Meeting Notes 2023 03 28

These are the notes from the The 718th Meeting of Noisebridge.

Date: 2023_03_28

Previous Meeting

Next Meeting

Note-takers: Loren / Mark

Moderators: Sam

• Amazing financial update, great turnout, heartfelt discussions, new members!

Meeting Summary

TLDR what happened at the meeting:

• Fundraising Update: yes! we should do more. we have done a little more, but we should do al-lot more
• Announcements:
  • Would liike to to another NB improvement weekend
  • Writer's workshop is hosting a fundraiser on Thursday April 6th!
  • Silicon Valley Indies is doing a game play testing night. April 7th in Santa Clara. UC Santa Cruz Extension. Fun & Free pizza:
  • 549 lbs of crap removed
  • Travis rebooting the Python class (with others)! Keep an eye out!
• Finances: 12k down, 7k up. Touch more venmo than usual, GDC event may not have been net positive.
• New members:
• New associate members (philanthropists):
  • Guide (Brian) - philosophy, ride-able electronics, fighting for something right
  • Andrew - veteran from 10 years ago. Started in (3d printing) startups from here! Giving back!
  • (soonTM) Tilde. Get to know 'em!
• Consensus Items: (none)
• Discussion Items:
  • limbolandia - clear / organize days. Done recently, pushing back the next one, in about 1 month.
  • Asks to Leave - handling in secret vs fighting in public. Public fight in public to fight in public.
  • Guide - Crowdfunding sources?
  • Noisebridge Cinema (i.e. the fun after coming to the meeting!)

Introductions

Sam - here almost every thurs for Unreal Engine class. Been doing physical making of stuff as well for fun!

Hi I'm Elan. I like robots, paint, and NB Infrastructure

Ronald - programming/robotics

Sneakers - usually sewing something

Mark - I do games stuff and organizational stuff at NB

Ken (Inno) - just getting my bearings, would like to know more about how things work here

Larry - Came around a couple times at old Mission st. location. I feel like fixin stuff and goofin off!

Josh - tinkering w/ things. model trains, nerf guns, clocks, all sorts of stuff!

JD - I'm a maker, I teach laser training and power tools safety! Available to help out and answer questions about al kinds of things woodshop, CNC, metal, etc

Kevin - used to go to old space as well. Re-acquainting myself with NB in its new location

Bob - handyman, 10 year member of Cel(l?)space. windpoweredart.com Going to hang a piece of mine made out of yardsticks!

Travis - also been to the previous space. Looking to do software stuff, like freecode camp. want to help reboot Python class.

Aight - From Syria. Got green card. No real focus, little here, little there, some 3d modeling, some 3D printing.

JVol/John - been in and out of NB for a while. I helped w/ cellspace originally! Looking to transition into helping woodshop guild, and helping ceramics guild be a thing!

Lauren - generally come here to use it as a coworking space. Working for a company doing research contracts related to applyiong machine learning to a variety of things

Loren - rack and finance stuff.

Andrew - first member meeting in about 10 years! Used to help run 3D printing thing on wednesdays! mostly thats my interest area

Corey - he/him. Build robots and teach people to do so! Here to discuss removing crap from NB!

Wheezy - software engineer by day, musician by night. sometimes I hack on stuff but mostly procrastinate.

Chris - industrial design, metal stuff. I also like music a lot!

Brian / Guide - (applying for membership)

Andrew - 10 years ago, old member. NB launched career, 3d printing startup.

Tilde - coming on and off for a year. Working on expression.

Short announcements and events

Would liike to to another NB improvement weekend

Writer's workshop is hosting a fundraiser on Thursday April 6th!

• Silicon Valley Indies is doing a game play testing night. April 7th in Santa Clara. UC Santa Cruz Extension. Fun & Free pizza:

https://www.meetup.com/indie-game-developers-of-silicon-valley/events/292531874/

Corey - Next week's planned haul was preempted by a impromptu haul after GDC 549 lbs of crap removed

We should push back the next haul so we have more time to sort through stuff and actually get it all together. Chris did a lot of work to sort through stuff on the sheleves upstairs.

Ken - I have a truck with an 8 foot bed if needed btw.

Travis - I am working with others to reboot the Python class! Keep an eye out!

See https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Category:Events for events, and welcoming people

Excellence

Our One Rule is to Be Excellent to Each Other.

Mark - one way to be excellent is to tske noters during the meeting and host the meeting. Understand that others might see Noisebridge differently than you and we should be empathetic to other's use of the space.

If you don't want something destroyed, label it appropriately w/ your name and a way to contact you.

There is an anti-harassment policy, familiarize yourself w/ it, because YOU (YES YOU!) are the one who is going to be enforcing it!

