Meeting Notes 2011 06 28

Agenda

The 167th Meeting of Noisebridge

Note-taker: Liz

Moderator: Danny

Introduction and Names

• What Noisebridge is about: "Noisebridge is a 501c3 nonprofit that provides a space for creation, collaboration, and learning about technology and creative projects. Noisebridge provides space, power tools, and infrastructure to help the public learn new skills and create cool things. Noisebridge continues to exist through and depends entirely on membership fees and donations. Our code of conduct is 'Be excellent to each other'."
• Round of introductions:

Miloh: hardware/electronics, electronics area and noisebridge. Sebastian: German hacker, network security, CCC. John from Australia: pilot, programmer brain wave measurer. Al: software developer, wrote a book. Espin: psychology and ideas, get hands dirty, woodworking, electronics. Will: enterprise software, lifting heavy boxes. Liz: web dev and internet sleuth and loves cooperatives and anarchy yay noisebridge. Cynthia: physician defrocked, kitchen wench. Mike: computers, programming, but NOT very large infrastructure. Lauren: who is using the makerbot. A few more people who came in after the introductions.

• A brief primer on consensus process: We agree and so should you! Only paid-up members can block consensus.

Announcements

Let the record reflect that the vending machine now accepts dollar bills. John fixed it by taking it apart without breaking it! He will add the info on how to fix it to the wiki page on the vending machine.

Financial Report

Funds in bank: Kelly's report is not here - But the bank funds looks to be still about 3 months ahead. We just got $3,000 from BayCon auction. Thanks BayCon!

Membership Binder

• Read off any names from the binder for the past month.

Names read: Jorgen from the Free School, Espin, George, Patrick L, Malachi R., Kevin S. No one is up for membership this week.

What's Going On at Noisebridge

Today a lot of things happened including Tahoe, Bitcoin, Tastebridge, Ruby, some kind of LInux meeting, German class.

One short sentence about each of the following:

This is the active list of events from the main page:

Event Calendar

events are haphazardly cross-posted on Meetup, the Discord, and Google Calender here

Some noisebridger's have also started hosting Events from a calendar at https://noisebridge.today/, and new (additional) associated gCal.

Key: W: Weekly | 1st 2nd 3rd 4th: Certain weeks | -2nd: Except certain weeks | S: Streaming | event: caution maybe dead | event: management of space

Upcoming Events

• Sunday, November 17th - Stupid_Hackathon_9, ALL DAY! RSVP on MEETUP

Five Minutes of Fame: 10 5 minute talks every third Thursday! Spread this poster around.

Introduce yourself and meet the community at meetings

Mondays

Tags	Time	Title	Description
W	3:00pm	Pico-W Python School Group	Learn Python programming using Pico-W microcontrollers for kids and students of all ages.
W	7:00pm	Meetups/Infra	Self-hosting, rough consensus, & running code. Find upcoming sessions on Meetup or in #meetup-infra on Discord.
W	7:00pm	Python Class	Learn Python in this free introductory class.
W	you-o-clock	TRASH NIGHT	Please take out all three large trash bins!! They are on the patio.
W	7:00pm	Circuit Hacking Monday	Learn electronics, Arduino, and/or how to solder! We have kits and Arduinos for donations, or bring your own project. Most Mondays at 7PM. More details on Meetup
W	7:00pm	3d Simulation Hack Night	Come work on your Unreal engine, 3d Unity projects, Houdini projects, 3d character design projects, or architecture projects! General meetup for working in simulation and 3d. Hosted by delta_ark

Tuesdays!

Tags	Time	Title	Description
W S	7:00pm	Noisebridge Weekly Meeting	(In person & online via Jitsi) - Introduce new people and events, joining, announcements, discussions, and consensus. Come express what you think about what's going on with your space!
W	7:00pm	San Francisco Writers Workshop	Free drop-in writers workshop, get feedback and critique! Located on the first floor hackitorium.
W	7:00pm	Neurotech Tuesdays	Do neuro. Do tech. sfg. Check #🧠│neurotech on discord
2nd 4nd	6:00pm	Numerati SF	Hacking the Stock Market with AI/ML. Every other Tuesday. Please RSVP on Meetup.

