September 2018 - Board Meeting
9/5/2018 - 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.
State of the Space
Iowa
Mostly solid and gas, some liquid as well.
We have received a large post-Maker Faire bump in visitors and attention. Everyone who was present at the Mini Maker Faire on Labor Day agreed it went well.
Existing members are getting antsy for more tools to be up and running, like the Piranha CNC.
A location has been preserved in the Wood Shop for if we are able to borrow Reg's large CNC machine.
Financial Update
Safety supplies and other items were purchased after last month's meeting.
Financials will be updated by next meeting.
3 members have submitted volunteer hours to the John Deere Foundation, which will match those hours by donating money to the space. In the past we needed to officially validate those submitted hours, but that appears to no longer be the case.
Both Prairie Meadows grants were received on one check and deposited.
Bailey and Meg will purchase the items specified in the grants.
We may need to write receipts for the items billed to ourselves on the grants. Things like artists' membership fees, their tool use fees, materials fees, etc.
Any unused Prairie Meadows grant money must be returned to Prairie Meadows.
Since one artist in residence (Andy D) withdrew after joining the program, his money for materials will be returned to Prairie Meadows.
However, since the artist in residence memberships were considered paid in full up front and Andy D did start work, his membership fee will not need to be returned.
Copies of all 2018 grant applications are stored in a folder named "2018_GrantApplications" stored on the Google Drive.
2019 Artist in Residency Discussion
Tim ran the program the first year, Bailey ran the program this second year. Both say it is a very large amount of work. Nobody new has come forward to run the 2019 program. The deadline to apply for the Bravo funding is in 2 weeks.
Bailey has said she won't run the program again without a large amount of help. (Our intern left earlier in the year and left Bailey doing almost all of the work herself.)
Everybody was in general agreement that the Artist in Residency (AiR) program has a lot of benefits. Among them:
It pays for new people who would not otherwise have become members
Some past artists have remained members afterwards
The program expands awareness of who we are
It has attracted artists into the Area 515 community
Discussion then followed about how to distribute the work load of running the AiR program. APEX students aren't able to help much because of their semester schedule. It was also mentioned that AiR's schedule is inconvenient for grant applications.
In the end, Tim agreed to apply for the Bravo funding again, but if no one else helps this year it will be the last time the program is held.
Bailey will also write out a list of everything that needs to be done to run the program and then board members will take items from the list to do, thus distributing the work load.
Tool Steward Discussions
Before this meeting, an email discussion circulated among the board about changes to the Tool Stewards system. This discussion continued that email chain and the decisions are presented here.
Tool Steward Egalitarianism
The board decided that there is no hierarchy among Tool Steards. There are NO Primary or Secondary Tool Stewards. This means...
Any Tool Steward can now spend money from their area's account.
However the Tool Stewards in each area may create their own hierachy if they wish. They will have to decide that together AND notify the Treasurer of their decision. (So for example, if the CNC Tool Stewards want to designate only 1 person to control the CNC account, they have to decide this together and then notify the Treasurer that only the 1 Steward is allowed to spend money from the CNC account.)
Approval Process for New Tool Stewards
For a person to become a Tool Steward they must first be tested by the existing Tool Stewards for that area.
The existing Tool Stewards will then make their recommendations to the board of directors.
The board will then vote on whether to designate the person as a Tool Steward.
Official Tool Steward Changes
Taylor K and Ryan R have requested to become metal shop stewards in the past.
Tim S has removed himself as Tool Steward for the Wood Shop.
Jake L has requested to become a Wood Shop steward. It should be noted that since the move, something like half of the wood shop tools are on loan from him.
Bailey S has been trained to fine tune both laser cutters and needs to be made an official Tool Steward
Dave C is Tool Steward of the Auto Shop largely by the landlord's decree and thus does not require an official board vote. Everyone on the board agrees with this.
Laura V has requested to become Tool Steward of the newly established textiles area.
At one time Abigail L expressed interest in becoming a Tool Steward for textiles as well. Members observed her showing meticulous attention to detail during the move, and she is a professional seamstress.
No members have come forward asking to be steward of the kiln. One of the artists in residency is communicating with Richard D of Dahlquist Studios to ask if he would be willing to help set up the kiln and train people in its use. Our AiR has suggested the board offer him a reduced membership rate in exchange for his help with the kiln, however no details have been worked out.
Complete Official Tool Stewards List
Metal Shop
Dave C
Taylor K - pending acceptance & Dave C approval
Ryan R - pending acceptance & Dave C approval
Wood Shop
Chris J
Jake L
3D Printers
Ray S
Chris J
CNC Machines (now only includes Piranha)
Dan B
Brad F
Electronics
Ray S
Bailey S
Laser Cutters
Ray S
Bailey S
Textiles
Laura V
Abigail L - pending acceptance & Laura V approval
Automotive
Dave C
Kiln
To be determined
Upcomming Events
Grand Reopening Discussions
Scheduled for Sept 22. That is 2 1/2 weeks away and the space is not ready. Much discussion centered around getting the wood shop up and running. As of this meeting, there is no To Do list for what the wood shop needs, and there isn't yet a plan for how to store things like hand tools. Tomorrow night (Thursday) the wood shop stewards are planning to meet, set up and true the tools, and get ready to start training people in their use.
It was eventually decided that we will keep the Sept 22 date to give ourselves a deadline and to provide incentive to keep making progress setting everything up.
After some discussion It will be held 3:00 - 8:00pm
Preparation:
Food
We will invite members (and only members) to bring food to share with visitors.
Tom P will take charge of coordinating the food.
Advertising:
Bailey S will create posts for social media and other media.
Brad F will help her write the copy for these posts.
Events & Demonstrations
Brad F will plan events for kids to do during the event. Including things like flying a hot air balloon, and making match rockets.
No dangerous equipment will be running during the Grand Reopening so people can tour the space as they come in. We should still have all the equipment arranged and looking useable for our guests.
Bailey and Meg will order the Personal Protection Equipment that we listed in our grants.
Art Show 2018
Will be held October 18th at Decades Event Center from 6:00-9:00pm.
Bailey will send board members a list of tasks still to be done to prepare for this. Board members can then select tasks and perform them to help distribute the work load.
Bailey and Meg will meet with Decades Event Center to purchase bar tenders, etc.
Bailey already has a list of what the artists will require to display their work at the venue. One item on Bailey's list will be to build temporary walls on which to display artwork. (We are not allowed to hang anything on the walls at Decades Event Center.) Bailey suggested we could rent the walls out to artists afterwords.
Meg offered easels to help display things as well.
Snow Day 2018
Date and time were decided to be December 15, 1:00-5:00pm
Miscellaneous
Jason has been looking on Craig's list for suitable sinks.
Bailey has acquired 2 portable licenses for Solidworks!
These licenses would only be available to entrepreneurs and people building small businesses around a thing they are designing. It should be noted that the program will not be installed on our machines. Instead they would be installed on the machines belonging to the small business, and those machines would have to be on the Area 515 network in order to run the software.
A local Solidworks distributor may be interested in coming to the space and giving classes on the software.
Bailey is also working on getting us a hobbyist license so we could have a limited copy of Solidworks useable on one of the space's computers.
Bailey has signed the space up for TechSoup, a nonprofit network of non-governmental organizations that provide tech support and tools to other nonprofits.
End of Meeting
Taken-Out-of-Context Quote of the Meeting: "Even if nothing actually works, can we at least have the space look useable?"
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