Meeting Notes 2020 01 14
These are the notes from the The 554th Meeting of Noisebridge.
help take notes at - https://pad.riseup.net/p/nbmeeting
Date: 2020- 01- 14 Note-taker: Ryan, Riley, Tinnei Moderators: Ryan
- One or two bullet points of high-level meeting summary.
Meeting Summary[edit | edit source]
FIXME FILL OUT AT END OF MEETING AND SEND TO MAILING LIST TLDR what happened at the meeting:
- Fundraising Update
- Announcements:
- Finances:
- GuildMaster's Report
- New members:
- New philanthropists:
- Consensus Items:
- Discussion Items:
Ryan: This is going to something between an unmeeting and real meeting
Introductions[edit | edit source]
Ryan: he/him, I'm a noisebridge member, been here for little over 5 years takes care of vr stuff and helps people around the space
Bernice: (They/Them) Been coming here since 2017. I work on videogames and vr and makerfaire, and global game jam
Lucas: Fairly new in NB. Social activist, looking for efficiency and resources in san francisco. Looking for alternative economic model, eg: blockchain!
Joel: he/him I love this place and the energy. I have a crapton of knowlege of circuites and sotware. want to work with others to build cool stuff.
Kierra: She her - moved here from Texas. Previously worked at engineering prototyping lab. know how to work on 3d printers and laser cutters, biomaterials. I'm happy to help others
Ryan: please help us fix our things. Thank you.
Yes, I also fix things in my last job.
Aditya: he/him experienced web developer. I like helping others with web dev. I also enjoy helping debugging issues. I have came since september. and it's been great so far. I've been working on a robot and a movie script.
Tinnei: She her I work as a designer. I'm helping with the signages in the woodshop. Please ask for help if you need me to help you design some things. Working on projector on the side.
TJ: been here for little over a year. I do robotics meetup here -- tomorrow/ Wednesday at 6. I'm really into robotics. If you have any question, let me know. Trying to learn on the side, about AI.
Steve: he/him. Been here 8 years. Just chilling
David: A software developer Did backend and now I'm front end. Work in asure, datamotion, and other cloud services. Working with rasperry PI's. I work with ARM processers.
Beakal: He/him from Ethiopia. Software engineer. Learning GO (not the game)
Reily: like to work on free and open source project, indirectly. Also helping with the library at the moment.
Mark: (he/him) I do game stuff, all kinds of game stuff. Going to talk to you about a project that's not game related tonight.
Sophia: She her- kinda listening here. I work as a software dev. So for here, I'm trying not to do that. Doing sewing. I want to do a class for intro to computer x86 architecture for people here. Anyone's interested, please talk to me. :)
Short announcements and events[edit | edit source]
60-second description per item in bulletpoint.
1) Bernie: Hi everyone. Noisebridge will once again host the Global Game Jam on the weekend of January 31 (Friday) to February 2 (Sunday). Noisebridge has been hosting the Global Game Jam since 2018. I will also put the announcement in https://discuss.noisebridge.info and to the mailing list. It is also posted on the Noisebridge wiki and meetup. Mark and I prepared 2 prep workshops for the game jam. If you have any questions, please ask Mark & me. It will not be 24-hours. Because working overnight does not help.
https://www.meetup.com/noisebridge/events/267742178/
What kind of games? All kind of games. It depends on the year. Each has a different theme.
Bring your A game thou.
2) ()Ryan: First up after seeing a couple posts on slack and discuss, they want a sports group to be made for hanging outside of noisebridge. (I often do skiing). Talk to me if you are interested. or message me on slack or discuss. (message pyconaut)"psy - co - nuat"
Excellence[edit | edit source]
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.)
Bernice: number one rule in noisebridge is being excellent to each other. What does being excellent mean? Be welcoming and helpful to each other. We don't allow bullying/ harassment/ racism/ sexism of any kind. We don't want to give people unwanted attention. We don't allow monopolizing other people's time (except if you are giving a tour and explaining the rules/how Noisebridge works to them).
