Meeting Notes 2026 06 16

These are the notes from the The 868th Meeting of Noisebridge.

Date	2026-06-16
Note-taker[s]	PUT YOUR NAME HERE NEWMAN, MICHAEL, nthmost, mcint
Moderator[s]	Jet

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Meeting Summary

The 868th Noisebridge meeting covered membership standards, event hosting, and community governance as the space grows beyond all-in-one-room familiarity.

• Announcements: Sewing Guild Meeting June 25th afternoon; Beyla music server ingress in progress; Cyber Bridge wearable computer meetup Friday 7pm with MIT demo
• Fundraising Update: None
• Finances: None
• New members: None
• New associates: None
• Consensus Items: None, formally (NoiseTor moved to discussion)
• Discussion Items:
  1. Peace Treaty Collective PRIDE After Party: 18+ event Saturday, 100-150 people, downstairs area, out by 2am, hosts provide insurance and cleanup
  2. Meetings not every Tuesday: Elan exploring consensus item to vary meeting days beyond Tuesdays
  3. Meeting notes template consolidation: Naomi proposes single unified template, trying to reduce confusion for note-takers
  4. Mutual aid skillshare event: Aug 1-2, skeleton schedule set, needs online scheduling help and promotional video consent; Elan and Jet confirmed support
  5. Core membership standards clarification: Chaz raises traits and expectations; discussion deferred; Alex to compile notes for next week
  6. Drynn membership access: 30-day access granted; consensus for all-hours guest tier without formal membership
  7. about NB running a Tor exit node: Julius wants to block an exit node being run on NB infra; confusion over how original one was run.

Introductions

• Favorite super hero

• Jet: Spiderman
• Newman: Scooby Doo
• Jost: Batman
• MJ: Tinker Bell
• Zachy: Starlord
• Naomi: Alastor from Hazbin Hotel
• Michael: Batman
• Chaz: Spawn
• Fletcher: Donald Knuth
• Daniel: Spiderman
• Estella: Spiderman
• Gwen: No super hero
• Andrew: Dr Manhattan
• Julius: Magneto
• Sam: Ozymandius
• Jonathan: Batman
• Joel: Batman
• ?: Spiderpunk
• Ryan: Batman
• Kavya: Absolute Batgirl
• Heather: Sailor Mars
• Weezy: Ti long (tiger that was locked up in kung fu panda)
• Alex: Butcher
• jojo: Batman
• Audra: Wonderwoman
• JD:

Short announcements and events

• Heather: Sewing Guild Meeting - June 25th afternoon, in the sewing room!
• Naomi: Building a ingress for the music server (Beyla), if you want to add music please let me know
• LX: Cyber Bridge wearable computer meetup jason from MIT area will be demoing a backpack computer and will be there friday at 7pm

Excellence

Our One Rule is to Be Excellent to Each Other.

What does that mean? Please see our page on excellence https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Excellence!

Weezy: Kindness and change and growth. Admitting mistakes. Saying sorry. Not sleeping. Using best judgment. Sharing tools and knowledge

Anti-Harassment Policy & Community Standards of Excellence

Noisebridge has an Anti-Harassment Policy!

Everyone is expected to follow the Anti-Harassment Policy, please familiarize yourself with it.)

For approachable & specific guidelines see: Community Standards

Please note: https://safespace.noisebridge.net/ is one way to quickly raise issues which will be seen by people in Discord.

Brief Kudos

Chaz: Lucifer for cleaning the music room.

Michael Newman: Dryn for pumping out materials on the knitting machine

Weezy: To web daniel for funny little project beneath the sink. For Michael Newman for taking care the awning out there.

Consensus Items

Julius: NB should operate a tor exit node. and i am going to block this. because we need to talk about this.

Membership

Chaz is in the 3rd week of going for Core membership.

this is Kavya's 4th week going for Core membership

"I run the sewing circle. when i first started running it, there wasn't a lot of activity in the sewing room. happy to see ppl like Newman stepping up, i also want to help make it better."

Elan: what will Core membership mean for you being able to make it better

Kavya: you have more of a say in what does or doesn't happen. like the knitting machine, i was worried when i heard ppl were trying to get rid of it. I know a lot of ppl aren't that interested in sewing and knitting aspects of the hackerspace, but those are my favorite things, so that's why.

