Meeting Notes 2019 08 27

These are the notes from the The XXXth Meeting of Noisebridge. https://pad.riseup.net/p/nbmeeting

Date: 2019-08-27

Note-taker: Jaguar Moderators: Tyler (@themanmaran)

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

Meeting Summary

FIXME FILL OUT AT END OF MEETING AND SEND TO MAILING LIST

TLDR what happened at the meeting:

• Fundraising Update
• Announcements:
• Finances:
• New members:
• New philanthropists:
• Consensus Items:
• Discussion Items:

Introductions

• Tyler is chatting about how the meeting works*

A/S/L?!?!?! Name, pronouns

• Tyler: woodworking, development, hacking on all sorts of stuff. hacks on iZac's bar. Pours 3 hard liquors. someday will pour way more --- no one needs mixers
• Weezy: part-time engineer, student, loves to work at noisebridge
• Harsh: Works on random stuff, muscian
• David: runs an online music business. happy to be here
• Omar: First time at noisebridge, ever. engineer by trade. dabblin' with hardware stuff
• Tom: studying python
• Dave: Loves the library, comes occasionally, loves hanging out.
• Paul: loves art, music, and is a web developer / web person!
• Naveet: enginerrr by trade, comes to nb to hangout and explore
• Victor: also an engineer, works on art wheile they are here. comedy as well
• Leslie into learning eveything!
• Eunice: ceramistists, and a fine arts painter. works at a clay studio in town. has extreme interest in the kiln.
• JAE - anyone can help my bad spelling today.
• Riley: my name is riley. I kind of like to study a bunch of things --- trying to build an intranet service here.
• ??: working on a startup --- marketing analytics platform --- product engineering & growth. has been to nb a couple of times, but never one of these meetings.
• Ryan: hey I'm ryan. I am a nb member. I've been coming here for 5 and some odd years. um. I like helping take care of the space. I take care of the VR cart in the back. need to update now that I'm back from a month of travels. You can usually find me here 3 days a week.
• David: I've been coming here since this place opened. video game designer, coder, avid noisebridger.

Short announcements and events

• Tyler: Now is a good time if anyone wants to make a short announcement.

--> David: wants to host a talk. One of two things: how to make a video go viral, or how to make a living on YouTube. it's roughly the same content idea

 *Tyler: Are you heavy metal anime?
 *David: yeah.
 *Ryan: I need to talk with you.
 
 *David: how to book a time?
 *Tyler: meetup isn't reliable. a lot of events don't happen anymore. have you posted on discuss about it?
 *David: posted on "the green forum"
 *Tyler: the green form?
 *discussion about discuss*
 *Tyler: Generally Sunday nights aren't busy here. Can't think of another class that's running at that time.
 *Ryan: Meetup is our most accurate of our innacurate organized events.
 
 *David: September 15th work work.
 *more talks about dates*

--> Ryan: Fridays there are usually a lot of random events because it's hack nights. It also usually means a lot of people are here. Friday / it depends. Do you want regular noisebridger's, or a time when it's empty when you can bring in a lot of people.

  *David: it's whoever is interested. My main thing is to help noisebridge w/ donations. If it's more condusive to have current noisebridge members come vs. fresh meat.

  *Tyler: idk, if you did it on a Friday night and put up a video, folks would self organize.
  *Ryan: Yeah... especially if a Tux Kart competion starts
  

--> Victor: One off comedy event fundraiser. did one recently that raised $1500. We would take care of the organization, but would need the space. new people would come in. we could have a suggested donation. all goes to noisebridge except funds to pay performers. the planned parenthood event had 1600(?) people. I would like to put effort into it.

  *Victor: two things: meetup.com? noisebridge eventbrite? if eventbrite, the donations would go directly to noisebridge.
  *Tyler: we do have an eventbrite. we don't ever want to block the door on people who don't have a ticket. even if there is an event, we can't deny entry to those without.

• chats about the And Friends event*

 *Victor: how did they not get any money if they sold tickets?
 *Ryan: they sold tickets for performers
 *Tyler: they didn't mention cover charge. thought they were planning with someone else. we're not as organized as we pretend to be.
 

--> Ryan: one we get a lease extension, would like to do a wine, cheese, silent action. will try to provide everything. still need to auction off wine tasting that got donated to us. I need to figure out how to invite the right type of people that are into wine tasting.

  *Tyler: go to like. YC. there is a group that came through here that had all of their VC people come by.
  

--> Eunice: rent?

