Meeting Notes 2017 09 26: Difference between revisions

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* Victoria: Blocking is not procedural, you don't stand up and say I BLOCK THIS and move on and expect Noisebridge to just get over it. Blocking means you have a principled objection to the way the space is going. It means basically that you'd be leaving the organization if that goes forwards as planned. It's the groups duty to work with the person who is blocking.  If you want to block a thing, think hard about. Compromise is a key point of consensus. It just takes one person to shit it up as a member.
* Victoria: Blocking is not procedural, you don't stand up and say I BLOCK THIS and move on and expect Noisebridge to just get over it. Blocking means you have a principled objection to the way the space is going. It means basically that you'd be leaving the organization if that goes forwards as planned. It's the groups duty to work with the person who is blocking.  If you want to block a thing, think hard about. Compromise is a key point of consensus. It just takes one person to shit it up as a member.
      
      
* Patrick: If you want to block something, it's not acceptable to simply say no. You must propose a middle ground that is also acceptable peopleIf you just say "none of this should happen", it's going to be disregarded entirely, because there is no other path forwards.  In membership applications, you can do it where your reason isn't publicly stated.
* Patrick: I've been away from Noisebridge for 3 weeks - and my boobs have gone up two cupsizes.
Think they're trying to tell me something?  I've put on all of 3 pounds, and all of it went straight to the boobs. Not sure whether to finish eating my halloween candy or run for the hills (and maybe beyond, just to wear some of it off)I miss being able to vent - none of my friends IRL understand the pain of having 3 gorgeous, well-fit bras, to having none inside a month.





Latest revision as of 08:28, 16 October 2017


These are the notes from the The XXXth Meeting of Noisebridge. Date: FIXME THE DATE HERE Note-taker: FIXME YOUR NAME HERE; Moderators: FIXME THEIR NAME HERE.

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

Meeting Summary[edit]

FIXME FILL OUT AT END OF MEETING AND SEND TO MAILING LIST TLDR what happened at the meeting:

  • Announcements:
  • Finances:
  • New members:
  • New philanthropists:
  • Consensus Items:
  • Discussion Items:
  • Victoria: Noisebridge is an anarchist collective of hackers that sometimes thinks it is a spaceship. It's been here for coming up on 10 years. We operate on consensus, excellence, and doocracy, and various interpretations of those. We have one rule, "be excellent to each other". That includes taking care of the space, making sure the space is safe, watching who you let in, making sure the space is a place you want to be. You don't have to be a member, come use Noisebridge as long as you follow our one rule. It's everyone's space so love it like your own!

Introductions[edit]

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?
  • Lady Red - I have these cubes
  • Eradicate - Hates rats, sometimes talks to people, background in visual mechandising and fashion design. I am very creative and nice
  • Dan - Go by dang on slack, enjoy farscape and movies and other stuff, lets chat
  • Razzi - Love Noisebridge. Do a lot of programming, want to do sustainability projects and composting at noisebridge.
  • Roy - Likes locks and their collection. Some amount of programming and dis/assembling stuff.
  • Augur - Teach lasercutting stuff, might at some point teach a haskell class
  • Ben - Likes math and programming, I don't know things about radios but trying to learn, DSP.
  • Trent - I teach the python class, have too many interests and they get ahead of me
  • Patrick - I do security things and am doing radio stuff at Noisebrige, putting a satellite tracker on the roof
  • Jay - Enjoy Python. Going to help out with the Python class stuff. Radio stuff. Writing labels too.
  • Nicole - Host coding workshops. I play with the laser cutter a lot. Propagating some succulents!
  • Daniel - Infosec, would like to ressurect the cryptopals working group.
  • Keita - make iOS apps. Every sunday, I organize "iOS Peer Lab" - if you want to be productive Sunday morning, join us. Also learning lockpicks. - wants to learn more about Rick and morty
  • Diego - Musician - works at grey area. Well aligned with here, check grey area out. Also teaches people Ableton or Max MSP.
  • Victoria - Time Travelling Prototype Cyborg from the Distant Present.
  • J - Makes blinky lights.
  • Marco - search engine for code learning resources, turn into awesome digital mentor. Background in design but doing more coding now.
  • Nick - Also codes stuff.
  • Andre - Blockchain company. I know how to code.
  • Andre - Also blockchain company, both from ukraine, living in SF.

Short announcements and events[edit]

  • 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!


  • Dan - Sundays - hack days. We livestream projects and things we are thinking about. We're a bunch of nerds that get together. Come share what you are passionate about.
  • Dan - Wednesdays - Crypto builders meetup. First one tomorrow 730 PM.
  • Nicole - If you want to teach a programming topic, let me know!
  • Ben - If anyone wants to teach for PyClass, check in after.
  • Patrick - Aaron Swartz Hackathon is coming up. It's awesome! https://www.aaronswartzday.org/sanfrancisco/
  • Diego - Friday - Grey Area - Electronics Show, http://grayarea.org
  • Trent - Python Class restarted - come join us for the 2nd course in the sequence next Monday at 7 PM in Church

Safe Space[edit]

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.

