Meeting Notes 2020 04 28

4/28/20

These are the notes from the The 576th Meeting of Noisebridge.

help take notes at - https://pad.riseup.net/p/nbmeeting

video meeting on zoom at - https://zoom.us/j/972291454

Date: April 28 2020 Note-taker: Paul _H

Pre-Meeting Moderator: Pyconaut

Moderators: Tim

Meeting Summary

FILL OUT AT END OF MEETING AND SEND TO MAILING LIST One or two bullet points of high-level meeting summary. TLDR what happened at the meeting:

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

Pre-Meeting

Excellence

Our One Rule is to Be Excellent to Each Other.

(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.)

Excellence is about caring for yourself, others, the space, and the community, it is about calling out when you see something wrong, and being availble to help others. Being exccelent can be doing things like taking out the trash, fixing a broken machine, cleaning up one of the areas, etc. As long as you follow the one rule, you will be welcome at noisebridge. We also have a Strict antiharrasment policy, so if you are making people feel harrased through your actions, you will be asked to leave.

Participation

Everyone at Noisebridge is a participant at Noisebridge.

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

There are many ways to participate at noisebridge, this includes taking a class, teaching a class, giving a presentation, using our equiptment, etc. You can also do just about any project since we run on do-ocracy. But if you think that the action or project might disturb others, please go through small c concensus and ask the community before you take any actions. Once you come by for a bit and gain some trust from the community, you can ask for a 30 day access token which will get you in the noisebridge door from 10am to 11pm for 30 days (then it needs to be renewed). You can also participate digitally through our different online systems- noisebridge slack noisebridge discuss noisebridge wiki noisebridge meetup

Philanthropist definition

A Philanthropist at Noisebridge has earned enough trust from the community to open and close the space.

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

once you come by for a while and have a lot of trust from the community, people might start asking if you want to become a philanthropist (you can also apply right away if you think the benefits are worth it). A philathropist is the next trust level after daytime access (30 day token) usually in escalating participation. You get 24/7 access during non plague times, pay some money (40 to 80 dollars), give tours and introduce new people to the space. we want more of them to help more people be able to access the space!

Membership Definition

Membership in Noisebridge entails community Trust in Consensus.

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

Big M Members are different from just being a member of the community, this is the highest trust level of the noisebridge community, it means that everyone in the community trusts that you would make good decisions about how noisebridge can move forward. This is an annoying bureocratic level of trust, as the only theoretical benefit is that you get to block big C concensus items, and vote on who we place on our board. To become one, you need to go through a four week process, where you fill out a membership form sponsored by two big M members. You bring it to a tuesday meeting where it is submitted, your membership will be discussed at that meeting, then at the next tuesday meeting your membership is

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"?)

concensus is the process by which things that can't be done through basic do-ocracy (things that affect others in the space.) It has two flavors, small c and big C. Small c concensus is the process where things that might cause slight issues in the space (events, big projects, moving rooms, etc), you just talk with the community before doing things. Big C concensus is the process by which action are taken at noisebridge that are to big, to expensive, or to critical to be done by small c concensus. These are things like Moving, spending a lot of money, or doing legal bureucratic garbage. This is a two week+ process where an item is propsed one week (if possible you should already have the item posted in draft concensus items, and the binder). At that meeting it will be discussed for a while, then the next week it will be discussed again, and at the end of the second meetings concensus section it will be discussed again, and if people feel confident, it will be brought up for concencus, and if no big M member blocks the consensus items it passes and becomes a Consensed item.

Guilds Definition

Guilds are how groups at noisebridge organize.

(What is a guild? How do you join one? etc)

Guilds are groups at noisebridge that rally around a common interest. Any group can create a guild by writing a Charter AND maintaining the group according to the metaguild guidelines: https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Guilds

Main Meeting

Introductions

A/S/L?!?!?!

