Minutes:07 NOV 2012 Board Meeting Agenda

NOTE: Due to fun miscommunication, this was not an actual "Board Meeting" in the truest sense. Instead, we focused in on a lot of financial topics (how to raise money, networking with other possibly interested groups, etc.).

Board Financial Meeting Minutes

In attendance: Dana N., Michael G., Michael S., Tom H., Nate Y., Josh W., Dan E., Wry, Corey T.

Meeting Starts: 19:15

Finances!

$500-1000 behind on average each month, ~$1000 short in December with current projections, about $33 extra per member.

Were around $1,500 short, but have about $450 in donations already, mostly thanks to the email Nate had sent out.

Tom bringing in three pre-unibody, Intel, MacBook Pro's, donated by Quicken Loans. Should be able to get one working machine, which we can sell, and sell the remaining parts to help.

Greg G. (in absentia) wants to see us writing more grants.

Awesome Foundation!

Josh wants us to develop a more concise mission statement, with research done about how what we can do might be valued by the community, roles AHA can fill.

Electronics Lunch

http://electroniclunch.wordpress.com/

Doing more community outreach! Dana's Electronics Lunch visit yielded a bunch of interest in AHA. We should do more of these events in the future.

Dana will also ask Electronics Lunch folks if they would be interested in hosting their event at AHA. Getting more people into our building will give us better exposure, might be able to help membership increase as well.

They meet Wednesdays from 12:30 to 2:30 on campus. Last meeting there were around 8 people attending, we had the feeling this is average.

They talk about hardware stuff (Arduino). Sounds like it might be more (skilled?) professionals and older people, not just students.

More Community

Going to A2Geeks events, Tech Brewery's Beer:30, ARBSEC, etc.. Identify other events via A2Geeks calendar, arborweb, Mlive.

Monthly field trip out to i3? This would be a good way to teach classes, cross-promote.

Teaching classes at i3: Dotz wants to do programming classes, Dana wants to teach classes on how to teach classes.

Michael G. met with MI Hackers about hackathons. Barracuda might be interested in doing something. We can offer hardware hacks over other places, which is a nice advantage. Could also use our underused WikiMedia servers to host a software hackathon.

Michael G. and Tom H. are reaching out to various software companies about events we can help run, i.e. hackathons.

Dana suggests a hackathon where the group does a redesign of a local (nonprofit) business.

http://a2datadive.org/ is a neat idea. Can we work with them? Michael S. has some connection there.

Physical Building Entrance

One of AHA's biggest assets (in Tom's humble opinion) is its location on Liberty St. There is a ton of foot traffic in that area. Unfortunately, the shop isn't that noticable or inviting. The new paint job is going to help, but it is just the beginning. We should make the entrance more appealing, well lit, inviting. We'll want to show something useful on the LCD we have up, or take it down so that people can actually see inside.

I think we should have a listing on the door of features we offer, in nice print (like that etched glass look; which can be emulated via stickers if). If we actually sell stuff for people coming down, we could easily make some money this way.

Action Items

All of these are due before 11/21!

• Josh will make events on FB
  • Directors/everyone who reads this should share them if they have FB
• Dana will contact i3 to work with them about classes
• Nate Y. will talk to Terrence about more AHA-based events
• Michael G. will go to A2newtech (11/27 @ 6:30PM) and future ones
• Dana/Nate Y. will go to A2gotech (11/13 @ 7:00PM)
• Nate Y. will reach out to A2 Craft Society about hosting
• Tom and Michael G. will be drafting hackathon criteria, equation for coming up with quotes
  • Tom and Michael G. will be cold-calling groups around town regarding hackathon
• Khevna and Dana will be meeting 11/11 at 1:00PM about 501c3
• Dana will work on a press kit. We will use this to court other organizations
• Nathan and Dana go to next Electronic Lunch, invite to our space
• Tom will update website with a project section, and a section to send potential donors to
  • Nate will hook Tom up with a wordpress login
  • Josh will hook Tom up with Google Analytics credentials
  • Josh will hook Tom up with Twitter credentials
  • Josh will hunt down some testimonials from people we've worked with