Meeting Notes 2026 07 22

These are the notes from the The 873th Meeting of Noisebridge.

Date	2026-07-22
Note-taker[s]	Heather, Naomi,
Moderator[s]	Newman

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Meeting Summary

Meeting covered introductions, announcements, financial reports, and six discussion items including art curation, ADA accessibility via elevator/lift, electrical circuits, and resin printer safety.

• Announcements: WE/Z attending ICML chip design event; Heather: sewing guild July 23rd, 3D printing guild next week (see Discord); Jet: Open Sauce afterparty donation received; Braelynn thanks community for DJ opportunity
• Fundraising Update: Open Sauce party raised just under $7,000
• Finances: Expenses: $1,300 (Daniel/Solderfumes), $150 (Josh UHaul), $315 (Kevin OrangePi if not recovered). Reminder to coordinate purchases via Zulip treasurer channel or treasurer@noisebridge.net
• New members: None
• New associates: Khalilah (interested in Access member status)
• Consensus Items: None
• Discussion Items:
  1. Leftover keg: group will plan party offline; keg must be returned physically
  2. Door opener switch: Chris and Heather to add extra switch or modify to 2-position
  3. Art curation: establish planning process; breakout group to develop guidelines
  4. Elevator/ADA access: Khalilah leading grant fundraising; breakout group to research lift vs. elevator options
  5. Electrical circuits: Naomi will contact electrician contact; Newman to coordinate estimate discussions
  6. Resin printers: unsafe currently; move to proper desk with ventilation; 3D printing guild to discuss placement

Introductions

• name + worst pizza topping

• Newman - corn
• Blitzkrieg - onions
• Heather - pepperoni
• Zacchae - raw onions
• Jet - boiled eggs
• WE/Z - wasabi
• Corey - raisins. also the worst cookie ingredient
• Hyeonseop - pineapple
• Khalila - corn
• Jar - broccoli
• Constantine - pineapple
• k014 - nails
• Gwen - fiber
• Daniel (web) - black olives
• Jonathan - natto
• Sam - kale chips
• Naomi - peppermint patties

• Elan - unannounced pinenuts at places trying to be fancy (partner is allergic and this has ruined an evening)
• Daniel (solderfumes) - anchovies

Short announcements and events

• WE/Z - going to ICML(?). chip design/etc. event
• Heather - guild meetings: sewing July 23rd, 3D printing next week (day TBD, see discord)
• Jet - open sauce afterparty donation moneys!
• Braelynn thanks the community for the oppt'y to tear the house down as a DJ

Excellence

Our One Rule is to Be Excellent to Each Other.

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

Naomi: in juggling, you can't throw a perfect throw every time. so you adjust and catch it

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

WE/Z: Jet for organizing open sauce

Blitzkrieg & Heather: k014 aka Alex, for SLA printer work

LX: Carl for getting FT working again after Open Sauce

Elan: Chris, Daniel, and Daniel for last-minute party supply run

Guilds & WGs

Music: meeting on July 29th at 7pm

Treasury: made just under $7k at opensauce party. brief list of expense reimbursements. reminder to coordinate and not double-up on expenses -- perhaps ppl can write on Zulip in the treasurer guild channel (?) to make sure you're not buying something someone already bought.

Woodshop: new decibel meter -- idea is to put ear protection next to decibel meter and mount decibel meter

• $1300 for Solderfumesandtea Daniel
• $150 for Josh's UHaul
• $315 for Kevin's OrangePi

New Members/Access Members

Khalilah is interested in becoming an Access member.

Financial Report

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 _may_ be available at https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Finances

Spending Needs

Kevin: rented Uhauls ~$150, also a lost OrangePi

Fundraising Update

[Khalila has a discussion item]

Discussion Items

Daniel: who gets to use the extra keg? it's 100% full!

Heather: door opener being turned off overnight

• Khalila Ada elevator

Naomi: how to encourage artists & accrue more art in the space

1: what to do with the leftover keg?

On topic	what to do with the leftover keg?
From/Raised by	Daniel (web)
Seeking	ideas... decision?

Daniel: who wants a whole keg of beer?

Sam: refill all the bottles in the FT!

Daniel: That's a bad idea

food incubator that does catering, etc.

Chris: the physical keg has to be returned, is the problem

[chatter about hosting another party]

Solderfumes: keg will go bad in about 3 weeks, we should just have a big party w/ some grapefruit flavoring like a rattler or something. also as a nonprofit we can apply for a 1-day alcohol permit to sell alcohol.