JD: how long have you been coming around? can i see your face [is remote]

Kavya: mid-December i started the sewing circle, i've been coming multiple times a week

JD: no further questions

Michael: on issues like the knitting machine, every person should have the same say on it, should be no extra weight on opinions from Core Members on anything in particular. just wanted to point that out. if you felt you weren't being heard, that's something we should do better on.

Julius: yeah, you already have a seat at the table.

Jet: any questions to NB about core membership?

Kayva: what exactly is blocking

Julius: Big C consesous process affect the way the space is run, a more formal way of running the community, core memebers have a say in blocking these items

Naomi: The consesous process brings the commniuty to agreement on something, it doesnt mean everyone agreees, but thats weve talked about it enough to move forward. A block puts your membership on the line, saying, we cannot let this happen for the good of the space.

Naomi: We need to be able to trust you that your blocks will improve the commnunity, that we aren't going to have to waste a lot of time on frivolous blocks.

Kavya: i'm hoping we can get formal training going on the industrial machines again, would love to play a part in getting that going again. it's a shame ppl aren't able to do stuff like that right now.

Zacchae: she hasn't been at Tuesday mtgs a lot, it's a little concerned she brought up that she would have more standing to stand up for things like the knitting machine.

Heather: We've heard from her directly some reason and it comes down to her bias against textile arts. In theory it shouldn't matter, but sounds like shes concerned about the possibility that core members could be weighted more.

Ken: I'm fairly new to the notion of Core etc, but seems like it shouldn't have any semblance of authority. this is simply a vested trust of the community in certain members to lead the community in the right ways. For that to happen i think someone has to have a little more involvement in the community, to have a holistic view of the whole thing.

Alex: all valid pts so far, but we had a previous sewing group that left in a huff due to mistreatment, so important to have someone feel like they're fully listened to and ratified. the fact that the sewing circle was on Tuesdays explains why we haven't seen her much. if someone doesn't know what blocking is and how it works, that's on US, not them.

Newman: you should be around long enough to know

Naomi: Kavya had a hard time organizing on any other day than tuesday, and i told her it wouldn't be a problem if she couldn't come to a meeting on Tuesdays. And im not sure if it actually is.  We should consider Elan's point about how it disempowers some ppl that we only have mtgs at this one time per week.

Julius: This goes back to Elans point. Dispositionally I thinnk she ihas the qualities to be a core member

Batman: She strikes me as someone who would be a great core member and leader. Is always willing to help people.

Jet: As the person who sponsored, she is very kind. Has been very resilient in her adoption of the sewing room. Has really brought life ( people) into the sewing room. Shows immense responsibility.

Heather: it would be nice to spread out core membership to other skill blocks, it does seem very tech concentrated.

JD: it'd be good to have somebody in that social circle, helping sponsor ppl into access membership.

Newman: as someone's who's spent an obscene amt of time in the sewing machine, i'm hesitant -- power struggle issues, and i'm not sure i've seen her contribute to the cleaning aspect of the space, i've cleaned up after her many times.  But if Naomi, Jet, and Julius all feel this is the right move, i want to stand by your guys and not step in the way.

Julius: how would you go about resolving the situation w/ the sewing room? do you feel like you could talk to her?

Newman: yeah... but i feel like i've had this convo before, it's not like every single time... I've seen areas constantly left in a state of disarray, but the whole room is in disarray

Ken: it might be a good reason to put a bit of delay on this type of membership for her, and i just don't have the sense of someone i can trust, not sure if she understands the full spirit of NB

Naomi: i think the sewing guild mtg desperately needs to happen and i wonder if that would move the needle on this, and as a compromise (as her sponsor) maybe delay for a few weeks and see how things transpire

Chaz: something conditional? like a provisional period

Naomi, others: eighhghh actually this is feeling a little weird now

Jet: we do have the "oh shit period", 2 weeks after membership

Alex: this is interesting even just for the next case, i wonder if we can put together an improved member prep. like "knowing about the space more than one guild". it's never been a standard we've applied but maybe we should. So maybe we lean on the 2 weeks already part of our process, or maybe it's the 1-week deal

Michael: her stated reasons for being a core member aren't things she get by being a core member, so I'm wondering why there is an issue in blocking is it b/c we're worried she'll get upset if we deny it? if she doesn't understand what it means maybe she shouldn't be one yet. this is not a judgement of her she seems great but its not clear how this benefits her.

