December 2017 - Board Meeting

12/6/2017 - Area 515 Board Meeting

Attending:

• President: Tim

• Vice President: Don

• Secretary: Brad

• Director of Education: Bailey

• Director: Chris

• Director: Tom

Absent:

• Treasurer: Meg

Also present:

• Ward W.

Opening Discussion

• The check for our newly added insurance coverage was filled out, signed, and Brad put it in the mail.

Financials

• Because Meg was absent the board decided to postpone discussion of our digital reimbursement policy until the next meeting.

• Financial update will also be postponed until next meeting.

State of the Space

Grants and Funds

• We understand that the Capital Crossroads 2.0 campaign conducted an assessment from which it concluded two things

  • More art should be purchased from local artists

  • They would team up with Bravo and Drake to fund a cultural assessment of Des Moines

* Thanks to Ben for applying for and getting grant money from Bravo to fund our Artist in Residency again next year.

• Tim has asked Ben to give the grant information to Meg so we can fulfill the promises made in the application.

• Chris would like to also see the details of the application and what happened.

• Our understanding is that Bravo could fund up to 30% of the budget, at a maximum of $10,000 but we don't know yet know how much we were actually awarded.

• When we know more the details of the grant, we can start writing additional grant applications to cover the remaining 70% of the Artist in Residency budget.

Deere Foundation Donation Matching Funds

• Tim donated money to the space which the Deere Foundation matched multiple times. In consequence some $1500 will be arriving to the space.

• Tim requests we give all or at least $500 to the tool stewards for them to do the following:

  • improve tool safety

  • improve some of the tools themselves

• The board informally called these steps "dejankification."

• There was general agreement among board members to follow Tim's request.

Garage Improvements

• In the process of discussing ways in which tools and safety could be improved, the discussion turned to ways to improve our garage area.

• It was noted that there is no backup tool steward for the metal shop. Even though all other tool stewards have a backup steward. Possible names were suggested.

• Chris stated that we owe our members a functional garage space, and so suggested that we should discuss what to do about the garage at the next member meeting.

• Brad suggested that we form a committee at the member meeting that can make actionable plans to improve the garage space. That way only members who care about it can participate.

• Chris expressed a desire to know more about what members want from the garage space.

• Tom has a 3 question survey ready to send to all our members, but since that survey is about possible new locations for Area 515, we decided it wouldn't make sense to add questions asking about the garage.

• Don mentioned that he knows a current member who is considering quitting because using the garage space is so difficult.

• Brad mentioned that in the past garage space planning has always been stopped because of the problem of welding dust from one of our neighboring businesses

  • Currently, welding dust from a neighboring business gets on anything that is in our space in the garage. In order to make the area useable we need to find some way of preventing that dust from coming in.

    • As Brad understands it, the ceiling is not structurally sound enough that we can hang anything from it.

    • Tarps have been suggested but were thought likely to be rejected by the fire marshal

    • Lining the walls of the space with wood panels has been suggested (and has already been started along the north wall), but in order to block the dust the wood panels would have to extend all the way to the ceiling.

    • Bailey suggested tarps covered with a fire-resistant coating like what they used at her work (12/7/2017 Addendum:They are called welding curtains, and you can buy them with or without a frame)

* By the end of the discussion the board agreed that we would discuss garage space improvements at the next member meeting, and encourage people to form a committee.

Events

• We made just shy of $17 at Tibi's circuit board workshop that was held last month.

• Bailey and Chris discussed plans for the upcoming Snow Day.

• Bailey suggested holding another soldering class in January.

Other Concerns

• Brad brought up the idea of emailing all members to notify them when we get new tools. In the end the board agreed that we should keep posting tool information on our Google Group and that it is members' responsibility to keep up to date on that information.

End of Meeting