Milwaukee Makerspace Board of Directors Meeting - April 21, 2016
Held at the Milwaukee Makerspace craft lab
Attendees
Present
Lance Lamont, Dan Jonke, Carl Stevens, Keith McMillan, Adrian Volden, Harvey Matyas
Absent
Guests
Marc Ownley, Steffanie, Scott Swanson, Bill
Minutes
Meeting was called to order by at 7:02 by Lance.
“ask more questions and form fewer opinions”
Review and approval of the Minutes of the previous meeting
The meeting minutes from the previous meeting were approved.
Reports of Boards and Standing Committees
Treasurers Report
New Equipment/Donations
Previous Status DL will look into setting up an inventory system for space equipment.
DL wants to go low-ish tech, and print out barcodes and maintain the inventory, and will work on demoing the solution in the next month or two
Several people suggested we use Google Sheets
May want help with programming-ish things, Keith and Dan can help
Tom Gr wants to donate 6 or so rolling chairs - approved, this is an ongoing process, there are additional new chairs by the loading dock, and a couple of more folding tables
Tom acquired a fume extractor for the welding area - needs power by the welding tables - Board voted to approve this equipment
Building Maintenance/Issues
Reports of Special (Select) Committees
New tri-fold for the 'space
Previous Status Draft created by Carl, and some feedback on minor changes will be incorporated. Tom to get a quote from a friend of the space who works for a printing company.
Inter-meeting updates
Order has been placed and tri-folds printed
Tom Gr will pick up and deliver
Lance mentioned that the Appleton Makerspace visitors inquired about setting up a Makerspace Leadership group
Space Projects Update
4x8 CNC Plasma Cutter
Steve Pilon now champion for this project
Current target for completion is May
Carl spoke with Steve, and Steve believes there is significant redesign that needs to happen
Steve needs help from a machinist, Carl will follow up with him
Mark Ownley (present at the meeting) also volunteered to help
Kuka
Previous status Lance has sent Joe a request to get the previous owner's contact information. DL was to create a letter to send to the previous owner.
Inter-meeting update: Previous owner contacted the board with a proposal for additional donations.
Gerry, donator, wants the pendant back, and maybe one of the boards from the cabinet
Jake is using the Kuka until August for his project
The footprint of the robot needs to be shrunk by the end of the month
The current space is on a parking permit, Jake will need to start renting the space
Adrian will coordinate with Joe on talking with Gerry about the Kuka and the donation
DL will follow up with Jake
Previous status The board voted unanimously to remove the large format printer
Inter-meeting updates: large format printer and supplies moved to impound lot after coordination with area champions - awaiting lottery
Previous status Lance suggested investing some small amount of funds to buy materials so we can figure out the interest in the former, and was going to contact Midland about materials. Area to be reorganized at next space improvement day.
Inter-meeting updates: area cleared during Space Improvement Day
Lance was unable to stop by Midland Plastic
Adrian will send out an email asking for interest on the vacuum former
Unfinished Business
Sequestering area fund donations
Building Insurance
Previous Status Dan to follow up and make sure the building insurance was correctly transitioned when ownership of the building changed
Dan has heard from the insurance agent and needs one more contact to make sure
Paypal Tax Exempt Status
Previous Status Dan has emailed Paypal again about our rates, and will report out if they respond.
Inter-meeting Updates: Tax exempt status secured at PayPal
Property tax exemption
Utility rates
Wild Apricot Transition
Previous Status Keith to look into importing Wild Apricot data into QuickBooks.
Inter-meeting update: Keith has imported WA into a test QuickBooks company and it seems to work fine. Needs follow-up with Dan to determine next steps
New camera system
Previous Status We need to run cables, which are already here. This will be a space improvement day project. Lance says we did not put a camera outside the North wall looking at the Otjen/Lenox door.
Keith met with Chris H and we don't need to run as many new cables as we thought
This will be added to Space Improvement Day - Keith to spearhead
Engine Hoist
Donations via QRCodes - Keith
Introduce discounted 1 year membership ($450 upfront), to reduce treasurer load.
Start maintaining a petty cash box in the building
Phone System
Chris H. wants to know what MMS would like to have done with the now-decomissioned Avaya phones & phone system. Since he brought them in, he feels responsibility for them. Would the BOD like for him to remove them from the premises, or will MMS take care of it?
The board voted unanimously to have Chris remove the equipment
MMS Webpage
Existing hosting is through Rackspace. Rackspace no longer offers the level of hosting that MMS has currently (we're grandfathered in to current performance & pricing).
