Annual Meeting 2013

Purpose

From the HacDC Bylaws, Article III, Section 2:

At the annual meeting, the voting members shall elect the Board of Directors, review and vote on the standing rules and policies of the corporation, receive reports on the activities of the corporation, approve the budget and determine the direction of corporation in the coming year.

This meeting will also serve as the monthly meeting for the month of March.

Time and Location

March 12, 2013

Meeting called to order at 7:45 p.m. by Ben the Pyrate

Members Present: Ben, Dan, Shawn, Dave, mirage335, Loki, Bryce, Chris, Reuven, Shahar, Tim D., Phil W, Phil S., Brad, Alberto, Katie, Tim Slagle, David Whiteis, Martin, Nick B., Justin Myers, Jon H, Jamie Ai, William Gibb, Andy Ta

Others Present: Logan, Graham

Quorum met? yes

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

Regular Member Meeting 2013 02 12 Approved unanimously.

Recognition

Eric for being our president. Even if he didn't show up tonight. :P

Tim Slagle for being treasurer. And proposing Project Awesome.

And the entire board.

Director Reports

President's Report

Absent.

Vice President's Report

Nothing to report.

Treasurer's Report

Here is the financial summary spreadsheet for February 2013: File:HacDC Financials 2013 02.pdf. We gained one new member (Philip Westlow). The other two members voted in last meeting have not paid their dues yet. We lost Stephen Beuttel and dropped Reuven Cohen after 4 months without dues payment. We had 55 paying members and 2 non-paying members. Our dues revenue continues to meet our expenses again, and thanks to those that donate extra we had a regular (non-earmarked) monthly net of $563.

Quorum is 14.

Project Awesome

We had a surplus so I am able to declare a $450 Project Awesome dividend and add $113 to our reserves. Here is the Project Awesome spreadsheet for February: File:HacDC PA Projects-2013 02.pdf. Thanks to everyone that voted for projects in February, there are now nine votes total.

There have been no reports for Project 3DP (3D Printing, contact Andy Ta) for the last two months so the project is suspended and will get no additional funding. If there is no report for next month it will be cancelled and any funds returned to the general. Andy, if you are out there, file a report or have someone else do it! And if you don't think you'll want to continue as coordinator, please turn it over to someone else.

Secretary's Report

Announcements, membership database.

Director-at-Large Reports

Martin

Dan, Hax and Martin attended VWS Winterfest. Brought in $353 selling unwanted junk from HacDC. Lots of people were interested in finding out about HacDC.

Andy

Absent.

Project Awesome Reports

Project LASER

A bunch of research was done, resulting in a comparison spreadsheet and more links to manufacturers and articles. HacDC's front door is 30.5 inches wide which limits our choices substantially.

Project BYZANTIUM

Won a $10K grant (InformSec)! Can be spent on ham equipment, raspberry pis, macbook and macbook air. Also on CDs. The money will go through HacDC.

Haven't heard back about FEMA grant (no applicants have).

Project KITBUILD

Earmarked balance large enough to pay for some tools and supplies, need to check out existing bin to see what we already have available.

Project 3DP

Do we want to keep buying plastic? Andy will pass the baton to mirage335 as coordinator.

Member Reports

Shawn Nock

GrindDC (HacDC Biohacking Group) hasn't been active for an entire year yet... but we've made impressive progress. A functional Biosignal Amp (http://mirage335.dyndns.org/wiki/Mirage335BiosignalAmp), several versions of tDCS (https://github.com/nocko/tdcs), Implant Design (https://github.com/nocko/heledd/tree/master/hardware), a temperature controlled bath for biomaterials testing. Our Grinder nights at the space regularly attract 8-12 attendees.

We're also in the process of organizing a SMT soldering class in for HacDC. Prototype teaching boards and partlists we're made (https://github.com/nocko/smt-practice) and a beta-quality seminar was held two months ago to test out our teaching chops.

