December 2019 - Board Meeting

Attending:

President: DaveVice President: Jake (arrived late)Treasurer: MegSecretary: BradDirector: TomDirector: Jason

Absent:

Director of Education: Bailey

Also present:

• Ward, Caroline

Results of Previous Minutes Review

• Items that did not get done after previous meeting

  • Brad still needs to ask Tool Stewards about other possible items to sell.

  • Jake still needs to be added as check signer

  • Meg will check if savings rate at new bank still as high as before

  • Bailey did find person who proposed inexpensive audit, but that person has yet to be contacted.

  • Still no list of grants which require audit to apply for

Financials

• Money came in, money went out

Current Membership Count

• 58

Front Door

• RFID scanner was having trouble updating its current members list. It was reset a few days ago and seems to be working fine now. Ray has another microcontroller we can try if this one has problems again.

• Dave received a physical front door key from Bailey. Brad also has a copy of the same key. It only operates on the dead bolt, not the lock on the door handle. Since the dead bolt is never engaged, it was suggested we change the lock on the door handle and distribute new keys to board members and perhaps others.

SalesForce Update

• Read by the Secretary: After having a SalesForce hack day at the space the biggest hurdle to clear is getting SalesForce to recognize PayPal transactions as genuine. Tim is circumventing this by having our website confirm the PayPal transactions and then getting SalesForce to confirm transactions with our website. Ray was able to get the door firmware to get tags from SalesForce. The only remaining roadblock for the door is getting the correct pinout so that he can actually flash that firmware on the door hardware. If really necessary he can pull the board out and manually trace what is connected where. I don’t know the status of any data structures within SalesForce for storing member info, etc.

4H Membership Offer

• The board read through the document with our starting proposal to 4H for membership. Everyone liked it, especially since it supports education which is a part of our mission.

   Vote to initial 4H membership offer.
   In Favor: 5 (Vice President had not arrived yet.)
   Opposed: 0
   Result: PASSED.

Membership Growth Strategy

• In discussions with other maker spaces, our system works well for less than 75 members. When membership is between 75-125 other spaces have difficulty. Above 125 spaces can usually afford to hire somebody to help control the chaos.

• Dave mentioned wanting to encourage members to pitch in more around the space.

• Dave also suggested starting a mentoring program. Assign new members to volunteer members for support and to teach the culture of the space.

• Tom wants to lead a committee to expressly focus on growing membership. The committee would work on...

  • longer term ideas affecting growth - ideas like renting more space and setting up a flex area that could be used for different things different times of the year. Also possibly setting an FRC area, and grads of that program might come back when they're older.

  • developing a long term growth strategy

  • talk to other spaces to ask how they grew past the 60 members point.

  • Jason plans to visit Nation of Makers Convention (NOMCON) around June 5-7 in Eugene, Oregon this year. Their theme is growth strategies this year.

Front Sign Update

• Plan is 4'x2' stainless steel logo, backlit with RGB lighting. Out landlord is willing to help out, he has said we can put lags into outside wall. We will run electricity out to it and also put up outdoor lighting for our parking lot.

• Estimate the total cost around $500, $250 for 4x4 stainless steel sheet + other expenses.

• Board liked the idea and generally were good with the price.

Space Updates

• Frank requested an extension pole to clean our windows.

• Two CNC machines were looked at for possible purchase but neither was really what we want.

• Jake suggested using the money in our CD to purchase some big tools, in particular...

  • Big CNC machine for wood that would fit what we want

  • Metal mill, one that doesn't use 3 phase power, something like a Bridgeport 1 or 2. Jason might have a lead on how to find one.

  • TIG welder

  • Shear break

• Dave will talk with our landlord about renting more space.

• Regarding our electric wiring, we are pretty much out of circuits, though not out of power.

• We should install two 3 way switches for the south lighting, put one switch by the entrance to the Wood Shop and the other by the outside door.

Classes

• Everybody should hang up flyers for Snow Day!

• Dave will do another soldering class

• Jason might offer knife sharpening class

• Brad will offer a class on the Piranha CNC

• Dave will talk to Ray about doing another Artemis game night

End of Meeting

• Possible new motto for the space: "Expertly Executing Horrible Ideas"

• Said in reference to the electric Powerwheels car : "...that's if you're still driving that thing right side up... my back still hurts."