Mark we encourage people to work with others, help the space, work on the space. It's okay if you need to take space.
you don't come here to sleep/ just sit and watch youtube video. (but you can watch tutorials/ learn). You cannot sleep here because it violates the terms of our lease and could get Noisebridge kicked out.
Ryan: be excellent also makes take care of yourself. You can take break but definitely not sleep. If you are feeling tired. go home. It makes it easier for everyone. so we can close the the place up
Also, be excellent to this space. Help clean up when Mary start singing. Right now we have piles of stuff here because we just had a clean up weekend but they'll be gone soon.
We have two trash day a week.
Please put a GPS on a trashcan to find out who has been stealing our trashcans.
Participation[edit | edit source]
Everyone at Noisebridge is a participant at Noisebridge.
(What does that mean? How do you get a door key? Access to Slack, Discuss, etc?)
Ryan: so everyone is a participant at noisebridge, whether you're a member, big M member, philantropist, board member. Anyone come to the space can participate -- teaching a class is a great way to participate, to help getting more people participate. Also you can participate online, eg: taking care of wiki!The wiki has more chaos than noisebridge does. Our Slack, even thou we're trying to phase out a bit. Also Discuss, you can join and have discussion for things happening here.
Bernice: People have been having difficulty joining Discuss.
Ryan: The people that set it up are no longer working on it. I"m learning how to fix it but am a long way off.
Philanthropists[edit | edit source]
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)
David: Philantropist is someone who can contribute time/money. Have 24 hours access and responsibility to open and close. Participate in the space and contribute in the space. Ryan: how does one become a philanthropist Tinnei: you need to go to a meething and have another member give you and application and you have to answer the questions to test if you know about the space. if all of the people at the meeting don't decline you becoming a member, then you become a philantrhopist
Ryan: we can one philantropist in the binder currently. Is <Name> here? ... They're not here. We have no new philantropist this week.
Membership Binder [edit | edit source]
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)
Ryan: membership is the difference between being a general member and a Member. It his much more rigorus than being a philanthropist. You must get along with everyone and everyone trusts that you have noisebridges interests at heart. You get the ability to veto big C concensus items during meethings. It gives you the priviledge of nothing, but gives you responsibility. It gives you responsibility to participate in board/ election. If a lot of people think you're a member, then you maybe should apply to be one.
It's a four weeks process. You apply in one Tuesday general meeting. Member discuss in the meeting and outside of the meeting whether to approve you as a member. There will be a concensus Item whether they can be a big M member. If anyone vetoes this, they have to re apply. If there is a veto, it must be clear as to why it was vetoed. If they do pass, there is a 2 week period where it can be revoked for any reason.
Financial Report[edit | edit source]
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://noisebridge.net/wiki/Finances
Fundraising Update[edit | edit source]
How's it all going
FINANCE (Brief Update - full detail when Tyler gets back in town) 2019 Total Balance +/- January $ 190,788.85 914.27 February $ 185,544.13 (5,244.72) March $ 177,545.49 (7,998.64) April $ 173,861.58 (3,683.91) May $ 175,765.69 1,904.11 June $ 170,961.14 (4,804.55) July $ 160,191.21 (10,769.93) August $ 171,794.18 11,602.97 September $ 165,739.21 (6,054.97) October $ 172,961.99 7,222.78 November $ 171,716.57 (1,245.42) December $ 151,586.51 (20,130.06)
Note to financials: * Recently I sent out $11,812 (July) and $10,992 (December) to reimburse Roguelike Celebrations. The payment made in July should have been made in 2018, but was super delayed. * Some big ticket items went out in December - Laser cutter repair, tax prep fees, general insurance, DNO Insurance, and the $10,992 to Roguelike. * January - June includes $20,474 of spend on Krebs consulting
Synopsis:
We need more money.
annouuncments - We got some grants from no starch press - We have some services running being paid for by credit card which is expiring. Review by r indicated that these services are depreciated and not useful - Big thanks to Robert / Ruth / David for hosting the brazilian student event today. Raised some good money for NoiseBridge!