Be proactively excellent

Guilds

• What are guilds - briefly describe (much like the previous section on "Excellence")

Smallest bit where we come together and work on things together is called a guild. Its a way to effectively have anarchy but still organize around goals.

Woodshop is doing wood hacking wednesdays first is 4/5, 6-9PM! also regular safety trainings Sundays at 12 noon before the laser training class!

Need to reorganize/set up the VR Booth area. See @arity or the games channel in discord

New Members/Associate Members

What are they? Is anyone trying to become a Member or Associate Member? If not move on. No long discussions.

Brian / Guide

excellence. (para?) military background. here to fight, for something right.

• • Does anyone object to Guide becoming an associate member?
• crickets*

CONGRATS GUIDE

Andrew

Why a member? Back after 10 years.

NB helped me start a 3D printing company. Now the Sr Eng at a biotech printing company.

Want to give a bit back because NB helped me.

Any objections to the prodigal son Andrew?

NOPE, CONGRATS!

Tilde

Is looking for a sponsor. Coming for a year or so. Lots of freeing the natural voice and having the space for it. Having the space to be vulnerable because you're in public. Like having access to a music room. Has been able to use the space and meet with a lot of people. Would like to be in the community more, but had a different upbringing so have been more introverted/averse to conflict rather than interacting with the community motr. Unorthodox compared to others who are focused on a different guild. Here joining space and taking up but I like to do this deep dive right off thr bat. Hopefully you folks will have me on that deep dive.

Ken asks if they identify as an anarchist.

The spectre of identity is very different in terms of perception rather than identity. I'm passive and am willing to accept the label of "east asian". I hope my speech is somewhat cogent.

Financial Report

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

Donations have been going up on venmo looks like. $1200 this month so far

Payments on meetup have been working well. Coffee roasting is leading the pack at $120 already.

If you cancel a class, be sure to cancel it on meetup, or we will have to deal with angry customers.

Enabled Zelle to allow bank to bank transfers. Less (no) fees so more cash for Noisebridge!

As a reminder, we spend about 12K dollars a month. We are currently hitting about 7k/month in revenue, so are still in the red!

Front door should receive a closer to prevent cool air from entering.

Trash is $350/month (https://www.recology.com/recology-san-francisco/rates/) Internet is $75/month

Re-negotiate the lease.

Expenses over $100 must come with a consensus item and would require the guild also providing half of the funds.

We did not pay rent the first eight or nine months that we moved to the new space.

I don't think the fact that we are paying a comparable rate to other spaces is as big a barrier to renegotiation as we are making it out to be

Guide - maybe do people have special projects/products to show off and help market the space with?

Ken - fundraisers? is it doable?

John - Does the fundraising channel cover just events or is it broader?

It's broader. Its just for discussion about events and ideas.

Corey - Ive been seeing increasing membership and participation at NB. Do we have any info on how much we've increased in our monetary intake lately? Feels like we might start snowballing?

Em - yes and no. We've seen more members, but a lot of members had not been paying dues who where coming around. It doesn't seem like anyone is really paying for the laser cutter. However it is getting a lot of use.

JD - ive been telling laser students to put it in the memo line of their payments...

Paolo - Jen had the idea of doing project-themed classes for laser. It could be cool for fundraising

Corey - I have all sorts of fun designs for kids that could work for laser cutters and kids.

Emeline - The machine is being used a lot and we are not seeing the money. We need to see the money.

Let's increase signage vis a vis donating for usage

Sam to create sign that compares prices on various sites vs using it here.

• The latest financial reports from the treasurer are available at https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Finances

Spending Needs

Sewing guild wants to spend money. They received a few large gifts and would like to buy an Automatic Knitting Machine. See the need for Consensus item in the future. Received $21k for sewing. A couple people have seen thst we have knitting devices. Already too many JUKI machines so looking for something different.

Fundraising Update

How's it all going

Big C Consensus Items

Nobody likes 3 hour meetings, only explain if people ask. https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Current_Consensus_Items

Consensus Items

Only for talking about Big C consensus items, small c consensus items should be discussed with people at the space at the time of the change/new item.

Discussion

Discussion Item 1

limbolandia - clear / organize days -- Ken has truck.

Trying to figure out how we can motivate people to do more cleaning.

EWaste is difficult because you have to set up something to test it. For example testing monitors requires setting up a working computer with each type of interface DVI, HDMI, RGB, etc

Saturday is the improving NB day. SmashRoom on 6th will take them monitors for donations.

How do we spread awareness about what we are doing and how we get everyone on the same page about it?

We had a similar issue with woodshop organizing. One person wanted to independently clean and do a dump run, others wanted to collect things together for a collective dump run.

Corey - one thing we need to make sure is that anything we put into the pile. people have the opportunity to audit.

