Milwaukee Makerspace Wiki

Chris K calls this meeting to order at 6:37 p.m.

• Chris K
• Bryan F
• Tim E
• Juliet J
• Sarah D
• Geoff L
• Stefan B

• Maya L
• Matt D
• Kathy A
• Melissa O.
• Mike T.
• Tom G.
• Miranda G.
• Jon D.
• Bill W.
• Dylan
• Daniel L.

• Approved: Unanimous

• Available on the WIKI

• BOD approves Delia Lopez as Woodshop Co-champion; unanimous 7-0
• BOD approves Member Engagement Fund request for Halloween Party led by Krisite Kirch; unanimous 7-0
• BOD approved Member Engagement Fund request for Nerdy Derby “parts manufacturing gathering” led by Anna Kirch; unanimous 7-0
• BOD approves Anna Kirch authority to review video from Laser Lab cameras; unanimous 7-0
• BOD approves Dan J as Assistant Treasurer; unanimous 7-0
• On Sunday, October 13th at 11 AM, the BOD held an Ad Hoc BOD meeting in the Lenox meeting room. The BOD met with member Cherie Neruda-Kusch which resulted in the termination of their membership.
• BOD approves to seed $2000 of general funds to the 'Community Development Fund Area'; 6-1, Geoff No.

Chris S. proposes the creation of a new area, 'Adventure Club'.

• Asks for storage space for donated materials (approx. 4sq feet)
• Tom G. Suggests holding some events to measure real engagement as opposed to interest.
• BOD happy to provide discord channel
• BOD unwilling to provide to provide space
• Bryan F. Suggests finding space within the area he already champion

Follow up on Norwich garbage collection action items from previous meeting. (Dan J.)

• Currently 1x week 6 yard garbage
• Currently 1x week 2 yard recycling
• Options:
  • Recycling: 4 yard 1x week $125/mo
  • Garbage: 6 yard 2x/week $295/mo
  • Garbage: 8 yard 1x/week $235/mo
  • Vote for 4 yard recycling and 8 yard garbage 1x week at Norwich. Non-Routine business vote in 1 week. Delta cost of $1080/year

Agenda item proposed by Dan J. What is my level of involvement with the BOD going forward?

• Vote to maintain Dan J. pre-president access. See email below. Unanimous

Commitment of funds for printing of new Member Handbook. See below.

• Vote to commit $2100 to print 1000x handbooks and mail ~600 to the current membership. Non-routine business vote in 1 week.

Dan J. Involvement - Email to BOD

Now that we are halfway through filling the new BOD, you all should decide what is the extent of my involvement moving forward?

Although I have a tremendous history with the board, that does not require that I be involved in anything you do moving forward, excepting my current status as the landlord at Norwich.

I know you want me to remain as Assistant Treasurer, since you already make a formal vote to that effect. I appreciate putting that in writing since I'll be handling the space's money. The bylaws empower the current treasurer (Geoff) to appoint his committee however he wants, but I think it's important to set the precedent that we need to be ultra careful/deliberate with financial access. So a public BOD vote is best.

I still have credentials and master keys, both electronic and physical, for everything listed below. I can hold onto those if you wish, or return them:
-Master door keys for both buildings
-Cash drawer keys for both buildings
-Drop box keys for both buildings
-Super-admin for all google services including mailing lists and the BOD team drive.
-Admin on wild-apricot, the billing system.
-Admin on the linode web server with the wordpress and wiki sites
-Admin on access control and area funding server
-Included on the treasurer@, facilities@, and info@ mailing lists.

In the past I had been added to the info@ and bod@ mailing lists in a capacity that Tim dubbed: “Elder of the Board”. I was removed from the bod@ list a few years ago after discussion at a BOD meeting. However, I was retained on the info@ list, without joining the bod@ list, so that I could better triage treasurer related business. Almost no one external to the BOD ever sends mail directly to the bod@ list. 99% of the time it forwards via the info@ list. bod@ conversations are usually internal and less likely to need me.

My personal belief is that you 7 are in charge, and I am just here as a kind of helpful butler. So if you are deliberating, I tend not to offer up my opinion and color the debate unless I feel like I have relevant history to make you aware of, or if I feel really strongly about something. Otherwise, if you want to know what I think you need to prompt me.

I would appreciate it if any decisions regarding the above could be announced and recorded in the minutes of this upcoming board meeting. There have been accusations in the past of impropriety or collusion between the BOD and myself, when I am not serving on it. I do not personally feel that those accusations had any merit, but I do not like even the appearance of it. I want to put this letter in the open to avoid any of that.

Member Handbook

• Background: The Communications Committee has been working over the past several months to update, consolidate, clarify and condense the Member Handbook. This update was heavily influenced by the member survey and world cafe exercise, and was developed in conjunction with the work of the Membership Committee. In particular, we aimed to fix the problems of a.) members “feeling lost” due to the complexity or inconsistency in the way we do things; and b.) Members doing not OK things because “I didn't know that was a rule.” Many of our rules and practices exist only as signage around our buildings, or folklore.

• Status: After many hours of meetings and enthusiastic discussion, the result of our effort is coming together. The content of this new Handbook was previously shared with the Board, and we are grateful for their many good comments and “catches.” In addition to putting this content on the wiki, we recommend publishing it as an attractive 16 to 20 page booklet. Member Daniel Life, a career communications guy who has published many similar documents in the past, is spearheading the design.

• Request: Tonight, we are looking to the Board to resolve two issues:

1) We would like approval to spend up to $2,000 to print 1,000 copies of the Handbook. This would give us around a year's supply (after which time we will probably be due for an update anyway) to hand out at new member orientation, AND a supply to mail a copy to each member household, accompanied by email messages firmly insisting all members read the Handbook.

• Quote for 1000x handbooks $1800-2100 (printed and shipped) 600x for current membership and 400x on hand.
• Geoff argues that we should not ship the handbook to all the members because they will be thrown out.
• Tom G. thinks that mailing the handbook to the membership will be wasted.
• Daniel L. offers the caveat that printed mailed media readership has gone up while emailed pdfs have basically no readership.
• John D. it is worthwhile to mail things.
• BOD Vote commit $2100 dollars to print 1000x handbooks and mail ~600 to the current membership. Non-routine business, vote in 1 week.

2) We have a longstanding tradition of admonishing members to “don't be a dick.” The Communications Committee feels this language may be off-putting to certain prospective members, and too vague to affect member behavior. At the same time, least one Board member feels it is important to include this language in the Handbook. Does the Board want us to include the words “Don't be a Dick” in the Member Handbook, or no?

• Mr. Rogers probably wouldn't say don't be a dick.
• Don't be a dick, is more provocative and negative and could be counter-productive to promoting excellent member behavior.
• Clear consequences for bad behavior are still in the handbook.
• The concern is over enshrining the aforementioned phrase in the handbook.
• Straw poll: Should not be included in the handbook. Majority of those in attendance

Rae Ripple - Workshop

• (Hapto) Hoping to bring in Rae Ripple and we don't expect this to be a funding ask, but a statement of awareness, and that we hope to have guest participants ala the iron pour to help offset the travel costs.

• None

Meeting adjourns at 7:38 pm.