Meeting Notes 2026 07 07

These are the notes from the The 871th Meeting of Noisebridge.

Date	2026-07-07
Note-taker[s]	Daniel (Web), Chaz, -
Moderator[s]	Jet (Email)

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Meeting Summary

Meeting covered introductions, OpenSauce booth volunteer opportunity, and multiple space discussions.

• Announcements: OpenSauce conference booth July 18–19 in San Mateo County, volunteers needed for setup and staffing, afterparty planned, contact Jet to showcase projects; Heather drafting contractor protocol in Discord facilities channel
• Fundraising Update: None
• Finances: Toilet paper bulk purchase request: $100 for 96 rolls plus shipping (one-time test); potential monthly paper towel purchase planned
• New core members: None
• New access members: James (Access Member, sponsored by Heather); Max (Access Member, sponsored by LX)
• Consensus Items: None
• Discussion Items:
  1. Membership page modernize: definitions need clarification before wiki modernization. Discord forum discussion
  2. Nix Meeting: repeated meeting confirmed, Third Wednesday 7 PM upstairs
  3. Access members leaving: request signage reminding users not to start time-consuming tasks
  4. Guild spending finances: petty cash fund needed; Givefront platform suggested with Card Steward system
  5. Music room flooring: project planned for next two months; research materials and sourcing needed
  6. IKM status: needles require cleaning; right oil needed; reimbursement request for Tuesday
  7. Grant Champion needed for guild funding process

Introductions

• Name and favorite restraunt.
• MJ: Pakwan
• We-Z: Curry Hyuga
• Chris (Blitzkrieg): Mission Curry House
• Vash: Aha
• Mike: Big Lantern (Valencia St .. Guerrero)
• Zara: Supreme Pizza
• ...: Thai Chili
• Carl: Ramenwell and Whiz Burger
• Kalila: <ambiguous response>
• Lucifer: Don't know name of spot
• Kevin: Chaya (Vegan Japanese)
• Johnathan: Cafe Ethiopia
• Michael: El Buen Sabor
• Daniel: Pancho Villa Taqueria
• Null: <mysterious response>
• Heather: Cancun
• James: Shizen???
• Chaz: Castelito
• Max: ... taqueria ... ?
• Jet: Pancho Villa Taqueria
• Elan: Tastebuds (RIP)
• Loren: Oaxaquena

Short announcements and events

• Heather: I'm drafting a protocol for contractors in the facilities channel on Discord, please chip in if you're interested.
• Jet: OpenSauce. Running our own booth 18th and 19th of July. We will have an afterparty. The conference is an amazing experience. If you are interested in showcasing a project you can sign up to show it off there. Ping Jet to get involved. Some decorative items will not be in the space during Open Sauce. You can volunteer for part of the day or a whole day. Note that it is in San Mateo County (30 min drive). (note taker: San Mateo is a real place?)

Excellence

Our One Rule is to Be Excellent to Each Other.

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

We-Z: Whatever Lucifer has been doing

Lucifer: My version is being kind, considerate, thinking about other people in the space.

Null: Conscientiousness

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

<It should be noted harassment is cringe>

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: Kudos to Lucifer for painting the music room. Derek for donating a drum kit. Michael Newman for being good at the drums. Null+Heather: Kudos to Derek for mopping the stairs.

Michael: Kudos to We-Z for letting me borrow this FPGA

Jet: Kudos to Zacchae for taking me out to dinner

Guilds & WGs

Lucifer: The music room is currently not a guild, It should be one. Want a calendar/whiteboard to coordinate responsibility.

Kavya: Music Guild - $50 for bobbin covers and black thread

Elan: Sewing Guild - Old Noisebridger willing to teach a class on how to repair sewing machines for (an amount of money). sahra@ https://www.stabbymachine.com/ [Worth recording if allowed.]

New Members/Access Members

James volunteers as tribute (access membership sponsored by Heather). Does 3D Printing + Laser Cutter, intends to donate, willing to kick people out. (Web Daniel LARPs as a sleeper at NB, James successfully commits to the bit) No one blocks James

Max wants access membership, sponsored by LX Lives far away, doesn't want to not be able to enter if people are not there on arrival does a variety of social and hacking activities at NB, happy(?) to kick people out, intends to donate in the future

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

Spending Needs

mister_name - Bulk toilet paper, 96 rolls, <$1/unit, wants to buy it as a test of how much we need to buy per month. Similar plans for paper towels in the future. Current ask: $100 for 96 rolls of TP plus shipping. One time ask, potential future monthly expense.

