Regular Member Meeting 2018 04 10

Time and Location

Date

Called to order at 1942 pm by Karen

Members present: Karen Tom Tayeb Enrique Ken Kevin Bobby

Members remote: Juri Mirage

Others present: Aiden

Quorum

Quorum met?

   yes

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

   Approved

Recognition

   Many HacDC members helped out for a successful showing at USASEF.
   Avi helped us have a great lockpicking station.

Old Business

Enrique would like to be reimbursed for the CFC application fee, which was $340.00 on 1/31/18. Media:CFC_App_Payment_2018.png

Project Awesome Reports

Project SUPPLIES - Mirage

An old receipt Bobby gave me has not been located. May have been misplaced by me, or submitted and not yet reimbursed. Perhaps we should just vote to reimburse Bobby from SUPPLIES as a general expense?

Project EXPANSION - Mirage

Nothing to report.

Project CRISPR -Enrique

Made an interesting contact at USASEF, Capital Area BioSpace, a burgeoning bio-space in DC currently with no physical space. We may hold some event at HacDC in the future and discuss collaborations.

Project SpaceBlimp -Enrique

Had a booth at USASEF staffed mainly by volunteers and members of Unallocated Space and Rockville RSC Makerspace. There's a prep meeting tonight at Rockville RSC and probably another integration meeting on Friday night as usual, as we're planning to launch Saturday morning. Still deciding on important details like best launch location and whether to pre-position recovery teams. The jet stream is pretty strong last I checked so the track was very long and fast - hard for the launch team to chase. Avi is also making progress on the website, spaceblimp.org.

Member Reports

mirage335

Most importantly, lack of barriers to entry, such as strict rules about equipment usage, borrowing, or supplies consumption, has been a huge success at HacDC, to be continued. We have not had a problem with accidents, nor substantial damage from supplies overconsumption, nor theft. Permanent injuries have not happened, tools have not been damaged in operation, and minimal supplies budgets have not remotely been drained. This is an important part of HacDC's unique character to be continued.

All major problems at HacDC have been the result of total absence of common sense or deliberate abuse. Most probably deliberate abuse. These incidents are in an entirely separate category from on-mission activities, while often using the same resources.

We need to require disruptive members, and the disruptive guests they allow, to reach a credible "cease and desist" agreement, or be immediately barred from the space until they do. We need to do this without interfering with, or discouraging, our vast majority of contributing volunteers. Immediate action is not a permanent banhammer, but it may be followed with such.

Our bylaw amendment, empowering the board to bar access for "substantial cause", is also intended to apply to members who bring trouble, as well as their own behaviour. Members bringing in live ammunition, would be responsible for doing so safely, as opposed to displaying it in an obviously threatening manner. Likewise, members are responsible for the guests they bring in, and can be barred for continuing to allow disruptive guests.

Explicit rules alone are not the answer. Too many situations will involve substantial cause that involve resources being used as expected, to a degree that is not appropriate. Rearranging some things in the space is normal. Occasionally using a TV set is normal. Sitting in a chair is normal. Even some personal use may be normal, below the threshold of what the IRS would consider substantial. Scattering the components of a tool, burning days of daytime TV on a maintenance intensive display, or sleeping overnight in a chair, is not appropriate.

What we need to do, is provide guidance - in addition to rules - to fairly explain to newcomers, members, and guests - the wonderful things they are allowed to do, as well as the category of things they are expected not to do. Realistically, most would never think of doing the things in the latter category to begin with.

To that end, a Wiki document was written a while back as guidance summarizing some norms as well as the mechanics of how things could work. https://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/ResponsibilitiesOfMembership

To provide further guidance of what is in the category of on-mission, as opposed to inappropriate, use of HacDC resources, another wiki document has been put up. It may be the first attempt to formally write down the culture of how HacDC operates, both to encourage newcomers to quickly become comfortable with the freedom we offer, as well as to provide a sense of fairness for policy makers. https://wiki.hacdc.org/index.php/NormsOfHacDC

Adjournment

Adjourned by at xxx by xxx