Wednesdays

Tags	Time	Title	Description
3rd	3:30pm - 5:30pm	Zinemakers meetup	Monthly gathering of zine and book and comic creators, to share ideas and work on projects. Newbies welcome! Confirm with Meetup
1st	7:00pm - 8:30pm	Conflict Resolution	We do our best to address pressing issues, mitigate conflicts, be excellent to each other.
2nd 4nd	6:00pm - 7:00pm	Bike Psych!	Time and space to talk about transit related projects Confirm with Meetup
W S	7:00pm - 9:00pm	Gamebridge	game development mentoring & coworking meetup for gamedev beginners and indies alike.
1st	8:00pm	Woodhacking Wednesday	"Have a woodworking project in mind but you don't know where to get started? This is a good time to come ask questions, get some help, and ideas from other woodworkers. Everyone is welcome..." Confirm dates with Meetup

Thursdays

Tags	Time	Title	Description
W	2:00pm - 4	Lean Theorem prover/programming study meet	An event for people who would like to study/teach Lean theorem prover/programming.
W S	6:00pm	NeurotechX SF hacknights	for mind-machine interfacing with EEGs.
2nd 4th	6:00pm - 8:00pm	Advanced Geometry SF	An event for people who would like to study/teach advanced topics in geometry.
W	7:00pm - 9:00pm	Python Project Meetup	Come together to complete a comprehensive computer programming project, largely in Python!
3rd S	8:00pm - 9:00pm	Five Minutes of Fame a.k.a. 5MoF	Ten 5min talks in an hour, on any topic
4th S	8:00pm - 10:30pm	Resident Electronic Music	An electronic music open mic!
W	you-o-clock	TRASH NIGHT	Please take out all three large trash bins!! They are on the patio.

Fridays

Tags	Time	Title	Description
W	9:00am - 5:00pm	Hack on Noisebridge!	a good open time for cleaning 'n re-organizing the physical space. Coffee and Donuts on a first-come first-served basis! See #facilities-aka... channel on the Discord
W	7:00pm - 9:00pm	Swifty Fridays	Swift language mentoring & co-working meetup All experience levels welcome!

Saturdays

Tags	Time	Title	Description
W	2:00pm - 6:00pm	Free Code Camp	with Paul Farley Brandon as host
3rd	2:00pm - 6:00pm	Godot Meetup	Gamedev workshop & networking for users of the Godot game engine. We have two meetups this October: Oct. 19th and an extra one on Oct 26th to hang out with Juan Linietsky, the creator & tech lead of Godot Engine!
4th	1:00pm - 3:00pm	Building Guitar Pedals Workshop	Come build guitar pedals or other electronic music equipment! Look for the #pedal-building channel under #events in the discord. Check the Meetup for more info and confirmed dates.

Sundays

Tags	Time	Title	Description
W	2:00pm - 4:00pm	Laser Cutter training	Get certified to use the laser cutter
2nd	2:00pm - 3:00pm	Fabrication 101 2nd Shop Sundays	class on safety and basic techniques
W	5:00pm - 8:00pm	Spacebridge Weekly Meeting	Noisebridge's resident space program. Meetup page
W	9:00pm - ???	Noisebridge Cinema!	Watch a movie and discuss filmmaking!
2nd S	2:00pm - 4:00pm	BAHA: Bay Area Hackers' Association	Security Hacking Meeting 2nd Sundays at 272 and via Jitsi

Other Bay Area Consortium of Hackerspaces Events

• Queerious Labs is open during limited times, check it's status
• SudoRoom: Women & Non-Binary Coding Mondays 7-9pm
• SudoRoom: Hardware Hacking Tuesdays 7-10pm

Non-weekly

• Second Saturdays are Noisebridge hackathon:

a casual monthly event dedicated to working on the space or relevant projects and building community. This is a great time to get feedback or help on any projects you have been considering that center around the space, culture, and infrastructure of Noisebridge. You can also help with existing projects and find out ways to get involved.

• Five Minutes of Fame
• Bay Area Hackers Association - (Second Sunday, 2PM)

Project Updates

Miloh, we got a lot of LED signs from Hacker Dojo, and they are now operational We need 5 volt /3 amp supplies for them.

Consensus items

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

Discussion Items

Al Sweigart would like to talk dirty.

Danny would like to propose for consensus paying someone to clean on a monthly basis.

Danny would like to meta-discuss the structure of the meeting.

Finally, Danny would like to mention a chat he had with the Free School folks.

Someone would like to anonymously point out that Free School and friends have turned the space under the laser room into their personal belonging storage for the past month or so (go check it now, it's a Noiserat nest heaven up in there!). Personal as in clothing, personal hygiene products, items one would normally store in a place they're living out of. Considering that it's illegal for anyone to live at 2169 Mission due to our lease and the city zoning code, does Noisebridge as a collective want people keeping their personal belongings (in this instance things you'd normal keep with you traveling or at your home) in the space? Additionally since such items are being left at the space, concern to their security and well being should be voiced considering Noisebridge as a collected sees property like this as automatic donated to the nonprofit, which was outlined in previous meetings. Or you could just delete this discussion item since I currently lack the energy (backbone?) to debating such things on my own but would like to see some action taken by the group.

Actual discussion:

Al would like to talk about filth. Noisebridge is very dirty so let's think of ways to get it less filthy

Danny proposes Noisebridge funds to pay someone to clean it on a monthly basis

Liz: It wouldn't help with daily level of filth but might be a good deep cleaning.