Challenges moving forward:

• Expanding into DIYBio: Safety (MSDS/right-to-know documentation), autoclave and lab glassware purchases, reagent purchase and storage.
• Heavy interest in Qualified Self projects specifically with respect to Smartphone integration (writing apps and developing sensors).
• Electro-physiology and DIY EEG/EMG: Designing analysis software and novel applications for the Biosignal Amp Mirage designed.

Dan Barlow

Have been telling you about Jon Singer's moving adventure. Do you know anyone who wants a transformer (designed to be immersed in oil)? Give Dan feedback about what HacDC wants/needs.

Philip

See e-mail. (Looking for hardware for old video games for an electronic literature showcase.)

David Whiteis

F3-robot (used to sequence human genome). Brought stuff that can be claimed but not left in the space.

mirage335

Would like laptops for HARC. Offline discussion.

Occupancy sensor is working fine.

Martin

There are new HARC postcards that will be sent to FCC license-holders in DC.

Old Business

None.

New Business

Approve new Standing Rules

Because the Standing Rules are not fully completed and we haven't had much time to discuss them among the members before voting, we can just vote on the first Article today - Voting. That will give us the ability to continue edits and discussions, and vote on the other parts of the Standing Rules at future monthly member meetings.

Unanimously approved.

Anti-Harassment Policy and Diversity Statement

Anti-Harassment Policy and Diversity Statement need to be voted on.

Ben read the prepared statement [insert statement here].

What has transpired?

Last Friday, 03/08/2013, there was an e-mail exchange discussing the proposed Anti-Harassment policy to be included in HacDC bylaws. During this discussion, an individual brought up the topic of rape. Specifically, statements were made regarding “false accusations of rape” and the “psychology of victimhood.” A few members sent e-mails to the board requesting that the conversation be stopped.

Why is this a problem?

This topic directly affects our membership. We, as a community, have members who have been victims of sexual violence. Statements like this trivialize and normalize their experiences and create a threatening and hostile environment at HacDC.

HacDC is part of the community at St. Stephens, and as part of that community bears the responsibility to make the space safe for everyone. Statements which create threatening and hostile environments cannot be tolerated. These statements do not relate to the specific goals of HacDC and are damaging to the organization and the community which it is a part of. They alienate part of our membership and hurt our standing with hackerspaces, organizations at St. Stephens, and all peer/community learning institutions.

What we intend to do about it.

E-mail exchanges about this topic will not produce any valuable results and will only alienate more members of our community. This topic will be discussed at the Annual Meeting on Tuesday, March 12th, 2013.

Alberto thought it was bad to end an ongoing discussion. It was a philosophical issue at stake, not big enough to stop the conversation.

Loki proposes a working committee be formed from selected members to form a version of the Anti-Harassment Policy that has broader consensus.

Reuven says limits for the intensity of conversations should be looked into.

Jon urges people to keep conversation on topic on the members list.

Doc says this problem crops up in other communities. Invoking the principle of Buddhist Right Speech seems to fix it. He can post some links to the wiki about how it has been implemented in other communities.

Loki gave a one-minute summary arguing in favor of Proposal 2. New member Graham gave a one-minute summary arguing in favor of Proposal 1.

Two people voted to defer. Two people voted for Proposal 2. Everyone else voted for Proposal 1. Proposal 1 is approved.

Diversity Statement approved unanimously.

Board of Directors Elections

President

Ben has been nominated and wins by default.

Vice-President

Shahar and Chris and Reuven have been nominated. Chris wins.

Treasurer

Katie has been nominated and wins by default.

Secretary

David Mc has been nominated and wins by default.

At-Large Directors (two)

Shawn Nock and Reuven are nominated and win by default.

New Members

Logan is originally from DC and just moved back here about a year ago. Physics background. Programming job. Been coming to GrindDC meetups. Approved.

Graham moved to DC 3.5 years ago. Has a 3D printer. Does electronics work for fun. Approved.

Adjournment

Adjourned at 9:23 pm