Regular Member Meeting 2017 01 10

Time and Location

Date 01-10-2017

Called to order at 2009 pm by Tom I.

Members present: Ben Enrique Xavier Tom Bobby B.

Members remote: none

Others present: Matt Z. Nick S.

Quorum

Quorum met?

   No.

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

   OK (review and vote aye without quorum)

Recognition

• Ben

New Members

• Matt and Nick.

   Unanimous approval of Matt and Nick.

Old Business

• Bylaws amendments are pending. print. Sign.

New Business

February 11: Request for Participation at MLK (DCPL) tech event

• RSVP ASAP February 11: D.C. Public Library asking for HacDC participation in a "Teen Techathon" for Black History Month. But they wanted a Google form filled out by January 1 !!! When I contacted them and said "Jan 1? Are you nuts???" we received a "stay of execution" because we would be a "booth" at the event. Still, expediency would be appreciated. Since they already have a Fab Lab with 3D printers, laser cutters, wire bender, etc. perhaps Space Blimps, ham radios, or interesting microprocessor stuff would fit better.

Wacky Wiki / Wiki Hacky

• In attempting to get a list of registered wiki users, I noted "billions and billions" of randomly generated usernames (ubuntourist)

Project Awesome Reports

Project SUPPLIES

Reminded our treasurer of some un-reimbursed expenses.

Project EXPANSION

No activity to report.

Project HAMRADIO

We have a meeting tomorrow. We can give a more full report then.

In terms of what we are doing: many participations in National Parks on the Air in 2016, support for marathons, and the upcoming Million Woman March on January 21. We have a community lunch once a month, offer free testing for people who seek to become licensed hams, and are implementing our "Paper Ham Initiative" so that people who are licensed but who have never been on the air get to have real on-air experience. We are setting up a satellite station at the Armed Forces Retirement Home, one of the highest points in DC.

Project Electron Microscope (SEM)

Vacuum gauge is supposed.... to ship in January... supposed to

Project CRISPR

Nothing new to report. I purchased more DNA/RNA and E.Coli. The classroom fridge was found ajar some time ago,so all its DNA/RNA might be suspect and better trashed anyway. Will meet to discuss CRISPR Thursday night. CRISPR event planning is a bit on the back-burner because of the cryptoparty I'm also doing.(enrique)

Project SpaceBlimp

Video still not edited /not on YouTube. Seems after doing it people don't care about presenting it so much. :\

Member Reports

• We now have a NinjaFlex extruder head for the Lulzbot Mini. When and how to test it out, TBD. (ubuntourist)
• The cryptoparty is Saturday, January 28 from 10am to 4pm. We have three or four HacDC speakers and three or four invited speakers. We could use some help! We should make a flyer and start printing it and putting it up to spread the word, the day of we'll want to set up WiFi in the auditorium, arrange projectors, chairs & tables, order pizza and collect pizza payments and donations, etc, heeeelp! (enrique)

   Ben reports the Basement is more usable and very sorted after his work this month.  He brings to light that there are a number of hazards
   we should address, related to stored projects.  Black mold and leaky chemicals.

   Xavier reported on his ongoing linux class.  Hope for CTF in the future?

Director Reports

President's Report

   PoHacDC regales us with tales of 31c3.

   Also announces the Annual Meeting will be held J28th at 4pm.

Vice President's Report

   Ethan has resigned as a member.

Treasurer's Report

We finished 2017 with roughly $8,000 in reserves (6-7 months) and $4,500 in project earmarks (mostly OTR), so about $12,500 in the bank. Our revenue is very reliant on membership dues (about $17,500) despite more donations than usual ($2,500 this year) and $500 in sponsorship.

We were in the black December to the tune of $228. I'm also revising November; we did $300 better than I'd calculated before, so $344 in the black. Not sure where the spreadsheet mistake was. Since reserves are fine, I'm allocating the surplus for both months ($572) to Project Awesome projects. I haven't calculated the dividends and balances yet though. In fact I'm getting tired of doing that. It's a whole other spreadsheet.

As usual, the rent is going up. Starting soon it will be 5% more and we'll be about $50/mo closer to breaking even. I believe we lost two members in December (Jamie and probably Sumter) and gained two new ones (Ben and Andrew).

Tomorrow (Wed) night I'm going to a free legal clinic hosted by DC Pro-Bono Bar (hat-tip to ArteTechnica). The main reason is that last year's donations exceeded the threshold where you need a solicitation license ($1,500), so we should probably get one and check any other paperwork so HacDC can qualify for grants in the future.

Secretary's Report

Happy New Year. Hope we can have an excellent 2017.

Since becoming secretary I've been a regular attendee at our weeknight workshops and started hosting a generic consumer (PC) hardware build/teardown/rebuild meetup on Sundays. Attendance has been sparse at the new time but I hope to grow this class in 2017 and add it to our lineup of regular events to draw attendees.

I've also been working with Julia to comission our new classroom laser cutter. I believe this is immanent, pending only hooking up the outdoor ventilation. When this is done I hope to move on to more interesting projects. Such as a Martian Basalt 3d Printer? And making the basement OTR great again (and yes, Mexico's gonna pay for it!).

Fear your neighbor. MAGA.

Director-at-Large Reports

Matt

We lost the test cart facility due to an honest communication fumble between three reasonable people who most likely would not have undertaken the disassembly on their own. For the future, we can do better.

Aside from that, HacDC has had a good year, getting back on its feet. Next year, we may be able to focus on growth.

Adjournment

   Adjourned at 2127 by Tom