Meeting Notes 2026 06 23

These are the notes from the The 869th Meeting of Noisebridge.

Date	2026-06-23
Note-taker[s]	Jet, Chaz
Moderator[s]	NEWMAN

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Meeting Summary

The 869th Noisebridge meeting covered membership standards, event hosting, and community governance as the space grows beyond all-in-one-room familiarity.

• Announcements: Sewing guild meeting Thursday 3pm upstairs; please avoid saying "you're so pretty what race are you?"
• Fundraising Update: None
• Finances: None
• New members: None
• New associates: Nixxy (Access Membership, sponsored by Jet); Eugene (Access Membership, sponsored by Heather)
• Consensus Items: None
• Discussion Items:
  1. Meeting schedule: rotating or bonus meetings proposed; consensus deferred to Discord discussion.
  2. Smoking and vaping: no smoking/vaping inside; signs to be created; 15 feet from building legally required.
  3. Access membership clarity: responsibilities and guest pass policies discussed; sponsor expectations need documentation.
  4. 220v espresso machine: donation offered; coffee guild formation needed; Discord discussion before decision.
  5. Hardwood floor resurfacing: RNA lounge priority; contact Naomi for experience; contractor consultation possible.

Introductions

Name - favorite fruit

• Newman: Blueberry
• Sam: Mango
• johonthon rasberry
• health - sour apple
• sam bananas
• Eugene - wild blueberries
• jet - jackfruit
• carl - orange
• lucifer - watermelon
• Marion - marionberries
• elan - kiwi
• chaz - pluots
• lia - fruitless
• Kavia - Indian fruit or indian mangos
• Nthmost - came late, rejects concept of favorites anyway

Short announcements and events

• lucifer is reorganizing the music room. chaz says don't reorganize the music room
• heather - sewing guild meeting this thursday 3pm upstairs
• elan - please don't say "you're so pretty what race are you?"

Excellence

Our One Rule is to Be Excellent to Each Other.

What does that mean? Please see our page on Excellence !

Marion - the way the ravers cleaned up after themselves

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

heather - gave lia a tour tim - fixed the printer ken - bashing the wall in the back and opening up the metal shop elan - kudos to derek for making the understaircase area. chaz - newman for moderating the meeting

New Members/Access Members

• Nixxy: i want to be an access member
  •  sponsored by jet for access
  •  been here for a while and i love it and want to fix stuff

• eugene: - i want to become one
  •  sponsored by heather for access
  •  been here a while and i love it

• Chaz: I want to become a core member

Everyone: Why?

I want to become one so i can do stuff to make the space better. i want to have it in advance incase i need it i want to do the backend stuff whicch i think is core member coded.

Could you elaborate on backend stuff?

I like being the cog in the machine that people need, tidying up which people need and fill in what infra exists.

heather- would you need to block it yourself rather than proxy

i would like to block on my own, why ask for a proxy rather than yourself.

i still feel hessitant and alex sponsoring me i would ike those core members to talk to you and explain what a core member does from an ethos perspective and what that means. i think there are some mechanical definitions that are on paper and learning the social one takes time and the main concern. alex has been talking to him about it.

newman - chaz is working on the organ and stepping up to it.

chaz - im more project managing it and needs help on it

heather - i think this is early without a reason

Financial Report (first Tuesday of month only)

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

• Monthly revenue, expenses. Big projects. Big fundraising events. Reserves in bank.
• 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

X

Discussion Items

1: meetings on diff't days of the week

On topic	meetings on diff't days of the week
From/Raised by	Elan and Chaz
Seeking	discussion to hammer out language for consensus proposal

Chaz: Pursuant to what Elan brought up last week, i want to formulate a consensus proposal for meetings to be rotating where each week where the meeting day is based on pi in base 7.

Elan: meeting is the same folks every week and there's other people that can't make it and all orgs have meetings on tuesdays it seems. we should try a system where we can move the days around. there have been movements to have more calendars and subscribable calendars that are helpful to see. there is a noisebridge gmail account that has the events calendar. and there is a calendar that shows the events mostly. as long as it's not what you're activelt deciding and we can calculate it out for the next few years. It being random sounds fine.

Nthmost (writing): there are great reasons why a lot of organizations have their meetings on Tuesdays. :) I would recommend not ditching our 18-year-held Tuesday evening meeting and simply added a new day of the week or day of the month.