Ryan He him Ding VRCHAT Virtual market 4 exploration. Matt he him Map nerd and javascripter Tim - he him lulz Carl - he/him - foo bar baz Tyler - he him hi

Paul H - Chillin a bit

Ryan: Who can moderate and take notes?

Tim: Me, though my brain is fried

Paul: Relucantly takes notes, might leave a bit early, can also moderate sometime.

Ryan: Telling us about the new meeting format. Pre-meeting. Fast announcements. General meeting. Philanthropy. ETc..

Tim: Anyone new? *dead air*

Tim: Praises my note taking. Aptly

Taking requests?

Short announcements and events

60-second description per item in bulletpoint.

Robert: Yes

Promotes circuit hacking Monday. OPEN FOR BUZINESS! READY 2 ROLL! Making video for CHM. Move away from having random perks. Instead, build circuits in digital or that parts as needed.

Tim: Cool. I am into that.

Paul: Only if Tyler doesn't show

We have the Capp St. lease in the bag. So if we pay the downpayment and the first months rent we can start to do construction. Won't really pay rent till 30 days after shelter in place is lifted.

Tim and Ryan discuss if we should disciss this. Tim floats the idea of bargaining a lower.

Paul. Agonizes over it. We might create bad feelings with the landlord. We are already at the low price. Initial asking was $9k - $12k. With that said, the economy being what it is, the landlord might not get anyone in for the next 2 years.

Matt: We shouldn't feel bad about hurting landlord's feelings. I think it's a reasonable ask.

Ryan- VRchat is hosting Virtual Market 4 from today to may 10th it is the biggest VR event that is hosted. I already visited before the meeting and it is very epic.

Ryan: VRchat is free. You do not need a VR headset to join it.

Tim: Any more announcements.

Robert: I will! Mark: Me 2.

Robert: Particle I/O. There is a conference tomorrow.It is free. You can sign up. All online. (https://spectra.particle.io/)

Mark: Myself and Mana release a game demo. You should play it. Tim: Where at? Mark: lostgenerationgames.itch.io

Tim: Announcements over!

Meeting over.

BOOM!

Dark star!

Randoms: Dark star!

Tim: I will talk over Robert's live stream.

New Philanthropists

nope

New Members

nope

Financial Report

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

• 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
• The latest financial reports from the treasurer are available at https://discuss.noisebridge.info/c/finace/39

General point : waiting for Tyler Ryan looks up bitcoin sale info

180K cash 105K crypto 286K total.

Tim: Not too shabby. Tyler. Yup, BTC has been going up. 36.96 BTC to cash ratio.

• Good cheer by all*

Tyler: Halvening is coming. And crypto may or my not go up.

• speculative nonsense*

Tim: Anything else? Tyler: nope. 2 more days for the EOM report. Good to see...etc.. how much money we lose by having NB closed... Tim: Interesting. Tyler: Only one TRAITOR cancelled recurring donations!

• Awkwardness around a ghost kitchen..etc... moving on.... too...*

scroll back down to moving talk.

Fundraising Update

How's it all going

we did not get thhe sprinkler grant

GuildMaster's Report

What is the current state of structural organization at Noisebridge?

Mark: Can someone define what guilds are? Like we do with excellence.

Anyone want to volunteer?

James: Guilds are groups of ppl that want a greater level of organization. Ppl more than one, who adopt a charter. And are involved in some way with Noisebridge. For example. Gaming group and the meta guild.

Talk about who was talking. It was James. Getting off topic.

Mark: Reigns it in. Wants everyone to start a guild!

Tim: Once fear of death leaves going to Noisebridge.

Mark: You can do it online! Guild is a group of ppl who organize.

Mark: Start a charter! Thank you.

James: not sure I'd want to join Tim's wet.. guild? You are welcome.

Moving on.

• What guilds are active? (Read the active guilds from Guilds wiki page)
  • (For each guild mentioned, ask if guild rep is present for a brief status update)
• Would you like to join or start a guild? Checkout our guidelines or contact MetaGuild for help.

Any guilds still alive? ... Mark: The only offical one is meta guild.

