Meeting Notes 2019 01 19

These are the notes from the The XXXth Meeting of Noisebridge. Date: Jan 19, 2019. Note-takers: Nthmost, Joseph; Moderators: Lemons (Andy).

• Guilds are like magnets, and also like boy/girl scouts, and also like secret societies.

Meeting Summary

TLDR what happened at the meeting:

• Fundraising Update: skipped
• Announcements: several.
• Finances: wtf are those? oh are we maybe having to leave the space this summer? maybe we should name a Treasurer.
• New members: nope
• New philanthropists: nada
• Consensus Items: zilch
• Discussion Items: GUILDS! What are they? Fun ideas about this.

Introductions

• Jarrod: like to work in the woodshop, work on NB sometimes.
• Ryan: enjoy helping out at NB -- he/him -- 4 years or so, VR, enjoy working on everything
• John: it/they/them, musician software engineer, sewing projects, donated musical instruments
• Naomi: if you can speak RTT we'll get along great.
• Natalie: 2nd time at this space, enjoy the vibes here. Running a figure drawing event. Moar traffic! Been doing this for 5 years.
• Jeremy: he/him/they, likes talking to people, helping make lesson plans, learning new languages
• Andres: Comes from an architecture background
• Julie: background in hardware, 3-d printing
• Jay: been coming for a month, comes to the free code camp, javascript, cryptography
• Danny: book scanning, electronics
• Al: first time here. Work for a game studio, interested in game dev.
• Lemons: if you need to get on Slack ask me for an invite. 5+ years here. Like to use the space to make props. Can train you on the laser.
• Miguel: 1st time here. Here to learn to develop software.
• Joseph: been here a couple of months. Blockchain..
• Christopher: been here a little over a month. CTO working on multimusicality platform. Multilingual programmer 10+ years. Looking for people to work with.
• Zay: I am In! 1. Christian anarchist. Civiliian based defense. nonviolent ways of course-correcting communities. 2. Food recovery. 3. Production: alt sleep spaces. Check Discourse for more info.
• Mark: jumped in late even though he was basically around the whole time!

Short announcements and events

• Ryan: NB is doing fundraising. Lease expiring in about 8 months. If you can help or know people who can donate, check out the #fundraising-wg on Slack or talk to Ryan. @psychonaut on Slack. [Also @tdfischer -nm]
• Zay: Let's form GUILDS! Mentioned last week. Ie when giving a tour, keep time the person came in, get their contact information, gives us a better idea on how to have guild events when people who are interested are visiting the space.
• Justin : Brought in many parts to build a water jet cutter, will be able to cut steel a half inch thick. Is there a wiki page on this? Not yet. justin@silliconca.ly
• Jarrod: Feb 2nd-3rd. CLEANING!!!!111one. Let's clean and declutter and reorganize and take things to the dump. Lotsa help needed.
• John: I set up the inkjet printer! (Talk to John about what can be done?)
• Ryan: We are doing another locker purge. If you have a locker, put your name on it and the current date, so that we do not cut off the lock on it. We need to be able to know if the lockers are being used.
• Jarrod: Maker Faire is on May 18th. I've been organizing the NB Booth for 4 years and I want to pass that baton to someone else this year.
• Ryan: Going to have a booth at the Japanese Cherry Blossom festival in April. Probably going to build a little VR experience for it. Also a japanese race car system.
• Natalie: Figure drawing event this Saturday from 2-5pm! Wikipage exists for it. One nude person so I'll have signs up for the event.
• Mark: next Fr-Sat is Global Game Jam. There will be tons of gamers here. Just a warning, we don't want people to feel uncomfortable, there will be a lot of people here.

Anti-Harassment Policy

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

Noisebridge has 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?

IE: How to notify people that they might be walking into the space during a time where there is a nude figure drawing occuring?

Noisebridge is not a safe space per se. We should not be diluting the term "safe space" by claiming it is one, when it is not. But we do have an anti-harassment policy! It is posted all across the space.

So, for example, for the nude figure drawing event, putting up signs before people enter to let them know what they are walking into is a way to Be Excellent and maintain harmony between the artists and those who do not want to view the content. Also, by encouraging people to share suggestions about the event.

Participation

How to get RFID:

• John: show up to the space, ppl get to know you, you show you are excellent etc. Ask a Member who can vouch for you to get an RFID token (e.g. from your Clipper card). Lasts 30 days, can renew with another Member.
• Ryan: For 30-day access tokens we also let Philanthropists set these up. They can also renew these tokens.

How to get access to Slack:

• Ask around and someone will invite you. We are pretty open about who gets slack access.

Philanthropists

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

• Jarrod: I think I've forgotten. IIRC, if you hang out at NB and you want 24 hour access, get a member to vouch for you -- trust w/ closing the space at night, keeping an eye on things, etc. That Member can vouch for that person as a Philanthropist. Fill out an application in the binder by the front door. Member should discuss How To Do Things, what our AHP is, etc. Unless someone has strong opinions against you becoming a Phil, you'll become one at a meeting. At any time a Member can say "I want to remove this person as a Philanthropist" and that's what happens.

