Meetings 2022 04 12

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These are the notes from the The XXXth Meeting of Noisebridge.

• Live notes
  • https://pad.riseup.net/p/nbmeeting
• Virtual Meeting (jitsi mic/cam off by default)
  • https://jitsi.noisebridge.io/hackitorium#config.startWithAudioMuted=true&config.startWithVideoMuted=true&userInfo.displayName=%22n00b%22
  • Backup link: https://meet.jit.si/noisebridge

Date: ADD THE DATE HERE in the format 2022_04_12 as below

Edit the meeting number above where it says the XXXth meeting of Noisebridge (by checking previous meetings)

ALSO EDIT PREVIOUS AND NEXT DATES IN THE WIKI LINKS BELOW

Previous Meeting

Next Meeting

Note-takers: Loren, Woz, LX

Moderators: WOZ, Loren

• One or two bullet points of high-level meeting summary.

Meeting Summary

FILL OUT AT END OF MEETING AND SEND TO MAILING LIST

TLDR what happened at the meeting:

• Fundraising Update
• Announcements:
• Finances:
• New members:
• New philanthropists:
• Consensus Items:
• Discussion Items:

Introductions

• Ask people to share their name, access needs, and preferred gender pronouns during their intro, i.e.:
• Person1 - she/her - people please say names when speaking (i am low vision) - something i do
• Person2 - they/them - no access needs - first time here, hello
• and so on

Woz he/him, no access needs. Loren HE/HIM no access needs, he do code Sid no access needs electronics and code Daniel likes to help people and shit, he/jim no access needs Farley - No idea what access is, do code LX - He has a wheel chair, would like stairevator, teaches Wednesdays Gamebridge gamedev/vr/blender/music/animation, excited Ronald - HE/HIM no access needs, codes and..... takes the path of least resistance Elan - does code/bike/wiki stuff, lurking on Jitsi Dane - he/him/they - no access needs, not a techie, teaches media & comm studies

Excellence

Our One Rule is to Be Excellent to Each Other. LX: Look at the poster, it says be excellent, like bill and ted, like small stuff be considereate and nice to eachother. Make decisions with concensus and doaucracy. We have some tools for handling unexcellent behaviour, such as ask to disengage and if they are a danger ask them to leave. Conflict resolution and mediation if nessisary

(What does that mean? Everyone is expected to follow the Anti-Harassment Policy, please familiarize yourself with it.) TWO MINUTES MAX

Short announcements and events

• 60-second description per item in bulletpoint.
• Copy-paste any pre-announcements for the upcoming meeting from Announcements.
• After announcements, copy them to the past Announcements list. Retire any from the Next Meeting list that aren't marked ONGOING.

Examples to delete and replace with actual announcements - Farley - taking over CHM, wants to make it more educational

New members/philanthropists

What are they? Is anyone trying to become a philanthropist or Member? If not move on. No long discussions. WOZ - Second week Loren - FOURTH week

Financial Report

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

See Finance-wg channel in slack

• 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

Spending Needs

Gotta spend money on XYZ (i.e. Gate, wiring etc.). WHO CAN SIGN THE CHECK OR LEND THE CREDIT CARD!?!?! It doesn't matter if we agree to do something and it can’t be paid for.

LX- needs Quote on curtain thing, and has outstanding paperwork for NB14

Fundraising Update

How's it all going

LX- We raised some money and people

Big C Consensus Items

Nobody likes 3 hour meetings, only explain if people ask

LX- Wants bar bot, wants to spend $500 to $1000, looking for input

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

Emeline - embroidery machine - under discussion lately, looked into it. IS it good machine for NB to have? Which are in range we can ensure continue working? we have juki mechanic who fixes machines over and over. No amount of telling people to get training is stopping the machines from getting broken. Embroidery would be higher maintenance. Domestic machine wasn't much used, difficult to set up, limited capabilities. etc. A consumer/hobbyist+ range of machines is $5,000. $2000 older machines aren't serviced in the US online only. It is fairly easy to find parts and it is somewhat user friendly. If it is misused it will break quickly and investment in fixes. More garments like hats... Industrial embroidery machines have support in bay but are difficult to fix. We could learn but they are different range pf tuning precision, $10K+ I did find a couple industrials around $5k second hand. They have features to prevent breaking after getting. Do we want to invest given the maintenance cost and how people treated sewing room which is not excellent? Even sewing machine maintainers don't touch embroidery machines because of amount of precision they have to have. IS that something we want to get? Looked into other spaces and what they used, lots of machines requires special training. Would like to have an embroidery machine

