Meeting Notes 2016 09 13

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Meeting Minutes 9/13/2016:

These are the notes from the The XXXth Meeting of Noisebridge. Date: Sept 13, 2016 Note-taker: Blake Jeremy; Moderators: Victoria.

Meeting Summary

TLDR what happened at the meeting:

  • Announcements: Plumbing is fucked. Its getting fixed. Please do not use the bathrooms until then!
  • Finances: $60k in the bank. We also have a new fiscal sponsorship program consensed upon!
  • New members: None yet
  • New philanthropists: Razzi Abuissa, Jeremy Llewellyn, Ryan Sternlicht
  • Consensus Items: Fiscal Sponsorship!
  • Discussion Items: Zip!

Introductions

Noisebridge is a 501c3 nonprofit that provides a space for creation, collaboration, and learning about technology and creative projects. Noisebridge provides space, power tools, and infrastructure to help the public learn new skills and create cool things. Noisebridge continues to exist through and depends entirely on membership fees and donations. Our code of conduct is 'Be excellent to each other'."

  • Introduce any experimental or unusual moderation techniques that may be using during the meeting like: direct responses, limited speaking time, orderless stack, &c.
  • Round of introductions (remember, announcements come later):
    • What's your name
    • What do you do
    • What do you maintain at Noisebridge?
    • if you are new: how did you hear about Noisebridge?

word for word explanation from the wiki

  • Collin -Machine learning, laser cutter
  • Collin loves quantum physics
  • Jaun does security things , he enjoys viynl cutters, he found out about nb from a friend 4 a partty
  • oliver - ?? data analytics... France ??
  • Jason - beginner programmer, do all the construction, he heard about nb from funcheap
  • Steven - hack and make beautiful things
  • Blake - programmer. heard about noisebridge from the google.
  • Daryl - doesn't know where he heard about NB and does AI stuff
  • Kamil - does viddy dev and head about us through a friend
  • Trent - web dev, python class ,library
  • Travon - cpa by trade, here to lean about ? he
  • FRANK - california web search for free lab space when he discovered NB in March 2015 data communications predominantly. Aspiring astronaut.
  • Jeremy - machine learning, found out about NB
  • James has a show at the SF fringe festival with things made at Noisebridge. http://www.sffringe.org/carl/
  • Victoria - heard about NB through plumbing used to do things but doesn't anymore
  • Steve is in HEPP UI design.
  • Sneha -
  • John - bookscanners, equipment fund, idea haver, money wanter, NB expander
  • Niki -
  • Tivo - not a member (lol) a noisebridge admirer.
  • Douglas - dog walker, courier, likes doing audio stuff, passionate about audio, tutoring and coaching in ableton live

Short announcements and events

ryan sternlict - laser cutting class starting in afew weeksfiguring out the best time for noisebridge people(which you need to be trained on the laser for). Contact- ryanrokey1@yahoo.com

Safe Space

  • Don't telerate harrassment, opens the ability to discuss what that means. It maintains transparency among members.
  • Victoria: so, to me, noisebridge as a safe space means that people are welcome to express themselves in whatever manner they see fit provided that it does not infringe on the psychological safety of others. that doesn’t mean that you can’t offend anyone, or discuss explicit subjects. if you accidentally offend someone, apologize and work on being a better person. if you’re discussing domestic abuse or similar things that are triggering, give a warning that you’ll be talking about it. that doesn’t mean that you /can’t/ talk about domestic abuse, lgbtq hate, racism, etc. a safe space, to me, means that if you’re going to talk about those sorts of things in detail, let people know that you’re going to talk about it in detail so they can prepare. consider a trigger warning the same as asking people to put on hearing protection when you’re about to smash some things in the dirty shop. noisebridge as a safe space should engender that kind of consideration for others psychological safety just as much as one might consider the physical safety of the hackers around you
  • Steve - stated "we don't want to be considered a safe space in that it infringes on our rights of free speech.

Participation

  • Steve: Who can paricipate in NB? Noisebridge does not require membership to participate. Just come and work on cool stuff. Option 2, 3: Philanthropist or member. First step, find a member and they can get you a door token. There is a slack account, but membership to slack is limited.
  • John: Also, feel free to post freely to 'noisebridge discuss.'

Philanthropists

  • Ryan - you don't get to participate in Consensus, it costs as much as membership, you get 24hour access, you need to know how to give tours, close the space, know that people you let through the door are your responsiblity. You can voice your opinion at Consensus meetings (evyrone can), but not vote. You only need one meeting to get philanthropist approval. You need a member to vouch for you.
  • Victoria - You need to pay $80 to get a membership as a philanthropis. Three applications ryan, jeremy, razi(?). Any objections to Ryan? None.
  • No objects to Jeremy.
  • No objections to Razi.

Note that there is no period to discuss objections to the philanthropist applications without the philanthropist present. Members can revoke philanthopistness.

  • Question (Travon): Need a member to have rights? Answer: Not necessarily, more about duties and responsibility.
  • Question: Kiln ready? More in the discussion section.