Someone: And gamebridge.

Mark: We have to write a charter.

Tim: When did we start doing paperwork for fun? I almost forgot they were Tuesday and called them Monday meetings.

How is the metaguild doing?

Mark: Not much this week, but we worked on the docs. Check out wiki/guilds

James: Ppl wrking with the unicorn system like discuss and these other tools. That is an active group of ppl.

David: What about essential infrastructure?

Mark: They kind of did, but have not heard from them in the last few meetings. We know Kinnard is taking some weeks off for holiday.

He is leading that effort.

David: That is neat.

Mark: Yes, but he failed to designate someone to come to meetings. So that is what it is.

James: It is the reason we need to figure this things out.

Kinnard edited the wiki, but as far as we know is a guild of one person. Are there other people involved? Guilds NEED at least one more person. But we are all figuring out how guilds work.

Let's find who else works with Kinnard on essential infrastructure! Any ideas on whom to contact?

More talk about guilds and ppl helping with making 3d masks, etc...

Mark: Get more ppl invovled in guild.

Someone: Feels like they are on a space station with this shelter in place.

Tim: Dude. We need more rockets. Unless there is a rocket guild all of sudden!

Tyler *Running with rocket guild*

... Scrolling up to dollar amt

Consensus

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.)

MOVING STUFF! Tim: Who is building a slide?

Talk about a slide. Tyler says it is there. Others suggest improvements.

• Max Noisebrdige*

Someone: Anything else to talk about?

Tim: Only sticking point is to bargain the price down? Maybe cheap for 2 years and then raising the rent. Not sure... but want to bring it up.

David: Did we have a back and forth already? Is it too late?

Tim: Never too late.

Tyler: Kind of too late cause of all the back and forht and the new readline from lawyers with all changes and they already accepted...so it is kind of like going back a bit and asking for more. So... we are already at a cheaper price $9k down from 12K. After the lease starts, we will start 30 days after the lifting of the shelter in place, but we can get access to the space as soon as we sign the lease and pay deposit + 1st month rent. Then we would have access to the space for costruction and improvements.

So we are looking at 2 months of access without really have to pay rent...so... shelter in place helps us kind of get 60 days rent free.

Robert: IF we give them the $$$ and sign the lease and then we have 1 person move stuff over... so...

Tyler: Yes, that will be fine!

Tim: Carry it?

All: No, slide it!

Tyler: 2 ppl. One to slide.. one to catch.

Technically 2 buildings.

• Super fun noisebridge hacker talk around how to move stuff between these 2 really close buildings.
• fun talk*

Tim: Does everyone agree to just sign and go forward?

Ryan: No! It has to be the board that signs the lease, and also Tyler. So we need to give the board the ability to do that and use the consensus proposal. *Pastes in proposal:

Real-estate decisions decided by board ratified by 24 hour notice special member consensus

Modified from 2018-03-06 consensus which worked to get a lease. https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Consensus_Items_History)

Adds "building improvement decisions" to the list of decisions which board can initiate.

Real-estate decisions are time-sensitive and require an accelerated consensus process:

1. The board officers of Noisebridge may enter into loan agreements, building purchase negotiations, lease negotiations and building improvement decisions in the interest of acquiring a suitable building to be our permanent home. This authorization lasts until a permanent home has been secured, or until Noisebridge has either renewed the 2169 Mission St lease or signed a new lease and any related building improvement decisions are completed at which time the measure will be ended by a 24 hour Consensus.
2. The Board Officers shall keep a log of non-sensitive information stemming from the authorizations above to be published as a “note” on the #the-board, a Noisebridge wiki page, and the Noisebridge discuss mailing list, at a minimum interval of every 2 weeks.
3. In the event that a purchase, lease or building improvement decision is required in under two weeks, a special meeting may be called with at minimum 24 hours notice to form a special consensus on the lease, building improvement or purchase decision. The meeting will occur at Noisebridge and provide a mechanism (e.g. Google Hangout) for remote participation. A link will be provided to remote in the 4 channels described above and the pad.riseup.net/p/nbmeeting notes.