LX: the reason meetings on tuesdays are because they have been on tuesdays. this is on hackerspace design patterns, this is a bike shedding thing.

Josh: - we used to not 2012 2013 we had it also on wednesdays [i was there... ??? --nthmost]

LX: it can be as arbitrary as you like but there is a value in something being consistant so that people can plan around it. i saw two meetings one is async participation and status and we already have some proxy stuff. thought the idea was we could have meetings throughout the week and then effective on the tuesday. this could happen if it's happened before. why make it harder not easier to call an access member proposal. if the goal is to make the meetings accessable to tuesday folks, lets not make it hard for the people on tuesdays. we could have a once a month non tuesday meeting that is like enrichement but it's still an official meeting. we used to haev a thing called doocracy meetings where there was no buisness besides doing stuff.

Naomi: i was there in 2012 to 2013 and we never stopped having a tuesday meetings but we had extra meetings

Josh: it did change i can look it up

Naomi: i would recommend not ditching the tuesday meeting. if we have to do an algorithm to solve the meeting date then i will block it heather: as someone who does have difficulty arranging a schedule spontaniuosly then having every other meeting to not be a tuesday then i would be ok with it not being on a tuesday. please make it on odd meeting.

dennis: simple thing one week tuesday and one week thursday and it's just no algorithm it's just the next day of the week. every 8 days [also literally an algorithm, even if it's an easy one --nthmost]

elan: I think there's something to say something to this is how it's always been done and it's sort of been a zero sum game where everyone speaking can make it on a tuesday meeting, then we make it harder for the people who can't. you can proxy block and check meeting notes and you are a "first class participant" it's like in-person vs online. like earlier the online people were muted. and the people being in-person are enhanced by being in-person. i can't speak for judy but she's busy upstairs and she's rarely able to come and she has to cancle other things. there could be 2 class meetings a week. this could make it easier to be a participant.

lx: i forgot the original reason. noisebridge capacity is underutilized and we should strive. now every event in the week will be preemted by this broadcast that people can't go this event now. the idae that it will make it easier for people to go to events now. then it would make it easier for event. if you say that the meeting could not be on tuesday, you could just as easily say that they could move the other event on a non tuesday meeting. we are trying to fill the nishe of people who have an external commitment on the tuesday meeting. guild meetings are a good pattern here. We could have a bonus meeting every so often.

Nixxy: I haven't been going to meetings for a while because I have neen working during this time. and I would like to be able to come to meetings not during this time. bonus meeting would be fine.

heather: i would like to add support for a bonus meeting

kavia: i think an option to make the meetings and participating on noisebridge meetings would be helpful. i think that adding meetings would not be a bad idea.

elan: I think that having this being the "one spot" is annoying when people would like to apply to access membership and they have something that is important to them and it would be nice to have an alternative that is just as valid. it might not be as convenient for the people here today but it might be better for other people. I think that meeting burnout would not be a very high issue if you're not expected to come to every meeting you should have no expectation to come to every tuesday meeting

heather: responding about access membership, i know two people that are going for access membership where tuesday at this time is hard for them.

chaz: i think that the idea for what alex mentioned these doocracy meetings, lets keep the tuesday meetings and add extra meetings

sam: i think that the creation of meeings. the only thing is the dilution of important and if the queue of people is split then is could be harder for people to rally behind ideas

dr elan: the rotating meeting keeps that with more flexability.

sam: this is devils advocate.

lx: two possible ways to do bonus meeting. for the person that has an obligation on both days then there is still a small group of people who are still screwed. there used to be a story time before meetings. if we made an extra meeting then we could have fun activities to make a reason to go to it. this would be more value adding. if this is on the same day of the week then they would still be mad

naomi: I want more surface area for people to have access to the noisebridge conversations. adding more meetings could be interesting. there are procedural things that are encoded to the notion of how many times has this been read out or weeks. idk what this could do because we have the concept of "one meeting" as a unit of noisebridge time.

heather: for procedural things, gut reaction is we change from x meetings to x weeks. concensus 2 weeks for an example.

lx: it would be for week. (jet lost train of thought)

naomi: this unit of time measurements are shortcuts for what length of time is comfterable to think about things or time for other people to think about things etc. if we add more meeintgs then we are exposing more people to the thing but it changes the time we have to discuss things, these things need to be thought about.

chaz: the current proposition would be to add 2 rolling meetings per month which could be on the. add 2 on the 2nd and 4th meeting of the month add random day meetings on the week. in addition to the tuesday meetings. if your name needed to be brought 4 times then it would be needed to brought up 6 times.