Ryan: our expenses are going up as we're getting more equipment and using more energy. (more than $400 per day now) Noisebridge's tax ID number can be found in multiple places on the Wiki. We also support cooperate matching. If you donate a certain about of money, you can have your company to donate the same. we are listed under smile.amazon.com and can make money that way. Buy stuff from our web store Make
GuildMaster's Report[edit | edit source]
What is the current state of structural organization at Noisebridge?
Mark: Hello I'm Mark. This is the guild master report. I'm currently in charge of the Meta guild. Guild is sub-structure in noisebridge. Meta guild is the guild that manages other guilds. You can see the guilds on discuss.
- What are the guilds? Which ones exist?
The games guild, the sewing guild, the crypto guild, electonics guild.
- How is our online community doing?
slack is going all right, and nobody is using discuss. Currently there's issue with Discuss -- we need to figure out the infrastructure. Wiki page for guilds haven't been edited in 6 months. Booooo
- Guild Rep's Reports
Metaguild report:
Mark: the state is eh. we have 4 guilds (more exist). nobody knows who runs them, we know they exist, rating: (EEEH)
Here's our wiki page for guild:
Steve: maybe the guilds are unnneccessary
Mark: Guild is simply a term, a conduit to use for discussing things that people are doing or not doing. we'd like to keep them so that other people know what is going on at noisebridge. and I want it to go from poor to not poor. please post on the wiki. The metaguild is to know what all of the other guilds are to report on the other guilds and manage organizational state.
Ryan wants to have a conversation about this.
Mark: let's have an infrastructure, programming, art, music and other guilds that don't exist just yet.
Ryan: There are 20 unknown guilds now. We'll find out what these guilds are next time.
Mark: Find a person who can do the infrastructure and get the person to report back here. We want the reps to report updates, any achievements, what's up next etc.
Consensus[edit | edit source]
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"?)
Big C consensus - it's a process by which we can change how noisebridge fundamentally operate. Eg: moving noisebridge, large change in buy log. This happens rarely. Anyone can propose a big C consensus. Anyone in the meeting, whether physically presence or online, can block the consensus. Usually that means the consensus will be tabled till next week so we can sort the detail out.
If the person proposing the unpopulular position can come to turns with nobody doing the thing that they don't this they can choose not to come to noisebridge.
We have no item in our history -- anyone want to propose an item?
Proposals from last week [edit | edit source]
(Add any items which are consensed upon or someone has raised a principle objection for to the Consensus Items History page.)
Proposals for next week [edit | edit source]
(Add any new items for consensus to the Current Consensus Items page.)
More resources allocated to more generative projects. For example, things that promote social value and substainability. Allow more financial ease for projects. (Mark has asked about and just learned that the project-specific donation system basically no longer exists) Ryan: that sounds like a small c concensus item. though with more details it is viable (Ryan talks about how are projects funded historically. We need someone who can help build the system for project fund)
Discussion[edit | edit source]
Discussion Item 1[edit | edit source]
Guilds
Ryan: These other guilds exist:
Elevator (Discuss) Music (Discuss) Event Support Laser Guild Fundraising Rack Org Game Dev VR cyberpunks guild
Gaming Archivists Electronics Mark: A lot of these need to be consolidated
Mark: I believe we don't need to mention all the subguilds
Ryan: We should at least name them.
Mark: Ok
Ryan: Because of how the discuss software works, sub guilds are tough because you can't have subsections within sections
Mark: Up until now there has been NO guild reporting accountability.
This is about keeping the greater noisebridge up-to-date about what is going on.
Ryan: We need a way to have the meta guild be able to define itself. It needs a word other than guildmaster.
Mark: I prefer GuildMaster, and Guild Rep for each guilds person.
Joel: How about Arch GuildMaster?
Mark: FINE. We can call guild reps, Guildmasters. and the meta guild rep the ArchGuildMaster.
It is still gonna be called the Guildmaster's report.