Ryan: Authorization should last a bit longer than the moment of a new lease so that building improvements probably done after lease is finalized can be decided. Some form of small C consensus or big C consensus should decide when the item has ended in effect since it likely will take 3-4 months before we become comfortable in the new space. Also, add in more things related to each building improvement so all will trigger a 24 hour special consensus period.

Since we are at this meeting, we can give the board regular access, but then we would need to call a meeting tomorrow if we want to sign it Thursday pretty much, but then we also need to get into building approvals, with big M member approval with the quick consensus process. ... Please read through this silently, then we will discuss it. We can consensus on this right now if we want. Then the memebers present could call a meeting or the board could.

James: Question: Are there more than 2 members on this call? Tyler: Most of the board is on this call.

James: Not a regular member, or on the board, etc...

Tyler: How? What?

Tim: How?

James: I dropped out, in 2014, 2015... have not been one since.

Ryan: Did you cancel?

James: I didn't cancel I just faded out like.

Everyone: Um.... you are still a member. Every time you try to get out, Noisebridge pull you back in.

Ryan: REmember how difficult it was for Jarrod to quit?

Ryan: He came to a meeting to be sure he was no longer a member.

Tim: Legend.We have 4 members here now

Tyler: Can we make consensus a 24 hour process. Make quick turnaround choices.

James: One more Q: Is there anyone in terms of the membership or board who is not aware of the new building?

Tyler: I don't know...it is very possible, but ppl are gnerally aware of the moving process. But I will still @everyone tonight.

• Everyone stunned by @ everyone proposal*

Thanks Tyler!

Ryan: I just pinged slack to try get more ppl here. This is kind of a big deal. Giving the board power to move quickly...

Tyler: What is the expiration?

Ryan: Like before, whenever we get a new lease. Whenever the building improvements are completed. Will be ended by 24 hour consensus.

Tyler: We use consensus to destroy the consensus.

Ryan: Exactly.

Tim: How it happens with thunderous applause.

Ryan: Yeah.

David: Ppl will complain no matter what. What then?

........ *Censored talk... *Spicy**

Dave: What about possible complaints?

General: We will move on.

Tyler: Speaking of alternate opinions... Alice suggested going back to renegotiate sprinklers with the current landlord. I don't think that's what people are interested in doing, since it involves spending $$$ on sprinkler system.

David: We didn't get the grant for the sprinklers today.

Tyler: It owuld have been different if we got that cash for sprinklers...

Should we try it to get leverage.

Paul's sayin' : Japanese no... ask for an extreme case till they back down.

• Discuss around grants, and our options with staying or moving*
• Discussion around centralizing our tax info, org info, and stuff for writing grants!* Thanks to all ppl pushing for those! :)

Ryan: Arts grant is part of a higher level commission that has running on an annual/monthly basis.

Tyler: Guild system might be really good for applying to grants. People who win the grants have very, very specific goals. Small group of people with singular project/goal.

Ryan: We have gotten small project grants in the past.

Ruth has a grant for stupid hackathon...

Tyler: Project grants are good.

Ryan: They help with classes, etc... Once you create the application you can submit it to more than one place. I don't remember if I ever uploaded to the wiki, my item ask form... I made with the consultants... only used a couple times but pretty well written.

James: I am going to... We are unique because we pay $0 to do anything...we are like a charity where 100% goes to the stated purpose.... we have almost no overhead... We could apply for a grant to get like $50k for CHM.

Tim: We could pay Robert.

James: We have less fees than other non-profits and that is unique...so that can strengthen our ask.

Tim: That would be awesome.

James: Others say 60% go to staff, etc...

David: We might pay some overhead...so someone will take the lead to make sure the grant actually gets completed.

James: Well, we might pay, but still make our low overhead a selling point.