lia: if you were a person that knew everything about noisebridge are you able to make something happen if you weren't able to make it to a meeting. is it possible to fully participate. like an event instillation

heather: we would need a meeting for membership but everything could be done by proxy

elan: historically membership you need to show up but you need nother person to be the primary event. if someone just sends you the pitch and someones says it outloud that is not allowed you need to show up

lx: i like the idea of it being mathamatically where it changes the amount of time and nothing about the things. i want it to be a social things. alot of hacker spaces have a less serious things that is like a social meetings.

chaz: i'm going to make a post more about this on the discord.

2: smoking in the rave

On topic	smoking in the rave
From/Raised by	Marion
Seeking	decision

Marion: i want us to have a decisions on where the ravers can smoke next time and any event broadly. we should have a thing in place for this. we had an outsidish place in the backroom and then people just smoking just next to outside inside. then some people smoking outside our door. and people smoking

nthmost (writing): technically it was mostly vaping but yeah it was pretty smoky

newman: in the future no smoking inside. the peopel are here we didn't prepare them

rave people: we told them to not smoke inside but it was hard there's only a handful of people and we need to make a rules and regulations to make it more clear to make sure the space is respected.

naomi: as someone who was there and an avid partier, the best bet is to recruit people in the community that can wear a sash (or whatever) and have them soft-handling people who know each other. we can't police people and so you need to get your own people in on it.

wez: there was only one person smoking inside and we had to get him to leave. i remember someone was not compling and it was like he could not smoke in here but he can smoke down the street.

chaz: should we have no smoking signs here?

lx: once the av stuff was done we checked on the smoking situation. alot of people assumed the patio was ok to smoke on. everyone that was ok with it was gracious about smoking. and there was alot of people who were worried about not being able to leave then they can't come back. then it was a compromise that people can go all the way down the block. i got tired and gave up and we needed a sign and it became a job to become a human sign. we just finished the no sleeping signs. we will have more signs.

elan: we have a laser cutter and spray paint

heather: also no vaping?

everyone: yes

newman: not having open gates and stuff would help incentivise people to not vape

naomi: I would love to see a DanceSafe table. you could get a rep and find someone in your community that knows what they're doing. that plus the presence of the people being a stranger or ranger and handling and saying "we're going to lose access to this space if you're vaping inside"

Marion: i've gotten alot of opinions, what is the plan. concensous plan or writting the wiki.

newman: i think this is doocracy

lx: it says no smoking on everything already. this remains that the docmentations and enforcing

Marion: do it down the street

heather: when someone is smoking just outside the gate. then people

newman: legally 15 feet from the building.

elan: if we aim the fans to blow out throught the front we get much better fresh air.

newman: much better fresh air in the building is good

3: vibe check on how access membership and 30 day guest pass are viewed

On topic	vibe check on how access membership and 30 day guest pass are viewed
From/Raised by	heather
Seeking	advice

heather: so essenctailly this month vs previuos months and ealier there has been difference in messaging and passes and handling. 4 things i notice and have a vibe check on. in terms of what access members should do. there was one time when someone said during the meeting read out, "are you ready for the communinty to see you with more responcibility" this shocked me, this was like you get more responcibility and status.

newman: no more status but if it feels that way to someone then it feels like that then that's something else.

heather: another thing, i've had it explained that access members need to be resopncible for themselves and what other people do in this space. and they need ot be responcible for opening and closing the space even if they don't want to. i want to clarify if that's a part of it. i did notice that previously that last month it was a rubber stamp which is a good thing. I think untill last month then I don't think there was any objections and besides just asking why do you want to be a member.

Lx: it was removed to have philantropy thing and people were scared with the questions. there are plenty of people who want and need, we will bestow access so people. it has not been required to answer members for access members in the past but I don't mind asking people questions as long as people are comfterable with it

naomi: plus one to LX, we didn't do any interrogation like we do with core membership and i don't think that we should start. i do like the "why do you want to be an access membership" just to learn and get to know each other better. I would always ask if people want to block. on responsibility and status. i heard from heather, it's their responsibility to open and close the space. i think that no one should feel obligated to open and close the space because you are then responsible for what happens. the place where you are responsible is for letting people in and seeing that they are going to be good caretakers when the space is open.

