Minutes:11 JAN 2023 Members Meeting Agenda

Meeting begins: 1910

Meeting ends: 2100

Participants: Nate Y., Brian J., Donovan P., Nora B., James K., Sarah B., David G., Joe D., Andrew C.

Agenda

• Announcements/new business - 10m
• Operations
• Financial
• Membership
• Outreach
• Education

Minutes

• Announcements/new business:
  • Sarah has been working on logos/simplifying branding, would like input.
  • David got AHA a Make! Magazine subscription.
  • James would like to briefly recap the Wiki Meeting
  • James has fundraising updates
  • James has ideas for bringing more people into the space

• Operations:
  • Tool checkout spreadsheet to keep track of who is allowed to use our training-required tools - Joe D. (actually happening this month)
  • Sink Update - Lyn will fix it "this week", knows about the code issues - Joe D.
  • Door controller work this Saturday - Nate Y., James K.
  • Cricut Working! - needs a permanent computer - working on getting a dedicated mac mini - David G. (will have it done this month)
  • Laser Cutter upgrade update - machine cleaned up, in much better shape than before, new controller right about to go in and shouldn't take very long, going in within the week. - Andrew C./Joe D./Nate Y.
  • Monitor assessment - Andrew C.
  • Wiki Meeting recap Minutes:11 JAN 2023 Wiki Gnomes - James K.
    • Had inaugural Wiki Meeting, came up with plan to move forward with reorganizing our wiki -- initial steps is to look at other hackerspace wikis to see what looks good in terms of organization strategies and see what we can take from that.
    • Goal is to have a usable and salient wiki by 2024.
    • Calling All Gnomes! Everyone create an account for the wiki if you haven't already and edit your user page.
    • Removal of hazardous/toxic liquids in the classroom
  • Classroom lighting - add four lights for now - Nate Y., Andrew C.

• Financial:
  • Financial health outlook: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MTjgdvGJI9-FI7OFxkDdw-hJbirdUaxwBpERWVGVSQs/edit#gid=0
  • Current Profit and Loss https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zyFGgMt1vwGwDnciNzjhT5_X7A4ackqJ/view?usp=sharing
  • 2022 year-end financial report - Joe D. (later tonight)
  • Had some growing pains with Quickbooks, but had our account reset to fix our mistakes and redoing things the right way. Will cancel Freshbooks once we have a good handle on Quickbooks so we are not double-paying for finance software.
  • Financial planning meeting brief recap (see Minutes:08 JAN 2023 Financial Planning)
    • SEO/Signage tasks and budget - James K.
      • Allocate $500 to get help with Adwords/SEO. We should take advantage of non-profit free adwords, but need someone to focus on setting up a campaign.
      • Improve indoor/outdoor signage. Members have worked on this over the years, but would like to put some money into this to get some things done quickly, i.e. draw people in from off the street, quickly find their way around, help them understand what we do at a glance.
      • Sarah has ideas to do a window mural. Generally, happy to put money into supplies to get this done!
  • Additional fundraising updates - James K.
    • Reaching out to members to see if anyone would like to up their membership to standard, possibly during a mid-year membership drive
    • James will be meeting with someone to explore opportunities in getting County/MEDC grants on Saturday

• Membership:
  • Had a couple changes from reduced membership to standard
  • No net gain in members (lost one, gained one?)
  • Lost a business membership

• Outreach:
  • 2022 Fundraiser wrap-up
    • Recap email, thank-yous, donor gifts, other loose ends/plans
      • Sarah is combining the recap and thank-you emails, will send out thank-you graphics for review, and then send out shortly
      • Also working on some special thank-you stickers for donors, designs need review. Can use her own sticker printer/cricut to make the stickers
      • Joe will do the GFM/social media updates
      • Wiki article to do fundraising - Everybody
  • Gentle volunteering nag - author an email - James K. and Joe D.
  • 2023 Ann Arbor Art Fair - Double booth -- do we want to do this? - Nate Y.
    • Feb. 1st registration -- need to decide ASAP because they fill up quickly.
    • 10'x10' booth is $220 vs. a 6'x6' for $120
    • More room for demos, volunteers not stacked on top of each other!
    • Nate will set a reminder to put in an application for the bigger tent - Nate Y.
  • Branding update - Sarah B.
    • Came up with font/color schemes we can use for materials, and work well with accessibility metrics
    • Roboto font is close to Real Madrid font we're using, which is also more available
    • Also shows updated logos using Roboto font and non-overlapping paths so they are more useful for CNC/laser stuff
    • Starting on a website re-write to make it easier for anyone to edit the site. Goal would be to make the underlying theme more flexible in general.
  • Bringing more people into AHA - James K.
    • Can we find ways to do outreach with smaller events at schools and such, creating small maker kits, etc. to bring our educational mission to others.
    • More ambitious would be the summer camp/after-school camp, but requires much planning
    • Maker Camp "summer camp in a box": https://makercamp.make.co/
  • Cahoots happy hours! Seem to be monthly? We should attend these more often.

• Education:
  • Get some more non-training-related classes on the schedule! Brainstorming - Nate Y. (tabled for now)