Minutes:Board Meeting Minutes 20141014

2014-10-14

Agenda

Chair: Max!

Introductions

No one wants to introduce themselves. Is this because we are already all best friends? Or is it because we are a group of hostile jerks who don't want to interact with one another? The question goes unanswered...

Announcements

No one has any announcements. We are off to an excellent start.

Old Business

Completed

• Pay for all the domains for the next 5 years - Justin - The current year is paid, the treasurer will do the rest.
• Update the board meeting template to remove Zone Updates - Jamie - done!
• Update the budget with today's amendments - Terry - done!

Emergency Fund

• Previous Action Item: Bring emergency fund proposal to the October board meeting - Evan
• Evan has researched the fund, most expensive emergency scenario is $25,000-$30,000. How does this fit into our current budget? It doesn't. We could just move our savings into the emergency fund. Nate says most money in budget will not actually be spent. Evan says maybe get a quote from moving company, suggests re-budgeting in December for actual emergency fund. Jamie asks about time frame for when we could get to level of appropriate savings, Evan says 1 year, if we put in $2,000 per month. Andrew suggests a fundraiser, Evan agrees. Nate is hesitant. Terry says $5,000 can absorb any variations in income, predicts about $22,000 will be in bank at year-end, suggests moving $15,000 funds immediately.
• Andrew makes a proposal to make move $10,000 right now, making the e-fund total $15,000. Evan seconds it. 6 out of 6 vote yes. Motion passes.
• Terry does electronic transfer

Cleaning/EZC

• Get a quote for 1x/2 week cleaning Terry
  • Terry: $125 per vist every other week. I would like to tell the vendor our decision.
• Nate moves to formally decide to not hire cleaning service. Jamie suggests giving EZC a test period until year end. Andrew seconds. 6 out of 6 yes. Passes.

Tabled

Slush Fund

• Make a proposal for slush fund accounting - Terry
  • Terry: Proposal posted on Board List.
• There are some very slight overages on purchase. Terry suggests a slush fund where when stuff costs less than was budgeted, the extra money goes to slush fund, which is used when stuff costs more than budgeted - no more than 50% of fund. Andrew seconds it.
• Nate questions documentation. Jamie has trust issues, and is uncomfortable with trusting our future treasurers. She thinks we should just overestimate what we need and try really hard to go under budget. Nate does not disagree, but thinks it is easier to place trust in officer we appoint rather than re-educate zone wardens. Charlie agrees with Jamie, mentions a previous hackerspace getting in trouble for a similar situation, worries about us getting in trouble with IRS. Evan says it is ok, and it's better to actually get things done rather than wait on bureaucracy. Andrew says the fund cannot be abused, citing the 50% limit and the records which will be kept. Jamie is still concerned about abuse. Scott says board can take action if they know about an indiscretions, Evan says board can review reports. Mike suggests a weekly email board vote on overages. Nate says this qualifies as a "special meeting" which has to be noticed. Konrad explains how previous email voting worked. Terry says waiting for approval could discourage people from buying stuff.
• Nate moves to table this matter. Scott seconds. Topic is tabled.

Ongoing

Forklift

• Previous Action Item: Coordinate with Warnick about Forklift quote discussion on the Board list - Evan
• We could spend between 500-1500 to fix it, or sell it for current offer of 1500. Warnick wants to buy an electric one. Andrew proposes that someone lists the forklift on craigslist, see what the going rate is. Discussion occurs for pros and cons of forklifts, specific and general. Nate B says we won't be inconvenienced by not having it. Konrad says we have a history of leaving junk sitting around, wants to get rid of it to make room for stuff we actually want.
• Nate B moves to sell, Andrew seconds it, 6 out of 6 votes, passes. Jody is point of contact for an auction. Nate is point of contact for craigslist.
• Topic is moved to general member meetings

Metal Shop Coordinators

• Confirm with all three trial machine shop wardens that they want to be wardens - Mike
• Mike has not talked to Steve, Ken is uninterested, uncertain about Jon. Nate wants to update the list to include Keegan, Andrew suggests Keegan as sole zone warden as others do not seem to care. Nate suggests filling in the how-to-be-warden on wiki so people know what they would need to do. Evan suggests posting to member list to clarify that we don't have a warden and they should come forward if interested. Evan will post to the list. Terry says warden's meeting is coming up, wants the board to step up and get this done. Max questions what needs to be done in metal shop, Nate says nothing at the moment has been requested. Max will update sign telling people to contact the board if they have questions about the metal shop.

CRM

• Figure out what to do about the CRM - Team CRM
  • Terry: CRM Problem#1 has been successfully tested. Problem#2 is yet unresolved.
• Things are happening. Andrew upgraded the CRM yesterday. Ability to manually input payment has been fixed. Ability for amazon payments to automatically be entered has not been fixed. Jamie says Evan was supposed to fix the link, he called out Amazon for being dumb, says it will be fixed.
• Nate publicly acknowledges Andrew, Ed, Terry, Evan for working on CRM.
• Discussions/updates moved to member meetings

New Business

Officer Appointments

President

• Konrad is winner of popular vote with 29 votes.
• Jamie proposes, Mike seconds, 6 out of 6 votes yes, Konrad is appointed.

