Meeting Notes 2021 03 30
These are the notes from the The XXXth Meeting of Noisebridge.
- Live notes
- Virtual Meeting (jitsi mic/cam off by default)
Date: 7pm Tuesday; March 30th, 2021
Note-taker: Pyconaut
Moderators: PicoNut
- 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
Pyconaut- He him- Playing video games , eating food, excited about noisebridge's future. Piconut- here Ⅹ - Space Hacker and Driveway enthusiast Dan, Evil - Making space for lifts Rikke - Accessability liason Qi-Con Big T Carl Gwen
Short announcements and events
60-second description per item in bulletpoint.
Teh Week Ahead:
Dan- April first has been Canceled, due to Covid
Dan- Excursions in Bashland (exploring Linux system and command line tools) Sundays from 4 to 6 PM virtual turing room: https://jitsi.noisebridge.io/turing
Dan- Algorithims Wednesday 6PM in virtual hackitorium: https://jitsi.noisebridge.io/hackitorium
Pyconaut- Noisebridge Cohack Livestream Wednesday at 7:30 in streaming room 1 https://jitsi.noisebridge.io/StreamingRoom1, also check meetup for password
Pyconaut- Gamebridge Unityversity on Gamebridge Discord Wednesday at 8PM https://www.meetup.com/noisebridge/events/vkqldsyccfbpc/
Pyconaut- NeurotechX Hacknights Thursdays at 6PM look on NeurotechSF meetup,
Co-Hack in Exile Thursday's 6pm and Saturday's Noon
Five Minutes of Fame -- Thursday April 15th 6pm Hang Out, 8pm Talks
OHSNAP - Saturday's 2pm
Circuit Hacking Monday, Reboot (Virtual) Edition April 12th 6pm
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.)
Read the wiki
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?)
Read the wiki
Philanthropists
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)
Read the wiki
Membership Binder
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)
Read the wiki
Financial Report
Anarchist societies under a capitalist state need money to survive and thrive, yo.
- Funds in bank:
cash= 304,392.82 crypto = 3.85 bitcoin x (03-30-2021 price = 58,810.50)= 226,420.42 total= 530,813.24
- 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
Fundraising Update
How's it all going Cash: 333,392.57 BTC: 187,445.77 Total: 520,838.34
Were getting emails at some point soon. Will be in discussion item 5.
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"?)
Read the wiki
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.)
none
Proposals for next week
(Add any new items for consensus to the Current Consensus Items page.)
none
Discussion
Discussion Item 1
ADA related stuff
Pyconaut- talked to a frend who kows a lot of people in the ADA space, and they have contacted a friend who is a ADA specialist who can look over our space and help us. Will be talking more with them soon. Will try to find out rates, and when they are available.
Pyconaut- want to create an ADA fund for paying contractors etc.
Rikke- Let's get concrete proposals, evaluate, then allocate money. Let's ask Pyconaut's friend for hourly rate & overall estimate
Pyconaut- the ADA specialist would come before any bids, so should we start to set aside some money.
X- Would thios be a CASP inspection?
Rikke- I understand that it is just specialist advice, and not a CASP inspection.
X - I like more knowledgable people providing input. Would invite coordinating a visit/introduction to the space.
Pyconaut- Yes
Dan - Space clearing and investigation of locations upstairs and down for where a lift could go. Exploring option of a lift to the lift instead of a ramp, see Omni ballroom lift for example.
Link?
Dan- wondering about the ramp option and where it could go. we need to go 12 feet for every foot Up, so to go 3 feet up it would be 36 feet. One option is all along the right wall, image is not to scale. But comes out in a nice spot in the music room. The cost is that we have a lot of space used up by ramp and platform. Real images sow a perspective of what it might look like.
X- the shorter the ramp the better, but we can go as far as we need.
Rikke what about a lift to a lift, like some wide stairs with a heavy duty stair lift, but it would save space and could be a good option
Decep Qi Kon- the ramp could go under the stairs if we remove the front room, and could save us a lot of room.
Pyconaut-
Decep Qi Kon- Can we get an Onshape version
We talked about this as part of an option when the elevator contractor was there, can actually make a hole in the wall with or without modifying the room.
Steps for putting a hole big enough to put a lift into the second floor in 2021:
*Plans *Landlord written approval *Approved budget(s) *Permits *Contractor Contracts
Stack
Discussion Item 2
Rent at 272 Capp St., when how much.
Our lease clearly states that the lease and rent begins on the 1st day of the month following all relevant restrictions being lifted. What excatly remains as a relevant restriction is not clear, as San Francisco is now in the Orange, which is the same status in late 2020 when we were closed and not paying rent.
Utilities:
- Electric/Power Account needs to be established
- Water, >$1,600 was paid (~$800 over payment) by building management. Treasurer has offered to wire re-payment. There is an annomly in November/December 2020 of water usage of over 200 gallons a day on average, given the level of activity at the time which was very little to done something is up here. Our last couple of months have been more like $20 a month.
