Meeting Notes 2015 04 14

These are the notes from the The 506th Meeting of Noisebridge. Note-taker: EMILY; Moderator: JARROD.

• This meeting covered three topics and attempted one consensus. A membership application was reviewed with the member applicant. There was a financial report and discussion of the renewal of the lease, and also a discussion of a summer camp that Emily is organizing for this summer with Noisebridge as the planned venue.

Introductions

• Jarrod
• Jay
• John
• Kevin
• Red
• Chris
• Trent
• Louis
• Torrie
• Dan
• Patrick
• David
• Emily (notetaker)

Short announcements and events

• Torrie is sorting the electronics bins and would love some help
• The board collected 10 ballots and the results will be announced after this meeting
• Trent would like suggestions for the library
• Thurs night at 6-8 is a Maker teacher event with educators from around the Bay Area at the space
• Jarrod is working on the Maker faire booth and the build night is Thurs. Also Monday 4/20 he will be working on the LEDs and arduinos
• Sat from noon-2 is the Godwafel event
• Next Tues from 6-9 is an Android app building workshop
• Library conference is June 26
• LinuxFest Northwest is on April 25-26 in Bellingham, WA. If anyone wants to join a few members are taking the train there and hacking on the way, and they're calling it Hackers on a Train.

Membership Binder

• Louis has applied to be a member. The meeting interviews him about his application.

Louis says he loves Noisebridge and has been coming for two years. He is able to explain the consensus process. As far as projects he wants to do at Noisebridge, Louis says he wants to get to know everyone, give some talks about the projects he's working on, bridge communities with other creative spaces in San Francisco, do unofficial public relations for Noisebridge by spreading the word about the space, clean the windows, and inspire people in the space by his projects, such as how he uses techniques of system administration from big companies for his personal use. Louis has been working on research about how to improve coding for device drivers, and he is working on a project to control lightbulbs with an app. If Louis were to block a consensus, it would be about access control -- he believes the space needs to maintain access control based on the appearance of people ringing the doorbell for the safety and stability of the space and its participants. He would also try to block long discussions about why Noisebridge may want to ban certain people from the space.

Louis application for membership did not result in a consensus, and members ask him to continue to participate in the space and try again for membership later, when he has participated in more projects with other people in the space.

Financial Report

• Noisebridge has $19,000, which is just slightly over the three-month ideal of funding
• The space needs more recurring donations
• The lease is coming up for renewal (on what date?)
• Members have a plan to approach the lease renewal, which consists of
  • • checking on the "market rate" of the space
    • identifying any leverage with the landlord
    • identifying who should negotiate with the landlord, with the list currently of: Andy, Rubin, or Mitch
• Ross, who was not participating in the meeting, comes over and volunteers his advice, as a landlord himself. He is added to the Trelo list Torrie has on the topic of the lease renewal as a resource
• Jay adds that Slack is an IRC channel where participants can discuss issues like the lease

Consensus and Discussion

There are no items for consensus

Discussion Items

• Open Studio Summer: a summer camp being launched and run by Emily (notetaker) from June 29-Aug 14 in the classroom of Noisebridge, Mon-Thurs, from 10-3. Mitch has volunteered to support this program and Emily explains it to the meeting. The camp will have 20 teens from 13-17 taking lessons in a) the creative and technical practices that Noisebridge offers b) music production c) video production and editing and d) creative writing. On Fridays the group will usually go on a field trip but they will work on their projects in Noisebridge a few Fridays. This is a non-profit tuition-free camp that will be funded by philanthropic funding. The goal is to inspire young people and give them space to collaborate, similarly to Noisebridge's mission with its adult participants.

Comments

• Greg says the ratio of 1 adult per 10 kids is manageable based on his experience as a camp leader
• Jay asks that Emily involve the adult intstructors (all artists or creatives) in Noisebridge since it's an opportunity to introduce them to the space, which will be not very occupied during the hours of the camp
• Dan says he welcomes our adolescent overlords
• Jarrod points out the Noisebridge Ask To Leave page so that Emily can be aware of guidelines for regulating the space if she/the camp are the only people present during the day