2. I phoned her back after discussing the room with Martin (who confirmed that the previous church had a lab in that space) and confirmed that the new room would work. Geraldine agreed to take some measurements to supplement those we had from the old lab’s diagram.
3. After a few rounds of phone tag, I reached Geraldine and was able to let her know the tentative schedule for our trip to install the lab. She let me know the printer models they purchased (she also sent this in email), and that they had tables purchased as well– both of these would be ready when we arrived.
4. I phoned Geraldine to find out if they had USB printer cables– she had anticipated the need for these and purchased fairly long ones to provide flexibility. She also confirmed with me that the purchased power strips should be adequate. We made sure that none of us had any other last-minute questions.
Phone conversations with Richard
- Geraldine asked Mitchell in a phone conversation with him for a little more help on decisions about buying printers and tables. I first looked at ads in the local area around East Saint Louis for office supply and computer stores and got an idea of what was available locally and the price ranges in her area for printers and tables. I called Geraldine and reviewed with her my thoughts on printers and tables. In the case of printers she indicated that she wanted an ink jet all-in-one and a laser jet printer. I told her of my own considerable experience with buying and using printers in my previous job as an IT director for a restaurant company. My thought on ink jets is not to buy the cheapest one but also not to look at the top of the line. I told her that HP is a brand that is really the standard in terms of compatibility and they are generally very reliable. Also, I told Geraldine that if she wanted an all-in-one that a document sheet feeder is a nice feature to have. I told her I had no specific model in mind but gave her examples from the ads I had previewed of HP all-in-one ink jet printers in the $130-$150 range and HP laser printers in the $200-$240 range. In terms of tables I told her of several options she might consider and she pinned me down to my personal choice, I told her 6′ standard folding tables worked very well.
- After the room change I contacted Geraldine concerning the equipment that the church would provide and we then went over the printer and table options again. We also confirmed the new plans that were due to the changes in rooms for the project. She also indicated they would like two computers with modem access as they were not able to secure any type of “broadband” internet connections. Also in this conversation we confirmed the need for 6 power strips. Because of the design change we had added a second switch box and Martin had recommended that we connect them via a cable hidden in a plastic conduit to which he gave me the Lowe’s product code numbers which I relayed to Geraldine. At this point Geraldine seemed very on board with the whole project.