Alex: JD online said the thing, a core person who leads the group, is they're constantly sponsoring and bringing in ppl. if she didn't know things about core membership that's on us, so that could be fixed.

Julius: i'm a little leery about bringing in process in-flight when someone's about to come in. A lot of the standards are things that are just kind of a vibe basically. So enforcing them in a very strict way with one particular person feels unfair.

Jet: Based on what I'm hearing I'm willing to block

Naomi: If Judy wanted to be a core member we wouldnt block her. We should not introduce requirements all of a sudden.

Loren: 3 things

1. From this side chatter, I hear a drive to make the expectataions more clear - for Access and Core members.
2. Oh shit period is an older idea. The 4 weeks delay after access membership, and 4 weeks of actively applying for core membership in the meeting are a chance for us to set clear expectataions, ranther tha

If our goal is a legible process, clear, helping people understand, step up, and take full part.

3) This feels like it's being ramrodded through - notes claim this is the 4th week, but it's the 2nd week in 3 months since she was granted Access Membership on Meeting_Notes_2026_03_17, that's listed.

Heather: maybe the 2nd time it was read out

Loren: We list the member application and sponsorship in the notes -- so that we don't have a tyranny of people who happen to come to the Tuesday meeting (as raised just minutes ago) keeping a different view of reality that are visible, in the notes, online -- people who didn't happen to come to every meeting. "reality" that's not in the notes, would be tyranny by people who ...chose not to put things in the notes.

Elan: Historically core membership is seen as getting more responsibility rather than more power, even though there is definitely structural power that that you can pull to make everyone annoyed at you. It was supposed to be something that was given enthusiastically by everyone. That being said, it seems that Kavya was set up with the expectation that she would just sail through --- blocking may very understandably cause her to step way back -- that shouldn't *alone* be a reason not to block but I don't want a miscommunication be the reason to she is left hanging with this.

Jeojeo: In my opinion its important to have someone from the sewing guild be a core member and represent the sewing guild. I believe to become a core member cleaning up should be a fundamental thing

JD: Nothing is naturally established process an NB. We make it up as we go. Its an organic conversation that comes. There really should be no reason why someone is in a hurry to become a core member. I'd love to see something in the established rules that you should have to be around for a year before you can become a core member.

Ken: [membership/access] should be recognized (as already true of behavior and relationships) rather than bestowed as a title

Julius: think you should have a good understanding of the space before being a core member - i disagree with requirements of cross-guild involvement

Blocking on the basis - that it isn't an impediment to participation.

Naomi: I could talk to Kavya and communicate the we fucked up.

Jet: I also want to withdraw myself as a sponsor member as I don't know if I really know her well enough to have done that.

Josh: I would hope whoever sponsors her next time makes it clear she doesn't need core membership to do any of the things you need to do.

• Kavya comes back*

Jet: We are going to block your membership today.

Discussion Items

1: Peace Treaty Collective event

On topic	Peace Treaty Collective event
From/Raised by	guests Estella & Daniel, Chris
Seeking	decision

Peace Treaty Collective

Estella

Daniel

PRIDE AFTER PARTY

E: We throw events for the lgbtq and allies - We didnt feel like any spaces for raves were a safe place for this community, we've been throwing events for over a year, With local artists vendors, spaces.

E: 100 - 150 people Amplified music yes

Alchol: NO

Food: There will be a dougnouht vender

Fee: YES

Resources: Would the downstairs area (Cleared) Work... YES

Who do you know - W/Z CHRIS NAOMI Have you had events at NB - YES Date -THIS SATURDAY

OUT BY 2AM

HOSTS WILL STAY UNTIL CLEAN UP

18+ EVENT THERE WILL BE NO MINORS

We like balloon Arches - .oOOo.