elan: for the opening and closing part, you should never be expected if you don't want to. if you think you are the last access member and you are leaving and you should ask ' do you want to close down with me' not great if you're not down for asking for people to leave.

newman: first time daniel walked me through it and gave me confidence to open the space

elan: questioning access members and aslong you are trusted to not burn down they space and steal then we shouldn't interrogate them. for core membership then idk if you have tried to convert ot judiasm (as part of the process you're supposed to be discouraged at least three times). It's not quite hazing but it's not entirely unlike it.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_to_Judaism#:~:text=An%20ancient%20tradition%20called%20for%20a%20sponsoring%20rabbi%20to%20discourage%20potential%20converts%20three%20times.%20If%20the%20potential%20convert%20remained%20adamant%20in%20their%20desire%20to%20convert,%20the%20rabbi%20would%20then%20begin%20the%20process.

loren: some of this sounds like a complaint about our coordination. being able to close down then if it's not something you can do then we need to coordinate on it. the labels need coordination. what are some things that the label hides and bring with it.

newman: documenting it

loren: being able to close down the space a lot of that is might be what we are culturally able to do. a new person bring in a whole group of people and we need to push back and negotiate with them.

heather: sticking with access membership im hearing that if someone is uncomfortable with opening and closing the space then it is not a blocker but should be mentioned

loren: for members to know that and when the last person to leave then they should do a walkthrough and have people close up behind you. but we need to tlak about it . 11pm and 1am and talking about sleeping and

naomi: in response to loren, sure, if we end up with a large amount of access members that are not ok with opening and closing the space then it could be a problem. not sure if that should be a formal procedural thing. we could instead bolster the notion of sponsorship; if sponsoring people that are not up to the task and then we push back against people's rate of sponsorship and doing a better job about bringing people up to speed.

heather: talking more on that half about it, someone said during a meeting that access membership brings more responciblity and status. that was said in error.

lx: there is absolutely that when you get access that you are ready with the responsiblity an dhow you use that is voluntarily. we need to update what we say. putting more weight on sponsorship and cookie trail. we need to update the things.

newman: we need to have good sponsorships.

chaz: good discussion item for this week or next. what does sponsoring mean. this means you trust this person. and they know alot about the space and with synergize with it. alot is implicit and more should be discrete and written.

loren: enumerated

heather: get on the access membership part. on the guest pass. i heard that someone said that guess pass people are not allowed to open the space. i think that's wrong. is that a hard rule or is that just not everyone.

loren: i think if you have to ask if it is a hard rule then yes it is a hard rule. there are people and if we have to write down the rules and if someone comes here once is not ready to open the space up for the day. and if people come into town for the week and need to hack on stuff. that means something different than the regulars to be able to meet you.

heather: this answers it in a different way than i expected.

loren: this maps onto each other and in practice this can be looser. when making a bet that the outcome. [I have a very hard time transcribing this]

heather: having a better time with access membership then having something written out on the binder.

chaz: I want people who care about this to message on the discord [clarifying: I want people to share perceptions, definitions, references, history, etc.]

loren: it could be good to have a list of requirements nad standards. are with that list we can lean more on them on a culture. we could say during the winter we need people to be better about kicking out or smoking or something. a section on top; "this is a 501c3 nonprofit there are some decisions for legal some for our members" with the context that this is for the greater purpose and some people who say they meet the bare requirement and not meet the greater meeting

heather: when we have given out guess pass and we have used discression and if this is good or nuetral for noisebridge.

sal: i'm just learning and observing and coming to concensous. it looks like youre coming to expectations about access membership and who you determine about stuff.

lx: in response to this because i was late. in the past we didn't just ask but we also explained access membership and then explain the bullet points so we could get through it and elucidate the people applying and stuff

4: donating 220v esspresso machine

On topic	donating 220v esspresso machine
From/Raised by	lia
Seeking	decision

lia: we should have a meeting on sunday meeting and we can have it where we learn how to use the esspresso machine. the meeting and the donating here. i have this idea that this could be a sunday morning cafe and it could be also part of the tuesday meeting.

michael: the donation could be bigger.

lia: i have been here 4 times and i am starting a cafe at the sf library. at market and civic center. i got into cafe stuff a year or 2 ago. i have a large esspresso machine from 2018 and a grinder and stuff and I haven't used it in a week and a half it need some stuff.

newman: you want to bring it here or for your own event

lia: I don't want people to mess it up and then once you have training then we can open it up for people to use it.