There have been performance issues with the website (Apache or MYSQL crashes, must be manually restarted)
Linode offers much better performance for roughly the same price (see chart below)
Chris H. will volunteer his time to help set up the Linode account, create the backups, move the data between the servers, release the Rackspace account, and migrate the site between hosts.
| RS Current | RS Minimum | Linode |
Pricing | ~$22/mo | ~$28.80/mo | ~$20/mo |
CPU | 1 | 1 | 2 |
RAM | 512M | 1GB | 2GB |
Disk | 20G | 20GB | 48GB |
Network | 200Mb/sec | 200Mb/sec | 250Mb/sec outbound; 40Gb/sec inbound |
Usage | Free Inbound / Prorated Outbound | Free Inbound/Prorated Outbound | 3TB |
Steve suggested that he's aware of another provider we should consider and will email Chris
Carl is concerned that we don't transition into a longer term contract if we're going to re-do the website
The board voted unanimously to approve Chris' proposal so long as it's not a long-term contract
911 service at the 'space
Previous status DL will follow up with Shane on a cell phone for 911 at the front desk
Inter-meeting Updates: phone is now at the front desk in the top-right drawer
Lance wants to mount the phone in an obvious location - this will be a Space Improvement Day project
Discuss dropping Thursday night as open to the public.
Previous status DL suggested we put this on the message board and ask for someone to be Builders Night Out champion, to do meet and greet and arrange tours.
Inter-meeting Updates: Membership has been asked for a coordinator - Caitlin has expressed interest, however so far there seems to be only limited interest in volunteering for this aside from her
The board voted to close Thursdays to the public
Carl voted no
Keith, DL, Adrian, Harvey, Lance and Dan voted yes
Discuss the rotating schedule for new member orientation.
Discuss Schedule for Rotating Board Members at front desk on Tuesday's.
Willy's Boat
Situation about membership of Jay Carver
Previous status The board discussed, and a formal announcement will be forthcoming.
DL will provide a draft for the board to review
New Business
Poster design contest
Lance mentioned the Appleton Makerspace visitors asked if we could give them a poster to advertise our space at theirs
The board voted to have a competition to create a new poster for the space, with a cash prize of $25
Carl recused himself from the vote, as he intends to submit an entry
Dan voted no
Adrian, Harvey, Keith, Lance and DL voted to approve
Member complaints about Akai Coit
A member has complained about Akai encroaching on his space
A new bike bar has been provided to allow him to lock his trike to
Akai has been formally put on notice that he will get a warning if we receive further complaints
Space Improvement day 2016 goals and making sure maintenance items are done
Changes to space rental policy w.r.t. late payments
Changes to bylaws and member handbook w.r.t. illegal activities undertaken by members
Member Survey
2016/2017 BOD Goals - Lance
Member Engagement - I think the member badge contest was an overall good thing last year. Let's try to do other things to keep our members engaged and enhance the community of makers. Pot Lucks/food during cleaning days are a good thing. perhaps a contest every few months?
Dust Collection - Wood shop. The wood shop really needs much better dust collection. I'd like significant effort to focus on getting it to be a clean, safe space. -Lance
Signs & Awnings Outside - Let's go through the ordinances, contact the city, and put some beauty on the exterior of our building. -Lance
Improvements to Entryways & Meeting area - I think we can do some beautification. I have some ideas and sketches for the next board meeting if you would put it on the agenda Lance. -Carl
Update Web Site -Carl
Other potentials for the list - I'd like your thoughts on these:
Leather Working Area Champion
Add Candle Making Area
Socialize Area Champions Responsibilities? - Keith
Appoint Co-treasurer(s) from outside BOD - Dan
Modeled after DL's success with Operations Committee. If we can broaden the workload beyond the 7 of us, why not?
Start by having volunteers check the PayPal and Dwolla accounts at the end of the month. No direct handling of cash, highly auditable if fraud is suspected.
Dan will continue to handle paper payments or designate another BOD member if needed.
So far Steffanie M. has volunteered.
DL mentioned that QC Co-lab, and their space has auditors who perform similar functions, and audit the board. They arrived at this after their treasurer defrauded the space
Keith will propose an amendment to the bylaws to allow named board members to appoint support committees, subject to a veto by a majority of the board
Provide Scott Swanson with a key to the network closet for wiring cameras
Approve Tom Gr as building area champion
Approve payment for camera and network cable
Maker Faire
Adrian wants to know what our level of involvement and financial support for Maker Faire is.
The board reviewed that last year the membership allocated $5000 to Maker Faire
Carl lets us know that Maker Faire wants the Space to be involved in the Faire again this year
Maker Faire representatives on the board (Adrian and Carl) will need to let us know what requests the Fairs has of the Space at a future meeting
Good of the Space
-
Calendars are a challenge, only board members can update the GCal, the groups aren't well suited to signing up for classes, not everyone has access to update the Wiki (or the knowledge about how to do so)
Announcements
Close
The meeting was adjourned at 9:32