Minutes:12 FEB 2020 Board Meeting Agenda

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Agenda

  • Reportbacks from Active Systems & Working Groups - 10m
    • current status, upcoming work, needs
    • Marketing - Nate Y. - nothing to report since last month
    • Financial - Mike Z. - Spreadsheet for financial health done!
    • Governance - James K. - Vote to include James on the Board
  • Announcements
    • A2Yasm - Mike Z. would like to advertise us there. James K. and Nate Y. can chip in to get make us a sponsor?

Things that are Actually Happening

  • Group Memberships? - 10m
    • There's a company that is interested in buying some floating memberships... Cat-tree build night! :3 - James K.
    • Floating membership concern also. How can we ensure that everyone who uses it is properly trained and aware of how things work/contribute positively to the culture at AHA? Proposal to use a chaperone system, with named users having a card assigned to them personally, and other members could be their "guests". Emphasize that we are a community space, have robust on-boarding for these folks (and really all members). $100/mo./member business cost as a proposed starting point for such arrangements, or have a base cost ($200?) + $50/per-member over two? - James K., Mitchell N.
  • Finances & Future Plans - 15m
    • Corporate Sponsorships, Employee Benefit Memberships, Open House to court sponsors
      • Mostly covered already, some stuff below...
    • Nostrum has moved out, Mike and James sat down to figure out the current financial situation. We're at $1300/mo. loss reliably, which is just over 4 months left at current rate of income. Proposal is to dump the Annex (costing ~$400/mo. currently), maybe to be able to pick it up later. The immediate and easy option is to haggle with Oxford to see what options we have on the table first.
    • Mitchell: cost-minimizing is not an ideal route for hackerspaces in the long-term.
    • James: we don't have much in the way of costs to cut.
    • James: attracting new members is useful, but also partnering with more non-profits to make ourselves more involved in the community is more effective long-term.
    • The Annex
  • Oxford work orders & relationship - 5m
    • Let's just move the stuff out of the back room there so they can get the pipes work done, then let them know we're waiting on them.
  • Upcoming Class/Events and Advertising them - 10m
    • Regular Thursday Repairsday - Mitchell needs help. Would still like this to continue as a weekly event. In theory it's a accessible and good for the community. The reality is that only a couple people have actually come, and it needs more visibility/marketing, and have a few more people interested in helping out in anticipation of having more people.
      • Mike and James: making a press release for a slow news day (MLive, A2 Observer, etc.).
      • Mitchell: starting with the lower-hanging fruit, like social media, to get even a few folks coming in, so we're not overwhelmed.
      • James: check with AADL to see if we could get them to help promote. Also flyers!
      • Mitchell: Borrow Repair Cafe Network branding/join with their network?
    • Other classes Mike wants to schedule March and April laser training, will take a break for February.
      • Ways to make teaching classes better: Nate: have a go-to curriculum already made so we can easily get other teachers on-boarded
      • James: publicize better, because prepping for hours and teaching to only one or two people stinks. Making sure the space is clean so that you don't waste time cleaning before class-time. Reach out to people who seem interested in teaching, and offer to help out as much as possible. Publicize the result of the classes (pictures!) on social media.
      • Ndu: will send out an email to volunteers to see if anyone would like to teach a class as part of their volunteer commitment.
      • Mitchell: fluorescent tube lighting in the classroom -- lighting sucks.
      • Mike: also maybe LED strips with switches?
  • The Website - 5m
    • James: asking for help -- can we convert issues raised on the email list thread into Github issues? Volunteers?
    • James: any reason not to go live now? Mitchell: it still seems a little generic, specifically images. Can we have a photo-shoot day to fill in these gaps?
  • Naloxone kit (two doses, nasal spray; reverses opioid overdose) stocked in first-aid supplies. Basic how-to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGVSaO1oxpg , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r788rTfAf9Y - 5m
    • Volunteering - 5m:
      • James: we should have backups for all our committees, and we need that for volunteering, since it's very integral to AHA.
      • Ndu: open to that idea; and also we should do the same with Finances (Mike agrees).
      • Mitchell: we should have a list of "open committee positions".
      • Mike: "All Hands" (Agile-ish stand-up) meeting to get people rapidly involved.
      • Mitchell: Mention these All Hands meetings to new members during on-boarding.
      • Mike: Let's call "committees", "working groups". Mitchell: or "systems"!

Things that are ideas

  • Streamlining process for new members - 5m
  • Weekly "All Hands"(tm) meetings - 5m
  • Communication/Lead Tracking - 5m
  • Member Tracking System - 5m

Reportbacks

  • things we accomplished, things we need, etc.

Decisions

  • we decided to be awesome
  • We need to do (group) member on-boarding better
  • Improve classroom lighting
  • Website feedback needs to go into github issues
  • Do a photoshoot day for website
  • Maintain a list of open committees/working groups/systems

Action Items

  • Thing that needs to be done
    • People/Workgroups responsible
    • Deadline/Estimate
  • Drinking water supply? -- James ($), Mitchell will ask Daniel S. how to get deliveries.
  • Penguicon (April 24-26 @ Westin Southfield)/AACME (May 17 12p-5p @ AADL Main Branch) solder projects? Respond to AADL, send out call for interested parties on the Member List - Nate Y.
  • A2Yasm - Mike Z. to get an AHA mention/sponsor spot? James K. and Nate Y. can chip in some dollars.
  • "James on the Board" vote - Laria (Nate, Adam, and Ndu have voted yes)
  • Decide on "group membership" rates - James/Mitchell?
  • Contact Oxford to discuss Annex - ??? (very important, but nobody assigned yet)
  • Move stuff out of back room to give pipes access to Oxford - Ndu
  • Communicate with volunteers to see if they want to teach a class - Ndu
  • Improve classroom lighting - Mike and Nate (low radio interference LEDs?)
  • Send out blurb on Naloxone - Nate
  • Run the inaugural stand-up meeting - Mike/Mitchell
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