 *Tyler: still in negotiations, working with landlord. once we come to a draft agreement, we can get our attourneys to make it fully legal to hopefully stay here for 4 more years. 
 *Eunice: glad to hear
 *David: have we considered the worst case?
 *Tyler: have looked into other locations, e.g. Guerro. More expensive / planning & zoning is expensive to change. "tells story of Guerro*"
 *Tyler: within our current lease, we have a 1 year extension policy. Always have that option available. No scenario where we would be removed immediatly.

--> : happy to do a 1:1 or a design critique. Can't get on discuss.

 *Tyler: our email server has been hacked. confirmation emails have been disabled. will manually add you later. had 32gb of spam emails. exposed port that someone was filtering messages through.
 *Riley: How long has it been open?
 *talks about how long it's been going on*
 

--> Steve (capital M): I want to get on stack for announcements.

 Tyler: ok!

• Steve (M): my ex-boss has been charged with 33 charges. posted 2 million dollar bail. worked there two months ago. that is all.

• Others: Wait I didn't get all that. Please repeat.

• Steve: *Repeats with more detail*

--> Tyler: I have a paypal scanner, card scanner, and an iPad now so we can set up a donation station. I just have to make it noisebridge proof, which involves welding. Steve (M): it's true. Tyler: I'll make sure it's welded into a little box so it'll be functional soon.

Excellence

(What does that mean? How does the Anti-Harassment Policy fit into this? Are we SURE we know what being Excellent is? This is an important and fundamental conversation at Noisebridge, so let's give it like 120 seconds.)

tyler: who would like to explain what is excellence. ryan: usually since we have 2 people up for philanthrophy, but since we haven't had a meeting in awhile, it might not be easy for them to explain it. weezy: I can try to explain from as much I've learned. excellence: respect for everyone, respect people's hacks, whatever they're working on. if they have a do-not-hack sign you don't touch that. cleanup after yourself. respect is also like: if something is on the ground that isn't supposed to be there pick it up. think far-and-beyond about keeping the space nice and tidy. It's a do-ocracy. we're all do-ers here, so do your best to be excellent to everyone. tyler: that's pretty sufficient. be excellent to each other, and be excellent to the space.

tyler: are you familiar with the anti-harrassment policy? weezy: have not read it. tyler: one part of it is asking someone to leave the space. if you ask someone to leave, that person has to leave. it does not mean that the person has to stay away from the place. the best thing to do when someone asks you to leave it to just leave. come back tomorrow. it's trying to minimize any type of conflict that might happen.

• discussion about philanthrophy*

Participation

(What does that mean? How do you get a door key? Access to Slack, Discuss, etc?)

tyler: becoming a philanthropist is similar to coming to the space daily. you'll get 24/7 keycard access to the building. you have the added responsibility to open the space, close down the space. we usually want to have 1 philanthropist here while the space is open. If you're leaving and you're the only 24/7 access member, turn off the lights, power off things, take out the trash, etc. make sure things are generally safe. make sure no one is sleeping here... there are instructions on the wiki about closing the space. you can ask around the space to get more info as well. weezy: do we have to turn off every device? tyler: nah, like. flaschen turns off by itself after a certain amount of time. does not account for daylight savings time (J: ??).

ryan: after the end of the meeting, I'll give you guys a tour explaining what things to turn on and off, what you might need to know to give tours if you hven't given them consistently. does anyone else want to help with that job? riley: I'll help with tours.

Eunice: how do we start the process? Tyler: you have to meet a member. general process: get 30-day access token, become a philanthopist, start donating, * Eunice: are you supposed to meet them randomly? Tyler: yes. it's not a great system --- not as many members recently. members participate in the consensus process: e.g. legally binding items, the most recent: Guerro lease terms. Eunice: does it ever so happen that if someone comes to the meetings a lot it can work the other way? Ryan: just a couple of things to say:

     - there are a couple of non-paying philanthropists that don't pay. they help clean up the space consistently. don't have funds to pay their dues, so, some other people cover them sometimes. we have different rates for philanthrophy which wasn't brought up. $80 regular, $40 starving hacker. Can go lower or higher. I know I need to up my donations so I can cover 1 - 2 philanthropists who don't make enough financial income. It makes a huge deal if we have folks that can take care of this space. If the space is always wonderful, more people will want to donate. even if you don't donate enough, if you keep a part of the space excellent..... e.g. kilm: something we haven't had working in 2 years or so. taking care of something like that will get you on-track to becoming a philanthropist. We need some sort of donation per month to track who is consistent.