  • Victoria: Noisebridge is a safe space. Not necessarily that you aren't able to talk about stuff. We care about the safety of each other. You would tell someone if you were going to use a loud circular saw to protect their hearing. We do the same thing for psychological issues that might be triggering for some people. Give people warning so they can protect themselves. Be excellent to your fellow hackers, don't make people feel uncomfortable, don't make people feel unwelcome. Noisebridge is a safe space for everybody. Also, victoria covered some stuff about anti harrassment and how it can often be unwelcome to hit on someone. There is an anti-harrassment policy.


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?

Participation[edit]

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
  • Marco: Everyone can participate, everyone is welcome to participate because it is everyone's space. Be excellent to each other and be excellent to the space. If you want to change something and no one is against it, just do it.

Noisebridge is completely run by donations so if you would like to support the space, donations are highly welcomed. Some donate more, some less, it is what keeps Noisebridge running. When you come here more often, and participate in the space, you can ask a member to get any RFID tag registered to open the door during normal open hours from 11 AM to 10 PM. You can also ask anyone to get invited to slack.

  • Kate: When people come in it is a really good time to tell them that the space is run by donations.


Philanthropists[edit]

  • 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(?)
  • A philanthropist is someone who has invested a certain amount of themselves in the space, and wants to make that a recurring concrete thing. Also they agree to donate a certain amount of money to the space. Also they get an RFID for 24 hour access. Also taking more responsibility for the space and closing down the space. To become a philanthropist, get a copy of the philanthropist form and fill it out. Have at least one member sponsor you by signing it. The next meeting, it will be discussed, a member could stop someone from being a philanthropist. You then must set up recurring payment. Philanthropy can be taken away by a member, who can proxy for anyone with a reasonable concern.


Membership Binder [edit]

  • 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.
  • Patrick: Noisebridge is open participation but we have philanthropy so people can easily get access and the doors aren't completely closed and people can get in. But when Noisebridge wants to make a big choice like buying the building, we use a process called consensus. Membership is about stewardship. If you want to make sure this place exists in 5-10 years, you should become a member. Consensus discussions are open to everyone, but the group of people who are considered in that are members. If we could rename it, it would be better to call it stewardship.
  • Jay: For all of us that have been around for awhile, we take membership very seriously. It's a building of a trust relationship. Ultimately you build a higher level of trust and commitment. It's because you actually want to be part of the space and make sure that it lives.
  • Nicole (1st week) and Lady Red (2nd week) have membership applications in.

Financial Report[edit]

  • pemulis (treasurer):

Mini-Financial Report: We have $86,131.30 in the bank. I can’t be bothered to do a full breakdown today. This is possibly the most money we’ve had in the bank at one time. We haven’t paid October rent yet. Nope, I was wrong. We had a few hundred dollars more in the bank on August 17th. (edited) Since that time we’ve subtracted a few thousand dollars from the equipment fund, broadcast fund, and Noisetor, which is a good thing. The difference was mostly made up by the growth of the general fund by a few thousand dollars.

Eyeballing this, we have about 9-1/2 months of regular expenses in the general fund. Rent’s gonna get paid soon and knock us down to a post-rent baseline of 8-1/2 months of regular expenses, which is a jump of 1/2 months of regular expenses from our post-rent baseline at the beginning of this month. (edited) I’ll give a full breakdown after rent gets paid.


Consensus[edit]

  • 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.


  • Lady Red: Most of the things that happen here happen in a doocratic way. People take it upon themselves to organize the change, or be the change they want to see. But not before checking around and gathering momentum. The bigger the change the more people that need to be involved. This is doocracy. BUT EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE there is a really big change, that is about how we do things around here. For example, how we do membership. Recently we also got a fiscal sponsorship program off the ground to sponsor smaller groups that are not tax deductible organizations. A formal consensus is a consensus of the members. In voting, 51% of the people vote for it. In consensus, just no one has to block it, but anyone can block it.
  • Victoria: Blocking is not procedural, you don't stand up and say I BLOCK THIS and move on and expect Noisebridge to just get over it. Blocking means you have a principled objection to the way the space is going. It means basically that you'd be leaving the organization if that goes forwards as planned. It's the groups duty to work with the person who is blocking. If you want to block a thing, think hard about. Compromise is a key point of consensus. It just takes one person to shit it up as a member.
  • Patrick: I've been away from Noisebridge for 3 weeks - and my boobs have gone up two cupsizes.

