Regular Member Meeting 2022 07 12

Time and Location

Date Tue 12 Jul 2022

Called to order at 7:35 pm by Michelle

Members present: Michelle, John, Matt, Gabe, Oby, Kevin, Bobby

Members remote: (none)

Others present: Fernand Gouveia

Quorum

Quorum met? YES

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

• Approved

Recognition

• Gabe for getting free complementary admission for HacDC people to the 9th Annual Official Cyber Security Summit (Thursday July 28th, 2022) and a $500 donation to HacDC from the summit organizers.

Old Business

• The Persistence of Vision (POV) Bike Light Project event scheduled for the last weekend in July has been canceled due to a change in the schedule of the organizer, Tayeb, who is leaving the DC area. However, if anyone wants to take up the mantle, requisite steps outlined by Tayeb are:
  • determine if parts and supplies are available online (See https://lab64.stanford.edu/bike-light-pov)
  • reach out to DC Bike Party and/or other groups and add to Facebook, Twitter, Blabber, etc.
  • ensure that participants bring/buy their own supplies beforehand
• Inventory Refinement - Spring Cleaning 2022 --
  • "Retain, Redistribute, or Recycle?" survey - a work-in-progress.
  • Basement water issues are not critical at this point.
• Mail in workroom - Matt and Michelle discussed regular mail pickup and have worked out a schedule between them. Tentatively, second and forth Monday pickup from the office, and drop at the space. John is also offering to check the mail once a week.
• 3D printers - The server is now up-to-date with installed software, but not yet configured to work with the printers currently in the space. Tayeb and Matt previously worked configuration settings that need to be incorporated into the server software. Kevin and Matt will schedule a meeting at the space to do that. Gabe and Bobby have expressed interest in being there for that as well. (Best to keep the gathering small, at this point.)
  • Offer OctoPrint as the new default standard for printing, as it is friendlier to newcomers.
  • Keep Printrun available for advanced users. And, because it has code contributions from HacDC members accepted into the official published code
  • Bobby is offering to write new documentation...
  • Matt recommends weather-proof containers, NinjaFlex, "dessicant powder" (moisture reducing), etc. He had an estimate of $300 (The Container Store, ...) and now has official approval to purchase.
• Matt brought filters and dropped them off in the space.

New Business

• Kevin is now acting as secretary (and flying blind)
• Mesh Networking Project
  • John will be introducing the amateur radio club to the project at tomorrow's meeting (Wednesday, July 13)
  • Bobby reminded people of HacDC's Project Byzantium which produced a Live CD and was featured on BoingBoing (There appears to be a dead web site still under our control...)
  • Kevin mentioned the Wireless Future Project work done by the Open Technology Institute of the New America Foundation and the free book Wireless Networking in the Developing World
• Cyber Security Summit - Let Michelle know if you want to attend the Cyber Security event. Please provide feedback on any issues getting tickets, etc. if you attempt to get tickets. Gabe suspects it's going to be a sales pitch more than a conference... Michelle says they do provide continuing education credits. So, perhaps more than a sales pitch.
• admin email list - automated messages from various services that HacDC subscribes to are sent here (DreamHost, Twillo, VoIP). These include service outages, upgrade notices, and, importantly, payments due / expiring subscriptions, etc. Board members are strongly advised to join it and at least skim the messages coming through.
• Speaking of which DreamHost payment overdue notices - Kevin (and Tayeb... and Matt?) have the username and password for DreamHost. (Kevin previously provided Tayeb with a password database containing passwords for several HacDC-related services.) He will look into the payment issue using DreamHost's control panel and coordinate with Matt.
• Financial & Mail Automation - No progress (or, if mentioned, Kevin missed it)
• Michelle would like to focus on recruiting new members.
  • It was mentioned that the Capture the Flag (CtF) sessions were some of our better-attended events
• Machine learning classes - Gabe and Oby.
  • A rerun of Tayeb's class "Intro to Deep Learning" followed by a deeper dive.
  • Oby is still in the planning stages. Four week class. Read material asynchronously and meet to do the actual coding.
  • See https://deeplearning.ai/
  • Michelle is suggesting a hybrid (in-person / online) approach for the Machine Learning. She has found resources available for less than $100...
• The PayPal logo on the home page is blocked by some ad blockers. Michelle will fix / provide non-blocked link.

Director Reports (Governance related stuff)

Treasurer's Report

• 20 members down from 21 as a result of Tayeb moving out of the area.
• Michelle is now making the donation that Tayeb made.
• Additional expense this month includes the new air filters.
• Next month will show expenses for the newly approved containers, dessicant, filaments, etc.

Adjournment

Adjourned by at 8:25 by Michelle