Minutes:16 Mar 2015 Board Meeting Agenda
- Meeting attendees: Ken L., Nate Y., Zach S., Larry W., Nick R., John H., Aaron B.
- Meeting starts at: 19:00
- Meeting ends at: 20:13
(15 min) Open For All!
Old Business
Action Item Status
- Updated Membership Forms for Household membership (Drafts sent to Board for review, subscription option already added to home page) - Larry
- Inventory Status - Nate Y.
- about 1/3 done, electronics, loud room, and craft area need to be done.
- Need to finish sales tax by end of Feb - Zach
- Sales tax filing done, we owe nothing.
- Comcast and DTE now autopayment - Zach
- Done
- Lease scanned into Google Drive - Zach
- Done
Standing Committee Reports
(10 min) Financial - Zach S.
- February 2015 P&L - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vwdj-7eWq4HJnyRgNn2EsVXO68Qn-0pU9aED2RG8gfM/edit?usp=sharing
- We're breaking even thanks to donations
- Should we consider downgrading Comcast?
- Comcast seems a little high, probably two months' worth. Zach is going to check the invoice to make sure it's not super expensive.
- What were the Amazon purchases?
- Larry used AHA funds to buy (4) new Arduino Uno's to rebuild kits and additional soldering equipment.
- AMF Nano Situation - Zach S. to resolve
- Need to start working on income tax filing (due May)
(20 min) Governance - Ken
- Membership Update (Larry W.)
- 8 more paying members since February!
- AMF given two weeks to pay balance or vacate.
- Review Updated Membership Forms
- Major change is household member-related, updates to the process to use Monthly Task List.
- Elections coming up in April
- Important dates: 3/23 - Board nomination period starts, 4/13 - Board nomination period ends, 4/23 - Board Elections
- A couple of membership behavior issues have been officially resolved.
- CRM (ie. Salesforce) - Need tasks mapped to AHA processes for testing.
(10 min) Operations & Facilities - Nick
- Working on the urinal!
- Missing a part still, doesn't really flush.
- Laser cable guide lubed so it doesn't bump against the lid
- Comcast cable outside iced over and broke off, Comcast fixed a couple weeks ago.
- Still have sewer smell in the space, no present ideas to resolve it from building maintenance.
- Kossel 3D printer needs more fine-tuning, can only print cubes accurately.
- Matt (friend of Valdes) donated a seat of NX 10, so we have some more CAD software now.
- Intermittant leaks still happening from upstairs.
- "New" computers (2 desktops, 2 laptops)
- Nick provides a list of space laptops and their status. We have three or four, depending on power supply availability. We also received a Pentium IV donation from Gyll.
- Improvement Projects (small laser cutter, redo front desk, kitchen improvement, sand blaster coming as soon as space is made for it)
- Monthly Maintenance report filed here.
(10 min) Staff - Larry
- Updated Staff Training Documents
- Done!
- Th-Sa Shifts are now fully staffed.
- Almost all staff trained (Isaac B., Michelle S., Nick S. remaining)
- Larry is training the remaining staff as they are available.
(10 min) Fundraising - Larry
- Encore sold another piece of equipment
- Sold the analog oscilloscope!
- BYB Grant - What it would mean...
- The goal is to provide a place where neuroscientists could be trained to build their own equipment. Two weeks a year there would be scientists working down at AHA. The equipment from the grant would be owned by BYB, but the equipment would remain for use by AHA members. - With overwhelming support from membership, the AHA Board of Directors signed this letter of support. Should BYB obtain Grant funds, it would be later this year with ~83K the first year. Depending on equipment requirements, more physical space may be needed. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
(15 min) Outreach - Larry
- Class Schedule - having trouble keeping up to date and promoting
- Larry made a schedule for March, but apparently Google Ate It.
- Silvia Lindtner UMSI - no contact this year (sent email yesterday)
- Larry is going to go visit and see what's up with the UMSI plans.
- Barry Belmont - no response re. BioMed team usage of AHA (sent email yesterday)
- We were too expensive for the BioMed team.
- Ann Arbor Film Fest 3/24-25 - not this year, no gaming computer for OR2 but there will be Oculus at a Satellite exhibit
- Craig Albert could provide an Oculus Rift 2 but unfortunately we could not find a powerful enough machine to run it. Maybe next year.
New Business
LASER CUTTER RATES
- Propose 2 Tier Flat Rates (Member - ??, General Public - $1/min.?)
- Roger S. offered his opinion that $2.50/minute is way too expensive (most people agree with this). i3 started charging $.15/minute recently, down from $.50/minute.
- The Board decides that $0.50/minute is reasonable cost for members, $0.75/minute for non-members.
- Nick reminds us that we should put up a list of prohibited materials near the laser cutter.
ANNUAL EVENTS - How do we get people interested and committed in helping out?
- FoolMoon - 4/11 Dusk to Midnight
- FestiFools - 4/12 4pm-5pm
- GameStart Spring Festival - 4/18 10am-2pm
- Penguicon - 4/24-26 (no soldering support that we're aware of this year)
- AAHOM TechTwilite - 5/15 6:30pm-9pm
- A2 MiniMaker Faire - Saturday 6/6 10am-4pm
- Detroit Maker Faire - July 25-26 9:30am-6pm
FORMAL EVENT REQUESTS
- Emily Canosta - Japan Week - requesting Cosplayers (in costume) to attend Animania screening event (6/16-20)
- Zach Alexander - Makerspace Development Blogger has contacted AHA for positive storyline.
- Daniel Dugan (past member?) contacted us on behalf of Penguicon - wants to borrow 3D printers for Enabling the Future.
- Amanda Paige - Exposing Inner City Kids to Engineering/Making at the U of M Natural History Museum (day/time TBD)
SURVEY REQUEST - from Make: Media
- 10 minute survey about AHA's Maker/Hacker activities.
- Ken L. is going to send out an email requesting volunteers for these events
- Larry is going to send out a notice about spring cleaning at the space.