Minutes:09 Sep 2015 Board Meeting Agenda

AHA Mission Statement
We seek to establish, build, and support a collective of individuals organized around the principles of community-driven education in the arts and sciences, and to ensure ready access to the tools needed to pursue the realization of those principles.

• Meeting attendees: Alec B., Tyler S., Esty T., Nate Y., Alex W., Donnie J., Greg G., Nick R.
• Meeting starts at: 19:05
• Meeting ends at: 21:00

Board Meeting Protocol

* Standing Committee Reports - Individual Updates by Assigned Director/Officer presented in the time allotted.

* Open Time: For anyone to bring anything up to the Board. IF the Board agrees the item requires action, it will be put into New Business and addressed at the end of the meeting.

(15m) Open For All

Alec B. brings up the Open House event. We need to pick a time to have it. Goal is to do it after students get moved in, but before they are too settled in.

Esty brings up the lack of a formal Board member replacement procedure. She and Alec agree we should have a more fleshed-out policy for retiring or ousted Board Members. Alec is willing to head up the effort, with input from Nate Y. and Tyler S.. Rough draft will be ready before the next Board Meeting.

Alex reports getting a ton of people in the 3D printer class last month. He suggests running a second class during the month to accommodate the higher volume.

Nate Y. will be replacing the server/blog with a more modern distro.

Minutes Approval

Minutes approval (3 approve, 1 temporary Board Member yea; 0 nay)

Financial - from Larry W./Deirdre D.

No financial update this month. Larry can report further?

Paypal doesn't allow us to take out more than $500/mo. as a normal user. We are trying to upgrade to a business/non-profit account.

Still need a CostCo membership for AHA so we can buy more consumables. Nick R. has volunteered to do the shopping, if we have a list/budget.

Fundraising - Greg G.

• Monthly Fundraising Report - [1] Temporary Board Report

Greg requests more financial documentation in order to procure grants. Operating budget for the previous year, and the next year are absolute requirements for most grants.

Governance - Nick R.

Proposal to replace Nick with Esty: 3 present Board Members yea, 1 absentee vote yea (Larry), 0 nay.

Nate will get Esty set up with any accounts she will need.

Elections are coming up in October 22. Governance is in charge of running it. Nate Y. can help.

Greg put out the word to the UROP folks at the U of M to come visit AHA on a lab tour.

• Monthly Membership Update (Larry W.) - [2] Temporary Board Report
• Monthly Maintenance Report - [3] Temporary Board Report

Volunteers - Tyler S.

• Monthly Volunteer Report - [4] Temporary Board Report

Front desk is going to be taken out in the next week or two.

Tyler has been here a lot to answer the phone, says we get several calls a day asking about our tools. We had a few student volunteers from the local news to do interviews. Unknown if anything has become of it.

Thurs. AM volunteer found! Starting next Thursday.

Alec is interested in volunteering during the day.

Education/Classes/Events - Donnie J.

• Monthly Report - [5] Temporary Board Report
• Upcoming Special Events - [6] Temporary Board Report

Chris S. is working on creating a flyer for an Open House, and Mike Z. is creating a flyer for Cryptoparty.

Alec and co. are going to work on putting them up once they have them.

School in Jackson wants to come out for a "field trip" on a Wednesday morning (9:00?) in the next few weeks. Donnie is going to work on getting a solid date/time.

Art Party seems to be dead. Needs dedicated advertising.

Donnie suggests an "R/C party" to work on projects related to remote-controlled vehicles.

Suggested to regularly flyer places downtown, even if it's not at places that aren't specifically "maker-oriented".

Give t-shirts for donations, which will raise a little money and provide some advertising.

We need, need a monthly newsletter!

Greg suggests a core marketing position on the Board, possibly a paid position. He will put together a "marketing position" document.

(30m) Unfinished Business

* A Director/Officer or Member must champion action items to ensure the work gets done.

• ACTION ITEM - From Larry W. - Work out replacing Nick R. w/ Esty for Governance (needs full Board approval) - Larry W.
• ACTION ITEM - From Alec M. - Election process needs to be documented clearly so members know the consequences of the point system.

Nate will document this in a central location for future Board Members.

OR, use an alternative, more direct voting process. - Esty (topic for All-Members Meeting Sun. Aug. 23rd).

Wasn't discussed.

• ACTION ITEM - From Jacob M. - What about a "Bounty Board"? Put up in the space offering prizes for doing various duties in AHA (ie. prizes). Approved by 2 Board members. - Larry W.

Waiting on room to be made by the front desk.

• ACTION ITEM - From Jacob M. - would like to construct 4-6 workstations (ie. small alcove) - Retro Fun! Win95, iMac G3, BOS5, PowerPC Amigo's (on their own LAN) - All Peoples Meeting Topic

Nate Y. noticed some activity based on IRC conversations? Nothing concrete yet.

• ACTION ITEM - Larry W. - Washtenaw Area Maker Meeting went very well. Will forward minutes.

Larry hasn't forwarded?

• ACTION ITEM - Jacob M. - should AHA make a proposal to Sylvia's for a non-profit rent write-off for Sylvia's.

Alec suggests creating a proposal. Larry or Jacob to write this? Larry maybe can work with Dena?

(30m) New Business

* A Director/Officer or Member must champion action items to ensure the work gets done.