LX- sounds like it is more importaint than the laser cutter, we have done this before. Would it be easier if the people willing to get this going would sign up to train people. Emiline: We have done this already with the knitting machine

LX- Pattern, like events, need to establish how many people it takes to keep the machine maintained

EM- People have brought their sewing machines for us to show them out to use them

LX- I'll sign up for embroidery and stuff.

EM- its a differenc investment

LX- First build a gor

Dave - It is a pattern question to what extent do we want to enforce excellence like locking things against stealing, unsupervised people, etc. and we're all over the place. We could have a discussion about it and be in a better spot. We could RFID and password protect the sewing machines and logs who uses it for accountability or keys or access controls to certain rooms in the space so you get access to sewing rooms by being trained on them. Pushback against this kind of thing was based on not being big problem or throw money at it.

Emeline - Also the cost of maintenance. Each generation of people involved in sewing machines has lost knowledge transferring hands. It is hard to keep track. Best implementation might be to have ability to have maintenance community that knows each other and can ask questions. Most people who come show up once to ask for us to fix machines or how to make straight lines and then that's it. How many people have ongoing deep interests to invest beyond that? There aren't so many people interested until you reach out for people who use it as a job for their craft. People who did this like Eli did this professionally and had vested interest in maintaining it. Do we need different levels of access? If you break machine 3rd time we know how and have 10 replacement parts once we have the right mechanic skills. It raises questions about how we invest and pay for convenient use.

Dave - One thing we have done in the past for fundraising is we have said if people do a fundraiser and raise half Noisebridge will match and buy the thing. Maybe one thing is to find champions and owners of things that we want to buy.

Emeline - one makerspace asked about Industrial embroidery machines said they had a certain number of hours per machine per week like buying time.

Dave - If there is ongoing cost, there's a case for putting in money to use it like laser since it uses lots of power and bulb has finite life so you put in $5-10 per hour when you use it.

Emeline - people have been helpful about money for maintenance.

Dave - Maybe we small C consensus a donation box for sewing?

Emeline - we do but we don't have the key.

Dave - It needs separate accounting to stay in sewing fund.

LX - There should be a box for donations that tells you how much Noisebridge costs per day. It calculates a fair donation amount.

Dave - We should avoid putting any new work on the treasury.

EHR - Would come in after meeting to work on the project earmarking accounts list.

Dave - I wan to put a tagalong discussion item with sewing. A small poll for people: How do people feel about

LX - VR cart has had locked down GPU PC and Vive safe for long time. Fine with lcoked machine maintainer groups.

? - I'm unsure about locking rooms as sometimes I just want to hang out in the sewing room even if I don't need to operate the machines. I haven't seen the signs on the machines yet.

Dave - What if the sign is part of the access control system and reading it to get into the room is like a mental TOS.

? - I think its early to jump to it.

Dave - access control for machines?

? - fine with that.

EHR - For things we're concerned about walking away like power drills, we could low tech etch them with PROPERTY OF NOISEBRIDGE PLEASE RETURN. If there's pushback for more access controlled tool library containers, more people could get onboard with that.

Alex - When I see the 10 drills for sale on mission street I assume they're all ours.

Ronald - Some people might borrow them without realizing they aren't to be removed from the space.

Dave - We could put cable attached to brick or something. It needs to have name and contact for the place.

Noel - We could also do inventory control like airtags or RFID we could know when they got out. Track them through the door.

Loren - we could attach airtags with epoxy.