Chris: what's the timeline like on that?

Solderfumes: something like a week? maybe?

Elan: maybe if we have a non-tuesday meeting we can have a social one that starts w/ a keg?

Lucifer: what about board games and other stuff at that too

DanieL: sounds like we'll have some kind of rager

Newman: can you guys work this out offline?

Daniel: yeah. we can't legally sell alcohol

Jean-Jaques: refrigerate it?

2: door opener being turned off overnight/when closing

On topic	door opener being turned off overnight/when closing
From/Raised by	Heather
Seeking	decision/outcome/advice/[?]

once a month i come in and the door opener doesn't work b/c it's been switched off (by a human). the middle position is a position b/c it turns off, disables key card and also ADA. let's make this stop happening.

Newman: so the only reason why this happens...

Heather: is someone screwing up, yeah. I've tried making it so you can't touch it, but Ken apparently uses the down position so we can't just disable it.

Jonathan: if it's simply changing a 3-pos to 2-pos switch, we could do that

Chris: let's try maybe adding an extra switch -- put it on top where it's not visible so we don't lose the functionality.

Newman: can you guys collab and make that happen?

3: not removing art without forethought

On topic	not removing art without forethought
From/Raised by	Naomi
Seeking	decision/outcome/advice/[?]

Naomi: encouraging artists & NB to accrue art. A lot of this is b/c of Open Sauce. A lot of things like Flaschentachen keep being taken to Open Sauce, b/c we dont' make new things. Another half, a complaint I unfortunately have to make: I put a piece of art in the doorway (a hexagon light), which got taken down - I wasn't okay with this, b/c it wasn't installed in a removable+re-installable way. Having worked in an art space, a big mood killer is when there's a disrespect for the value of the choice of how and where to install it. We should know who put it up, and if they're still around, it would be more excellent to ask them. I'd also like to never ever take the FT again.

Elan: I think it's a good idea to encourage art, I think a DNH sign would solve a lot of issues [Naomi shakes her head here]. Previously, people have put up art, I thikn it's cool but it takes up space. NB being a do-ocracy, people think they can do stuff to the art. For the FT, I think it'd be a good idea to have a DNH on it (and maybe the dragon).

Naomi: You've just named and put on display all the cultural things that I think are shiftable. DNH signs are often not respected, especially the older they get. To me it would be sensible to not tear down things that add to the space. [current behaviour] discourages artists from sticking around and contributing.

Lucifer: so yeah what about plaques [more or less] [Naomi: nods]

Daniel: i had 2 things brought to opensauce and they were broken. not ideal. i kind of accept that this is just the Entropy of the space.

Wheezy: so jet and i were exhibiting and by far the #1 thing that attracts ppl is the FT. it's a modular thing that will continue to be shifted, it's not always been the way it is now. we're always shifting the thing. taking it to OpenSauce brings a lot of attention to us. Daniel's art: we're gonna fix it. Naomi's hexagon: we should always source the creator and ask them if we can take it.

Heather: the hexagon, it's a bit of an accessibility thing and it was the best lighting in that area. and i expressed some irritation w/ it as it was happening. so for days there was poor illumination in that area

Kevin: i feel like there could be some advanced planning, i dunno??? [yeahhh! --nthmost]. Start a few months earlier, brainstorm, stuff like that. and maybe we'll create something new and exciting as an alt. to FT.

Daniel: FT is big, we bring it b/c it's big, we can't have a big thing every year.

Sam: talking to Brennan, was talking about how to revamp it so it's easy to move

Chris: that's different thing!

Naomi: yeah no one's really excited about FT, that's not going to get Noisebridge in Maker Magazine or whatever.

Kevin: yeah we could build something really big and then sell it

Null: sure maybe we have something alongside the FT, not always rest on the FT as an installation, make a new thing and optionally take the FT. Chance to be creative w/ constraints here.

Lucifer: i feel like if we make a plan, a yearly thing, something we work on together every 6 months, we can make a big deal of it. create bigger things together, get creative, pull in more artists. a little more planning goes a long way.

LX: The dragon gave out sparks during the party and someone tried to disconnect a part of it so it wouldn't cause an electrical fire, that's currently poking out of its board enclosure. Related: how to take care of big and sometimes accident-prone art projects. all related... probably art pieces like this need a maintenance document.

