Minutes:11 OCT 2023 Members Meeting Agenda

Meeting begins: 1906

Meeting ends: 2115

Participants: Nate Y., Brian J., James K., Joe D., Andrew C., David G., Victor M.

Agenda

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

Minutes

• Announcements/new business:

• Operations:
  • Downstairs flooding repair updates - Joe D./James K.
    • Joe met with the Afternoon Delight person, who did some plumbing work, but the drywall still needs repair.
    • James or Nate will try to talk to AD-Jo on Sunday during the Trash Talk Tour.
  • Utilizing smart-home tech for AHA - Nate Y.
    • Moisture sensors/presence sensing/access control/more?
    • General interest in moving forward, Nate will take the lead on setting up relevant Docker containers on the rackmount server.
  • Unifi cameras to replace Nest? - James K.
    • James can start getting them set them up this Sunday
  • CNC updates - Nate Y./Ben N.?
    • Shapeoko 3 XL has the y-axis fixed, now working on replacing the water-logged bed with new MDF, t-slot and other hardware for clamping.
    • Thanks to Tyler W., we have access to older version of the Vectric software, and Mach3
  • Computer additions/upgrades (Roland CNC/3d printer)
    • We have a Windows 11 license to load on the Mac Mini
    • Will share one Mac Mini with Roland/Shapeoko(s)?
    • James: potentially have a third Mac Mini soon, and a couple more a few months from now.
    • James: the Macs will eventually run into maintenance issues since the OS is/will be unsupported
    • 3d printer machine is super slow and can't really run prusaslicer. Might be a RAM limitation.
      • James and Nate will take a look at the specs Sunday.
    • Andrew: don't forgot the laptop!
    • James: should we look at just buying new hardware?
      • Will determine if it would be easier to use our loan/grant money to upgrade.

• Financial:
  • Financial Position: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d_yXM5ogqxzRCwkMxzrKwacGz43r27Fv/view?usp=sharing
  • Financial Activity: https://drive.google.com/file/d/18FQMwySUIXP-0tnIRkeegxVRz-m9BKqc/view?usp=sharing
  • Monthly financial report https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fCZ2j8G5ZXTxQlR_fnR_BoUldrVSsgBDnbztHpAYgGw/edit?usp=sharing
    • The happier "doomsday" sheet
    • Will keep track of high-level metrics
  • Should restrict the monthly transfers from savings -> checking since we have a good surplus. - Joe D. (DONE!)
  • Accountant/tax advice - Joe D.
    • Joe called an accountant, but accountant was super busy with panicking taxpayers filing late.
    • Joe looked into payroll solutions. ADP was one such service -- only charges per payroll instead of monthly.
    • James: also look into Gusto
    • David: an accountant can also do this manually, instead of using a service to send them. Joe will follow-up on this.

• Membership:
  • 3 provisional members (who have signed up, but not completed their volunteer time), 20 standard members, 12 reduced-rate members, 3 supporting members, 8 volunteer members (43 total members).
  • James: it would be neat to eventually get to the point where we send out a monthly report to members of how many hours they are signed up for and how many have been met.
  • James: do we officially count meeting attendance for volunteer hours?
    • Nate: yes -- it's member time given freely, and informational awareness is useful, even if they aren't clearly active in the meeting
    • Brian: agrees with Nate
    • Joe is interested in doing an experiment to see if making this more public knowledge would yield more participation in our meetings
    • James: is it fair to cap the meeting participation volunteer time to one hour?
    • Everyone on the call thinks this is good, so we will standardize the practice of telling members they can get one hour of volunteering if they attend the meetings. We will revisit this in the future to see how it went.
  • Create policy around volunteering in general - James K.
    • What counts as volunteer:
      • Nate: anything that drives AHA's mission forward:
        • Creating/running a class
        • Running a shift
        • Creating art for the walls
        • Cleaning up/chores
        • Attending a Members' meeting
        • "Space improvement projects"
      • James: what if they just want us to give them a task?
      • Joe: let's color-code tasks on the task board to give a rough idea of how much time is needed
    • How do we determine when volunteering ends, if it's not stated explicitly?
    • Speaking more generally: make an SOP for getting members started -- Can we make this a checklist or something anyone can follow.
  • Election updates - James K.
    • Nominations close tonight at 11:59PM
  • Membership tracking
    • Currently this is done with Quickbooks
    • Nate set up CiviCRM for this use, if someone wants to take the initiative there

• Outreach:
  • Unified social media tools - Sarah B.
    • Using Buffer
    • Sarah is gathering assets for reusable use, classes/events
  • Zine festival - Sarah B.
    • Still waiting on the organizers to settle on a date for the event.
  • Creative Washtenaw grant updates/next steps - Nate Y.
    • We were successful in getting the grant, pending a few administrative things that we need to do.
    • This grant will fund three initiatives:
      • Laser cutter upgrades, including a rotary axis and new tube
      • Monthly Sunday Artisan Market outings during the 2024 season, where we bring activities for kids (but also their accompanying adults)
      • A series of free classes on how to make and paint roleplaying/similar miniatures
  • Future grants?
    • Michigan Arts and Culture Council (MACC)
      • $5 million total available, up to $250,000 per grant
      • Due Wednesday, December 13, 2023, before 5:00 pm ET
      • Haven't looked too closely at this one to see if we are eligible
    • MEDC grant
    • SPARK cooperation, can we give them more bang for their buck? David G. has reached out.
  • Event recaps: - Nate Y.
    • Sunday Artisan Market
      • Not a big crowd, but spoke with a few folks and other artists about how AHA can help them out.
    • Tech Trek
      • Lots of people! Brian J. and Nate Y. did a ton of schmoozing.
    • Mayor's Green Fair
      • Basically schmoozed a lot with Common Cycle folks. There was a short e-bike parade that Nate Y. participated in; he was there wearing an AHA t-shirt, so that probably counts for something.
  • Next events:
    • Trash Talk Tour - October 15th @ 12p-4p
  • End of the year fundraiser!
    • About 2.5 months remaining to get that together!
    • James: we need to organize a fundraising committee meeting
      • Tentatively Wednesday October 25th @ 7pm

• Education:
  • Mesh network class (Nate Y./Mike Z.) - Punted to end of November (hopefully for the last time! - Nate). Nate will get details together prior to the November newsletter to allow participants enough time to get supplies. Hopefully will also have some time to more field testing during deer season...
  • CAD/3d modeling class - No updates received since it was proposed in August, but there's still a need for this!