Eunice: Suggested donation? Ryna: generally, $80, but a lot of people are paying the $40 rate. in general, people are paying... small M members are buying drinks. Eunice: will small cash donations when someone starts here... is that ok to make a lesser donation? Ryan/Tyler: yeah.

Ryan: 24/7 status is a trust thing. they need to be known by the general community. but like, um, it's not that hard to become a philanthropist. Membership is a much higher bar and is typically chaos, or, uh, more chaos than typically.

Tyler: let's move to the binder!

Philanthropists

• discussion about the binder *

tyler: is grant patterson here? Paul: he was processed last meeting Ryan: did it get filled out? paul: he got approved over a chat channel. I think it was nicole.

tyler: any aarons here that applied? tyler: no.

tyler: justice? tyler: no.

tyler: *reads off more names from the binder*

tyler: chris grant? tyler: no, this person has been here since april.

tyler: Y'all? tyler: oh y'all is actually here. tyler: y'all is sponsered by ryan paul/y'all: Oh. I like all likes of things about noisebridge. do-ocracy is an awesome thing. like the library and music. want to come in the morning. would like to be noisy during 6am --> 10am. tyler: Ryan you can't appose you just sponsered y'all. ryan: No! ryan: how long have you been coming to noisebridge in general yall: several years ago (first time). have been regular for about 6 months, may be less than that, 4 -- 6 months. ryan: any ideas on improvements for improvements for nb? yall: best improvements are done together. was chatting with robert about IC's. how to introduce someone who is new to them. how can events appeal to advance people? ryan: I have no further questions.

tyler: does anyone have a gavel? tyler: does anyone disapprove? tyler: OK you are now a philanthropist.

• claps*

• tyler: instructions on the wiki for instructions to turn your card into a 24/7 access.
• tyler: our infra people like to follow rules.
• tyler: tl/dr: scan badge on door, and someone will turn it into a 24/7 token.
• tyler: riley is the most recent person to go through the process.
• riley: I still don't have access
• tyler: that's ridiculious

• tyler: R knows how, but might want someone else to do it.

• tyler: we have another application for someone who is here: Weezy

• weezy: my name is weezy. part-time engineer. super passionate about meeting people, super extroverted. interested in music theory, geo, history of anthropology. when I came to nb fo rthe first time, it was an overwhelming experience---magical. love the place. have been coming regularily, brings creative people together. does not matter whta oyu level is. if you're super technical, or creative... you'll find different people you can communicate with. as ryan mentiond, improvements? I'd get a new audio studio interface. current one has old mixer inputs. can donate for that.... or something, let's just say: the wall---(points to flaschen)---I'm not sure why the hole is in it.

• tyler: well. it was disassembled after maker faire. best thing to do is to drink 25x9 bottles of corona and make it bigger. we will have a corona party to fill it in

• ryan: I have a few things to say about that.

• weezy: other reasons why I'd like to become a philanthropist: like talking with new people, give tours to new people. super big on cleaning. don't live in SF, sadly (want to move into the city). come pretty frequently, 2-3 days a week, but the commute is cal train... it's a bit less than an hour. still try to come out here a lot. I think the 24/7 hour access will let me show up more (train schedule). love playing music, instruments, could play in the morning and bother less folks. any other questions?

• tyler: any questions or opositions?

• tyler: OK! Congradulations!

• claps*

• tyler: that's the end of our philanthropist applications for the night.

• weezy: yeah I have a bunch of questions.

• discussions about folks stuck in 24/7 limbo*

• ryan: how long ago did Riley become a philanthropist

tyler: R approved me the same night

...

• tyler: 225 bottles is how many corona's we need
• ryan: we need LED run's. they won't fulfil a small order to fill in the flaschen.
• tyler: are those custom LED's
• ryan: the manufacturer was not happy with the initial flaschen taschen order.
• ryan: everything else I can get more made... the LED's are the one real challenge.
• ryan: we could make our own LED lights.
• tyler: we'd have to make 225 of them.

• tyler: or we can order the 10,000 batch so we can go into the flaschen taschen business.

• ryan: we could do a mini kickstarter to build more flaschen taschens for the bay area.

• tyler: *loves the idea*

• tyler: OK, so, um, Ryan. because you're the only person who would oppose this idea. I'd like to cut of the membership discussion of the meeting.

• Ryan: but we have a consensus proposal!

• ryan: it's on discuss, not sure if on the wiki.

• jumps to membership*

(What does that mean? What do we expect from Philanthropists? How do you become one? etc)

Membership Binder

Membership in Noisebridge entails community Trust in Consensus.

