August 2018 - Board Meeting

8/8/2018 - Area 515 Board Meeting

Attending:

• President: Tim

• Vice President: Don

• Treasurer: Meg

• Secretary: Brad

• Director of Education: Bailey

• Director: Chris

• Director: Tom

Also present:

• Ward M.

• Jason B.

State of the Space

Post Move Reimbursements

• Reimbursements were made for:

  • Electrical improvements

  • Supplies for new wall in textiles room

  • Paint

  • Odds and ends, like air filters and fire extinguishers

  • U-Haul moving truck

Remaining Moving Budget Discussion

• The moving budget was $1000, but we only spent $612.44

• We discussed ways to spend the remaining $387.56 of the moving budget. Options included:

  • piping for air compressor

  • PVC piping for 4" air compressor

  • deep sink

    • Everyone agreed we should get this.

  • counter top for wood shop cabinets (Tom recommends looking at Restore)

  • new bulbs for bathrooms

    • It was later realized that this fell under the category of consumables, and can be purchased immediately.

  • 4' ladder

  • 8' ladder

  • Refill first aide cabinet

  • Put in lit light switches

    • Many switches are in areas that are dark when you first enter them. If the switch itself is lit it would be easier to find.

    • The possibility of remote light switches was also raised. They run about $50 a switch, but could be placed in any location. Tom thinks he has one that the space could use.

    • Ultrasonic motion sensors were also suggested as an alternative, but some disliked the possibility of lights going out if a person holds too still.

    • On a side note, Chris intends to use remote switches to control the dust collectors.

  • Polaroid camera to take pictures of members and put them on a wall so people can remember each others names.

    • Chris will ask his wife if we can use her polaroid camera.

    • A number of people liked this idea, though it would only be done with each member's permission.

• The biggest issue with ultimately deciding how to spend the money, was that we don't know how much pipe and PVC pipe we will need so we can't find the cost for it yet.

Moving Final Items

• Tim plans to finish moving everything from the old space on Aug 11-12

Work with APEX

• Bailey is working with APEX students on the following tasks:

  • Creating Safety Signage to use around the new space

  • Creating a consistent design scheme to label each room (using the tools found in that room)

  • Designing new flyers

Insurance & Utilities

• Our insurance has been updated with our new address

• Current insurance policy will expire soon, so Tim will contact an agent to shop around for competitive prices and will bring quotes back to the board.

• Our electric account should automatically switch to our new address so we will continue autopayments without interruption.

• We will need to create a water account, and we were advised there will be an extra expense on our first bill, presumably for hook up.

Financials

• Our $5k CD matures next week. Meg will check if we can get the same rate but as it was an introductory rate that is unlikely.

• Meg will investigate what 2 year CD yields are and come back to the board for a decision.

• The desire for creating a CD ladder was discussed but nothing was decided.

Paper Towels

• Dispensers in the new bathrooms accept multifold paper towels, and since those are cheaper than paper towel rolls it was agreed to buy the multifold paper towels instead.

Front Signage

• We have a vinyl copy of the same sign that was on the windows in the old space. All we need is something to put it on, and then it could be put up over the front door.

Upcoming Events

Maker Faire

• Monday, September 3, from 9:00 am–5:00 pm

• Bailey will post a thread on the google group inviting people and projects to participate

Art Show

• October 18th, Decades Event Center in West Des Moines

• 6 weeks after Maker Faire

Grand Reopening for Area 515

• After discussing the options, it was decided to have it on Sept. 22, roughly halfway between Maker Faire and the Art Show. This was because:

  • At previous art shows many attendees have said that they have long been interested in the maker space, but were waiting for us to hold an event to give them a reason to come. If we can advertise a Grand Reopening at the Maker Faire it would give people a reason to come to the space. Then we can also advertise the Art Show during the Grand Reopening.

  • Also in Sept we might still be able to grill in the grass outside the garage.

  • Sept 29th is Oktoberfest and goodness knows we don't want to compete with that.

• The event will probably start mid afternoon and run into the evening.

• Laura's mom offered to let us use her pancake bot. Several people also suggested grilling during the event.

• The board agreed we should print flyers with our new address. We will ask APEX students to design the flyers.

End of Meeting

• Paraphrased Quote of the Meeting: "Even Thomas the Train knows better than to compete with Oktoberfest!"