Vice President

• 13 votes for Charlie, 13 votes for Swit, 7 votes for Matt A, 2 votes for Warnick
• Nate proposes Charlie, Andrew seconds, 6 out of 6, Charlie is appointed.

CEO

• Brian McPherson gets 29 votes
• Evan proposes combining CEO with President. Charlie and Justin both think dividing responsibilities. Mike suggests merging CEO and Vice President. Nate suggests giving Brian a chance. There is debate about pros and cons of appointing Brian. Andrew attests to Brian's leadership abilities.
• Nate moves to appoint Brian, Andrew seconds, 4 out of 6. Brian is appointed.

Secretary

• Jamie gets 34 votes
• Evan proposes, Nate seconds, 6 out of 6, Jamie is appointed. Jamie thanks Adrienne for temporarily secretary-ing, there is applause.

Treasurer

• Terry gets 31 votes.
• Jamie proposes, Evan seconds, 5 out of 6 (Andrew abstains), Terry is appointed.

Membership Coordinator

• Max gets 10 votes.
• Max discusses making multiple membership coordinators. Charlie asks if Membership Coordinator can appoint minions. Nate says a single point of contact but as many helpers as possible.
• Scott moves, Andrew seconds, 6 out of 6, Max is appointed.

Floor Plan Report

• Point of Contact: Konrad B
• Can we have the board, or an officer report on the floor plan on a regular basis regarding space that is being occupied in an unusable state, e.g. plasma cutter, injection molders, etc.
• Could also discuss ideas like home improvement, renovations.

Men's Bathroom Repairs

• Point of Contact: Konrad B
• With no warden in charge, this is board responsibility to make sure it gets fixed or check on those who have the tasks delegated.
• Men's bathroom needs to be repaired, Konrad asks to board to make that happen.
• Evan says part was ordered, just needs to be installed.

CNC Plasma Cutter

• Point of Contact: Konrad B
• Walter Frudge, owner of the CNC plasma cutter wants to sell his plasma cutter to i3Detroit or remove it from the space and sell it to someone else
• Coincidentally, Jody R is purchasing a handheld plasma cutter for the welding zone
• There is a lot of interest in having a CNC plasma cutter available at the space, but there are some concerns that the current state of the CNC plasma cutter make it unsuitable for i3Detroit's needs.
• Walter is patient and says we can take more time to come to a decision.
• Walter does not want to sell pieces from his CNC plasma cutter a la carte.
• If we return the plasma cutter to Walter, he was agreeable with the idea of paying i3 for the costs of the ventilation system that is currently being installed.
  • $500 were allocated in the budget for the CNC plasma cutter ventilation system at the April 2014 Board meeting, shown in the minutes here.
  • Update on current spent amount? - $305 has been spent so far.
• Terry asks if new plasma cutter would have home. Jody describes plasma cutter in weld zone. Terry clarifies CNC. Jody doesn't want it in the weld zone.
• Evan proposes not spending money to buy it. Jamie says we should make a decision about what to do with it. Andrew proposes telling Walter to take it out by the end of the year. Mike seconds. 6 out of 6 vote yes. Motion passes.
• Further updates moved to member meetings

Officer and Committee Reports

Budget

September 2014 ' TOTAL INCOME $3490

TOTAL OUTGO -$5586 Net Cash Flow $-2096

September Deposits was low due to CRM issues holding up deposits. Next month will be better because CRM will be fixed.

Membership Coordinator

• 146 active members
• 115 voting members
• 25 members on leave

Secretary

• 35 people participated in election. Jamie feels the method used was appropriate, plans to continue.
• Jamie filed the LARA MI nonprofit form, on time!

President

Konrad took a vacation. While he was gone, people from Egypt came here (International Visitors Council of Detroit emailed us about a delegation in the US on a hackerspace tour). Nate skipped off to find business cards. Egyptians were punctual, invited us to Egypt for Maker Faire Cairo in March. Nate asks the board to consider sending a couple of people. Scott describes their interest in hackerspaces as business incubators and continuing education - they were amazed by our democratic process for running the space, and were energized by their visit here, left inspired. Visitor's Council thanked Nate and Scott.

Action Items

no action items

Meeting Metrics

• Time completed:
• Funds appropriated: $250/month until year's end
• Attendees: 16

Attendance

1. Konrad Brown
2. Evan Allen
3. Mike Fink
4. Charlie Rysenga
5. Justin Triplett
6. W. Scott Richardson
7. Adrienne Patterson
8. Terry Wynn
9. Dave Scholl
10. Matt Arnold
11. Amelia Meyer
12. Kevin Flory
13. Jody Raiford
14. Nate Bezanson
15. Jamie Burdeski
16. Maxwell Gonyea Alexander

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