Corey: from other arts orgs i've been in, they have an event, they have a lot of ppl going, they come up w/ ideas and as a commnunity we share & decide which one we'll all work on together. so for these big conferences you have a date you have to be done by. choosing a 4-month period where you're writing a proposal, taking a few weeks to discuss, at least a month of time to build, etc.

Elan: NB does a pretty good job at encouraging art in the space... i think NBers won best project at Maker Faire last year with the Coffee Table. The reason that project came together was a lot of organization, let's make a coffee table or whatever, getting lots of ppl involved. i think the way to approach is to get ppl on board w/ the idea and try and gather around it. Doesn't seem like a policy will do the trick here.

Jean-Jaques: we had 2 murals at the old space --- we did outreach to Cal College of the Arts, 2 guys presented themselves, showed what they planned to do. too bad we lost it when we moved. has anyone done something reaching out to any arts colleges, etc?

Naomi: i have a stack of NFC tags you can scan to find out about an installation

Newman: definitely, ok let's close this one down.

4: elevator / ADA (grant proposal?)

On topic	elevator / ADA (grant proposal?)
From/Raised by	Khalila
Seeking	consensus

Khalila: I dropped a proposal into Discord and a few other places. was discussing this w/ Lucifer. right now 2nd floor is only accessible by stairs, excludes ppl with ADA restrictions. installing an elevator ensures we live up to our values. i am looking for consensus, that ppl like this idea.

Heather: that written proposal probably won't be discussed today - community needs time to read through it

Lucifer: the place it would best be is behind the 3d printing room.

Corey: we met today w/ someone who installs ADA hardware (David Lindsor). i was part of a discsusion like thsi about 2-3 hyears ago. we deided the best place would be to exit right where the stairs come out. so whoever comes in w/ a wheelchair gets a similar experience to an able-bodied person. we can either get an "elevator" or a "lift". Lift: you have to manually control it, doesn't have brains, a human is in the loop, can ONLY be used by people (on pain of fine by city). Elevator: has its own sensors + intelligence, can be used for freight and people up to 1000 lbs. installation challenges: to install an elevator, you need to cut through the floor. $180k (this is all in the #accessibility channel on Discord). Lift: costs $65k - challenge in SF you're not supposed to build them past 12 ft and we are 15.5ft. we can get a "variance", probably a slam dunk to do so. I see this as incredibly valuable, no need for mods except for cutting into the (upper / second storey) floor and installing cross beams for support.

Jonathan: one of the things in this discussion is that the prep of the space could be done by a general contractor (or under its supervision) and then the elevator can be put in.

Corey: we'd have to find some way to build the shaft. design it, etc. could just be frame and gypsum board.

Loren: glad to hear these numbers. we have a 10 year lease locked in going up 3% every year. but maybe we take the oppt'y to renegotiated. ends 2030.

Lucifer: reasoning why we chose this spot, it has the least electrical and other stuff around it. and when we do the lift or elevator we may as well redo the floors at the same time.

Derek: has this precluded moving NB to a single-level place?

Naomi: i would strongly precaution thinking about a move. it is culturally expensive. this space was a shadow of its former self for years, and part of that was the pandemic, but a lot of that is just that it's really, really exhausting to set up a hackerspace. the other thing is that improving a space makes a property more valuable. so it's potentially a point of negotiation w/ our current landlord: "we're a tenant that improves this space."

Chris: speaking of landlord, anything like that would need their approval. if we have a "build to suit" lease...

Loren: the lease PDF are all available on the wiki

Corey: last time we talked to the landlord he wasn't interested in any of this

Naomi: well the landlord's not been interested in fixing our bathrooms, so.

Heather: if we change up the 3D printing area let's take the opp'y to make it all better. current room is cramped.

Lucifer: no no, it'd be BEHIND it, not through it. nondestructive. so you'd come up

Loren: if we're bothering to put up a shaft, it's definitely worth folding in some replanning / revamping to make everything better.

Corey: one of the reasons we put it at the front of the stairs is there's already activity there

Khalila: sources from grants (possible): there are programs that help you get access to specific grants, like $200, but you can do this through the local library

Naomi: if you succeed at this a lot of ppl will see you as leading the charge to get this done, are you interested in being seen as that person?

Khalila: i'm happy to be seen as the organizer to keep the project together, yes, ppl can come to me for that.

Kavya: we need to decide on whether it's a lift or an elevator, right?

Chris: right, probably contingent on the grant size we end up getting.

Khalila: i'm gonna shoot for $200k -- for a real elevator.

Newman: yeah maintenance comes to mind, do lifts break more?

Khalila: that's why i am going for $200k so we have buffer set aside for repairs, etc.

Corey: the downside is a little sacrifice in real estate upstairs (for an elevator), so we'd be looking at losing the sewing room and

Jonathan: if we devloped the list of questions my contact is happy to talk through all this.

Kevin:

Jonathan: a lift doesn't get you ADA approval, you can't move a wheelchair.

Loren: it feels like this needs a lot of coordination, hoping there's a place to hold this as a long discussion, so for better quality discussion we should make sure this discussion isn't beholden to

Naomi: [he means] make a breakout group

LX: is there a way we could add a shaft to the side of the building instead?

Newman: let's find out about property lines

Loren: given the stairs it might have to go in place of the downstairs bathroom.

Newman: great, breakout group, go over the meeting notes together and talk more.

5: we need better electrical circuits

On topic	we need better electrical circuits
From/Raised by	Blitzkrieg
Seeking	consensus

Chris: we need more circuits. more outlets. most of the woodshop is off a single breaker which means it blows if 2 ppl are using power tools at the same time.

Naomi: YEP!!!

Heather: break room and music room share a breaker, so the entire north wall of the music room is the same breaker as the one running ktichen appliances. it'd be great to have more outlets, like the rest of the north wall of the music room.

Daniel: we could do DC rails

Chris: that only helps a little bit

Daniel: it helps with not-enough-outlets for sure

Elan: we "just" got a bunch of electrical outlets done, so if anyone wants to talk to them and get a new estimate

Chris: I'll start the estimate by giving them a kick in the ass for not doing it right the first time.

Elan: talk to JD, some personal relationship there

Null: like... did they just do what we told them to do?

Loren: we told them to keep the budget down.  :)

Naomi: I have a contact, guy who's a security guard during that rave a month ago, he says he'd like to cut NB a deal but he works for an electrician company. Got his number, can call him up.

Newman: great, let's all talk to Luis, get a channel going or whatever.

6: resin printers

On topic	resin printers
From/Raised by	k014
Seeking	awareness

The resin printers are working, but are dangerous. I recommend we do not use them (for now). We should move the resin printers to a diff't location to sit on a proper desk to work with, and suitable ventilation.

Corey: there's a room in back, could we use them?

Daniel (web): I mostly never see them get used, and when they do get used they get messed up by the operators. I suggest trying to sell them.

K014: I will buy one!

Loren: People have used them, [notetakers missed some of this], mention of people who've had previous interactions with these printers.

Blitzkrieg: The backroom _has_ been earmarked for a machine shop expansion for several months.

Kavya: I don't think "nobody knows how to use this, so we should sell it" is a good argument. The whole point of a makerspace is so people can learn how to use things.

Naomi: I think if someone experienced willing to say "in this environment, they're not suitable", it's worth listening to that person.

LX: there are several 3d printer companies that make things that deal w/ fumes, we can experiment w/ vents on carts. was talking to Loren about a more permanent high-quality vent. resin also needs a sink, we should have a portable sink for it. i have a use case for it, others do too. LINK TO SCRUBBER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjShyRvu5mM and https://info.phrozen3d.com/products/phrozen-air-purifier-max

Loren: i brought in a fan that's now sitting near the laser which could maybe serve as a mainline fan to make fumes go up and through the chimney. dispersal should be fine. also brought another fan for ventilation elsewhere. this could also help 3d printing ventilation.

HEather: so wrt decomissioning or removing them, "not using them" is a weak reason, but if it's a safety concern that's a stronger reason.

Jonathan: "in its current state this is a safety issue" so i agree let's not use them in the immediate term until we figure out how to operate them properly.

Alex: i'll take pics and suggest at least 5 diff't locations around NB to put them. as soon as we find a solid DESK to put them. I don't think we need a sink. just ventilation.

Newman: so we should probably put something over those printers to indicate they shuldn't be used.

Alex: desperately need a desk to put stuff

Heather: could we wait on where to put it? let's discuss in a 3d printing guild meeting.

Alex: i would prefer to just move them b/c they're oeprational, just not good to use right now.

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!