-- **chaos**

lx: there is something specticle and performative and theatrical and cool and the experience that is cool when you make coffee for people. I say yay to this

elan: i just want to take a note that when esspresso machine was brought up daniel locked in

loren: more stuff in the space is a concern. my mind goes to wire shelves. rolling in and out

lia: this might need plumbing

loren: we have bottles of water

jonathan: having 2 machines, this is not a good thing

heather: this needs a nontypical voltage for us

loren: we have a plug for this

newman: uh

loren: noise cafe is good for this

carl: i love coffee and espresso machine but there is a fair amount of infrastructure for this, it need plumbing and 220v for it. we need to know the specs nad that we can go ahead with it once we have it . i would be willing to pay and helping with this.

loren: this knitting machine takes 220 where we have an adapter and as long as the wattage is ok then we can do it. none of our circuits are rating for 30 amps.

Naomi (writing): oh is that why the IKM whines so much?

newman: are you taking responsibility for this thing?

loren: it can all be on wheels and an adapter and you could potentially take this somewhere else for events

lx: we've had a coffee channel where we have a coffee tradition and maybe we have a coffee guild. we should have a coffee guild meeting.

Jet: ARe you going to take responibility for this thing?

lia: ideally i don't have to spend alot of money on it and i don't want ot buy the cord for it. i imagine i could help initial events for how you use it and a hour long intro on sundays morning. i work 7 days a week and i won't be here alot. it could be cool if there was an intro class if there was intro classes every sunday.

heather: in response, morning access can be iffy if you don't have acccess and we could do a guest pass.

lia: i don't want one that sounds like too much responcibility

[Relevant Link: lamarzoccousa.com/commercial-products/espresso-machines/linea-classic-s/ Lia's machine is the 2grp one in the table, it takes up 30x32 floorspace.]

kavia: I used to be a barista for several years, idk how familiar it is but it need a specific cleaning process and if it's not done then the macihne could have issues and break. how could we keep people responsible if yhou're not staying until the end of the event you're running.

lucifer: there is a cleaning process. you could put a picture on the back of it

newman: we have a cafe that does not get cleaned. and it get messy and it degrates. people put stuff ontop and theres alot of people that come through this space.

carl: this is a good point that we would need a guild. this would require a guild and it would be incombent upon the guild to have training and keeping track of the facility.

lucifer: the sunday meeting could work

carl: we need everyday

Heather: Seconding suggestion of a guild, it sounds like we would need 1 or 2 people other than lea involved, seconding.

kavya: when I was a barista we cleaned it at the end of every workday. for people to use the machine it should be who uses it not just a crew of people. there is no way to enforce it. the coffee guild should figure that ouit.

Lea: We should sleep on it and discuss in discord for a week and see if we should do it after that!

5: the new floor

On topic	the new floor
From/Raised by	loren
Seeking	advice

Lucifer: We should do the floor. We need to do the floors upstairs and everywhere there.

Loren: I've been talking about this since feb or march. Since it will all have to be sequenced and want to bring it hback to meeting as a proposal for labor and paying someone else will affect how we sequence it. Highest idea so far is that chairs in RNA lounge have cracked the paint and wood so it should start there. We could mop more easily. We have at lealst 4 years left in the building.

Newman: Do we have anyone with floor expertise who knows how? I tried to find out when I first joined and was told to seek budget/materials.

naomi: i captained the reflooring process during the first reboot. i don't feel like i need to lead it, but i can talk to people about my experience doing it. we rented a resurfacing machine and did it ourselves.

Loren: this is hardwood flooring

Naomi: yeah, this was hardwood too [not the exact same, tbc]. the upstairs at the old location we had hardwood that we resurfaced (and then sealed off).

michael: I would be willing to help with this and we can just do one spot at a time.

loren: maybe the electronics room first?

lucifer: we should have a noisebridge garage sale and before the flooring we should have a garage sale to get rid of things.

michael: might not be a good idea

lucifer: but it could be a good idea

naomi: my main point was that we can do the reflooring ourselves.

michael: if we have a budget and a way to get materials here then we can make it work

jonathan: maybe we should call a contractor in -- not to have a contractor do it. it might have value to have a contractor to give us guidence.

michael: I think you should work with our woodshop guild. sounds like we have a lot of in-house knowledge -- naomi has done it before, others have too.

jonathan: we don't have to pay someone, just advice

?: Might be easy to get someone to come in and give us a quote.

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!