EHR: https://donate.noisebridge.net/ has an option to earmark donation to a specific project but there is currently only "General Fund". We could expand this list here: https://github.com/noisebridge/python-nb-donate/search?q=%22General+Fund%22

LX - I suggest we reup our object tagging tracker system and add bulky versions for steal prone things and RFID tags so it is informational internally as well.

Ronald - White marker saying prop noisebridge to start.

Noel - what works wil lbe a combination.

Discussion Item 2

space cleanlieness

Dave - Soldering iron was left on overnight upstairs. If you are doing project it is your responsibility to clean up after. Philanthropists closing up have secondary responsibilty to make sure everyone else did their job. We fail keeping space clean. I am seeing dirty used dishes everywhere. I am throwing them in trash when I see them. I feel we should get rid of all food and dishes.

LX - this has happened many times in the past. People have argued about this a lot. I personally see a limited use "cafe" with certain prescribed functions as being beneficial to the space. Very useful for events and such. C Base in berlin has a full bar (the space is basically a night club). Something like this is something to look up to. Serving a limited set of things, with dishes staying at the space not really part of the equation.

Ronald - there should be more events like 2 a day so people seeing it as infeasible to do that kind of thing. When people are not in the space except for a few people it allows them to use rooms for the entire day and want to cook food and nobody will stop you. More people leads to more having to be cleaner. The space is meant for a lot of people not just 5 at a time.

Dave - with more people here, rules can be enforced better.

Ronald - if more people were here all you'd have in fridges would be drinks and stuff.

Frank - I would hope for a situation where I bring a cup bags and sweetener. I donated non-perishable things that don't take up fridge space or spoil. Things like strawberry mix for drinks.

Dave - That's like Alex was suggesting. Distinction between personal food and communal food like a bulk package.

EHR - I agree with everything brought up in initial item point. Especially upstairs in less trafficked rooms. People leaving food and drinks and refuse is gross.

Dave - I sat on a spoon once!

EHR - I think it would be pre-emptive to ban food from the space. Escalating incentives against it and increasing signage is a first try. "If you're eating food, eat in the downstairs cafe lobby". I think people are trying to eat absnt mindedly while working on things but they could do so in the space designated for food. It is nice to be able to eat and drink with people in the space while working on things. Maybe if announcements and signs don't curb then limiting it to areas like the cafe Alex was mentioning.

Dave - I want to summarize my points quick. It sounds like we have small C consensus to scale back food in some ways. Not ready to change any policy but I would like us to call people out as philanthropist or member responsible for closing a clean space. You can't do it all but make some noise about it or have conversation with whoever leaves things out. If you leave things or someone does a huge mess be there to clean it up as possible.

? - There was a hippy couple taking over half the fridge and left a mouldy mess. I think we should have a time window. Sign says every day food gets tossed.

? - I agree nobody needs to long-term store food here and nightly sweep makes sense.

Dave - for today, I'd like us to put a new sign on fridge saying overnight food should not be stored here.

Mark - I kind of agree people should be called out more but lets not overpolice it. It is an important freedom people should have to bring food for the day they're there. Not storing it overnight is probably a good line. Fridge should say something like don't put anything not consumed more than a day and put day on it or it gets thrown out.

LX - Brewing kombucha and beer is our guild project and should be exception.

Dave - Could it be exception established through consensus for project food storage?

LX - Yeah small C at a meeting or event organizer team.

Ronald -

Mark - Someone could get label maker affixed to fridge to incentivizing people to label it. Label tape and marker.

LX - we should have a brew fridge.

Dave - we probably don't need more than 2 fridges.

LX - well refreshment fridge could be dedicated for just that and bottled brews ready to serve.

Discussion Item 3

Are people okay with getting quotes/options from contractors for making the 2nd more accessible (stairlift/elevator/etc.)?

Related: has anyone already looked into accessibility grants for the new space?

EHR - I want to look into the options for second floor accessibility. Is anything else out there not on wiki? Also looking into grants and stuff.

LX - Lizzard and pyconaut know stuff.

