Minutes:10 JUL 2013 Board Meeting Agenda

Meeting starts at: 17:52 Meeting attendees: Alex H., Andrew S., Dana N., Khevna S., Nate Y., Zach W., Martin S., Greg G.

(15 min) - Open forum for all!

• Martin and his wife want to start a weekly/monthly art forum to diversify the activities going on at the space. Board suggests interfacing with A2YDIY group. Mixed mediums, free-form. This would be starting maybe in August. We would like to promote in our normal avenues.

• Alex is curious about enhancing the usability of the space. Moving tools more front-and-center is one idea. We would like to find a use for the vending machine. Greg G. is offering to take responsibility for the vending machine, to make progress within the next month.

(10 min) - Financial Numbers - Andrew Seg

• Andrew would like to clean up Quickbooks so that information is organized better in the next month.

• We need someone to take over emailed reminders for members who have not paid while Jamie is out of town.

• Seltzer CRM could help with membership tracking in a centralized location: https://github.com/elplatt/seltzer

• We are losing money! This is the wrong direction.

• We need a better way to organize and catalog events and classes. We need to have this list done before the beginning of the month. Can we get a person to be on point for this? A better system to syndicate them across social media?

(05 min) - Status of 501c3 App - Josh W.

• State of Michigan Articles of Incorporation Amendment Update: http://www.dleg.state.mi.us/bcs_corp/image.asp?FILE_TYPE=UCO&FILE_NAME=D201305\2013133\INT00083B04.TIF
  • This was received and approved by the IRS. These amendments were recommended by Edward Stahlin, to be more inline with what language the IRS would expect to see from an organization seeking tax exemption and 501c3 status. Our printed copy received from the state of michigan is buried in AHA Locker #33

• Tax Filing Status
  • We did not miss our third year filing, we completed that on time. Thus we are under no penalty for failure to file for previous years, and since we are filing 990-Ns, there is no requirement to file for previous years. This was confirmed earlier this week with the IRS. Alex and I confirmed with the IRS Agent on the phone that our next step would be to file our 501c3, and make sure to include Schedule E! In order for us to do that, we should probably:
    • Review our 501c3 Application one more time!
    • Review and 501c3 Application Attachments
    • Make sure that our Schedule E explanation is appropriate as can be.
    • Have a professional party do one more review. Professionals?
      • Edward S's reviewed our application, but did not review the attachments. The attachments have not been as consolidated as we would like them to be.
      • Thomas H's awesome Mom has experience with Non-Profit Funding, and reviewed our application but did not receive a copy of the attachments. We could ask Tom to have his Mom do a further review.
      • Joe L's awesome Mom has experience with Non Profit Boards, and has offered to give us some support, but we have not met with her. I have shot her an email to ask if she would feel comfortable meeting with the board.
    • Submit it, amazingly.
  • Notes from IRS phone call, these are pretty messy: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vzJJ97vvJAwpqQkBSSioQx4KNIlgTmDXMaokW36AVD8/edit

(02 min) - Detroit Maker Faire - Josh W.

There are two parts to this event

• 3D Scanning Booth (12 people needed, five people on Saturday and five people on Sunday)
  • Josh W. is the lead.
  • Katherine W.
  • Chris (relation: Katherine)
  • Joe Longo
  • Alex Hatch
    • Awaiting responses from Lucy Zhang, Aaron White. Feel free to add yourself to the list above if you are available!

• Power Wheels Racing Vehicle of AWESOME
  • Jacob M. = Lead, I think
  • Khevna Shah

• What we need
  • Find out how we can support Jacob Moga in terms of:
    • What does he need in terms of labor ahead of time
    • What does he need in terms of labor the day(s) of
    • Funding to help make Power Wheels Racing Happen.
      • Can we provide him $100 to help him along? He's invested his own money up till this point.

• • Fliers up the Wazoo, two options are:
    • $175 = 5000 Full Color Glossy Double Sided Fliers (Cost includes shipping)
      • We do NOT have a 4x6 design already, and someone would need to design & order this before July 16th (make sure to Remove Tag, select 3 Day turnaround, and Ground shipping)
    • $275 = 1,000 Full Color Glossy TriFold Brochures (Cost includes shipping)
      • We have a design for this, but it may have to be modified to fit ClubFlyer's Template, but someone would need to order this before July 16th (make sure to Remove Tag, select 48hr turnaround, and Ground shipping)
      • AHA Tri-Fold brochures are under the Dropbox or Copy, or local network on the AHA Lab Machines at: \\aha-control\shared\dropbox\AHA Brochure

(02 min) - Rift Fundraiser Follow Up - Josh W.

• Awesome:
  • Raised $320, split between AHA & The Game Makers
  • Saw ~75 people come through the store
  • Met lots of new people who had never seen the space before
  • Craig Albert of The Game Makers did an amazing job bringing equipment, preparing, and working with us to make the event successful.

• Could have been More Awesome if we had:
  • Promoted better. I could have informed people earlier. Specific thoughts
    • Do so again, but communicate directly with people we know at Google, Barracuda, TechArb, etc.
  • Prepped staff earlier. They did a KICKASS job, but we didn't do a good enough job preparing them.
  • Marketing materials for people to take away.
  • A computer dedicated (possibly the computer they used the Rift on) to offer an easy opportunity to sign up for our Announce mailing list

(10 min) - Previous Action Items

• Nate will add Andrew to ahashop_directors list.
  • Added
• Josh will price out fliers/brochures.
  • See info at: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Atx4RIcqwUojdHEtOTd5M1RnVFRpdXI2eUxmc1A2Q0E#gid=0
• Dana/Josh will write email about scholarships for Arduino camp.
  • Josh has not made any progress on this.
• Nate will get in touch with Krunal about solder kits! Could be used for n00b kits.
• All board members: find at least three volunteers for Maker Faire. Tell them, they will get in for free.
• All board members: promote the Rift event! Josh will help Dana get some fliers made, Dana will distribute them downtown.
  • Fliers were not made!
• All board members: check the previous action items to see what needs to be done still.
• Dana will put together a rudimentary plan for sponsoring a high-school intern.
• Nate will set up a meeting about Art Fair for next week.
• All board members: think of a solution to the gamers/makers PC problem. Post your thoughts on the director list.

(03 min) - Why AHA is Worth Supporting

• Events like this at the AADL JunkBot Electronics Workshop. We had 15 tables that were packed. Multiple groups came in, probably somewhere between 50 and 75 people came through. Andrey, Vladimir, Katherine kicked some major ass teaching kids about:
  • That there is value in broken items, that you can create something new and more awesome!
  • Generate huge sparks with capacitors & 9V Batteries (The library asked Vladimir to stop, it was awesome)
  • How to:
    • Power LEDs with Motors
    • Reverse Motor Directions with a Battery
    • Wire up a Switch
    • Build basic circuits
  • We got rid of a ton of purgatory madness : )

• This place, is clean-ish...er : )
  • DogFort (Loud noise room) is beautiful. Thank you Alex & Co.!
  • Electronics Area has been given a solid overhaul. Thanks Tyler & Co.!
  • Purgatory has been cured!

• We received $1,000 in funding for an Arduino Summer Camp. Rock on Dana!
  • Let's get them an awesome Thank You before the end of the month? : )

Meeting ends at: