Regular Member Meeting 2012 03 13

Time and Location

March 13, 2012

Meeting called to order at _8:00_ by: _Brad_

Members Present: Brad, Martin, Tim S, Dan B, Greg, Ben P, Phil, Chris, Tim R, Todd F, Elizabeth, Adam, Nick S, Eric

Others Present:

Quorum met? yes

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

Annual Meeting approved

Director Reports

President's Report

Organizing classes. Continuing outreach and external affairs.

Vice President's Report

More outreach. Attended Broadband Bridge technology fair. Handed out stickers and flyers and met a bunch of people.

Treasurer's Report

Here is the financial summary spreadsheet for Feb 2012: File:HacDC Financials Feb 2012.pdf

We added Justin Meyers as a member and had two non-paying members. We lost Erik Barry due to 3 months of non-payment (and no response to emails), and Elliot Williams finally went to honorary member status after moving to Germany months ago.

Despite the reduction in member dues and donations we finished February ~$400 ahead. We have about 4 months of reserve at our current level of expenses, but some of that will be spent on goodies.

Secretary's Report

Migrated website from Drupal to Wordpress (Thanks Alberto!). Please contact admin team for access to post new content! (remember to use categories and multimedia is a plus) Also looking for project write-ups to add to Projects page. Feedback is always welcome.

Director-at-Large Reports

Martin

Free junk table outside is for a very limited time only. Will be e-recycling soon. Need to update wiki with desired donations and rules surrounding donations to cut down on junk accumulation.

Robot Fest is April 14th in Lithicum, MD. Good outreach opportunity. Need to respond to Gary soon. Science and Technology Festival at end of month as well.

Nick

DC Library Lab looking for collaboration

• scanning automation
• Wikimedia accessibility hacking
• Open Street Map
• leading classes

Member Reports

Brad Went to New America Foundation and talked about space capsules, and all kinds of hackish things. Attracted a lot of attention and potential visitors/members. Met 3D printing policy wonk and arranged a meetup this summer. Brad has started a new project to hack the AR Drone and replace internals with arduino and open source components.

Eric

• Found free office chairs [pic] for classroom (mostly confirmed). Looking for new tables and shelves to better organize classroom and kitchen space.

haxwithaxe

• free "big sheets of paper" (aka posters with good quality blank backs). just leave 2-3 for haxwithaxe.
• DIY godd (US passport like) quality Hackerspace Passports (DIYHackerSpacePassport). I have very nice paper and vinyl cover material, and probably way more than I will use.

Phil Possible outreach opportunity with digital humanities conference at GMU June 15th and 16th. Interest in 3D printing and production process feeding into it.

Dan Micro-mill is pretty much a go. Surface is level so circuit boards can be done again. Brief tutorial required before use for newbies. Idea to create a CNC/3D stamp for passports.

Rich School program to send payloads to space. Need folks to support schools for engineering payload projects and mentor students. Eg Georgetown Day needs people to consult. NASA spending $30k to send each project into space. Eager to pair people up with DC schools. Looking to give a talk and overview of projects. [Nanoracks.com] for more info. Vendors donating boards, etc.

Ben Unallocated Space in Severn,MD is having a LAN party on March 24th and BBQ during the day. Burgers and video games. Come on by!

New Business

Passed

Should we look into getting a Clear modem to improve Internet access inside the space? (Tim) $50/month plus $20 for refurb modem. Up to 6Mb/1Mb but concerns about caps and throttling. Cancelling Linode will save $37/mo that could go to this.

• 13 for, 1 opposed

(Tim) Should we allocate money to purchase a camcorder, mic, and accessories for recording classes and events? I think we should have everything on hand and make it as easy as possible to record stuff (with everyone's permission of course) and post it to YouTube (or whatever). Entry-level camcorder is $150-200 (would want one with a mic input), mic is $50, tripod is $30, memory card is $20, so total is $250-300. We would keep it locked up and give presenters the combo so it wouldn't be easily stolen.

• unanimously approved

(Tim) I'd also like to get business cards for the officers/directors that want them. I'm not fussy, VistaPrint black & white with HacDC logo is fine - $10 for 250(?). Once we have template, making cards for new people will be easy.

• 13 for, 1 opposed

Adjournment

Adjourned at: 20:52