January 2022 - Board Meeting

1/5/2022 Area 515 Board Meeting

1/5/2022 - Area 515 Board Meeting

Attending:

Absent:

Also present:

Local FRC (aka. FIRST Robotics Competition) team presented their excellent robot designs and talked about how they came up with them.

Vote to approve minutes from December board meeting
Yes: 6
No: 0
Result: Passed

Treasurer updated accounts for all the tool areas, more on that below.
We are operating in the black even when excluding major donations.
The Concrete Pad in the courtyard is a 'go' once again. The money for it will come from the general fund.

There is still some stuff in the Metal Shop that we are going to sell.
Kiln sale went to the general fund.
In reviewing the updated Tool funds it was noticed that money from Carlin's classes was missing.
The fund for the Lasers also seemed to be missing some items. The Secretary said he would search for income that was missing.

Jake successfully got Zapier to automatically update membership payments. He says we can expand it to do what we need. It has native integration with Google Sheets. Unfortunately, the free trial period ended so we need to purchase a subscription.
- For $250/month we get 750 tasks, which would be just about enough to cover membership payments
- For $600/year we get access to more tasks
- Asking Zapier for more free trial time was considered, but those experienced with the company said the answer would almost certainly be no.

Vote to purchase Zapier for $600 per year
Yes: 6
No: 0
Result: Passed

Jason will give Brad the email password for the Wood Shop to put in the KeePass file.
Right now our Facebook page is kind of sparse.
Although Jason's Instagram posts are supposed to also post to our Facebook page, Jason is experiencing some weird issues with this.

NOMCOM stands for Nation Of Makers Conference. It's an organization established during the Obama administration to support maker organizations all over the country. In addition to the conference, they massive amount of information stored online about things that have worked in other maker spaces. This info is only accessible with a membership.
Last year Jason bought a membership for himself and attended the conference online. He proposed that the board purchase a NOMCOM membership for the space.
Memberships are $600/year, although there is reduced pricing for hardships.
Among the things in its online database are Open Source Software systems, and mailing lists that cover topics we're interested in like door control.
The possibility of setting up a new email specifically for NOMCOM communications was suggested.
Tom expressed particular interest in seeing if NOMCOM has any data about ROI (Return On Investment) for maker spaces.
After much discussion, it was decided that we shouldn't join until somebody had the time to make use of the membership. Nobody had the time to explore it right now, so the topic would be brought up again at the next board meeting.

Jan 29, 3pm was the decided date and time.
Jason will hold a Wood Shop training class that day at 1pm, and a New Member Intro class at 2pm.

Jason will spearhead work on electrical wiring at the space on Jan 15th. There will be a lot to do so volunteers to help are welcome.

Said to a new member trying to exit the building: "We're not gonna' show you how to open the door. You'll have to figure that out for yourself."

Last updated 2 years ago