Meeting Notes 2008 08 19

Time and Place

8pm, place: Muddy Waters, 521 Valencia St. @ 16th St., San Francisco

Pre-Meeting Agenda

• workshops
• spaces
• paperwork (banks, incorporating, etc)

Notes

• Workshops
  • Processing is tentatively 2pm, 9/13 (subject to Rachel confirming)
  • We looked at different Processing demos on OpenProcessing.org
  • Mitch will schedule the soldering workshop when he gets back
  • We will plan to record the Processing workshop; volunteers for recording TBD.
• Spaces
  • Andy discussed the EFF space.
    • Roughly 800-900 square feet
    • Roughly class B space (market rate ~$1-$1.50/month)
    • No separate entry; we go through same lobby as EFF space (complicates after hours events)
    • Have not discussed any terms or numbers
    • EFF moving out of the rest of the space around Jan/Feb 2009 - expansion possibility
    • Has several walls in there that we could try to cut out
    • Can support maybe 40 people in there at once if _very_ crowded?
    • Space visit next Monday or Tuesday at roughly 6pm. Watch the list.
  • Jim asked about what the configuration of the space might be
    • Talked about shelves + workspaces, tables + chairs, but bring your own laptop
    • Talked about multi-week reservations of pieces of space for projects
• Paperwork
  • We talked about vision, inspiration by European hacker spaces, etc.
  • Talked about finances
    • Expectation that tech job people contribute more
    • See Finances page on wiki, put up pledge if you can
  • Bylaws: David M. thinks Nolo member bylaws are cool, will edit Wiki for Thursday night meeting
  • Question about whether more artists or techies interested
    • Some of both, people who do both (e.g. Rachel, Audrey)
    • Noah pointed out the distinction is artificial, we're trying to blur it
  • Question about whether we want to be a "Chaostreff"
    • Discussion of what the costs are (40 euro) and benefits (some money maybe, cool factor).
    • Feeling from several people that we should delay that until more established.