- Trash, account established, on hold during covid, although they tried billing us again. Account was paid up thru end of 2020.
- Internet, Monkey Brains is fucking awesome, we have bandwidths.
Pyconaut- I am guessing starting renovations or getting landlord apprival for the elevator might be affected by the state of our rent. Should we start paying rent and still say we are closed.
Our lease is specifc, that modification and preperations for opening are not part of what determines paying rent. We initially set this up exepcting to get a month or two delay to see where the state of things went. It's more a matter of whats realistic and reasonablly safe.
Tyler- Fixing stuff that requires landlord aproval is definitly harder to do without paying rent to them. Like the fire exit door and ongoing accessibility discussions.
Paying more rent in May or April? as we have already deposited first month rent. We want to be in a good 10 year relatioship with the landlord.
Dan- THank you Tyler for doing all our finacial stuff. If we can explain that we are planning to not open tell july or so, but really want to finish renovations as fast as possible, and if we need to be considered open to do renovations we could start paying, but it might be nice if we can pay partial rent while buildout is happening.
Dan- Ask then about capital improvements, and if we can split it fifty fifty
Pyconaut- Tax credits for building improvements? I.e. Better Business Bureau offerings, energy efficiecy rewards (solar)?
X- I am pretty sure that the building related tax credits are only for land owner.
Dan- If we need to pay we should pay and get on top of this.
Discussion Item 2.5
Humanmade and A&A
Nthmost has met with Sarayah from Humanmade last week.
We still plan to work with SFMade, but right now Humanmade would be a better option for right now with what we need to do.
Pyconaut- Thank you Decep Qi Kon for bringing Humanmade back into the loop.
Decep Qi Kon- It will be a cheaper option the SFMade for thing like helping design airflow and shop layout, and what we need to do for safety. They could also help with city related stuff.
Dan- THank you Decep Qi Kon for your help, and keep us in the loop with what they might need from us.
Decep Qi Kon- SFMade would be good if we can do workforse development for the city of SF. Things like electronic assembly.
X- What is our current status with SFMade are they someone we would contract with for this which would be somewhat new for noisebridge.
X- Human Made has been a very helpful and friendly group with aligned interests in more access to more spaces.
Decep Qi Kon- Slowly advancing to them.
Dan- what issues might arise taking money to do workefoprce development, or jut to take money to keep doing exellent stuff. It could limit what we can do maybe. But doing teaching in general is something we like doing, but usually in a much more informal way, no big bureocratic contracts
Pyconaut- I agree
Decep Qi Kon- I understand these issues and an trying to figure out how noisebridge could work with any compromises, like use as a location for classes that teachers can use, during the hours that noisebridge is underutuilised right now.
Dan- Thank you for that
X- How can we revisit what noisebridge is in the new space. Lets tka a moment to think about that. Ye who enter the space are the space, be exellent to eachother. We havent even started yet and many of us will still be at this for another 10 years.
Dan - A quick circle back to are we paying rent.
Carl - On paying rent, thinks it's pretty binary and matter of when we are or aren't paying.
Discussion Item 3
Where in the world is Crypto Meetup
Discussion Item 4
TFC, Routers, and OldBridgers OHSNAP!
Teh Boards
x86 emulation
Potential advice-lenders?
Where notes go?
Discussion Item 5
Fundraising
Discussion Item 6
Small C concensus for paying rent discussion
When should we start paying rent and would we pay full ammount, abut only start pay if we have consessions for how we pay, when we pay, or that we can do buildout, or do some capital improvements with their help.
Pyconaut- I think the discussion should be started with the landlord about this.
Dan- Can we draft some small C language about this to give to tyler.
X- We can have
X- if we start lease in april we start paying May first, if we start lease we start paying june. We can push it back
Right now the landlord wants to see a document from the city that shows that noisebridge currently can't open.
<rant> are we opening, we are not opening, what are we doing, what is noisebridge, what do we want noisebridge to be. </rant>
We are currently in a pre lease and our full 10 year lease has not started yet
There is a lot that can open and a lot that can't, noisebridge is in an unknown category,
Dan- What is our current timeline for real opening, I am thinking late june at earliest, as it will probably take that long for peoples vaccines to kick in that get their second dose end of may.
Rikke- Comeing in to space will motivate people to help with buildout?
Dan- I think it would be hart to antisipate people who want to actually Right now 1 out of 10 noisebridgers seem to put in a lot of effort to help improve the space.
Pyconaut- Agree with Dan: due to fast opening happening now, 4th wave likely--back to restrictions. Expect most not to get first shots until May sometime and due to 4th wave it will probably
[21:35]
Mission is seeing highest rates like evar right now.
Rikke- but most noisebridgers dont live in mission
Pyconaut- How can we let people build out the space when we doen't even know how to lay out the space due to the elavator and ramp issues, and how that copuld affect all of the buildout (renovations, where stuff goes.)