• Ryan: Immune system of noisebridge. community thinks that they have enough trust to make major decisions

at noisebridge, like, buy a new space. changing our lease. very few things go through consensus.

• ryan: to go through membership, you have to go through consensus. it's different than a project consensus. we do

not have any membership applications currently. it sounds like at some point tyler might apply for membership. it sounds excellent, and I agree.... if you're going to be a member, you have to spend a lot of time here helping others. today is my first day back in a month. spent the majority of my time trying to fix the laser cutter, and figuring out how folks can access our kilmn.

• tyler: create a different group of people to maintain the laser cutter in there? it's our most valuable tool. very delicate, easy to break, hard to fix. create a group of people who are dedicated to fix the laser cutter.

• ryan: one comment on that: I think we need this. I proposed that consensus item the moment we got the laser cutter. we relied on the laser trainers. we only had one at the time. very little maintence over time. just realiezd the cross-bar that was maybe off by 5mm, which, literally means that from one side to the other you'd have a focused drop-off of probably 30%, also, there were smudges. literally means that you'll cut the power by 30% per mirror because you're loosing focus...

• Eu: who made it?

• Ryan: (company name) Kaitian

• Eu: they have a specalist that can come in once a month?

• ryan: they came in once for the training when it was dropped off --- I was there for that. I just want to be a laser maintainer. Want to make sure it's running, and add more materials to it's cutting list. I've been blocked from a laser trainer, because a coulple of folks thought I didn't go through the proper proceedure, even though I did. If a laser trainer doesn't know you're going through that, it's a breach of trust which I understand. All the people should be aware. at the time, I don't think everyone was... I think we need a laser maintainer category because if we want that machine to last a lot longer, we need to make sure that it's working at it's full ability consistently and is not down, um, or, and people who are trained on it that are not trainers feel confident when using it.

• tyler: in terms of fixing and running it, Carl just posted on discuss about the proper way to clean the lenses. I'd read that, and recommend that Carl. His issue is that he can't do the stairs---has a busted knee.

• David: need to get people to stop leaning on the laser. it's misaligning the laser. saw someone who pushed the whole bar up.... that's someone who hasn't been trained on the laser.

• tyler: maybe we need to make laser training a repeat thing, e.g. change the password every 2 months to prevent people from pushing the bar.

• ryan: that's probably what happened.

• david: all of the lenses were dirty. the belts were misaliged by a couple of bars. back chasis was leaned on. destabilizes it. don't lean on the laser!

• paul: in terms of documention for fixing it. the directions currently: don't explode it. yesterday evening it was working, was called in by someone running the laser at a high power. takes a lot of work to maintain the laser.

• discussion about the laser cutter *

• tyler: at some point sinage isn't effective.

• ryan: I want to mention that half of this stuff is NOT online or in our wiki in any form. I spent about 3hrs organizing all of these (laser cutting documentation on repairing). Organized all of these (holds up lens documentation). this stuff shouldn't be accessed by the general laser user because a lot of this stuff isn't actually conductive to just regular laser cutting. this is all debugging and advanced user controls for maintence.

• tyler: it sounds like this is the kind of thing we could use our book scanner for so that it's accessable.

• david: do you want someone who is not trained to do this?

• tyler: this is why the laser maintence group is a good idea.

• david: when I looked at it, the laser was burning a hole.

• discussion about laser cutter *

• current time: 21:52 *

• ryan: start filling out the device checklist

• tyler: can you post what you worked on tonight with it?
• ryan: i'll make sure to mention that david was working on it, because I'm not allowed to do that alone.
• tyler: sure they won't mind.
• ryan: they do, they do.

• david: if we can't refocus, that may be the tube. we're going from a fat burn, to a skinny burn. somebody who has more experience with tubes needs to figure that out.

• tyler: I'm going to say that this meeting is adjourned.

• ryan: yeah.

• ryan: also, another weird thing *chats about laser door*

• everyone leaves the hackitorium table*

• Riley takes the new philanthropists around the space answering their questions about letting folks in, tours, etc.*

• Laser crowd runs to Sparkle Forge*

• skipped*

(What does that mean? What do we expect from Members? How do you become a Member? etc)

Difference between membership or a philanthropist?

Financial Report

Anarchist societies under a capitalist state need money to survive and thrive, yo.

Fundraising Update

How's it all going

Consensus

Consensus is how the Noisebridge Membership may change how Noisebridge works.

(How does Consensus work? What types of things are good for formal Consensus? What is small-c consensus? What is a "block"?)

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.)

• skipped*

Proposals for next week

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

• skipped*