Think they're trying to tell me something? I've put on all of 3 pounds, and all of it went straight to the boobs. Not sure whether to finish eating my halloween candy or run for the hills (and maybe beyond, just to wear some of it off). I miss being able to vent - none of my friends IRL understand the pain of having 3 gorgeous, well-fit bras, to having none inside a month.


Proposals from last week [edit]

(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 [edit]

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

Discussion[edit]

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

  • Patrick also Jay - Event Proposal for next year.
  • Patrick: A friend of Jay's has a touring hands-on Enigma machine workshop. They have a literal fucking Enigma machine. Hands-on travelling history tour. Often done as a corporate event, but want to do it at Noisebridge. What about payment? Godwaffle Noisepancakes does this but it's sort of grandfathered in, do they donate anything back to Noisebridge? Would Noisebridge be interested in hosting this and Noisebridge would get some money back. Yea nay (everyone wants to play with the machines).
  • Victoria - I'm interested in talking about bike party and/or decorating bikes with LEDs.
  • Victoria:

Bike Party! There is a new channel in slack: #bikeparty East bay bike party second friday of october! SF is the first Friday (of october) End of the month - critical mass SF Who wants to get together on a Friday or some other day and glue fuckin hot glue lights to your bike with led strips and shit?

Everyone raises their hands::
  • Victoria: bring a bunch of LEDs and shit for your bike next Friday, October 6th. I will bring a bunch of Teensy microcontrollers.
  • Jay: I will take care of the meetup!!
  • Ryan: Can we make a Noisebridge Flaschen-Taschen?
  • Everyone: Thank you for volunteering.
  • Victoria: Come to the thing and make it!!


  • J - (partly representing some viewpoints Zach expressed and partly his own viewpoints)

Allocating funds for fixing things in the space. And that people that bought those things get compensated. Various people have fixed things out of their own pocket. Electrical, bathrooms, elevators. What about little c or BIG C consensus for a fund for this type of repairs for everyday repairs that happen within reason.

  • Ben: This rolls into what John Shutt proposed on Slack.
  • Patrick: Are we talking about paying people for time? I don't think we should reimburse people for labor. People have thrown cash peoples way for doing awesome stuff historically.
  • J - I don't think this is about reimbursing people for their time, just for materials.
  • Lady Red - It also lets you do a more complete job.
  • Victoria - I think it's a good idea.
  • Trent - I am also against the idea of paying people for their time.
  • Katherine - I am against the idea of paying people but not against people being reimbursed within reason for what they spend.
  • J - I think it is reasonable if we are considerate about the amount.
  • Lady Red - Should we put 1% of our money in and it runs out or should it come out of the general fund?
  • Victoria - The person with the best input is probably John.
  • Victoria - I think we should pay people for their time.
  • J - is this a big c or a little c?
  • Patrick - Historically we just do it for materials they brought in. Is there a strong difference for the reboot pattern? Maybe it just hasn't been exercised recently? I think we should make that more clear to people.
  • Victoria - For the sake of continuity, because I think John is looking to not be treasurer, we should get a written down process, even if it is what we do the reboot already. Having a process because oh my god do I hate arguing about money.
  • Lady Red - That would be a substantial difference. We are in a situation in the sewing area where the equipment fund would buy a new machine but would not cover paying someone for fixing our current machine even if that's cheaper.
  • Augur - maybe repairs should be part of the equiment fund as well.
  • Patrick - I'm 99% we've reimbursed kyle for repair work that he got done on earlier machines.


  • Ryan - Hacker Retreat
  • Ryan - This is a process I do every couple months. My friends are constantly inundated with the chaos of the bay area, it can get to a lot of people. I grew up here and it can be insane. Whenever I get stressed out I head out for a couple days to retreat. I've gone on a retreat a couple hackers for a couple days and it's been helpful for people to take a break or reframe a problem they are trying to solve. What do people think about taking retreats to different places, like camping trips to different locations. There are a ton of places I know to retreat to. What do people think of a more formal hacker retreat?
  • Victoria- Have you heard of toorcamp? https://toorcamp.toorcon.net/ June 20th-ISH next year.
  • J - There's two channels - #hacker-trips and #fieldtrips -


  • Razzi - The smell in the back - not enough airflow for the laser.
  • Razzi - It's the burnt smell.
  • Augur - Laser ventilation sucks.
  • Victoria - I complained about it and someone said "it happens whenever the windows are open, so if you close the windows it stops coming in.
  • Patrick - what about cheap monitoring equipment?
  • Others - It's not gonna be cheap


  • J - Buying the space
  • J - Maybe we should all be thinking about if we are going to buy the space or go somewhere else or co-own another building?

Patrick - Our lease here goes through September 2018, the countdown has started.


Discussion Items[edit]

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

End of Meeting[edit]

  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[edit]

  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[edit]

  • 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.