Dave - Over last several months there have been attempts to CAD out the sapce and rearrange stairs and such to make stairlift work better. Ask JD.

EHR - I will ping them. It will be helpful to show CAD of space to potential contractors.

Dave - There was effort to put door opener downstairs but it failed and it needs help. It could be door is too broken [and stiff] and we need a new door.

Mark - Can we get professional to come install it?

EHR - These places are into construction for accessibility and could recommend. If I search auto door repair I'll find something. I wanted to get interest levels before doing it. Upstairs could be cool for more people.

LX - I'll believe upstairs exists and isnt' a prank when I see it myself.

Discussion Item 4

Items from TJ via Slack: - Noah is no longer going to be the primary teacher for Circuit Hacking Mondays, so we need a new Circuit Hacking Mondays teacher! CHM is mostly for beginners, so as long as you can solder good and understand Arduinos you'd be a great candidate. - (someone volunteered) - The board in front should also reflect that CHM is temporarily without a teacher (I'd still keep the slot, as CHM is important for Noisebridge and I can do it in a pinch) - No longer relevant (has teacher) - Elections will be up in a week! I'd like to hear what people consense as the proper voting method for the board.

Farley has volunteered to.

Board Election - Process Agreement & Announcement

https://pad.riseup.net/p/nbvoting

Frank - I was asked to help with a non-profit. There's a 501c3 indemnification protection from personal liability. NB history for a long time where technically the board said they would take no board actions. Except during rent negotiations.

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!

in addition to the github TJ put together this TODO board https://trello.com/b/votKcUok/lets-improve-noisebridge-pt-2-pandemic-boogaloo

Loren - can we target next week for a board election? We need a member in good standing list and quorum number?

LX - can we go over it till we have a process that doesn't seem to have problems?

Mark - I think we need someone like secretary or president who is point person to take private ballots. They can decide what method to take them by. Let's try to be efficient.

EHR - There is an anonymous voting extension for slack that could be added. That could give anonymity and accessibility aspects. Consensus items are already not anonymous it would in the interest of consistent process be in that vein. One idea would be you could set up a system where people are invited to the election hacking channel on slack who are members in good standing and vote anonymously. A roster of people who are in good standing would be stablished over the week. Slack postings and anonymous paper ballots could both work. Anything more complex would be too much.

Dave - I hate to pile on yet another choice, but: 1 thing we could do is come up with a secret code like OTP give it to anybody who wants to participate in voting who we check ok. Have them send anon email to an address to see if anybody objected.

EHR - If idea is to make things secure, we could have a sytem that does that. If you are member in good standing paper ballot lockbox in the space. I think if we home-roll election security, we're out of our depth.

LX - I think we can agree on something good electronic that we feel good about.

Dave - I think Loren deserves recognition because he did hard work coming up with a plan without which we would not do anything longer.

Claus - even if we do another voting thing its valuable to build the slack channel to get ready for whatever we use.

LX - we could work on the rolls list over the week to start a process next week after working it out.

Dave - we could support some voting in person next week and slack, email and other methods. Approval voting.

Claus - does board appoint officers?

Dave - members choosing officers seems more Noisebridge.

Dave - Board laws say boards appoint officers.

LX - Members can still choose appointments by consensus for board to "appoint".

Claus - So we should put on the voting people nominating officers.

End of Meeting

Note taker posts the notes

• Clean and tidy the meeting notes including removing all these really verbose instructions.
• Fill out the short summary at the top listing just announcements, consensus items, discussion topics, and names of new members and philanthropists.
• Copy paste the notes to the next meeting page. (They will become Last meeting at midnight.)
• Email the meeting summary to Noisebridge Discuss and Noisebridge Announce lists.
• CC on the email treasurer@noisebridge.net and secretary@noisebridge.net if there are new members and philanthropists.
• Edit the Current Consensus Items if anything is proposed for consensus next week.
• Edit the Consensus Items History if anything was reached consensus or failed to reach consensus this week.

Fun things to do after

• 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)