• Ryan: diff between Member & Philanthropist -- everyone who comes in is a part of the community and can contribute as much as anyone else. Has nothign to do with "Membership" levels. Phil/Membership are levels of how much you want to be relied upon to take care of NB. Membership is a core part of the immune system of NB, including checking in on itself, certain individuals, etc. Members try to be more than just Excellent, also take care of people in the space. Make sure tools are being properly used/maintained, make sure people know what is going on. Being a Member also gives you the ability to block big-C Consensus items, which are the items that define how the space runs w.r.t. the needed bureaucracy that existing in SF sometimes forces upon an anarchist space. Often rules related to safety in the space. Members can choose to block or allow consensed items to become part of how NB works.

• Lemons: we try to place more emphasis on DOING than on authority. Being a Member or Philanthropist doesn't make you better. No extra priviliges. I'LL BE WATCHING YOU.

One Philanthropist application:

• Theodore Rolle: no sponsor, not present.

Membership Binder

NOBODY!

Financial Report

Old treasurer has resigned! Need a new Treasurer. Need someone who has been here for a long time. Needs institutional memory.

Do we need to hold an election for Treasurer? Historically it has been passed down kind of like knighting, old Treasurer handing the documents to the new Treasurer.

Is Nicole the new Treasurer? We hope she accepts, she knows how to do the job.

• Funds in bank: ? - need a new Treasurer, so we can find out these items.
• Noisetor (See the bulletpoints at the bottom of http://noisetor.net/finances/#summary):
• Any other details by those participating in handling our financials
• The latest financial reports from the treasurer are available at https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Finances

Consensus

• Lemons: NB doesn't vote! We consense!
• John: if nobody objects to something requested by someone at a meeting, it passes consensus. But the long version IIRC, you bring up a change at a meeting. Discussed amongst Members and ppl, allowed a week's time to be read through email and such. Discussion should surface disagreements, etc.
• Lemons: what can you do WITHOUT big-C Consensus?
• Ryan: most things at NB were almost all done w/o Consensus. We built SparkleForge including windows and electrical w/o big-C Consensus. This was all small-c consensus, which is how most things happen at Noisebridge. Examples of big-C Consensus: "We're going to spend $50,000!" or "We're moving all of Noisebridge!" We give people the oppt'y to weigh in on the huge decisions that could potentially ruin Noisebridge. Members also go through the big-C Consensus process.
• Zay: in terms of consensus, b/c most people are used to majorities: it is not agreement, it's not always that you like it, it just means you are not strongly opposed enough to sever all ties if something goes through.

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

Guilds

* Naomi: We have a number of problems at noisebridge.  Recurring problems are not the fault of any individuals, they are recurring systemic issues.  This includes cultural propagation and knowledge propagation.  These two often go together.  If people don't know how Noisebridge works, and that they are not talking to each other, it gets in the way of sharing info.  IE: People need to know how to mute Mary Poppins when a discussion is in process (even if it is trash time).  Also, how to maintain the Donate page.  That's a really important issue that we need to ensure gets the right info passed on from beyond the original Do-er to future Do-ers.

• If someone comes to Noisebridge for a particular type of making (ie sewing), they tend to associate more with the people who do that. Same with coding.
• It would be very useful to make there be greater visibility to the different groups of individuals who do similar making things at NB. Ways to help them identify each other, and to know who they can ask questions to.
• We could do flags and badges for individual guilds. Specific meeting times, etc.

• Lemons: Want to make more Explicit the Implicit good behaviors that we see, to make them easier to grow.
• Makes it easier to know who to go to to learn how to Do-Ocratically do more thing.
• Badges or Tags for guilds.
• New people are scared of randomly talking to people even if they want to ask questions, because they don't know Who Wants To Answer Their Questions.
• People could wear a Badge if they are interested in answering questions about specific topic areas.
• Makes NoiseBridge into a less overly big seeming space--more smaller scale and easier to engage with.
• Zay: love the idea of building up groups, so you don't end up a hamster in your own little world. It's not just for NB, it's also public-facing. So when people come in new, they can find a place to be. (Metaphorically speaking) let's try to make a skateboard instead of Lamborghini: maybe let's just make buttons! That way we can launch this faster.
• John: how would it work? stacks of badges? can people join multiple guilds?

[lots of people: oh like boy/girl scout badges!]

• Jarrod: Anybody remember the Starfish group? Army of hackers to help with CHM...!
• Ryan: Gamebridge -- we used to have a lot of process like this back when we did large events and 30+ people each week. This gets a lot more people into Noisebridge. We should get this going pretty quickly.
• Naomi: Lady Red has been hacking heraldry, talk to her!
• Jarrod:
• Naomi: We can also have fun, humor, secret guilds with magic badges.