Miloh: What about setting a cap of how much $ we would spend on cleaning per month and for how long. What would we want done - we would have to describe what needs doing.

Didn't we have a spending freeze? No one remembers.

"If we don't remember, and we don't bother to look it up, then we can just ignore it"

Question from Mike about washing machine and dryer. Al says there is a bag of towels once a week or so and he takes it to a laundromat and washes it.

Will: Started a cleaning fund pledge page, didn't get many pledges.

Claudia brought soeone in quote for the bathroom cleaning. Do we need bathroom cleaning?

Liz: spec out the jobs really well on signs, have spot to sign up and say you did it with the date. Describe job, what it means to do it, time estimate, supplies needed.

Will: hire someone privately and see what difference it makes.

Al: if it would be easier to hire a member then let's try that.

Aestetix: Have a list of things to do, dates like with the bathroom cleaning. It's a gentle reminder.

Miloh: Annoyed because we already have these lists (somewhere) And wants to just hire someone. We keep talking about it.

Aestetix objects to the idea of paid positions within Noisebridge.

Sebastian says he had a cron job, every member had to do 1 hour of cleaning per year, the cron job would send out that it needs to be done. What if all members agree to do X hours per time unit.)

We have many more people that use the space than that are official members. Maybe 10% are members.

Liz commits to write job descriptions and print them tomorrow and put them up. Aestetix and Will are going to help. Liz is going to just buy a laminating machine.

Will wants someone to just come mop the floor.

Danny proposes we do a one-off deep clean of the entire space. What would the person do? How much? we need a quote.

Will brings up donating. What about if on Monday nights, have someone walk around with a donation jar at crowded times and try to raise money.

Miloh thinks it is offputting to have the donation jar right in the center of an activity.

Danny says he will go around begging for donations during Monday nights.

People keeping their stuff in the laser room, clothes and bathroom stuff as if someone's person's belongings. Under stairwell, under laser cutter, etc. Other people are asking them not do keep their personal stuff here in that way. Al left some signs on their things asking people to move the stuff, with his email address for them to contact

It's illegal for people to live here.

John says he checked the zoning law and there is nothing about sleeping in a space it is about residence.

Aestetix says it's more about the social nuisance.

Cynthia: the electronic door is often not locked. So maybe it is good that people are here in the night to guard the space.

General groans around the room that we don't want to hash out this whole "sleeping at noisebridge" issue again right now, omg.

Is any of this a sense that the free school is a sort of "hippie problem" (anonymous note ) Are any of them members? Are they donating? Are they cleaning up after themselves? Do they talk to people?

Danny adds that no one had asked them to donate or be members until he asked them the other day, and one person immediately signed up in the membership binder.

Miloh says there is a general problem keeping personal stuff under the DJ room.

Aestetix: can we describe what the issues are individually and address them rather than identifying a group and blaming them?

Sebastian talks about projects in Germany and how they asked the "freeloading" projects to donate and give back to the space that provides the infrastructure.

Danny: Raised this issue because he wonders if we have some way for an institution to "become a member" . What do we think is a reasonable way to ask them to integrate or participate or donate in a greater way?

Miloh: There would be some people we would be tempted to block.

Aestetix: can an organization block consensus.

MIloh: has gotten to know them and would like to get to know them more but it's been difficult to do.

Liz: But how can the rest of us learn about this or help, if this is a general known problem?

Will: people are showing up and there are actual individuals and behaviors we want to change. Not about another organization.

Danny: what are the bad behaviors?

Will: When people stash stuff here, use the kitchen as personal dinner making and make a mess and they leave their dishes and the food out.

Danny: But that is that the kitchen is getting used a lot more. And that is good. We just need to adjust. Maybe that's not the problem.

Danny: what can we do to talk with them, and what would we ask them to do?

Aestetix: we should feel free to go up to people and say This violated my personal boundary and i would prefer that you do it differently.

Al did a really good thing rather than make it "noisebridge rule" talk about how the behavior is offensive.

Danny: We do have a scaling problem with communication in general so let's not scapegoat a group or assume that everyone who does something objectionable is part of that group.

Miloh: Had conversation with Jonah and others about some activities not being really good for Noisebridge, like martial arts, yoga, and they didn't do that. But they do have Qi Gong classes.

Miloh: If an organized group comes in and wants to do stuff here, let's sit down and have a meeting with them right away! To establish what might work and what might not.

Danny: Some people really like them and what they do.

Let's be clear about this on the discuss list and also email the Free school people.

Baycon guy shows up with a check! YAY BAYCON!

End of Meeting

• PGP Key Signing could happen now, check the list to see who wants in on the action.
• Put back the membership binder by the Shrine.
• Save the meeting notes to the wiki.
• Send a copy of the meeting notes to the discussion list.
• Copy the Meeting Notes Template for next week's agenda and update the main wiki page's link to it.
• Enjoy a cocktail with your fellow hacker or robot.