Minutes:Board Meeting Minutes 20180213

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Agenda for 02-13-2018

Chair: Alec

Officer Reports

Treasury and Budget Report for Jan 2017

  • Financial Grade: A
    • Emergency: $29.5K
    • Build Out Fund: $1.5K
    • Checking: $2.4K
    • BNektar: $2.6K
    • Paypal: $1.1K
    • Total: $37.1K
  • Number of unique paying members in Jan 106
  • Number of yearly dues members 14
  • We exitted Jan with only 0 people overdue >$100 and 6 at $100-$49.01
  • Each Months Running Balance for Zone Funds are at Zone Funds

Secretary

  • Nothing to report.

President

  • Vivian is talking to someone at Wayne State about partnering with a drone racing event

Senior Vice President

  • n/a

VP of Activities & Classes

Alec: We haven't heard from Jen in the past 2 months. Terry: Talked to her near Christmas, thinks there has been real life stuff in the way. Vivian: Will reach out to her, and otherwise will fill in for the time being. Jan: She's active on facebook, I'll message her.

VP of Membership-Onboarding

+5 Members since last meeting

2/13 1/9
Pre-Phase 1 1 1
Phase 1 1 1
Phase 2 21 15
Post-Phase 2 0 1
Member 56 51
  • We're seeing a big burst of activity of people in phase 1 and 2. Some of the past tour nights have been really busy according to Paul and it looks like that's translating into new recruits.
  • Joseph: Paul, how are people on tours hearing about us?
  • Paul: Lots of google searches
  • Matt created an exit survey with Google Forms to give to exiting members. It can be found at http://www.i3detroit.org/exit
  • Feel free to give suggestions, hoping to add more hiatus type questions later (currently focused on true exits)

VP of Membership-Retention

  • Alec: Terry, we previously discussed how this position hasn't been utilized well and poorly defined.
  • Terry: Yeah, Matt and Terry have been doing this stuff and the position could be axed.
  • Terry: We've gotten some feedback from some previous members and have put together a flow chart to help new members find the right people to ask when they have questions or issues and Member Advocates are at the end of it.
  • Alec: From the board's point of view, should we eliminate the position?
Action Item: Alec - Discuss on the mailing list about VP Member Retention

VP of Membership-Member Advocate

  • No reports since last board meeting.
  • Below is the proposed updated Harassment Policy. Please read it, see if you have comments, and talk to Alec and Emily with feedback.
  • The board approves the harrassment policy, and will likely be voting on changes to it in about a week.
  • Compare with [Harassment Policy]

Proposed Harassment Policy

  1. i3Detroit has established a policy against harassment, and is articulating it publicly online, so that expectations will be clear. Let it be known that if issues were to arise, we would rather resolve them, than brush your concerns under the rug.
  2. Ask before touching another person, and interpret the absence of a clear "yes" as a "no". Abide by it.
  3. When i3Detroit members and guests express a limit on the amount or type of socializing they wish to do with you, abide by that limit.
  4. It is OK to express the socializing limits that you have.
  5. i3Detroit does not tolerate behavior that promotes violence against or directly attacks or threatens others on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or disease.
  6. Rather than stop visiting the hacker space, i3Detroit members and guests are urged to report violations of this policy to our member advocates, with the assurance that they are committed to take you seriously and do their best to resolve the situation.
  7. Any time that a member advocate deems it is necessary to address an incident of improper social behavior, they will investigate. If the member advocate determines an infraction took place, they will inform the board of directors. The board of directors will then work with the member advocates to choose one of the following options: A. Issue a warning. B. Issue a suspension of membership for a duration of the board’s choosing. C. A ban from the premises.
  8. The member advocates will respect and maintain the confidentiality of the complaint and the identity of all parties involved, outside the inquiries of the investigation.
  9. The member advocates will keep a private record of complaints and penalties, to be made available to the by the board of directors and the secretary upon request.

Old Business

Joseph's Real Estate Analysis

  • Joseph looked into local real estate to investigate what moving would look like, *just* as a comparison to expanding.
  • Joseph worked with a real estate agency and also used craigslist
  • Looked at commercial real estate in the local area of 10-20,000 sq. ft.
  • The best option was a 16,000 sq. ft. lease to own for $4500/month
  • Joeseph encourages Vivan and whoever works on our new lease to look into a land contract (sort of like rent to own, but not exactly, Terry knows the details why) to build equity in our current location.
  • NateB: a major advantage of owning our own building is, as a non-profit, we wouldn't have to pay property taxes, while our current landlord (and transitively us) does pay taxes.

