Minutes:12 APR 2023 Members Meeting Agenda

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Meeting begins: 1908

Meeting ends: 2030

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

Agenda

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

Minutes

  • Announcements/new business:
  • Operations:
    • Cricut Updates - David G.
      • One missing key away from delivery; will try again sometime in the next week or two.
    • Laser Cutter upgrade updates - Andrew C./Joe D.
      • Joe says it's working great: cuts nearly exactly the same at all four corners. The red laser is right on-top of where the cutting laser is, zoom focus working.
      • Need to make "test boards" to give folks an idea on how materials cut (wood and acrylic).
    • Classroom lighting update - James K., Andrew C.
      • James: no updates on this since it's lower priority, and no recent complaints about it.
      • Will maybe revisit at the next space improvement.
      • Andrew: do we still want to get a few more lights, move around the existing ones to get better coverage? James says that's probably a good idea but no bandwidth to take it on at the moment.
    • Classroom junk purge updates - James K., others?
      • Going well, thanks to Bill who has been slowly moving junk out to donate.
      • James: let's be more aggressive about getting rid of things we can't find a good use for.
      • James: please come to space improvement day (last Sunday of the month) and help out! Lots of things to do for all skill levels, will get done very quickly with more help.
      • Updates/plans for planer and sewing machine
        • Joe or Andrew will try to take photos of the planer blade for those who were wondering about its condition on Facebook Market.
    • Signage/SEO updates - Jeremy H.
      • Andrew would like to bring in two more LED scrolling things to give us three characters of marquee width.
      • Joe would like to work on the column in an expedient manner.
    • Future tool plans/SOPs for Roland CNC, resin 3d printer, other unused machines/tools? - Nate Y.
      • James said he will investigate getting the Roland CNC running
        • James found a manual! And Andrew shared some videos on how to set it up.
        • Will try to roll this into the curriculum for the May CNC class.
  • Financial:
    • Financial health outlook/Current Profit and Loss updates, Quickbooks migration progress - Joe D., James K.
      • Joe is finishing up February during this meeting, will get reports out later this evening.
    • County/MEDC grants updates - James K., Nate Y., others?
      • Still interest in moving forward with this, but no bandwidth this month. Will keep this on the minutes so we don't forget to do it!
    • Michigan Nonprofit Relief Fund - Nate Y.
      • Supports non-profits that suffered a financial loss due to the COVID-19 public health emergency after March 3rd 2021. $35M fund that offers $5,000-$25,000 per grant application, based on need.
      • Details: https://www.mnaonline.org/services/nonprofit-relief-fund/overview
      • Must be submitted by 5/5 @ 11:59pm.
      • Eligibility:

        To be eligible for this funding, organizations must be 501(c)(3) nonprofits or projects fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)3 and able to demonstrate necessary expenditures and/or losses due to the COVID-19 public health emergency incurred after March 3, 2021 including lost public service revenue, costs for responding to a public health emergency, providing assistance to households, payroll protection, and other economic impacts negatively affecting service delivery.

    • Fundraising ideas - further discussion on any of the below items? - James
      • Add AHA "Alumni" section to newsletters. Highlight some of their accomplishments, projects, etc.. Would help us get more exposure to more social networks.
        • James: this is a very actionable thing to do to flesh out our monthly newsletter. Can we schedule a time to get on a Zoom call and get some questions.
        • David has offered to reach out, just needs some questions to ask!
        • James and David will coordinate on this.
      • Renting our space to hold private workshops
      • Use AHA for exhibitions: showcase art that is made with tools in the space, or partner with artists/musicians/etc. to showcase their work.
      • Run events that encourage people to return at a later date, e.g. longer-term projects, a need to wait for things to cure, etc.. Encourages repeat visits and boosts foot traffic.
        • James: this is also pretty actionable. For example a resin molding class that gets people back in to pick up the results.
  • Membership:
    • Three new members, one left. - Joe D.
    • 2023 AHA Elections update - James K.
      • James: we have a bit of a mess that needs to be cleaned up, which is that membership was not being closely tracked for a few months. Need to go back and reconcile paypal payments with membership roster, figure out who all was volunteering, update Quickbooks, etc.. It's a lot of work.
      • Nate: the latest members are probably some cross-reference between the member application log and the "card issued" notes left in chat.
      • James: there is still a large mess to unfurl. Long story short: we are not running elections until May at the earliest. Will put out a notice to that effect on #Announcements.
  • Outreach:
  • Education:
    • Getting more classes:
      • Nate: we need to have a big conversation on the future of AHA education offerings. How do we get more people to try teaching classes?
      • David: do members even know they are able to teach classes?
        • Nate: attempts made to point this out at every tour given; believes verbiage to that effect is in our monthly newsletter also.
      • James: folks might not feel they are qualified enough to do it, even though nobody here is an "expert".
      • James: MEDC grants would allow us to reach outside of the membership to expand educational opportunities
      • Joe: folks might be worried to spend a lot of time preparing for a class to teach, and then get a lackluster showing of students.
        • Nate: I think most of us are willing to stand in and be guinea pigs for a trial run. But we unfortunately don't have good promotional powers, so the onus is largely on the teacher.