Meeting Notes 2017 01 17

These are the notes from the The XXXth Meeting of Noisebridge. Date: 2017.01.17 Note-taker: Trav; Moderators: Trent.

• One or two bullet points of high-level meeting summary.

Meeting Summary

TLDR what happened at the meeting:

• Announcements:

Darryl: On 29th: SF Robot Makers club. Here, 1pm Trent: if you have a professional python experience you walk to talk about for up to an hour and a half, talk to Trent about it. He does the python class. (missed a thing that got cut short) 5MOF on thursday? Trying to find out if it is indeed happening. Jeremy thinks it might happen. saturday privacy hackathon 4-10pm Saturday is the Womens March in SF, Oakland and San Jose. In SF there is a rally 3-5. March is 5-8pm. Starts at Civic Center, ends at Justin Herman Plaza

• Finances: 70k+, no details
• New members: None
• New philanthropists: None
• Consensus Items: None
• Discussion Items: Chris is fundraising to add more whiteboard ink to the Turing classroom

Introductions

• Invite a knowledgeable volunteer to explain what Noisebridge is about:

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?

Wilkomen!!!

• Trent: been coming here since 2013, teaches the python class
• Juan: I am really into this movie.
• Charlie: here since december
• Colin: tried soylent for 7 days and threw up
• John: something about not throwing up
• steve: working on
• Daryl: Does AI & Robotics
• Henner: laser lithography for pcbs
• trav: I AM TAKING NOTES lol. I want to start Repair Cafe at Noisebridge.
• Eric: from portland works in energy efficiency
• steve: moved to SF to be close to NB
• Zev: from Tel Aviv working on next gen TLS
• Frank: Data transmission technologies, broadband speeds.
• Jeremy: joined later, with bread, the guy with bread hands. He occaisionally comes in with bread. "his name is Jeremy"

Short announcements and events

• Cool new projects? Something you'd like people to know? Say now, but keep it short! One or two sentences please!
• Any happenings at the space of which members should be made aware.
• Don't hog everyone's time since we all just want to hack!

• Darryl: On 29th: SF Robot Makers club. Here, 1pm
• Trent: if you have a professional python experience you walk to talk about for up to an hour and a half, talk to Trent about it. He does the python class.
• (missed a thing that got cut short)
• 5MOF on thursday? Trying to find out if it is indeed happening. Jeremy thinks it might happen.
• saturday privacy hackathon 4-10pm
• Saturday is the Womens March in SF, Oakland and San Jose. In SF there is a rally 3-5. March is 5-8pm. Starts at Civic Center, ends at Justin Herman Plaza

Safe Space

Note: This section is experimental. We discussed it at Meeting_Notes_2016_06_28. We're going to try it for the next meeting, and see how it goes, and then discuss in the discussion section how it went, and how we'd like to tweak it.

Noisebridge is a safe space. Invite a volunteer to describe what that means.

Some specific points you might prompt the group to touch on, if it doesn't happen naturally:

• What to do if you feel uncomfortable.
• Noisebridge strives to be radically inclusive. What does that mean?
• Noisebridge has an antiharassment policy. What does that mean?

- this was discussed but I missed what was said. Good overview though -

Participation

Invite a knowledgable volunteer to describe who can participate at Noisebridge, including:

• Describe how to get an rfid key for the door system
• Describe how to get access to slack

Philanthropists

• Invite a knowledgeable volunteer to describe 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(?)

• Trent explaining. Asks if anyone wants to explain why NB exists.
• Henner explains. It's infrastructure for people who make things. "Hacking means making cool new things out of stuff"
• Trent explains how to get access to the space with RFID.
• Henner explains that it's not hard to get 30 day access, don't be afraid to ask. Also explaining about what a philanthropist is for the space. 24 hour access and more responsibilities for example closing the space when you leave. Contribute $80 or so. Starving hacker rate is $40 or so.

No new philanthropist applications.

Membership Binder

• Invite a knowledgeable volunteer to describe membership, and the application process.

Being a member of Noisebridge is not like being a member of a gym or your local chess club. Anyone can come to Noisebridge to hack and learn: you don't need to be a member for that. At Noisebridge, membership is something different: it means taking responsibility and committing to help to maintain, improve, and govern Noisebridge. As a member of Noisebridge, you don't just come here to hack and learn, you actively work to improve what you see around you, help to deal with problems, and make this community and space better than it is today.

• Read off any names from the binder for the past month. Mark down a check or other indicator on every open application to keep track of how many weeks they've been read out.
• Anyone eligible to join this week should
  • introduce themselves,
  • answer any questions members may have for them, then
  • leave the area in search of gifts (traditionally beer and a lime, or cookies) for the rest of the group.
• The rest of the meeting should reach consensus on whether they may join.
• Remember to applaud new members when they return.

Daryl: "membership is kind of like philantropy but you need to be sponsored by 2 members and go through a grueling process where you confess all your sins". Grants you more responsibility. Can block consensus items. Henner said a thing, sorry I missed it. Trent: You don't have to be a member to participate and hack.

No new people up for membership.

Financial Report

• Funds in bank:
• Noisetor (See the bulletpoints at the bottom of http://noisetor.net/finances/#summary):
• Any other details by those participating in handling our financials

• no financial report. Last meeting had ~$80k in the bank. Mostly tor and equipment and rent. Starting to talk about how to buy the building. YES PLS (Trav note). Wow.

Consensus

• invite a knowledgeable volunteer to give 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.

Trent asks if anyone can explain why we have to do this. Trent says Quakers use it. Also the American Heart Association. A way for people to have equal standing. The process is that if you have a big change you want to make, you write up a proposal of what you want to do. Kick it around, submit it, put in binder. Second week that proposal can be approved if no one else disagrees. One good example would be buying the building. Make sure we all want to do that. Mitch likes to say it's the opposite of voting, Trent doesn't see it as the opposite, but it's different.

NO consensus items right now

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.)

Proposals for next week

(Add any new items for consensus to the Current Consensus Items page.)

Discussion

Longer discussion items belong here. This is the last part of the meeting so that people can break off and continue their discussion afterwards.

Discussion Items

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

Chris: wants to get whiteboard paint. Wants to raise $250 for 50sq ft to replace boards in Turing room. Trent thinks it would be great to have more space to write on the walls.

There's a buffet at a curry place? Announced by guy didn't catch his name. He also asked why this is a traditional meeting and not an un-meeting. (It's like an un-conference).

End of Meeting

1. Return the membership binder to its rightful location.
2. Discuss any items for which there was not time during the meeting.
3. Enjoy the company of your fellow hacker, robot, or robothacker.

Note taker posts the notes

1. Clean and tidy the meeting notes including removing all these really verbose instructions.
2. Fill out the short summary at the top listing just announcements, consensus items, discussion topics, and names of new members and philanthropists.
3. Copy paste the notes to the next meeting page. (They will become Last meeting at midnight.)
4. Email the meeting summary to Noisebridge Discuss and Noisebridge Announce lists.
5. CC on the email treasurer@noisebridge.net and secretary@noisebridge.net if there are new members and philanthropists.
6. Edit the Current Consensus Items if anything is proposed for consensus next week.
7. Edit the Consensus Items History if anything was reached consensus or failed to reach consensus this week.

Fun things to do after

• Reprise of the Hackernationale. [This is anarchy - we do what the wiki says!]
• PGP Key Signing could happen now (if it doesn't happen before any given Meeting). Ask others around the space or check the list to see who wants in on the action.