Discussion Items

1: Membership page rename

On topic	wiki/Membership page needs to be modernized
From/Raised by	Michael
Seeking	decision

Michael: Two parts. First, modify the page to reflect current understanding of roles. State that Core Members are not an ingroup, make it clear that it's not needed to do the vast majority of things at Noisebridge.

Heather: Should state the objective responsiblities/bylaws regarding each role, clarify that role definitions are still in flux.

Chaz: We need to figure out what we actual think a core/access member are before we modernize the page. We need a consistent definition.

LX: I agree with Chaz. One other thing I want to say is that being a member of Noisebridge starts with participating. I want people to feel like a participant and liked the change to the names for membership types. By participating you are opting in to the community before anyone gives you any special responsabilities.

Max: I think the wording of "core member doesn't make you part of an in-group" is true but doesn't fully reflect reality.

Heather: I feel like I know what an Access Member is, not what a Core Member is. Agree that you don't need to be an 'official member' to do memberly things.

Jet: [Something I missed]... If you care about Noisebridge - as a community, social, legally, etc - Core Membership will come to you, rather than having to be chased. Not many people become Core Members because Core Membership doesn't have a term limit. in part because demembering people is really hard and has no theorhetical term limit. It's dishonest to not call Core Members an ingroup, Core Members sponsor Core Members.

Heather: I can think of multiple people that are pillars of the community that are not Core Members.

Wheezy: I want to apologize to people who got 'hazed' by the current Core Membership process. I think our primal psychology leads us towards ingrouping, but we need to keep the space loving and caring for people who want to feel a sense of purpose. People find purpose in their affiliations with an organization, that's natural and not a bad thing.

Max: (I don't think any note takers can really hear him) Core Member is a confusing term because it centralizes Core Members, but in practice it's a more bureaucratic role. Maybe list examaples of Core Memberly non-Core Members to provide context to the role.

Carl: What is the process for redefining these terms?

Chaz: There is a discord forum post to define these terms

Heather: [I missed it]

Loren: Consider making a user page when drafting a big page change.

Elan: Possible renames - Bureaucrat, Person with Way Too Much Time.

Michael: Great responses. I think we're in agreement about the mechanical definitions of the roles, I propose putting quotes from Jet and Loren's definitions of these members on the page. This doesn't need to be solved in one shot, it can be edited iteratiely to become more accurate over time. Core Members are literally an ingroup, but we should aspire to make that less and less true. Maybe Legal Member is better name.

Lucifer: Memberships are a relation to Noisebridge and the community, not a position. Access Member normally are mostly at Noisebridge for their own things, Core Members come to Noisebridge for Noisebridge

Heather: Agree with the idea of counterexamples/exceptions.

Loren: The bylaws on at wiki/Bylaws. They are the agreements we've made with the state to define what our membership process is, and what a member is (legally speaking). Likes Jet's 'CM comes for you' phrasing. Worth Noting that Core Membership is a shiny badge that people want cause it's shiny. The spce is designed around being able to do stuff immediately, 'climbing the ladder' doesn't grant you more things beyond access. The focus on tiers feels misguided. Ideas revolving around merit badges/other non-tiered systems.

Wheezy: Before Core Members, we had Big M Members. People come to the space to rush to beome a Big M Member and become 'important'. Anarchy is the removement of unnecesary hierarchies, but there are necessary hierarchies, such as trust or access. Core Member was an attempt to dissolve the felt/perceived hierarchy.

Blitzkrieg: Likes Bureaucrat. Have we ever been audited by a legal organization?

LX: Angry ex-members have audited us for building codes, that's the worst it's ever been.

Elan: Just looked it up, we have not been audited.

[what LX is referring to here is angry ex-members filing complaints with the city... not technically "auditing" --nthmost]

Loren: Legally, we need to have a minimum fee.

Elan: I do like that bylaws got brought up. Before people look at bylaws, ask yourself what you think Noisebridge is, then read the bylaws and ask if those line up to you.

Loren: First suggestion, move this online, this is only the first discussion. Second, renames. Don't like Janitor, likes Obligate Member.