WOOD SHOP WILL BE LOCKED DURING EVENT

HOSTS WILL PROVIDE INSURANCE BEFORE FINALIZATION

&_&

Is this the event? https://ra.co/events/2433021

1: Meetings not every tuesday

On topic	Meetings not every tuesday
From/Raised by	Elan
Seeking	float an idea

Elan: it's been noted that the Tuesday meetings often feature all of the same people every time, so I'm thinking of introducing a consensus item that makes it possible to vary (or add?) days where we have general meetings.

2: one meeting notes template to rule them all

On topic	one meeting notes template to rule them all
From/Raised by	Nthmost
Seeking	decision/consensus

Naomi: Simplify Meeting Notes template / consolidate into ONE template -- we have a couple of different ones, one of them doesn't have a membership section, only one of them has the financial update section. I think we're smart enough to judge whether we do or don't need to use any particular section that week.

Naomi: my intent here is to establish that we (I) can go ahead and do this, and the intent is to make things easier for people setting up meetings. Consistency is helpful, the more you can do things the same way every time, the better, especially if we're talking about having meetings on other days of the week or per month, making things as simple as possible user-interface wise seems useful.

Loren: As person who made this, some meetings ran too long, so split them up to make sure people don't skip things. The member section might have been dropped for the time. Yes lets make sure membership is in all notes, request we don't go back to single meeting format.

Jet: Is financial report the only difference?

Naomi: I think if we're adding more days of the week it benefits us having a good UI to the template.

Loren: Benefit of splitting them up: meetings tend to run longer because new meeting hosts don't know what to skip. Also definitely beneficial for diff't people to run the meetings.

Naomi: we're already having a longer meeting, and this meeting notes template left a bunch of sections out.

4: Mutual aid skillshare event

On topic	Mutual aid skillshare event
From/Raised by	Ryan (batman)
Seeking	detailed update, coordination

Ryan (Batman): Update on event -- we're hosting a mutual aid skillshare event, Aug 1-2 that weekend, i initially came in to confirm we could do those dates, we now have that skeleton schedule here, and i want to ask for help scheduling that event online. had some trouble. would like to ask also about a fundraiser video for the space. the skillshare portion is coming here, and then we're going somewhere else to do distribution of resources.

10AM: people come in here.  to 11:15, opening circle, introduction, etc.
11:15-12:30 icebreakers
12:30-1:30 informal convo
1:30-2:30 outreach prep -- supplies we're going to distribute later that day, we'll be setting them up here, and then taking them elsewhere to be given out.

we come back at 5pm -- decompression, talk about mutual aid and direct action.

Day 2: skillshare day (Aug 2)
10-10:30 check-in
10:30-11 recap, overview of topics of discussion
11-12:30 skillshare block 1 -- first section of skillshare discussions, TBD on structure when we know more about skills being shared.
Lunch break
1:30-3 next skillshare block
3-3:30 closing circle
3:30-6 for an office BBQ

Wanted to doublecheck that we can have an access or core member present at 10 or a little before.

Elan: I'm happy to be here for that.

Batman: Would like to make sure we can film a promo video at NB, highlight the fundraiser we want to do alongside that. and get on NB's socials to get the word out

Jet: yep, i'm the social media guy. please ask throughout the space for consent to photograph them. we don't do blanket "on this day there will be videoing". If you do this in the mornings, there won't be many ppl here and most ppl will be ok with it or will get out of your way.

3: Membership discussion follow-up, terminology, expectations, communication

On topic	Membership discussion follow-up, terminology, expectations, communication
From/Raised by	Chaz
Seeking	carry on, carry through discussion

Chaz: Do we want to talk about terminology and membership stuff. What does a core member need to know before they become a core member.

Chaz: What does a core memebership grant you, What are you expected to do?

Are there any traits that are non-negotiable in a core member?

Alex: in the interest of time tonight, I took notes on a lot of the things we discussed. I can bring them back next week to talk about this more when people have more energy.

Loren: we have a permissionless ethos from the beginning when we let them in the door. So ideally as little as possible. This is our ideal, and it's been true, and we're trying to keep it true. The summary "soundbite" I've said (for the meeting) is that access members agree to be responsible for the space, core members agree to be responsible for the community. We also grant ppl guest badges and asking them not to bring others into the space on their own -- as part of how we ensure good culture in bringing others in. Membership is something that should be "recognized and not bestowed" per Ken. So a quality to me is something like being able to direct people to resources, like i don't know much about the woodshop but i can direct someone to someone who is.

