Regular Member Meeting 2020 02 11

Time and Location

Date: February 11, 2020

Called to order at 7:45 pm by Karen

Members present: Bobby, Bryan, Ken, Kevin, Tayeb, Lui, Tristan, Karen

Members remote: None

Others present: Chris, Gary (hunter), Matt Hines (mirage)

Quorum

Quorum met? Yes

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

(such as they were.)

Recognition

• Dorothy from Nation of Makers, for being a good egg, standing up at the DC Department of Employment Services (DOES), and pitching HacDC to the assembled masses.
• Chris and Bobby for serious progress on the Cheap Chinese Lasercutter.
• Tom and Tristin for capturing hearts and minds, if not wallets, with their Capture the Flag sessions.
• Dorotea for once again performing surgery on the Ultimaker and bringing it back to life.
• Loui for running a beginners electronics classes at HacDC

Old Business

• Spring cleaning (but not gear cleaning) has begun. Clean those springs!

New Business

• Once again, we've had an offer of space at the USA Science and Engineering Festival April 25-26, 2020 at the Convention Center. We need to determine what to do, and gather the troops / troupe to do it.
• A possible visit to Nonstop Art (web site currently "out of order") in their new digs at THEARC (Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus) is in the works.
• A rerun of the Deep Learning: Machine Learning & AI course (study group) is in the offing.
• A modest proposal from Tristin, paraphrased: Reduce the perks of non-members. Non-members don't get to use the equipment. They can show up with their own laptop and hang out, but to use equipment and tools, one has to be a member. Even without the means of enforcement, having the rule in place, and some self-enforcement might encourage people to pay up.
• Also from Tristin (again, paraphrased): We should not be hamstrung by the current rules into a situation where changing the bylaws is nigh on impossible.

Project Awesome Reports

Project Electron Microscope (SEM)

• Half of the SEM is now, gutted, "vertically oriented" and precariously balanced -- off-center on a dolly loaned by Don.
• The other half, Tristin has laid claim to.

Director Reports (Governance related stuff)

Director-at-Large Reports

Kevin

• The vestibule light has been replaced.
• The BOD set of basement keys has been returned to the BOD locker.
• Ken hobbed and I knobbed (or vice-versa) at the Quarterly Stakeholders Meeting of the DC Department of Employment Services (DOES). My sense is that the most promising outcome will be via the DC Infrastructure Academy (DCIA). However, I also made one contact there who says he MAY be able to find us bigger, better space at another church for "cheap". I wrote to him asking for a follow-up on the specifics before he attempts to lobby on our behalf. I have not heard back yet.
• I hobbed and Ken knobbed (or vice-versa) at a meeting of the DC Public Schools Librarians meeting, this month featuring "makerspaces". Although there was repeated misunderstanding of who and what we are, I hope we finally got through to them that this is not a full-time business with paid staff. Some promised to stop by and find out more about us. I think everyone, other than Ken and I, were elementary school or middle school librarians wanting to bring boatloads of kids on field trips to the space.
• The wiki and the main site have both been upgraded to the latest and greatest. Alas, changes in the way Meetup does business has forced the removal of the calendar from the main site. However, I believe I have a work-around. In the meantime, both Meetup itself, and the wiki main page "10-event look ahead" are still working. (I plan to rejigger the code I wrote for the wiki event list and apply it to WordPress, but it will take some study.)
• After some pestering, and public shaming on Twitter, our SSL secure connection certificate has been renewed again.

Ken

• The invite to Quarterly Stakeholders Meeting of the DC Department of Employment Services (DOES) was from my contact at Infrastructure Academy. Combined with Kevin's contact at the Academy this should help us to explore supporting a program there, perhaps working with other DC Makerspaces to support a small Makerspace at the Academy.
• DC Public Schools Librarians meeting attended by Kevin and I. I am sending out information on two previous efforts involving kids and making to the originator of the Librarians meeting. The first effort involved supporting an Aquaponics project at Anacostia High School. The second effort supported sessions in a Ward 8 summer program, with kids aged 6-12, where they learned about robots, sensors, microcontrollers, etc. HacDC supported both efforts.

Adjournment

Adjourned by at xxx by xxx