Regular Member Meeting 2012 04 10

Time and Location

April 10, 2012

Meeting called to order at 7:36 by: Brad

Members Present: Brad, Eric, John, Jamie, Ben, Chris, Timothy, Shar, Martin, Katie, Alberto, Phil, Dan, Nadir, Tim

Others Present: David, Andy, Ebo, Bryce

Quorum met? yes

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

Regular Member Meeting 2012 03 13

Director Reports

President's Report

Not much to report. Approached by Cardoza (re: FIRST Robotics). Looking for mentors to rewire gokarts. No news on GMU camp.

Vice President's Report

Obtained permission from Brian to add a community mesh antenna to the roof to join Mt Pleasant mesh network. Looking for ideas for booth at HOPE 2012 in the hackerspace village. Also possible mesh networking workshop proposed.

Treasurer's Report

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

We added no new members in March, and had two non-paying members.

I purchased the video camera and accessories and Clear modem and service that were approved at the last meeting. Also paid $20 for $100 in Vistaprint credits to be used for business cards once we have a design. Despite these expenditures, we finished March $76 ahead and are maintaining about 4 months' reserve.

Secretary's Report

Nothing to report.

Director-at-Large Reports

Martin

Helping 8th graders with High Altitude Balloon project. We have a boot this Saturday is RobotFest in Lithicum, MD. Also have a booth last weekend of this month at US Science & Engineering Festival.

Nick

Had a 15 page paper to write.

Member Reports

Tim Slagle: A lot of work has been done behind the scenes on the HacDC wiki. We created a HacDC:wiki mailing list for planning and discussion. We have created a Category outline and assigned all current articles to it, which allows us to use some nice navigation features. ITG installed a bunch of extension plugins and we are trying them out to see what we should use going forward. As of now there is a new "Categories" tree box on the left side that lets you explore the topic hierarchy, and Category breadcrumbs will print on each page to show where in the outline you are as you read an article. We also assigned some content from the founding days of HacDC into a new "Obsolete" category when it didn't jibe with how things are now. Also made a "RevisionNeeded" category for pages that are worth keeping but don't have current info. Thanks to everyone who's been working on this - ITG, Katie, NickS, Eric and others.

Chris: New Occupancy Sensor box installed (ShivaPlug). Hopefully up and running tonight! Working on getting HacDC Patches for the group. Woot. If interested in one email blabber or Chris.

Alberto: Reminder that early next month May 6th, 7th Brad and Tim will be teaching a course at Artisphere on Arduino and Processing. First outreach and collaboration with Artisphere and Washington Project for the Arts. Alberto giving a talk Saturday and University of Maryland, College Park, titled "Theorizing the Web". Will be mentioning HacDC in talk!

Phil: In touch with Center for History and New Media and their event ThatCamp. Interested in applying technology in the pursuit of humanities. Looking to host a 3D printing workshop. Visited hackerspace in Albequerque, New Mexico - Q Lab. Got a hackerspace passport stamp!!

Martin: Speaker from ARRL coming to speak to HARC meeting tomorrow night.

New Members

The Doctor

The Doctor (aka Bryce Lynch) is a long-time regular of HacDC. When he's not galavanting around time and space he donates a considerable amount of time and energy toward developing Project Byzantium and fighting for social justice around the world. Voted in

David

Has (but sold) a music recommendation patent. Interested in underwater toys and making cool things happen under the sea. Building stuff with shop bot at Fab Lab in B'more. ["Good programmer." - No, that's not me. "Decidedly mediocre mostly ex-programmer" is more like it. -dew] Working on more patents. Voted in

Andy

Likes to make stuff. Specialty is 3D printing and runs a printing business. Background with Fab Lab. Owns many 3D printers and likes to build new prototypes. Voted in

Ebo

CNC developer. Has some experimental hardware / FPGA stuff to share. Does programming from firmware to AI and scientific work. Was an apprentice with Tool & Die and Blacksmith. Installed a huge lathe at Austin hackerspace. Serious about toys! Pending

Adjournment

Adjourned at: 8:18pm