Chaz: Do you think the way we have core memebers defined is correct?

Loren: descriptively -- the membership sheet, in the binder -- is the written source of truth, everyone will check that -- if it's not written on the core sheet -- people can have all other kinds of stories about what they in particular would like to see of the people they sponsor, so make sure whatever you want to advocate - that it winds up on the signup sheet. Very interested in ways to improve the qualification for core members so it's explicit, written down.

Elan: Someone said it should a year long - I dont know if i agree with that. I think it should entail no power in the community. We do need ppl who are encoded w/ the legal responsibility as per our organizational structure. everyone has diff't concepts of what makes a good core membership. but it's definitely a vibes check. we're starting to get to the point where not everyone knows everyone. in some way this is like growing pains.

Chaz: is it kind of like excellence where we have a technical definition for it but it's kind of like a vibes thing, not rigidly defined?

Elan: not nec excellence, but i think it's analogous. we have had to dismember someone before and it's a very painful process.

Naomi: We're finally circling back to NB 2018 where we have a community where not everyone knows everyone. Guilds were a response to that. Guilds are like having a smaller NB. Like smaller buds on the fractal. And trust can permeate those buds. You may not know someone to be able to trust them, but someone in their guild should be able to vouch for them.

LX: Theres a few things that are not explicitly set in stone. Cultural things. Sometimes we're skipping the practical simple thing. What if to become a core member you get to help teach a new access member. Lets say you're waiting to become a core member. The next time someone wants to become and access member you then teach them about noisebridge, and the sponsor watches this happens and sees if they shepard them right.

Newman: can you teach someone how to have good judgement of character?

Loren: good explicit norms of culture

Alex: some am't of judgement of character and then some specific explicit knowledge. combo of both.

Julius: i think everyone who comes here is self-selected in, and everyone has the capacity to learn. we shouldn't say any particular person can't understand.

Loren: given what you've learned now, what do you want to do or invite other ppl to do in furthering this discussion?

Chaz: I think its a good idea to have core membershio training , or sponsership, watch you do stuff and having the sponser be more involved in this person being promoted.

Loren: can i request/suggest we update the membership docs? you have fresh experience and opinions and could comment well(!) on the process

Alex: that's what i was suggesting

6: Drynn gets 24h access

On topic	Drynn gets 24h access
From/Raised by	Drynn
Seeking	outcome: access, or I go

Drynn: Membership Pass

I'd like to see about getting 24/7 access to the space w/o being an access or core member. my biggest focus is using the knitting machine, if not here than at Sequoia Fabrica.

Julius: Id be happy to set you up with 30 day access

Jet: Drynn attemped to become an access member and was blocked b/c Drynn hasn't been here a very long time. He has

Loren: techncially speaking, right now, we have guest, access, and core tiers. this will be a pull request [on Door] to do what we're talking about here.

Zacchae: doesn't matter what it says, we're basically just giving someone access to the space?

LX: We might want to make exceptions , where someone wants to be here 24 hours but they dont want to kick people out of the space. I cant kick people out upstairs, but id be fine with anyone whos in that same situation getting access.

Loren: affirming the same... seems like we have consensus that Drynn should be an "all hours guest" or "non-closing access member". Michael, Julius, LX assent.

Loren will enroll tonight.

7: about NB running a Tor exit node

On topic	about NB running a Tor exit node
From/Raised by	Julius
Seeking	decision/outcome/advice/[?]

Julius: Tor exit node

Jet: For the past month or so, weve thought about restarting noisetour, a series of computers that allow traffic from the tour network, to be routed to the real world, The risk is that NB traffic will be monitered by the forces that be.

Julius: The reason i brought this up is because ive seen this convo bounce around, and ive been trying to voice my opinion.

Josh: Noisebridge didn't operate the original noiseTor. We paid other people to operate and host.

Loren: It was a separately run project.

Julius: What Josh was saying, that would make me feel much more comfortable have the nodes located somewhere else.

Jet: I agree now is a risky time to host a fleet. I'm still interested in doing it, but maybe i do it somewhere else.

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!