Regular Member Meeting 2012 12 11

Time and Location

December 11, 2012

Meeting called to order at 19:48 by Eric

Members Present: Eric, Dan, Tim S, Ben, Chris, Jamie, Bill, Rich, Steve, Phil, Justin, Martin, Todd, David, Nick, Jon, Katie

Others Present: Enrique, Paul, Christine P,

Quorum met? Yes

Approval of Previous Meeting's Minutes

Regular Member Meeting 2012 11 13 approved

Recognition

David put in a lot of hard work cleaning up the basement. He had some help, but he doesn't remember their names. Everyone appreciates his effort.

Director Reports

President's Report

We had our second BOD planning meeting of the year. This was a virtual meeting using Google Hangout. We began the work of reviewing the draft Standing Rules which will be voted on at the Annual Meeting in February. We mainly discussed Remote Voting and reviewed the existing rules while learning the ropes of Hangout. In addition we came up with some solutions to the Tip Jar and agreed to purchase at least one acrylic lock box as a replacement. we also discussed space organization (shelves, clear boxes) and workspace cleanup.

Vice President's Report

TECS class is going strong with 6-8 people per night. Byzantium has been taking a break. Awarded runner up in Access Awards, which is a grant we'd applied for a few months ago. We were happy and honored to be a finalist, even if we didn't get any money.

Treasurer's Report

Here is the financial summary spreadsheet for November 2012: File:HacDC Financials 2012 11.pdf We had one member join (Joseph Curtin), and four members dropped or were dropped (Alan McCosh, Lawrence Scott, Ketan Kadiwala, and sean rutledge). Nine non-paying members left us with only 48 paying members. This is far below the 57 we need to meet expenses, and I hope we can turn the trend around ASAP. I sent out many emails and got some dues signups but quite a few are still outstanding.

Quorum remains at 14.

Ignoring our uncashed rent check, regular expenses exceeded dues revenues and additional donations by $138.

Project Awesome

We deferred $300 Project Awesome funds to this month, but because of the shortfall I am only able to declare a $100 project dividend for November. Two other projects got proposed (BYZANTIUM and KITBUILD) but no one actually voted for BYZANTIUM yet, so $33 went to KITBUILD and $67 went to Project LASER in November.

Here is the Project Awesome spreadsheet for November: File:HacDC PA Projects-2012 11.pdf.

Secretary's Report

Looking into anti-discrimination and -harassment policy.

Director-at-Large Reports

Martin

The donated Cisco IP phones: 12 were donated to church. Martin claimed the leftovers and sold them on Ebay in a personal sale, producing $240 that will be donated to HacDC.

Andy

Absent due to a laser-related workplace accident. :(

Project Awesome Reports

Project LASER

The response to my request for additional donations to Project LASER has been awesome - $1350 from 11 members, plus $100 cash from the November meeting. So with the previously earmarked $2566, we are at $4016!! In addition, Brian Harrington's company is supposed to give us a matching donation of at least $250. My total for the Full Spectrum Laser "new hobby" model laser order was $4360 so we are very close!

If anyone has suggestions on a better laser cutter for ~$4400 all in, please let me know! People have some complaints about Full Spectrum Engineering and although the laser seems like a good value, it is not the equal of the "real" ones from Epilog or wherever. I'll certainly do more research before going through with the order. --Tim

Project BYZANTIUM

Skipped the last sprint because of busy schedules. Have a new build that Just Works and is Commotion-compatible. Eventually HacDC will be part of the neighborhood mesh community. There have been a couple of articles covering the post-Sandy Red Hook mesh networking efforts that HacDC participated in. Helped install a dish on the RHI building. RHI is working to get a permanent agreement with the city to do mesh networking and provide Internet access to people who otherwise wouldn't have it.

Project KITBUILD

There was a hot sale at www.PartsExpress.com so I bought 10 sets of irons, solder, wick, tools, and DMMs. Total cost was about $300. I also bought 30 SMT Christmas tree kits for $1 each. We will figure out reimbursement details later. Been too busy with Project LASER to plan a workshop but am still interested. --Tim

Member Reports

Hax

Two space improvement projects: cartography crash course and a fume hood for the workroom (at least _slightly_ chemical-safe).

Dan

Going to makertech Tuesday at Chaz's. Dan graciously accepted a laser that Jon Singer wanted to offload; it's currently at Chaz's in Hyattsville. Negotiating getting a 6000 Watt laser. It would require a forklift to move. It would be physically impossible to put it in the basement. We (HacDC) will have visiting rights to it once a box is properly set up.

Jon has more lasers that he knows work but hasn't set up yet. We're negotiating to get a laser room. Could do a class on making holograms. He also has some power supplies.

Was looking at Arduino bluetooth with respect to Party Mode.

Basement looks much better. You might want to look at the outgoing pile.

Eric

Lockers are in limited supply. We'll look at improving how we store and label things.

David

Sterilite with locking tops (available at Target) would help with the storage organization.

Have agreed to donate a robotic arm that was used to sequence the human genome. It'll be at Chaz's place.

Katie

Project Byzantium stickers are in. HacDC logo stickers should arrive Real Soon Now. Developing a second e-textile workshop to run in the first quarter of next year.

New Business

• Proposal to approve holiday gift of $100 to our excellent security guard. Approved.

New Members

Paul: recently moved to DC. Background in open source software, worked at OLPC, have been doing work overseas. With brother designed own 3D printer. Approved!

Christine: Works on tech/civil society/international development projects. Beyond Access. Was involved with Foulab and Coworking Montreal. Approved!

Adjournment

Adjourned at: 21:16.