Editing Meeting Notes 2015 10 13

These are the notes from the [https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Category:Meeting_Notes The 381st Meeting of Noisebridge]. Note-taker: Alex; Moderators: Ben.
* '''One or two bullet points of high-level meeting summary.'''

= Introductions =

* Danukeru - https://xkcd.com/722/
* Ben introduces Noisebridge

= Short announcements and events =
* Amy is interested in cleaning for the noisebridge refresh.
* Video game archivists is coming third friday of every month this coming month
* DCSpenceley is offering The Wrong thing to us today. A curator in spain named David Culais(?) has put together the world's first all digital art exhibition with 40 embassies all over the world. They have no embassy in San Francisco. DCS does circuit bending and has been curious to visit. Could we shoot video projectors November first and look at Net art over some beers? +1 BEER Spenceley is going to buy a case of beer for starters and finger foods. MORE BEER 6-9PM on November 1. Patrick is looking for a member to sponsor it and help organize it. Will compose a noisebridge announce email once details finalized.
* Patrick: Refresh is 24th or 25th of the month, closing the space except to hacking on the space itself! There's a riseup pad and trello board for projects to do.
* Frank: Offering to provide ethernet connections to the tables to add to our wifi. Needs a network expert such as Patrick.
* Denise: Journey to the end of the night is a giant scavenger hunt across the city for several hours Oct 31 Halloween. Game players navigate to interactive checkpoints set up by artists around the city. Being chased by chasers who turn them into chasers. Noisebridge will not be a checkpoint this year. Looking for volunteers and players. Players should be ready at the starting point at 6PM, volunteers should show up earlier. Players should have a phone with maps to navigate. Contact Denise at journeyvolunteersf@gmail.com .
* Douglas: Kitchen remnants - are there plans in the refresh? Could we put more workstations over there to alleviate overcrowding?
* Ben: There are little hot water heaters in the bathroom. Removing them would save electricity which is expensive here. Coffee and tea making suffice to make hot water with.
* Douglas: Why don't we have a water dispenser? We have a fund to get one that you can donate to. Give Trent money for the water dispenser. Tell him Noisebride sent you.
* ?: Looking for help with 3D printing help or understanding who is in charge of things? Nobody is in charge but the wiki is the first place to look for answers followed by asking those in the space and the noisebridge discuss mailing list.
* Dan: You have to be patient and get to know people to learn what kinds of resources and people might be available to help or share things with.

https://pad.riseup.net/p/minireboot

= [[ Membership Binder ]] =

* Patrick: Membership is not like anywhere else. It is not a gym. You don't have to be a member to do anything. Many of the things were done by non-members. Shelves, AV, wiring, not people who were members. People just want to make an awesome thing and NB empowers them to do it. Noisebridge is a 501c3 and all of this exists for public benefit. You can come in off the street and woodshop or 3D print. Membership is a commitment to stewardship of the space. Comes with monthly dues payment. Has tax writeoff status as a non-profit donation. It is a commitment to running the community health and maintenance of the space. You are signing up to help out and give back. Ask not what Noisebridge can do for you but what you can do. The one benefit is that you can participate in the consensus meeting with a block. What you get from membership is participation in consensus process. This is how we do really big decisions. Emotionally intense for all the right reasons and slow.
* Amy: Would the second floor decision be a consensus decision?
* Patrick: Yes. And making policy changes.
* Ben: Spending money.
* Patrick: Yes. It costs $40 or $80 or by agreement with the Treasurer.
* Patrick: Philanthropy happens to be a way to donate and have 24 hour access that is easier than applying for membership. It is like membership without the consensus blocking rights. 
* To get membership, you fill out a form and get two members in good standing to sponsor you and it sits in the binder announced for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks your membership becomes a consensus item. You get asked what consensus means to you and what you like about Noisebridge etc. Then you leave the room, people discuss you and you get invited back to be a member or not.

= Applicants =
* Mari (Week one) Since I found Noisebridge, it has helped me greatly. I treat it better than I treat my own home. I help with events and run meetups here. I would like to help the space and slap arts on the wall. Wee!
* Patrick signed it. Needs one more signature.

= [[Philanthropists]]=
* To get Philanthropist, you apply with one member signature and it waits one week and then you become a philanthropist.
* [[Philanthropist/Pledge|Philantropy]], and the application process.
* Read off any names from the binder for the past month. Any applicants must have their sponsor present to vouch for them.
* If there are no objections, they're a philanthropist! Their pledge should be handed over to the [[Secretary]] posthaste, after which their token will be updated to give them the 24/7 access they've earned(?)

