Milwaukee Makerspace Board of Directors Meeting - 6 p.m. July 20, 2023
Introduction
Attendance
Present
Hannah
Anna
Tim
Geoff
Callie
Sarah
Absent
Guests
Akai Coit
Kaysy Schwartz + child
Kristie Kirch
Thean McGarity
Andrew S
Maya Looney
Tony W
Stefan Bacon
Dan Luglio
Tom G.
Gary Hollander
Tim Erdmann
Previous Minutes
Tim calls motion to approve meeting minutes. All present vote yes except for Hapto who abstains.
Current Financial Projections
Lots of big purchases last month - air dryer and battery for forklift at Norwich. Account balances are going up. Report is not available currently but will be available later today.
Agenda items
Held over from last meeting:
Should we form a wiki update team? Answer - yes! Hapto volunteered and will choose a volunteer to help. Stefan also volunteered. We will remove this item from the board's duty for future.
Laser expansion: Anna - Anna gave presentation. Membership expressed some concern about removing the Boss laser from Norwich. Anna explained it's hard to hold training at 2 locations. Board is generally in favor. This is non-standard business so we need to notify membership and can vote after that.
Hopes, dreams and aspirations for our website. - Can table this for now but Hapto would like feedback on website and ideas. Email her.
Vote to remove any remaining mask requirements - Masks are not currently being enforced even though they are technically required for the meeting: Tim calls a motion to remove the mask requirement. Friendly amendment to suggest masks be worn and that we will follow local guidelines. Open to discussion from members. Maya suggests 'masks recommended'. Tom recommends we say we abide by local government recommendations. Tony suggests paper masks are not effective and we should not provide them. General feeling of the board is that we don't want to have to enforce anything, but we'd like to make people feel comfortable. Sometimes a mask makes people feel comfortable even if it's not effective. Stefan suggests a “follow the room” rule where you do what you see people are comfortable with. Sean suggests we don't codify masks rules at all. Dan mentioned that there are immuno-compromised members here and we should consider them. Striking that amendment and keeping it simple. Tim calls a motion to remove the mask requirement. Reminder: members have the right to make requests to mask up. Geoff seconds. Motion passes unanimously (Tim votes yes via proxy for Jon).
Survey update - Hapto/Gary - Gary is helping with Survey Monkey. He thinks the survey is WAY too long. He also thinks some of the questions are scary - “should we get rid of a building?”. The questions on Discord/Discourse are confusing. Some of the type of questions we're asking don't look great on mobile either - which is going to lead to lower response rate. Just way too many questions. Overall recommendations from Gary: fewer questions (especially remove Discord/Discourse questions), send them out in 3 surveys instead of 1.
New business
K.P. Warning/Suspension for sleeping at space & leaving personal property in public spaces - an agreement sent to this person by a previous board laid out rules against sleeping and keeping projects out in public. The agreement resulted in no suspension but mentioned that the next infraction would result in action. KP did have a second infraction already and we are now at the third infraction. Discussion open to membership. Tom G: not fair that a few members occupy all the board's time. His experience is that we bend over backwards to make people comfortable and it causes the board to burn out. We need to enforce the rules and set an example. Maya: recommends we honor the agreement initially formed with KP. It should be more clear what the rules are. Sean: asked what happens to renters during the suspension (answer - they can make arrangements with board to collect their things). Gary would like to know if this person needs help and if we have offered them help. Tim responded that they have been offered help many times. Gary offered to get a list of links together for resources. The board thanks him for his help and would love to have a list of resources to provide members. Jake: we tend to show favoritism towards who we think “fits in” in the space. We need to be more rigid in the rules. Dan L: as we have more members and lots of neuro-diversity, we need to figure out how to handle this. Maybe we should look into how to better diffuse situations. Anna: could we offer to lessen suspension if person gets help? Tim: We don't want to become judge and jury. Tim calls a motion to vote to give KP a 1 week suspension for the 2 outlines reasons. Geoff Seconds. Jon abstains. Motion passes with all present members voting yes. Tim moves to make a vote that the standard response to members found sleeping in the space will be 1 week per infraction. (Motion was stricken after discussion below) Discussion moved to line item below.
A.C. Warning/Suspension for sleeping at space & aggressive/threatening behavior towards another member - Akai: would like to discuss medical conditions and rules for ADA compliance. Tim: we need a lawyer to help with this discussion. Akai: we should hold off discussion until we talk to a lawyer. Tom G: if we have a member that becomes a pain the butt for the board, kick them out. Akai: we should have specific rules for people with disabilities. He has offered to help with setting up a conflict resolution system. Not having a way to resolve conflicts if a problem arises has been an issue in the past. We should let people sleep for small periods of time. Hapto: offered to take on helping with general conflict resolution. We are tabling the discussion about AC further for now. Akai formal statement: I have not had any desire to cause people harm or drama. I apologize for anything I have done that has caused this problem for the past 8 years. I am not choosing to be a problem member. I apologize as a whole for everything I have done and I would like a clean slate going forward. Further thoughts - we need to notify membership about retaining a lawyer since it would be more than $500
Tiffany/Stefan as Metal finishing? Hannah calls a vote to make Tiffany the champion of the metal finishing area and Stefan the co-champion. Geoff seconds. Motion passes unanimously.
Hapto calls a vote to add a co-champion, Tim Erdmann to the stained glass area. Anna seconds. Vote passes unanimously.
Tim calls a vote to install Michael H as co-champion in bike repairia. Geoff seconds. Vote passes unanimously.
Tim motions to table rest of discussion at 8:32 pm. Callie seconds. Vote passes unanimously.
Tim would like to call a special election and intends to step down immediately. He will help out until a replacement is found.
Tabled
Vote to end floor space rental at Lenox
Vote to codify designated trash receptacles as the place to dump things.
Revisit “who to call page” for updating.
General Funds for Large format printer (either the printheads on the new donation or the part that the old working one needs)
Leaky Roof Follow up?
Thoughts on the “Be Awesome” closet - make it functional?
Codify a request/guideline to “seek out one area training at a time.”
Regular To-Do items communication - Dan Luglio
Area Champion Punchlist
Tormach/CNC Champions (codified?)
Hackrack (Maybe Juliet?)
Areas that may need help to get or keep going:
* Mariah/ScreenPrinting, Bill2/Metalshop
Co champ for any other areas that can use backup? put out an open call?