Regular Member Meeting 2011 08 09

Note: This page serves as the 2011-08-09 Member Meeting's agenda (before the meeting) and minutes (after the meeting).

Time and Location

August 9, 2011

Meeting called to order at __07:50__ by: Ben the Pyrate

Members Present: Ben, Toast, Tim S., Alberto, Martin, Phil, Brad, Shahar, Xaq, Chris

Others Present: Sean

Quorum met? No.

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

Regular Member Meeting 2011 07 12

Director Reports

Treasurer's Report (Tim Slagle)

Here is the July 2011 financial summary: File:HacDC Financials July 2011.pdf

We came out a bit ahead in July due to additional member donations, the robotics class ($200), and $344 in cash collected from the tip jar. Membership revenue are still $600 short of our expenses so thanks to the generous members who are chipping in extra. We ended July 2011 with a reserve of about 2.5 months expenses.

In July, we had 43 paying members, three non-paying members, added two new membership subscriptions (Bjorn Westergard & Stephen Beuttel), and lost one member (Alan McCosh). Shahar Goldin also reactivated his subscription and chipped in for a missing month, so thanks and sorry for announcing his departure prematurely!

I found we were paying $6/mo for a fax service we were no longer using, so I cancelled it. We should have a plan for asynchronously receiving faxes - Google Voice?

Secretary's Report

Growing interest in Byzantium. We did a lot of talking, but not a lot of coding at the last sprint.

Director-at-Large Reports

Toast

Zine-fest happened. Poorly attended.

Brad B

A.I. Class coming up in October. We're hosting a study group.

Try to keep the space open more. Have a software night on Thursdays and Tuesdays.

Member Reports

Alberto

• Alberto on Smithsonian Institution's 3D Imaging Lab's:
  • loan of a CNC mill to HacDC. Call for volunteers to transport it, if necessary.
  • offer of a 1-hour tour of the 3D Imaging Lab for HacDC members, and
  • offer of the the possibility of housing their powder 3D printer at HacDC in order to experiment with alternative powder/binder media. Alternatively, hosting HacDC's 3D printer community of interest for a day of brainstorming/experimentation on alternative media for that printer.
• Alberto on (e)merge Art Fair and HacDC's Brad B helping build a visualization for it which will be branded with HacDC's logo.
• Alberto's friend will be attending the CONNECTED COMMUNITIES Symposium at Culture Lab Newcastle, UK, and will talk about Byzantium.

Xaq

Paying dues again. Going to get people working on the Prusa Mendel. Better organization of the documentation on the 3D printers would be great. Monthly 3D printing sprint would be good too. Planning another Quantified Self meeting.

Shahar

Working on a Mylar envelope for a dirigible.

Tim S

Would like to do an LED lighting project in the classroom. Needs some help with carpentry to make it look nice.

Phil

Has been building stuff. We need a show and tell.

Katie

• Absent member Katie...
  • participated in a build-your-own-Geiger-counter workshop at Tokyo Hackerspace on Monday night. She now has a simple working Geiger counter, consisting of a Freakduino motherboard, a NetRAD shield daughterboard, and a SBM-20 Geiger–Müller tube for sensing radiation. (photo)
  • found a four-story ham radio gear store in Akihabara! (photo)
  • reports that Hackers on a Plane 9.0: Hackers for Japan brings hackers to Japan this November, with a bargain of a presale price at US$1337. Check it out.

New Members

Hi, Sean. Sorry, we don't have quorum so we can't vote you in this month. Come again next month!

Adjournment

Adjourned at: 8:36