Membership Binder

  • Roger (enter scnene): Knowledgable Volunteer, what is membership? Answer: A longer lasting bond with noisebridge. It means that you are a part of the consensus process. You can block consensus items, but you must be sponsered by two other members before being approved as a member. There is a four week waiting period. You must answer 'interview' questions in order
  • John: It's not like membership at a gym. Long term commitment to the culture of the space.
  • Roger: Third week. I've been coming to noisebridge for about a year. He would like to contribute more. he has helped with the laser cutter, flashin' ..., marker board, and much more.
  • Question a hacker: What was your most memorable accomplishment or aspect of participation? What made you want to venture into this commitement?
  • Roger: I was out of San Francisco. Coming back, I realzed that this was what I wanted to do and be apart of.
  • Kyle's membership: Lot's of work and contributions: sewing classes, laser cutter. Victoria, Steve, and other sponsors ...
  • James writes: I would like to reinstate my membership. This is their first week. Feel free to grill.

Financial Report

  • Funds in bank: John Shutt: Treasurer Report 9/13/2016. $61,923.11 in the bank. $12,200.09 in the equipment fund, and $15,000 to return to Google when they tell us how. Meaning that the general fund plus Noisetor amounts to $34,723.02.
  • Noisetor (See the bulletpoints at the bottom of http://noisetor.net/finances/#summary): JS: $5,315 if the summary is correct.
  • Any other details by those participating in handling our financials

JS: Some recent big transfers: $3,644.66 transfer to Noah Swartz, related (I believe) to roguelike conference. Please confirm @patrickod or whoever made the transfer. $1,571.94 to Jakprints, Inc., possibly for t-shirts, if someone can chime in.

  • NOTE: 'The details matter. If something looks off in these notes, feel free to ask John for the details."
  • Instructions on the wiki in the case that the FBI asks about the Tor node that IS NOT on the premises.
  • John would like to note that there where tshirts and stickers ordered.
  • Hacker interjects: Could we discuss possible accounting options and systems; I'm an accountant.


Consensus and Discussion

  • What is consensus? Tori: Noisebridge decision making process. We are an anarchist collective. Our process is consensus. Consensus means that you propose, ask around, and wait until everyone member has consented. Do-ocracy, ever
  • consensus - asking around and getting a feel for everything
  • Consensus - Put up your item on the wiki. All members talk and talk and talk, before ... during ... after meetings. It's talked about for at least one week. Is there an issue? We ask this during a meeting. Members can block the item if there is such a block. If you block, it means that the item need to be talked about more because you feel that otherwise the item could be the end of noisebridge.

Proposals from last week

User:Pemulis' fiscal sponsorship proposal!


Consensus Item: Fiscal sponsorship.

John: https://noisebridge.sandcats.io/shared/OoRFmfyb0O8ZIfufXEajoR7ecV14rQBcTyGQhY4yqYZ

We would like to fiscally sponsor projects. It's currently an informal process, we do it with noiseTor. It's common in the nonprofit world. We could compete for grants, contracts, and further the noisebridge mission if we were able to engage in fiscal sponsorship. In particular, here is a policy (see John's doc) that has been drafted regarding fiscal sponsorship in order to protect the culture and interests of noisebridge. There would be a 5% admin fee which is on the low end of what nonprofits usually take. We could publicaly compete with SF school distric grants, we could have money for job training, and other classes that noisebridge conducts. We did some napkin math regarding the logistics of buying this space. We have a year and a half to think about this problem, and we have an opportunity engage in this avenue as a proactive line of action toward this end and to provide greater value to the community as a whole in keeping with the culture and mission of noisebridge. We need to be able to raise money for a down payment. Please encourage people who are raising money to give even more if they can. Been studying the department of technology as, essentially, an 'investigative journalist' approximately $500 million goes to nonprofits to help the city. These services are now going to private companies with closed sourced stacks, tools, and the like. The city is setting itself up for much higher costs in the long run, and we have the opportunity to do some good by taking a role in civic tech. If noisebridge can show that this model worked as a proof of concept, we would have the opportuniity to affect other cities and even at the federal level for the purpose of furthering open source civic code in society.

  • Greg: Interjects that this is exciting and affirms this idea.
  • This is not about profit centers since we are nonprofit, its about ccreating value for the society and creating income centers. Help bring the excellence of noisebridge out of this space to the rest of the city.
  • This is the second week that we have discussed this idea has been discussed during a meeting. We have discussed this for many weeks even before this presentation, but we would be happy to discuss this more.
  • Blake: What is the fisrt thing, John, that you would like to use this policy for right away. John: enhance investigative journalism and working with the department of technology with regard to civic services. It is scary how little actual local journalism goes on. The money that newpapers hemmoraged at one time no longer exists. New systems are needed to
  • Tori: Can we sponsor a hacker space
  • John: Yes, and other existing hacker spaces without having to fight for our own survival

Blake: What does the legal liability look like if we are sponsoring a group which bombs on a contract.

  • John: I don't have an ans
  • CPA: I can answer that. Contracts work via milestones. You won't get sued for a bad job. You would get sued if you don't produce anything. You are not as much at risk for poor quality as you are for producing nothing.
  • Greg: What is the process for sponsoring a project?
  • John: Make it a Consensus item as if it's am membership, structurally speaking.
  • Roger: Asks a question, what happens if sponsorship violates our mission. ...
  • John: They must be consensus items, and they will have sunset provisions. These provisions will expire and the project proposals will be reopened as Consensus items.
  • John: The policy for projects going forward is that people understand where the money is going.
  • John: If something thinks there is something that should be added or removed, please interject/contact me. Under these conditions, I would be happy to continue tabling this proposal as a discussioin item.
  • Tori: Would anyone like to sing the hacker national? ... Going once, going twice, Let's hack!

Proposals for next week

None added!

Discussion Items

None!

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