Aditya: Can we have secret guilds? Mark: Yes. But you must tell the ArchGuildmaster so they can remain in communication with that secret guildmaster and provide a cryptic/encrypted report each week for them.
Joel: Can we put out an announcement that these secret people need to let us know. Mark: Yes.
Everyone: Interguild activities? Exhibitions? A faire?
Ryan: Couple guilds ppl have proposed:
Gardening Brewing Sports/Fitness BioHacker Neuro
Mark: Can you be ArchGuildMaster Ryan?
Aditya: Its a conflict of interest! He runs the meetings!
Maybe ryan can be the guild arbiter.
Aditya: What if you want to form a guild that already exists?
Mark: Just do it! But name it something different please.
Aditya: Can I generate guilds automatically?
Mark: You must verify with me (ArchGuildmaster) in person,in meatspace, that your guild is real and includes actual people. I WILL NOT recognize non-corporeal guilds.
Ryan: Random thoughts.
Each guild should get an emblem at some point. Its cool, and then you can get badges! Subguild Reps should choose one of their kind to be the Guildmaster for the larger guild. Guildmaster should be present at the meeting or share a report with ArchGuildmaster or a member of the metaguild to pass it on.
- Meta Guild should set up a page to collect reports for non-physically present Guildmasters.
Guilds should be in charge of classes that fall under their purview. Guilds should keep some form of digital information up-to-date for the community. Whether its in the wiki, website, discuss, slack or some other online forum. The more, the better! The Archguildmaster should keep in contact with guildmasters to help ensure this regularly gets done! Their should be (if there isn't already) a distinct format for guild pages on the wiki. I think there is, but I (mark) need to double check and make sure. We started a while ago but never finished. (Sewing guild wiki links to discuss page, not a wiki page) Marc(k)o's version of the website has stubbed out areas for guilds and guild info. Its not live at the moment, because we don't have access to change what our domain points to ATM.
Mark had a philosophical question, which may have already been answered in a previous online discussion, but I should bring it up here:
How formal does the role of ArchGuildmaster need to be? How do we ensure that it or some offspring of it that serves the same function survives through multiple iterations of Noisebridge? You are trying to impose structure on an inherently unstructured system. What is a guild? Its a group with a special interest or interests. What does recognition of a guild grant that you can't get from not creating/being in one? Ryan: Social value. Joel: This seems like the comms is through the wiki page or online forums. What are you giving people/guilds by "officially recognizing them" as such? Guilds provide a structure for people with particular interests to have a definitive way to pursue said interests. Archguildmaster should exist to facilitate other guildmasters in organizing and getting people together. While we are a structureless organization that allows anyone total freedom, we DO need some structure for communication and transparency. Ryan: that reminds me of another guild we might need: bravespace, conflict resolution, "social guild"? How much authority should such guildmasters be able to exert?
Mark: I think the Archguildmaster should minimally be a philanthropist (i.e. an active member of the community, which has 24 hour access and all the associated responsibility). Should guildmasters need to be?
Mark will do a survey of current guildmasters and potential future guildmasters to see what their current level of involvement is.
Guildmasters should need an account on at least one of our main discussion forums.
Joel: If you want to incentivize people to use a particular platform/forum, the ArchGuildmaster needs to be active on said platform.
Ryan: Board Elections were problematic due to a general lack of communication. Hopefully ArchGuildMaster can eliminate ambiguity about communications channels.
Lucas: How about something like a once-a-month guild day, where guild leaders and members get together to celebrate and share their stuff!
Joel: There are just A LOT of comms channels here! Its super fragmented!
Ryan: Guilds, consistently active, can help with a lot of this stuff.
Joel: Ryan, is there a sign on the VR machine? I think there should be signs on all the infra here at NB letting people know whats up and what guild they are related to!
Archguildmaster needs to be responsible for knowing who's in charge of everything! One of the Archguildmaster's responsibilities will be to train their successor(s).
Ryan: Social Media Guild should exist.!
Ryan Adjournded