How does Wednesday April 19th sound? Gives people a few weeks to audit. Tie in check-in to inspection of cleanliness and sanitary.

Have each saturday focus on a specific area. Lots of EWaste, skip that and focus on Woodshop

Loren - related to ewaste: who has been working on electronics in the past? Chris - he knows what he pulled out off the shelves and re-arranged most recently. (and Sam, and Mark).

Discussion Item 2

Bit of a bummer - It's two related things. Few days ago, there was an interchange on the discord someone had something to say about my things. I felt like someone jumped in a threatened to tar me with the brush that wasn't me. I didn't respond to it initially, but it really made me think. I really don't like how much shady backroom maneuvering happened in that situation, and I felt like I was in that same situation here tonight. That's why I didn't apply here tonight. I didn't expect that from NoiseBridge which claims to be an anarchist and decentralized. I expected transparency and honesty and I did not see that.

I'm sure there was discussion there that I wasn't privy to.

- Mark: we generally do our best to handle things on a case-by-case basis. When there are accusations of unexcellence, discussions happen privately. There are multiple reasons this might happen, privacy, or attempting to deal with the situation in a daily manner. We don't want to see meetings turn in to a shouting match.

Loren - bunch of individuals in the space. There's no center or judicial base to appeal to. Being excellent is vague gesturing to what is required to be in the space. Some people are excellent are using the space, some people can piss off lots of individuals but still have a different story prepared for the group. Wwe want to get a long and be excellent with each other, but when repeated breakings of that happen my choice is to stop investing more time and energy. In some cases theres single red-line breaking of rules, and in this case there were repeated problems without any introspection. There wasn't even symbolic compromise in any of the conversations that were had.

Aight: we should consider involving the authorities.

(general response of "police at NB are a no-no") John: There are always reasons, people don't do things for no reasons.

Loren: direct response that we can't allow continued proglonged conflict in the meetings or it impacts people getting burned out and people being able to work.

John: I think particularlty what you said about prolonged conflict is really to the point. I guess if we had some kind of abbreviated procedure to handle things, that might help satify what I see as transparency needs. Could be a good compromise.

Loren: question - are you wanting this outcome now or do you want agreement that we will follow this process?

John- I'm more concerned avout the future than the past. Some of what I've seen recently I don't want to put my name too.

Emeline: Liz is mediating with the person in question, however it is clear through discussion that various people have come forth with specific behavioral problems. Some of which violate our policies. These people are afraid of further incidents and of retributive behavior. There is a lot to this.

JD: First I wanna say, if you feel as though I was singling you out or trying to tar you with the wrong brush. I recognize that that was probably not the best week for you and you were probably shooting from the hip on some of those posts. It took going out and actively asking does anybody have stories, before the behavior came out. That sort of thing didn't happen overnight. Groups form around allegations. There is no "elite" that is plodding around, waiting for something to prosecute.

Guide: I think that from my experiences w/ conflict, you need to think about the messages you send and be hyper-aware of what you are saying and doing.

Mark: I thin this is a question of "how aware does the broader community need to be about certain things that don't necessarily involve them?" Is that about accurate?

JVol: Which is why it was very hard for me personally to see messages that made me feel particularly roped in and possibly targeted as the next victim of some kind of "unexcellence hunt". I took some messages a bit personally, and they got me fired up and motivated to respond a bit firey. I guess though thats why I am speaking up. Just that we all, as members of the group should all feel like we could all be the next target of such things. I still have reservations about how the process went and don't have any particular suggestions right now about how to handle things in the future but I will think about it and have some conversations with people.

Andrew: Which is more important to you? The transparency or the structure? This is NB and fighting for structure is "pushing sand up a hill" and will be a lot of work for whoever wants to attempt it.

Ken: Just wanted to throw in the idea. Mezzannine

Mark: Don't give up and don't let slights thst you perceive about people and get in the way of the pursuit of excellence. Let's try to be perceiving and understandinfg of individuals.

Discussion Item 3

Guide - Crowdfunding sources? NB Don't have a big history of crowdfunding, but we do have a Patreon, and any individual/group could do a per-project fundraise however they want?

Discussion Item 4

Noisebridge Cinema

Do-ocratic Task Board

Participation also means doing stuff to contribute to the space. Propose new tasks or pick some tasks from Github, from what needs to be done around you, or whatever, and see if someone will sign up to work on that task. Anyone can sign up and it's a great way to show you are contributing!

End of Meeting

Fun things to do after

(See Discussion item 4.)

• Do a 10 minute cleanup, bring dishes up stairs and wash them, clean the bathroom
• Have some beers on the patio
• Prepare the next weeks' meeting notes
• Lick the walls. Or just draw on them
• sing the Hackernationale (this almost never happens)