[Noisebridge-discuss] Meeting notes for 2010-06-29

jim jim at well.com
Wed Jun 30 14:26:36 UTC 2010



good notes, thanks. 


On Tue, 2010-06-29 at 22:48 -0700, Seth David Schoen wrote:
> June 29, 2010
> 
> Moderator: Al
> Note-taker: Seth
> 
> * Introductions
> 
> * Treasurer's report.
> 
> We have $9,000 but we owe about $1,500.  So we have about $7,500.
> That is only about half of the amount of money we aim to have in
> the bank at all times.
> 
> Q. Are we still losing money month-to-month?
> A. Yes, though not this month, exceptionally, because of a corporate
> matching gift.
> 
> Q. How much do we normally lose?
> A. About a thousand dollars a month.
> 
> Q. At the worst point, we were losing $1,000 but the amount we're
> losing has decreased.
> A. It hasn't necessarily decreased.
> 
> It appears that we would not have this financial trouble if all
> members would pay their dues.  Pay your dues!
> 
> * What's going on at Noisebridge.
> 
> Spacebridge might need a hardy desert explorer to retrieve their
> most recent payload from an extremely inaccessible desert canyon.
> Beware of heat exhaustion.
> 
> * Happy birthday to Will!
> 
> 
> Consensus items
> ---------------
> 
> * Consensus item: Spending freeze for nonrecurring items.  No more
>   spending on things that are not rent or utilities.
> 
> - E.g. there is a concern about the buildout budget (which may still
> be in effect).
> 
> Q. What are the nonrecurring items in question?
> 
> A. E.g. shirts and stickers.
> 
> Q. Would this interfere with Noisebridge's ability to accept
> earmarked donations?
> 
> A. We already can't take earmarked donations because the legal
> reporting requirements would be too burdensome.  If you want to
> donate a particular item to Noisebridge, you should buy the item
> yourself and donate it.
> 
> Q. Can we have a way to override this spending-freeze restriction
> if we agree to this proposal?
> 
> A. Right now if you want Noisebridge to spend money on something,
> you generally need to get consensus.  However, we've already approved
> certain items in the past, such as further construction work, and so
> this item would rescind our approval for those things.  However, this
> item should not change the procedure for future expenditures.
> 
> Q. We should have an easier way to approve tiny expenses like toilet
> paper.
> 
> A. People can take petty cash from the drink donations, buy the
> toilet paper, and leave the receipts behind where the donations
> were.
> 
> Q. How about "until Noisebridge is cash-flow positive and has
> three months' expenses in the bank"?
> 
> Q. Who came up with this consensus item?
> 
> A. Jeffrey.
> 
> Q. What are the monthly recurring expenses?
> 
> A. PG&E, water, rent, Internet access, insurance [annual], garbage.
> 
> A. We could also refer to $100 for "facilities" (e.g., soap and
> toilet paper) which are sometimes purchased from petty cash.
> 
> New text (for consensus next week): Noisebridge shall require consensus
> for any non-monthly recurring expenses (enumerated) until the time that
> we are cashflow positive and have three months' expenses in the bank.
> 
> 
> * Consensus item: Funding buildout of dirty shop.  Doors, sound
>   insulation, and previous buildout expenses.
> 
> The proponent of this item withdraws it.
> 
> 
> Consensus items for next week
> -----------------------------
> 
> * Proposal to spend $40 for dinner for Five Minutes of Fame.
> 
> * Assistant treasurer position.
> 
> Bylaws allow us to create assistant officers with the same powers as
> the officers they assist.  Jeffrey proposes making Al assistant or
> associate treasurer.  Or "the other treasurer".  This would split the
> burdens of this task.  This is not proposed for consensus next week
> since it's a large change, but should be a consensus item for two
> weeks from now (July 13 meeting).
> 
> Q. What the effect on our insurance rates be?
> 
> A. We pay about $600 for directors' and officers' insurance so it
> seems like it would be around $70 more, assuming it's a fixed
> amount per person.  We can find out.
> 
> Q. Treasurer's job is the only one with real work, so it would be
> good to be able to split it.
> 
> This could be considered two consensus items:
> 
> (1) To tell the board to create the position of assistant treasurer.
> (2) To tell the board to appoint Al to this position.
> 
> Q. Has this been discussed with the board?
> 
> A. Only with a few people, since the board isn't supposed to have
> power to act without consensus.
> 
> * Learn You A Origami group.
> 
> Potentially will be starting at Noisebridge.
> 
> (Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. there is an origami group called Bay Area
> Rapid Folders, which meets at a library, not at Noisebridge.)
> 
> * Large-format printer.  Now available.  Try to test or fix it if
> you're interested.
> 
> * July 30 fundraising dinner for Noisebridge.
> 
> Quirk wants to know how many people will attend.  This dinner will
> occur on July 30 because Noisebridge needs money.
> 
> * How many people are interested in attending a meeting tomorrow to
> discuss revising membership procedures?
> 
> None.
> 
> * People who are going to HOPE?
> 
> 	The Next HOPE.  3500 people in New York City.  See thenexthope.net.
> 
> * Mission Science Workshop for kids this summer.  You can participate.  
>   http://www.missionscienceworkshop.org/ <mariolh at gmail.com>
> 
> * Biotech group.
> 
> Frantisek is organizing a biotech group.
> 
> Q. What is the group going to do?
> A. Food culturing: yogurt, kombucha.  And working on designing
> equipment that would be useful for biotech projects.
> 
> Q. Would it be appropriate to call this "food hacking" instead?
> A. Maybe.
> 
> * Elevator.
> 
> The elevator wasn't working today.  And someone had turned down the
> volume of the walkie-talkie and then people ignored it when it was
> called.  Please remember to close the elevator doors and please don't
> ignore the walkie-talkie.
> 
> * Membership binder
> 
> Names were read; there are no new members today.
> 





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