= Financial Report =
* Funds in bank: $36,645.04 of which $10-$11,000 is allocated to Noisetor to run large Tor exit relays for public good and benefit and accept donations for that cause and run servers in LA that help political dissidents an journalists do their work without getting caught by their oppressive government.
* This means that we have $25,000 in cash. Our operating expenses are $5000
* Rent is $4356 plus expenses.
* We must have 3 months operating expenses and we are close to having 6.
* We don't have enough recurring donations to cover costs but we would like to get more monthly donors to get all the good feels and tax breaks you should do that.
* Employers can match donations and also get the tax breaks and Patrick will schmooze your boss and any possible corporate sponsors.
* We just went through a rent increase.
* We are good in just this space. We have this awesome opportunity beneath us to expand.
* Noisetor (See the bulletpoints at the bottom of http://noisetor.net/finances/#summary):
* Any other details by those participating in handling our financials

= Consensus and Discussion =

* Based on the old Quaker meeting, this is the opposite of majority rule. You must propose a modification for specific principled objections and possible alternatives.
* If you feel a proposal is wrong, try to come in with ideas to round off the sharp edges.
* '''invite a knowledgeable volunteer to give '''[[Consensus Process|a brief primer on consensus process]]
* It is important that everyone in attendance understands at least:
** Blocking with verbalized principled objections.
** Why we use consensus over other approaches to decision making.
** How consensus isn't a legislative process
** Why consensus isn't applicable to some things like conflict resolution, resolution of time sinks, and the like.

Question: Is it possible to print the 86 list in a binder? Sure. If they won't leave, we inform them we're tresspassing, get as many people as necessary in a group to remind them they have to leave. Do not physically approach them. Police can be called if necessary.

== [[ Consensus Items History | Proposals from last week ]] ==
''(Add any items which are consensed upon or someone has raised a principle objection for to the [[Consensus Items History]] page.)''

== [[ Current Consensus Items | Proposals for next week ]] ==
''(Add any new items for consensus to the [[Current Consensus Items]] page.)''

== Discussion Items ==

If any important discussion happens, it should be happening after forward progress is made during consensus.

* Downstairs space availability
* Dan: Checking with people about who would support or block the expansion and expenses?
* what John said: Cool.
* Jarrod said: Could be nightmare, if we were serious we should buy a space for long-term sustainability.
* I would double my contribution but it might be tough.
* Where we were at before we signed the lease.
* If we're going to do it, we'd need strong consensus in a hurry.
* Next best thing would be to get someone else friendly in there, such as YCombinator with low budget startups who are expanding a pure research fund of 10M.
* LX: We could increase class attendance and promote classes to become philanthropists to increase sustained revenue.
* Spencer:  The devil you know is better than one you don't.
* Patrick: The building is owned by elderly couple. This rent is their retirement. Total family thing. Managed by son. Our space was an extension to the clothing business. Not zoned for office space so it can't get market rate. We pay around $.80/sqft. Only businesses that will pay the low rate will accept conditions. Unlikely to get boring folks downstairs.
* Double union just signed a lease a week off into dogpatch.
* We can't get down to look at it yet.
* We have a very small classroom that's constantly packed and under capacity. It would be amazing to expand classes and move loud things to the same floor.
* If Noisebridge expands, what kind of financial situation are we leaving the next wave of Noisebridgers?
* If we do it, we need a big matching donation fund from institutions to double donations?
* Grants are too short a timeline.
* Space will be on market December timeline.
* We need an exceptional grantwriting speed to get a grant.

Mari: I've wanted to do a fundraising event for a while. The Made is doing a kickstarter for their second space for the video game museum.
* We did an Indiegogo last year and the rewards and tiers are still being fulfilled. Could we get a scaleable reward set. Indiegogo took around a dozen people to fullfill.

* What ideas do we have for new things we could do in a bigger space?
* A VR room could bring in a lot of enthusiastic users.

* Dan: Could we do a trial month to month to test it out and reality check for our financial reports and get bigger.
* Lessons learned from fundraising before. 1.5 years, we endeavored to raise $25K and are still recovering. We would be doing twice that per year.
* Ceilings are almost this high and ith as more internal walls.
* Raylah: We could open space to filmmakers?
* Joyt: the tour of downstairs felt less open than this divided into two and narrow spaces.
* Dan: gallery?
* We could divide it into 10 20x20 studios.
* It would be hard to subdivide without it being partly unrentable.

*Could it be a separate LLC for the second rental to keep the $10,000 net limit three ways. Pulling an IKEA. Don't be excessive and get tax fraud.
*Profit management mechanism with the same board.
* Since you control both ends you can write a lot of the expenses of one donating to the other?

* Dan: We've been trying to grow funds and we do it slowly.

= End of Meeting =

* Reprise of the [[Hackernationale]]. [This is anarchy - we do what the wiki says!]
* [[PGP|PGP Key Signing]] could happen now (if it doesn't happen '''before''' any given Meeting).  Ask others around the space or check the [[PGP|list]] to see who wants in on the action.
* Return the [[membership binder]] to its rightful location.
* Clean and tidy the meeting notes including removing all these really verbose instructions, then save them to the wiki.
* Send a summary of the meeting notes to the discussion list.
* Enjoy the company of your fellow hacker, robot, or robothacker.
* Discuss any items for which there was not time during the meeting.

[[Category:Meeting Notes]]