Regular Member Meeting 2017 02 14

Time and Location

Date: February 14, 2017

Called to order at 2005 pm by Tom

Members present: Enrique Tom Ken Andrew Bobby

Members remote: juri_

Others present: James Nancy Derrick

Quorum

Quorum met? no

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

http://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/Regular_Member_Meeting_2017_01_10

Recognition

• We had an annual meeting, so welcome to our two new board members: Ben and Kevin.
• Ben put up some more classroom decor.
• Julia (et al?) got the Lulzbot printing rubber parts.

    local hosts are addressable by DNS.

New Members

   James was voted in as a member with unanimous assent.

Old Business

• Bylaws amendment proposal (unless it was already voted on?): Change the threshold for future bylaws amendments from "more than three quarters (3/4ths) of voting members," to "more than three quarters (3/4ths) of member votes cast 90 days from the proposal approval date," and from "Notice of such petition must be submitted electronically to all members," to "Notice of such a petition must be submitted to all members electronically and, where electronic means produce no response, all other available means." (Explanation: We are dangerously close to having 1/4th of members not respond aye/nay and making amendments impossible) - Enrique

New Business

• There's been some discussion of changing or frequently rotating door key-codes since the church was robbed last week; we would prefer some kind of RFID thing... discussions ongoing I guess.

   Rockville Science fair is April 23rd and HacDC could have an exhibit. Space is free if we want a table.
   Ken proposes we look into more fundraising such as through fiscal sponsorship arrangements ...?

Project Awesome Reports

Project Electron Microscope (SEM)

• Ethan left, so for now Enrique is POC for Project SEM. This is... ok, I guess.
• We received the new vacuum gauge; it did not include the power adatper. It's a simple part: DC power supply 2W between 9 and 30V connected to an HD15 (VGA) conncetor. It's an easy job but saying that doens't make it more completed. Help wanted.

Project Optical Table Robot (OTR)

the belts and gears for the optical table robot are in, and being mounted. the mini now prints rubber(thanks kevin!), and a prototype box for fitting in the radio shack bins has been printed by bobby and myself. with tom's help, i have christened a 32 core machine with 256GB of ram, for large CPU jobs.

Project CRISPR

We repeated the experiment last week with new materials, unfortunately with mixed results, i.e. the CRISPR sample worked, but the control also worked. So there may be a problem with the Strep-Kan plates or new bacteria strain L21. I suppose it should be done again with both L21 and HME63 strains but maybe someone other than me should go through it this time. I think the next meeting will be Thursday night around 8. It's not on MeetUp because we obviously aren't getting it right. - Enrique

Project SpaceBlimp

• Ethan left, so for now Enrique is POC for Spaceblimp but volunteers wanted.
• Dirk & Sam finished the video!
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhjD4Q3JfMM

Member Reports

• Enrique: (1) March for Science is April 22 - I expect I'll go and I'm thinking of what signs and message would be good to promote. There are DIY instructions for LED-lit signs for example. I think HacDC might want to get more involved in the non-partisan parts of this event, just to start brainstorming. (2) Our best projector has gone 'missing.' Our second-best is mediocre in the contrast department and VGA-only. It would be nice to have good modern projector for presentations in the auditorium. (3) After the meeting, we'll go through encrypted messaging, encrypted voice calls with Signal and encrypting email with PGP, for whoever wants to stick around.

Director Reports

Treasurer's Report

• Our income for January came 100% from membership dues. It was $1,330 from 30 members - 21 regular, 7 grandfathered in at $50/mo who never come around, 1 student member and 1 dues-waived member. Besides the usual rent, insurance and PayPal fees, we had two extra expenses in January: our vacuum gauge order finally went through ($611 from Project SEM) and a reimbursement to Mirage for 3D printer parts ($308 from Project Supplies). Rent rises from 993 to 1043 in February. Balances add up to $12,442.

Adjournment

Adjourned by at 2115 by Tom + SPQR