January 2021 - Board Meeting

1/6/2021 - Area 515 Board Meeting

Attending:

• President: Dave

• Vice President: Jake

• Treasurer: Meg

• Secretary: Brad

• Director: Jason

• Director: Ryan

• Director: Tom

Also Attending:

• Don

Secretary's Note: Some members were present via Google Hangout.

Pre-Meeting Discussion

• Jason had success emailing reminders to pay Wood Shop fees. Bill C was so awesome he even voluntarily paid a late fee no one asked for!

• Shun reorganized the electronics room

• Jason consolidated some member cubes

Old Business

• No new movement on any of the following yet:

  • digitally storing liability waivers

  • front sign

  • more space from landlord

• Security system still crashes but new memory and cameras have been ordered to improve it.

• We will probably hold a space work day to do the low voltage wiring for signs and cameras, maybe late February?

• Toner ordered for printer

Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting

   Vote to approve minutes from previous meetings in both November and December.
   In Favor: 7
   Opposed: 0
   Result: PASSED.

Financials

• Meg renewed our paperwork for Benevity

• Tool Financial reports have been updated.

• In 2020 we made a net profit of $7500.

• Included in that net profit were the donations we received in 2020 totaling about $8900

  • The money left over from COVID shield donations will be given to an appropriate charity as we said on our website. Brad will offer some charity options at next board meeting. Meg will double check her Excel spreadsheets from that time period to determine how much money that is.

Membership Update: 77

• Space has felt busier lately

• Ryan made a presentation about the space to Facebook on Dec 16th, that may have contributed to new membership. New members aren't citing any single source as their reason for signing up though.

• Brad asked about a way to automate sending the welcome letter to new members. Salesforce would be ideal for that. Ryan said he would talk with people at Facebook to see if anyone over there would be willing to help us start using our Salesforce account.

Space Updates

• Shun is working on list of stuff to sell for the Space

• Jake brought in his Prusa 3D printer for members to use.

• Work on the cement pad in the courtyard is on hold until Spring.

• Wood Shop is planning for a major rearranging.

• Making a Finishing Room is on hold at least until we get more rental space from our landlord. The idea is to make a 10'x10' room with a snorkel. It will be a separate project, not included in the Big Tool Buy.

• Wood Shop Stewards say they are fine making space for a larger CNC machine if we choose to go that route.

• Many new members do rough wood construction, we're not getting as many tech-centered members. We should maybe upgrade our tech equipment.

• We got an old plasma cutter from our landlord. It doesn't work and is obsolete. Potentially needs a new nozzle. Ryan will look into finding parts for it.

• Possibilities for new tables was discussed.

Big Tool Buy

• is under way. So far we've purchased:

  • new band saw and table

  • dampers

  • Flammables cabinet

• Updates to the textiles room will run about $550, this will be included in Big Tool Buy.

• The plan is to use Carlin' VFD (Variable Frequency Drive) to run the grinder.

• Jake will investigate CNC options for the Big Tool Buy.

• Large tool cabinet purchased from Darron was NOT in Big Tool Buy, it was paid from general funds.

Collaboration Agreement with Other Organizations

• Mainframe Studios is interested in collaborating with us. They've expressed interest in having a small maker space in their studio.

• What this collaboration might look like was discussed. We decided to offer their members $10 off the membership rate. We'll need a way to verify that they are members.

• Board decided that if we offer this to Mainframe, we should also offer to members of the Barnum Factory since that organization helped us out a lot making face shields.

• Dave agreed to write up an agreement and talk with Mainframe.

WiFi Approaching End of Life

• We use an AP Pro for the space's WiFi. There are 2 networks, one for members and one for guests. The guest network has been having problems. Updating the firmware might fix the problem, but the next firmware update also makes March 1, 2021 the End of Life for the device. If we install that update, we will be unable to install any updates or make any configuration changes to the AP Pro after that date.

• After discussion of options, the board decided to go ahead and update the AP Pro firmware.

• Closer to March 1st, we will either purchase a new WiFi access point (the new AP Pro is about $160) or Jake will donate a fairly new AP Pro that he already has.

• It was noted that new members don't automatically receive the member WiFi password. Brad agreed to add it to the new member Welcome letter.

Miscellaneous

• One of the members is offering a PC with a parallel port. It might make a good new computer for the Sharktooth laser.

End of Meeting

Jake: "We need a 90 watt laser cutter to fall into our laps." Jason: "You can! Just write a $13,000 check and a guy in a brown suit will drop it off!"