Action Item Review

  • Terry has gotten new glass door keys made and has copies ready for the President and Secretary

Summary of Board List/Slack Discussions since last meeting

  • Discussion about Joseph's below proposal in New Business
  • Discussion of whether parties should fall under the VP Classes & Activities or not
Action Item: Jody - Initiate discussion about separating 'Activities' off of VP Classes & Activities

New Business

Vending Machine Proposal

  • Joseph: wants to propose an allocation of $300 to infuse into the vending machine to get things stocked again.
    • Also wants to propose a separation of the pop fund and the food vending machine to see what kind of loss there actually is on pop.
    • Also wants to propose price increases to keep us net positive.
  • Alec: Do we have an idea of how much loss there is?
  • Joseph: Last time he talked to Leonard he was still $100 in the hole on the pop machine.
  • Jody: Likes how open the current set up is and how it shows communal trust
  • David: Has this kind of loss been noticed before?
  • Joseph has only just started looking at it recently. Also he doesn't want to disrupt things too much so how about just allocating funding to get a lockbox and enough to stock the food machine.
  • Tony: Would you be the zone coordinator then?
  • Joseph: No, nothing that formal, there isn't a current zone coordinator in charge of either machine. Leonard just handles the pop machine.
  • Tony: Can we get a list of all of what that funding goes toward?
  • Joseph: Sure
  • Jan: wants to make sure prices aren't raised significantly. An anecdote from the other day, a member made an off hand comment that they really like being able to get affordable snacks here, and Jan wants to make sure that person is well represented.
  • Joseph doesn't plan to price things more than 25% cost and rounding to the nearest even amount.
Proposal:
Joseph proposes the board allocate $200 to buy a lockbox and refill the food vending machine
Moved by Joseph, Seconded by Matt
6 Ayes / 1 Nays
Result: PASS
  • Alec: Joseph, once this is done, please give us a tally of how positive or negative this is running.
Action Item: Joseph - Provide accounting of vending machine stuff
  • Tony: If Joseph and Leonard stop filling the machines, will they revert to the Commons coordinator (Alec)
  • Alec: Yes, they're part of the commons, but since he took over there hasn't been any change to the system apart from the new Snapple machine.

Space Usage by External Groups

  • Joseph: in talking to Nate B, he expressed concern about outside groups coming in, using our space, and leaving wihtout contributing.
  • Jody: Some have made donations
  • Joseph: That, or we could help remind them that there aren't janitors and there are many little ways they can contribute like taking out the trash.
  • Jody: So you mean some are abusing the space?
  • Joseph: Maybe next meeting we can discuss at what point we consider external groups as abusive
  • NateB: On the outside-group-hosting concept: I feel this is 100% up to the member(s) hosting the outsiders, but I think it would be useful to have a standard "guideline" for hosting groups, which would both remind the members of some items to cover, and give the members something to point to if they need backup for an opinion.
  • Paul L taught a class on Saturday at 4, and there was event scheduled from 1-4, and they didn't want to leave the room and left it a bit of a mess.
  • Alec: It's best to try to leave a little air gap of half an hour between events
  • Paul: I don't think they would have been ready to leave then either, they seemed surprised anyone else wanted to use the room
  • Alec: Thats the kind of thing, if it is a big problem should be brought to the member advovate
Action Item: Joseph - Initiate mailing list discussion on guest policy
  • Jan: Why do we require sign-ins? Sometimes it seems like poeple aren't being signed in and it would be a lot easier if I can say why they need to be signed in.
  • Alec: If you see that happening, please report it
  • MattH: Part of the reason for guest sign-in is something related to liability.

Space & Zone Discussions

  • David is interested in extending large project storage south to be even with the front corner of the weld zone. But will table this until next month as the meeting is running long.

COWBELL

Meeting Metrics

  • Time completed: 8:35 pm
  • Funds appropriated: $200
  • Attendees: 14

Action Item Summary

Action ItemPOC
Initiate discussion about separating 'Activities' off of VP Classes & ActivitiesJody
Initiate mailing list discussion on guest policyJoseph
Discuss on the mailing list about VP Member RetentionAlec
Provide accounting of vending machine stuffJoseph

Proposal Summary

ProposalMoved BySeconded ByAyeNayResult
Joseph proposes the board allocate $200 to buy a lockbox and refill the food vending machineJosephMatt61PASS

Attendance

  1. Joseph B
  2. Alec B
  3. Emily A
  4. David H
  5. Martee H
  6. Paul L
  7. Jody R
  8. Matt A
  9. Vivian S
  10. Jan H
  11. Matt H
  12. Matt C
  13. Mike F
  14. Terry W


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