April 2023 - Member Meeting
April 30, 2023 - Member Meeting
04/30/2023 - Area 515 Member Meeting
Total Number of Full Members Attending: 12 present + 4 remotely present + 1 proxy
Quorum was reached
Board of Directors Attending:
President: Dave
Vice President: Jake
Treasurer: Meg
Secretary: Brad
Director: Tom P
Director: Ryan R
Preamble
Our Treasurer is having a child! Thankfully she will remain our treasurer though.
Current Members: 93
We haven't been under 90 for many months, were at 103 members at one point, may be getting to the point where an all volunteer staff is difficult to maintain.
Community Engagement Committee (CEC)
They are working to shift our decision making, as a group, to a more quantitative basis.
One step in that process is collecting data on our members (data, aka. metrics). They are planning to send out surveys to find what members value about the space. They want everyone to feel heard.
It was mentioned that there have been member surveys conducted in the past, although not a lot was gleaned from them.
They plan to start tracking Open House visitors, to find out how many come and about what percentage become members.
They made business cards for Area 515 that anybody can hand out to anyone who's interested.
The CEC currently consists of John, Kevin, Frank, and Carlin, but they would love to have more members.
Along with Don, a monitor was set up in the classroom to display upcoming event information. The display runs a Google deck slide show, which the board and all Tool Stewards have access to update.
Space Updates
Ryan coordinated and brought to the space a huge donation of nice office chairs from Meta (formerly Facebook). He also distributed some to other non-profits in the area. Many thanks to Ryan for this wonderful act of chair-ity!
The Secretary tried that joke several times in person and no one laughed. Nevertheless, he maintains that it's funny so it's going in the notes.
Two of our old chairs will have permanent homes in the Wood Shop. The rest are all available for anyone who wants to take them home.
A Facilities Committee was formed, so far consisting of Dave and Tom (though more members are welcome). Their goal is to improve the current space, and also to scout possible new locations. We don't need to move right now, but we will not have any more room to expand at our current location.
6 new lights for the Wood and Auto Shops have been ordered. They're very bright LED tubes that fit in the current fixtures once the ballast is removed. The removed fluorescent tubes that still work will be swapped out for dead tubes in the other fixtures.
To install the new lights a scissors lift would be optimal. We have a member with a scissors lift, although that lift has been unavailable for awhile. The possibility of renting a lift was also discussed, seeing as how we have a lot of projects that can use it.
Security cameras will be added to the Auto Area.
The board has been working to clarify qualifications for Family Memberships. There are some gray areas around families vs residing in the same household.
General Messages to Members
Don't let the HVAC get overloaded on hot days over the summer. The drain pan clogs really easily, probably due to dust. Note: The blue filter in the ceiling outside the bathrooms is virtually never the problem with the AC, so don't bother changing it.
Remember to turn lights off when leaving a room.
Nothing should be stored inside the green tape area. That interferes with the ability for cars to get to the auto lift.
Security Cameras
We will be adding another outdoor camera. Planning to get more cameras generally.
Wood Shop
Jason bought a new band saw for light work. The heavy duty one will be kept as well.
Laser Area
The left laser is currently stronger than the right.
Big Plastic Vacuum Former
Per Jason, we/he needs to schedule a day or two to finish it. Cody was working on it but he's away on paternity leave right now.
3D Printers
An Ender 3s1 was donated. Caroline got it up and running.
Electronics
Brad offered to create portable soldering iron stations. He'll either recreate the old design or embark on a new one.
Textiles & Leather
Bailey got a warping board for the loom.
The Textiles room needs another table which Jason is planning to make.
Auto Shop
Having trouble with tools disappearing.
Dave has somehow acquired 4 3/8ths inch ratchets over time
Dave will talk with our landlord about lift maintenance.
Metal Shop
We acquired a manual metal mill!
Carlin finished taking most of his own tools home.
We need to clean the steel storage in the courtyard. Then we can do more blacksmithing stuff.
Ryan is brining some of his spare metal in for members to purchase by the foot.
Note: No metal should be stored over by the breaker panel!
Financials
We have been operating in the black.
Investment Committee Update: They sort of forgot to meet.
We have money in an iBond at 4.63%
Considering a different money market account.
Bylaw Changes Discussion
Per the Bylaws, members fees should be set every year by a member vote. We haven't been following that.
It was decided that we should become compliant with the Bylaws rather than voting to formally change the Bylaws.
The Secretary assured everyone that he would chew out the Secretary for not putting it on the previous 4th quarter meeting agendas.
Vote to Upgrade Supporting Members to Full
Kevin F requested becoming a Full member. He has been a member for over 11 months and is on the CEC. He was nominated by multiple Full members.
Vote to promote Kevin F to Full member
Yes: 16
No: 0
Result: Passed
Updates
On May 6, 3-5 pm, life coach Christine Clark will hold a talk called "Obtaining Excellence" about learning new skills. Event is free and open to public.
We, as a maker space, need to work on scheduling classes. Nobody showed up at our last soldering class.
A raspberry pi or arduino class was discussed.
Ways to advertise future classes were discussed, including Meetup and putting up fliers.
The TIG welder is available for members who want to be trained on it. See Dave C.
A new member is trying to restart the Robotics Night discussion group.
The idea of putting a video tour of the maker space up on our website was discussed.
Some of our areas need more Trainers and/or Stewards. Jason in particular isn't planning to do any more Wood Shop trainings this year due to his work schedule.
Meeting Adjourned
"It feels weird that we don't have anyone remoting in." Jake: "Okay, I'll go outside."
Regarding the as-yet-unfinished large Plastic Vacuum Former: "Hey! Maybe we can have a 10 year anniversary where we start it up!"
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