Matt: I also got the grant for stupid hackathon, but I have yet to get the check...that said, not being an employee...or super offical rep...makes it, a bit hard to know who to say the money would exactly go to...so not having employees can give the grantees hesitation...but it is also good we are not paying out to a lot of fancy non-profit employees.

Ryan: That is why we have been trying to create positions.

Mark: *cough*GUILDS*cough*

Ryan: Right so if you can say you are a guild master... and having emails would help.. so when you sign up for these forms with contact info that is unrelated...that is a flag that a lot of grant systems don't like... that is why using the .org will also be good.

• cheers*

Ryan: Yeah. I have a noisebridge business card...and there are others too...that just say whatever ppl want... but right now...it is like ok: How do you prove it? Usually the proof that grant systems like is an offical email. or some sort of offical looking letter head.

Here is the letter head: FYI:

   https://www.noisebridge.net/images/9/94/Letterhead.pdf

Tim: Yeah. Cool. I think that strategy works.

• Grant hacking. Yay!*

Tim: Can we put Noisebridge.net on the noisebrdige.org then set up an email server with the .org

James: Yeah, I think I have control of the .org. Oh no, I have .io

Tyler: I have .org and .net for noiserbdige. It has Tyler, Naomi, and Super Q on it. (Ghandi account)

Ryan: Can you set up a gsuit account with the .org? Tech soup is free for non-profits, so we can use that. Attach to the .org domain, they we can create forwards and what not.

Tyler: I can do that. It is just that...I am in the asking for permission stage. But emails that exist ...are out there...like av@noisebridge.net... So we need to be careful of this legacy stuff. There is also an email list...that might get in trouble with a new server.

Tim: Is there any Noisebridge.org legacy?

Tyler: No.

Tim: Then let's do that.

• More talk around setting up the .org email. Just have it forward to .net <- Tim's good suggestion

Ryan: Would that let us send as .org too?

• Yes, and that is good.

Tim: You can set all this up tonight. I call dibs on tim@noisebridge.net! Also want wetguild.

• More email tech talk (fingers tired)

More tech talk around email server and server and backing up mail server.

James: We don't know how it works.

Ryan: Can't we... (something about backups)

Tyler: I think it was intentionally designed so we didn't have permanent records of email conversations.

Ryan: I understand...but maybe non-profits should legally back stuff up as a non-profit...

James: Issue is that anything you do for NB is for NB...So if we rescind that stuff, that is against the spirit.

Ryan: More on emails..and backing up emails...it is a trail, but you would think more about how you use the email and what it means to use a Noisebridge email. You'd be speaking on behalf on Noisebridge, which makes you think a bit more before saying crazy things.

 https://www.noisebridge.net/images/9/94/Letterhead.pdf
 

Ryan: We're going to have to update the address if we move!

Tyler: We'll just add a "+2 meters."

Tyler: So on this consensus item. Do we say that it goes through?

Ryan: No one has said anything on Slack.

Robert: Let's say it moves forward.

Ryan: Okay, so members present - does anyone block the consensus item?

Tyler: I do not block it.

Ryan: I do not block it.

• no one blocks it*

Yay! A consensus happened.

Ryan: lxpk said last week that he wouldn't block it, if we want a 3rd member. We should let people know about this. There are no consensus proposals for this week and next week. On to discussion.

Proposals for next week

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

none

Discussion

James: I want it noted: I want to find someone who can help upgrade Debian 9 to Debian 10 and Docker. I would like your help!

Matt: I have no experience but I would like to help with that.

James: What do you mean by "no experience"?

Matt (mpmckenna8): Haven't done it before, but I would like to help.

James: I would like to find one person, someone who has done it before. If we can do it seamlessly the first time..

Tyler: Tim does do Docker....

Robert: I can help you look for a person on HackerNews.

James: I just don't want to be the only person doing it. Every server we run has to be upgraded from Debian 9 to Debian 10.

Ryan: Any other discussion items? None. Ok, I guess the meeting is over!