- Two Questions: When do we start paying rent, when do we open
We do need to pay rent to open, however we don't have to be open to pay rent. We signed a lease nearly a year ago with the full intention and expectations to be paying rent before the end of last summer. We managed to negtiate a what if, around the pandemic and have had the luxury of much more time, however we have yet to capitilize on using it.
Rikke- I think that it is clear that we will probably start paying soon unless we show anything the city. Buildout will take a long time, but we need to get started now, we probably wont have designs tell the fall as that is probably when the elevator
X- It takes weeks to get apointments so in Covid issue we will not really be in full openability tell probably late june.
Dan- It is hard to seperate the exelent volunteers from torist and people who want internet or a lazer cutter, that put those volunteers at risk. How will we make sure the space is safe. We want to be pandemicly safe before we open. But if we need to pay rent we should do that when we need to do it. It also might not be safe to have people in space during construction.
Pyconaut (personal opinion)- I will be happy to help buildout the space right when I am full vaccinated, but if that is still during this fourth wave of the pandemic and noisebridge opens up, I would feel unsafe to come help buildout. I think we want to keep very few people in the space and focused on buildout. As time goes on, more exellent volunteers will be become vaccanated as time goes on. But if we open up, some might stay away tell they think the space is actually safe, which might be a while longer.
X- When we open is Covid related, when we start paying rent is up to how we interpret the lease and the city.
From Treasurer of Noisebridge as signed on 07/08/2021 272_Capp_Lease_and_Addendum.pdf 1. Lessor hereby leases unto Lessee the following land and any improvements thereon (hereinafter the “Leased Property”): the entirety of that certain two (2) story building located at 272 Capp Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 2. The term of this lease (“Term”) shall be ten (10) years, commencing on the Commencement Date (as defined below). The parties acknowledge the current COVID-19 pandemic, and related current and potential future local, state, and national government orders requiring or encouraging businesses such as Lessee’s to remain closed to the public (the “COVID-19 Orders”). Subject to Lessor’s receipt of the “Sprinkler Certification” (as defined in Section 12 of Addendum A attached hereto), the parties agree that the Term of this Agreement shall commence on the thirtieth (30th) day following the City of San Francisco’s authorization for non-essential businesses to re-open, including, without limitation, Lessee’s “Permitted Use” (as deifned below) at the Leased Premises, in accordance with the COVID-19 Orders (the “Commencement Date”), and ending on the last day of the 120th full calendar month following the Commencement Date (the “Expiration Date”), unless the Term be sooner terminated or canceled as provided herein. From the date of execution of this Lease until the Commencement Date (the “PreCommencement License Term”), Lessee shall have the right to access the Leased Premises in order to allow Lessee to install fixtures, furnishings, equipment and telecommunications infrastructure in the Leased Premises, and to fully equip the Leased Premises with all furniture, floor and wall coverings, exterior signs, and special equipment and other items of construction and personal property necessary for the completion of the Leased Premises and the proper operation of Lessee’s business therein for the Permitted Use. During such Pre-Commencement License Term, Lessee shall be bound by all provisions of this Lease except for the obligation to pay Rent.
Dan- There is some sense to open up at some point, but currying goodwill with our landlord will help our buildout a lot. I am fine with starting rent may first if it will help with build out, and then exspand the ammount of people
x- When is the 30 days after the City of San Francisco’s authorization for non-essential businesses to re-open with our use case?
Dan- We could go to atourney to find this issue, but that might harm our relationship with our landlord.
X- Non Profits are still closed so we If we Follow the citys relaxed restrictions that went in to effect march 24, then the 30 days would be april 24, and we would pay a bit of money for end of april, then one month before we we pay our first rent on june first.
Pyconaut- These are the lines that matter
"City of San Francisco’s authorization for non-essential businesses to re-open, including, without limitation, Lessee’s “Permitted Use” (as deifned below) at the Leased Premises".
X- I would like to propose a concensus to commence our lease on may 1st, which would make our next payment June first.
Pyconaut- Do we trully fall into the category that is able to open.
X- It seems like everything can open at some capacity.
Dan- This was so much thanks to tyler for doing so much of our lease and that I trust their judjement, and know that their relationship with the landlord is very importaint. If they think that we probably fall into the category that came out of closed on march 24th.
X- Does without limitation mean that not having 100% access is a limitation.
Dan- I think it actually meant that the limitation of the city with our use is not there anymore.
X- This all comes down to interpretation, and it can be modified at any point with both parties. These terms are complicated, but it seems we have
X- Should I put back up the Concensus item to reopen noisebridge
Pyconaut- Yes, It will get people to come to meetings and to give opinions on when to open. And it will probably take quite a few weeks to even choose a date
Dan- I support it, opening Noisebridge 3.0
X- It is actually 3.14159265
Pyconaut- I can't wait tell noisebridge 4.2.0, though that is about 12 years out.
X- draft Concencus item moved to current items.
X-
[23:00]