January 2018 - Member Meeting
1/21/2018 - Area 515 Member Meeting
Total Number of Members Attending: 16
Total Number of Full Members Attending: 10 + 1 by phone + 5 by proxy
Quorum was reached (13 Full Members were required)
Board of Directors Attending:
President: Tim
Vice President: Don
Secretary: Brad
Director of Education: Bailey
Director: Chris
Director: Tom (by phone)
Absent:
Treasurer: Meg
New Location Discussion
Possible New Location at 110 11th St
Also known as "elevencherry" from a sign on its exterior. Tom toured the building and spoke about it over the phone while Tim displayed photos and video on overhead projector.
Approx 3960 sq. ft.
Rent would be $1730 per month
Pros and cons of this location discussed:
Pros:
Has small loading dock that could be converted to drive in entrance
Has windows
Downtown location, close to current location
Would have almost 4k sq ft on move in
Roof has new membrane
Working furnace
Wall units for air conditioning
Could be immediately available for move in
Close proximity to bars
Cons:
Budget would currently be slightly in the red on a month to month basis
Owners currently trying to sell building, we would have 6 months to leave if new owners did not want us
Very little parking; street parking would be vulnerable to downtown events and will soon become metered all the time
Even on a Sunday, the available parking there is already full
We would need to add ventilation for our equipment
Interior is very rough, few interior walls - would require a lot of work to make it look nice
loading dock has very tight turn radius
Windows are sealed shut
Close proximity to bars
Possible New Location at 108 Jefferson
Rented Area approx. 3k sq ft (approx same size as current location including garage)
Possible to expand up to 5.5k - 6k sq ft
For comparison, current space is about 3k sq ft including garage
Rent would be $1200/month + utilities (owner estimated about $300/month for utilities), our budget would still be in the black on a monthly basis, but margins would be smaller than now.
Location has a garage door and 2 post car lift which would be considered a Neutral area. We would be required to keep our things out of the way between the lift and garage door to allow cars to pass. Owner had ideas about how to share lift, see below.
Location has some offices with brick walls that we could not remove.
Some of the space on site the owner uses for storage. We may be able to expand into that area in future.
2 bathrooms
One room already set up with power and ventilation for TIG welding
One office could be expanded into 13' by 13' room
Building owner is a friend of a member and seems amenable to our organization and our goals.
There is an interior garage door that links our area with owner's business area.
Owner also operates own business on site.
It was noted that we, as a space, have at least 4 moving choices:
move to eleven cherry location
move to 108 Jefferson location
stay in current location but continue looking for new places
stay in current location
Pros and cons of 108 Jefferson location discussed:
Pros:
friendly landlord
parking - seldom occupied street parking
good restaurants nearby
Air lines for compressor already installed
Space has ventilation, and owner may be okay with us adding more
3 phase, 220V electric lines mean we can power a wider variety of tools
2 post car lift - Owner had idea for sharing this with us. A small daily fee could be charged to anyone using the lift, and then proceeds from that fee would be split between us and owner. The point of the fee would be to prevent people leaving their cars on the lift for more than a few hours.
Owner may be willing to share his tools with us
Owner will lock connecting interior garage door when not present
Office area can be locked up, in addition to locking exterior entrances
Owner seems interested in making our stay a long term deal
No bars nearby
Cons:
No AC in garage area
Building is located in flood plain; was flooded in 1993, but NOT in 2008 after dike was installed
Constantly present landlord (possible con? possible pro?)
Some people expressed reservation about the neighborhood though no one had specific reasons why
Would not be available until mid-July, our move in would depend on when current tenants move out.
Car lift not exclusively ours
No bars nearby
When or if we move we will probably have to double pay rent for a few months (at current location and new location) to give us time to move.
Power to our space is not individually metered so would need to work out how to pay for it with owner
Unknown how move would affect insurance
State of the Space
Financial Update
2017 Financial Statement of Activity (PDF)
Maintained approx 50-55 members in 2017
In 2017 we...
took in approx $24k
had approx $19k in expenses
meaning we saved approx $5k
Rent and insurance were our biggest costs
Our largest monthly utility bill was about $170
Further questions should be emailed to the Treasurer (treasurer@area515.org)
Garage Improvements Discussion
Brad opened the discussion explaining that past attempts to clean up the garage area to the point where it is clean enough for most members have stalled due to the problem of welding dust from neighbors. Options to overcome this were discussed.
One option is to put up welding curtains (aka. welding tarps or blankets) to enclose the space. Since the dust is air born the curtains would have to completely seal off our area - floor to ceiling - from the rest of the garage in order to solve the dust problem. Areas that currently have wood cladding would not need to be covered.
Ben mentioned the neighbor has a broken ventilation unit for the welder, but is in a dispute with the building owner over who should fix it.
Ryan R and Jason B volunteered to try fixing it for him
Ben volunteered to ask the neighbor if they would be okay with it.
We discussed whether it's worth it to improve the garage at all if we're trying to move in 6 months, but since we will probably want welding curtains at the new location they are still worth investigating.
In new location welding curtains could be hung on rails in the ceiling.
It was also suggested that the best way to control dust is to clean frequently.
We decided to start a thread on the Google group to price out welding curtain options.
Miscellaneous New Location Items
In discussing the use of welding curtains in new location, talk turned to other points of note about the new location.
Don noted that often times fire marshals require metal and wood shops to be in completely different parts of a building. Ultimately it was generally agreed that we should discuss the issue with the new property owner.
Tim will be setting up meetings for members to come plan how we should set up in the new location.
Big fans were also discussed as a good investment for new location since it doesn't have AC in garage area. Fans were also discussed as possible ventilation. Portable swamp coolers were mentioned as an alternative.
Ultimately it was decided to create a thread on the Google group to get people looking for options.
Voting
Number of Full Members: 25 Number of Full Members Present: 10 + 5 proxy voters
With proxies, we have enough voting members to reach quorum.
Bill C expressed interest in becoming a Full member. He was nomiated by 3 Full members.
Per the Bylaws, nobody forwarded a motion to change membership fees therefore they will remain as before.
End of Meeting
The fromage endures unassisted.
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