Milwaukee Makerspace Wiki

Meeting Time: 7:00pm

Location: Craft Lab

Board Members Present: Lance L., Joe R., Vishal R., Dan J., Tom Gr., Deboralynn S.

Board Members Absent: Felisha W.

Treasurer's Report

• $3,600 were spent on Maker Faire, $2000 were spent on insurance this month

• Previous Action Item: Joe will talk to WE energies about our utility rates
  • Step 1 is done, Step 2 is to fax the documents. Step 2 will be finished soon

• Previous Action Item: Dan to review Paypal accounts and what fees we can use now that we're a non profit - waiting on Paypal Customer Service
• No Updates on this topic. Dan has been spending his time on the Wild Apricot transition.

Wild Apricot Transition:

• DL imported Keys. - Done. Will have storage info completed by 10/17
• There will be a single sign on for wild apricot, makerspace wordpress site, and the wiki.
• Dan will add a button on the site for the member portal
• Dan mentioned that the transition has gone well
• The rest of the membership will be transitioned this weekend
• Dan will write a new cheat sheet for the sign up process

* Tax Exemption has been setup for Weld Specialties * Action Item for Lance - Write a thank you letter to our wonderful snow plower and offer tax exempt letter

Building ownership/purchasing shares progress

• The lawyer is compiling the paperwork
• The space will tentatively own the building by January 1st

• Matt N. extra storage space: CNC router in the Kuka room and cart in the east room.
  • Matt has more than 100 sq ft. of floor storage. More than 100 sq. ft. is not allowed
  • Matt was storing a project in the meeting room for 3 weeks without a green parking ticket
  • His cart in the east room was larger than the allotted amount and was stored for longer than (3) months
  • Matt signed his own parking ticket which is supposed to be only allowable by area champions and board members
  • Matt will be sent a notice to abide by the storage policies and compress his storage space to a maximum of 100 sq. ft.
  • Action Item for DL - She will write the letter to Matt

• New camera system
  • Scott S. needs more information
  • Dan will provide it

• 4×8 CNC Plasma Cutter
  • Previous estimated date for completion: October 2015
    • Electronics were placed in a plastic cabinet instead of the metal one

• Kuka
  • Previous action item: Joe will contact the Kuka donor to see if they want the control cabinet back
    • No response from the previous Kuka owner
    • Action item for Joe He will send a certified letter to the owner

• Induction Furnace
  • Previous estimated date for completion: October 2015
    • Tom made some progress on it

• Dust collection system
  • Action Item for Vishal - Follow up with communicators to Hastings Energy

• Wood Lathe in the East Room
  • Previous Action Item Joe will be taking it back
    • It is gone!

• Space improvement day
  • The power wheels and plotter area will be deep cleaned
  • DL mentioned that the impound lot is getting smaller

• New member orientation
  • The participation has been very low
  • Joe mentioned that we should post posters
  • Tom will do the orientation this month
  • Vishal suggested switching it to Thursday night.
  • Tom suggested roving nights. Switch between Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.
  • Tom suggested that storage could be assigned at the end of the orientation
  • Lance mentioned that new members might have to wait almost a month before they get their shelves
  • Joe thinks it helps build the community
  • Lance suggested that maybe members shouldn't be able to sign up till they go through an orientation
  • Tom brought up the topic of a video recording the training instead
  • DL mentioned that she has some great software to do it
  • Vishal suggested that the video shouldn't be longer than 15 minutes
  • Tom and Lance are willing to do the voiceover
  • DL, Lance, and Tom will work on content

• Safety
  • Winter is coming
  • DL suggested a new rubber backed carpet for the main door
  • Joe inquired about renting the carpets so a service could replace and clean them for us
  • Joe suggests that we should get a 4×8
  • DL will send dollar numbers for carpet purchase
  • Tom mentioned that we should have carpets on the ramp as well. Rubber mats don't capture enough.
  • Tom will call a mat service to get some numbers

• Discuss future of Power Wheels Area
  • Joe mentioned that the power wheels group felt like they were being kicked out instead of consolidating
  • DL mentioned that her conversation with the group members did not state that they were getting kicked out
  • Dan mentioned that a member brought a concern that a few other members are not using their rental space productively and simply use the space as a sorage facility
  • Lance said he can see where this person is coming from
  • Dan mentioned that floor spaces should not be only used for storage
  • Joe mentioned that the Power Wheels will take up whatever area is allocated to it. Therefore it is fine if their allocated space is reduced
  • DL mentioned that space allocation can be flexible.
  • Lance mentioned a tiered space storage system. The rental price goes up over time.
  • Joe mentioned that the vaults should be more expensive than a storage facility
  • Tom doesn't want to price out productive members
  • DL mentioned that storage space in Brookfield is $1.29/sq ft and $1.00/sq ft at the space
  • The power wheels area will be compressed to (3) pallets on space improvement day
  • Jon H. has requested that the area to be vacated be used for building Daleks for the next 3-4 months
  • Dan likes it as a medium terms Dalek facility
  • Dan mentioned that Tom's clock could have made good use of the space
  • Lance asked if that area could possibly serve as permanent group project space
  • Joe likes the idea but doesn't think we need to formalize anything
  • Tom doesn't think we need to define it as a group space

• Vote Reimburse Pete for up to $30 of ink and paper for BN Maker Faire - (5) voted yes, Joe voted no, Felisha was absent

• Joe suggested a CAD/Computer station for the space
• Dan suggested the pinball area
• Lance mentioned that the ChipKit class would have gone smoother if computers were already setup with the correct software and drivers
• Tom thinks that this is a good idea and we should think through it
• Tom suggested putting it in one of the vaults
• Joe mentioned that he liked that social aspect of having the tables in the classroom
• Tom suggested putting the computers underneath the conference table
• There will be more discussion on this topic.