Null: LLM (Legally Liable Member)

Loren: TeX versioning is based off of digits Pi. Make tiers Members, Members with Access, Members with Access who are Liable

END

2: Nix Meeting

On topic	Confirming continuation of Nix Meeting on the 15th upstairs
From/Raised by	Max
Seeking	decision

Max: Just double checking Third Wednesday.

Jet: Don't get caught in bureaucracy.

Loren: I told him to announce it.

Null: what time?

Max: 7 PM

3: Advice for people using stuff while space is being closed up

On topic	advice for ppl being told the last access member is leaving
From/Raised by	Heather
Seeking	advice

Heather: More of a PSA. Short version - if all access members are leaving, and they are telling you that they are leaving, please do not continue using the laser cutter or other time-consuming tasks. Instead, try to ask if you can do something before Access Members leave ("Can I use the bathroom before you leave?")

LX: Agree, signage for this in the front.

Heather: I will ask people who fail to leave before my warning more explicitly in advance.

Blitz: Maybe hit the big red button.

Loren: Announcing to commit myself to do it, I need to bring fans for the laser cutter, if someone wants to lead the project of proper duct installation/roof opening, please do that.

4: Guild Spending Finances

On topic	Guild spending finances
From/Raised by	Blitzkrieg
Seeking	discussion

Blitz: At some level, we have independent endpoints for cash that are sorted to guilds. Theoretically donations that go to a guild should be used for maintenance of that guild. so far as I know, guilds can't directly access those endpoints, and they should.

Loren: In theory, we've wanted that. In practice, that is not currently happening. Earmarking is good.

Blitz: I want a petty cash fund for guilds. No one should ask if we can spend $9 on bobbin covers, we should just have $9 in a guild's fund.

Loren: More people have access to the cash boxes than I'd like. I'd like to design more access to maintaining spaces for people who are maintaining the space.

Daniel: Earmarking is implemented for the QR Codes, money can be filtered that way. QR Codes weren't created for earmarking specifically, but more to help one-time visitors donate.

LX: We used to have a system for this.

Loren: That was on the old website, not sure if it migrated to the modern one.

LX: The will of consensus was for this to happen, but it never got well implemented. Givefront might be a good platform for this, lets us allocate money to guilds, guilds get cards, cards are refilled monthly for required expenses. Guilds have a 'Card Steward' that makes sure the card is well used.

Heather: Being able to get money spent for the sewing guild would be hand, currently I have no idea how to do that other than funding at the weekly meeting. Agree with Loren's idea or card.

Loren: I've found that this isn't super useful to talk about at meetings. I lean towards a "corporate" card.

Kavya: The sewing guild has frequent monthly expenses that need covering.

Jet: I am against tying the amount guilds get to the amount they get earmarked. A treasurer is a solution to this

Khalila: Do you get funding?

Jet: We're donation based, the current process is guilds getting reimbursed.

Khalila: Is there a reason you haven't asked for [bigger grant] funding?

Null: I think many people agree, we need a Grant Champion.

5: Music Room shelving and floors

On topic	Music Room shelving and floors
From/Raised by	Lucifer
Seeking	consensus

Lucifer: Talking about upstairs flooring, think summer is best time to do this. We should try to do it in the next 2 months.

Null: What is the proposed action?

Lucifer: I've spoken to multiple people about this. We need to declutter, clean the floor, add subfloor. Move from room to room.

Jet: What all have you planned regarding that?

Lucifer: I need to

Chaz: I think the primary thinks we should try to do tonight is plan to block out when we want to get it done. And what we need to research (materials and sourceing). You should write it up and bring it as a Concensus item. I agree with Jet this conversation could get really big if we're not careful.

Lucifer: My biggest concern is timing.

Jet: The reason I'm asking so much for clarification is -

Heather: Timing is not something you can decide at a meeting, pick a time and see if anyone objects.

Lucifer: I wanted to ask ask because it's the whole floor.

LX: Nthmost organized the reflooring at the old space.

Loren: Great to announce working group progress. let's focus on materials before dates.

6: IKM status

On topic	Industrial Knitting Machine Update
From/Raised by	Kavya
Seeking	info

Chaz: talked to dryn, needles need to be cleaned, progress is being made. it's in ikm discord channel. we need the right oil. we need reimbursment for next tuesday.

kavia: where do we get more yarn?

loren: we'll order online.

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!