Minutes:Meeting Minutes 20240702

Agenda for 2024-07-02

Meeting Location

Meeting was Called to Order At: XXXXXXXXX

https://i3detroit.org/hangout and at i3Detroit

Hybrid Meeting Etiquette

• Be excellent.
• Attendance and voting can be found in the #meetings slack channel.
• Please show up early if you are concerned about your audio.
• If there is no one waiting to speak feel free to do so at the next opportunity.
• If there is someone waiting to speak, please say that you are raising your hand in the google call chat. (This will be demonstrated)
• Please refrain from other side conversations, these can be distracting for the rest of the meeting and make it difficult for the chair to keep track of what's going on.
• If you're in the space remember that having a single person speaking at a time is helpful for those attending online.

Introductions

Experienced Members

• n/a

New Members & Guests

• n/a

Show and Tell

• n/a

Old Business

• n/a

New Business

Upcoming Events

• Volunteers to host upcoming Friday tours?
• Up coming Events Calendar

Camera Updates

• A number of zones have either moved, are in the process of moving, or are new. We should update the cameras to account for this.
• Sewing Zone is new and didn't have physical space.
• New Craft, eLab, Glass, Kitchen, Leather and Media locations

Motion:
Update camera's and positions as needed to cover Craft, eLab, Glass, Kitchen, Leather, Media and Sewing zones
Moved by Mover; Seconded by Second
Ayes Ayes / Nays Nays
Result: PASS

Discuss community health

two pages both alike in purpose, in fair i3 where we lay our scene

We need to sort out what we're doing, and define page purpose

I plan to bring this up on the mailing list but I want to have a wider discussion first where we can all see eachother to resolve first pass confusion

• HOWTO Keep i3 Safe
  • kinda guidelines, completely copied from noisebridge
• HOWTO Deal With People Not Being Excellent
  • checklist for what accounts to check

Public Letter from Lauren Yellen

Members of i3 Detroit,

A recent situation has brought to light a reality of this organization that I feel a responsibility to enlighten you to. And I believe that memberships response to being stated with these facts will determine my individual level of support and participation in i3 Detroit moving forward.

I joined this organization in the winter of 2023. When I arrived; there was no programming going on, the space was still dead from the realities of Covid. I had lots of immediate hope that this community wanted to transform; invite and grow into something a lot more beautiful than the reality that was in front of me. When 5 people were showing up on Friday nights and not showing any sense of community in a place that cheers for community; I knew that changing how things occur was vital for the organization to be successful.

Speaking of successful organizations; my background is in those. I spent more than 13 years deeply involved in growing non profit organizations. My work has spanned from mostly pro Detroit community work, sitting on committees that our governor appointed me too, to national causes working in DC with senators and house members to write policy. I’ve even had my direct non profit efforts reach the Supreme Court where they decided to agree with supporting clean water in Michigans Upper Peninsula, when I was one of two staff of the organization leading this effort.

Did I do all this while helping start the largest well intentioned jewelry company in Detroit? Yes. I do have a crazy degree in Metals, Jewelry and Blacksmithing; Yes, in fact I graduated in 3 years with a 5 year degree. And Yes, I was the youngest person ever to get into Cranbrook’s Grad School. And no, I ultimately didn’t have the money to attend because I didn’t make enough money changing the world.

I give you background not to make myself sound pompous or above any of you; but to familiarize you the qualifications of my knowledge and previous experiences that align with the nature of i3.

We all come to i3 for our own individual reasons; some of us come here to make things and use the tools, and some of us come here to fix things. Some of us come here to think, hell some of us come here to be social and find ourselves as a part of a community. Some of us come here to learn things from others; and others come here to learn about themselves. Some of us come to gift other members resources of knowledge, mental tools and abilities that they would have greatly benefited from having access to younger. Some of us come here to start or sustain businesses. Some of us come here to build i3, and others show up to finish the expansion efforts. There’s a plethora of other reasons as to ‘why’ you individually and everyone else around you comes to i3.

Why do you come here? Think about it deeper.

I come here to give and to receive knowledge. I come here to empower other members to follow and complete their dreams. I come here to listen to members who need someone to bounce ideas off of. I come here to give you the encouragement you've always deserved. I come here to complete expansion efforts; so that i3 can begin existing in its new post expansion phase; where I do anticipate our challenges to be very different than they are now. I come here to plan events and classes and encourage you to do that also. I come here to make art and enter the headspace of communal art spaces that I’ve lacked since college. I come here for so many different reasons that it would be hours of me rambling to define my “why I come here” but I can sum it up as “I come here to become a better person, hang out with my new friends and have fun.”

Recently, it has been brought to my attention that several of our members come here to abuse.

These people come here with the understanding that they have ‘responsibilities’ and have been granted the ability to make decisions for others; the space and the social structure of i3. They feel a need to continue to structure this environment in a way that benefits them individually. In decision making efforts; these people will tell you that they are making decisions in the benefit of the individual members; but in actuality they are making decisions that benefit themselves and their own ‘wants and needs’.

I have learned that this organization, that outwardly offers an open source structure, this being an all are welcome ‘club’, that is ‘100% member run; has several people abusing the small amount of power that they have been given. And after listening to stories from a lot of you, there is a pretty long standing history of the i3 leadership abusing individual members.

Have you ever considered what ‘being excellent’ is? Being excellent is accepting and respecting one another. That extends to people’s wants and dreams. Being excellent is being collaborative and celebrating by listening to the experiences that others bring to the table. Being excellent is a commitment to continuous learning, self growth and building community. Being excellent is being open to creativity and innovation- two things that i3 exists to promote.

In the past few weeks; the current board of Directors at i3 Detroit have not been coming close to even a generous interpretation of “being excellent”.

If you attended the last potluck; you would know that every single task on the list we made got accomplished. Even with Wanda/Wordsworth being shut down the whole day for construction. Literally everything from building all three sides of e-labs 12 ft walls; working on the top of half wall for craft; to painting classroom, craft, and lounge to even painting the bathroom floor. We even had all 55 outlets installed in sewing without anyone crying. There was actually a lot more than that list that happened that individual day.

What you didn’t see was the hours upon hours that were spent in the middle of the night doing things like moving expansion materials, cleaning large project storage, mudding walls (shout out to Nick L for teaching me how to do that), midnight construction meetings, ordering supplies we need to build (probably a conservative 30 hours of my life), and preparing of the space for each of you to be able to just show up and be incredibly successful. The night before; I was mudding and priming the classroom and running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I wish you were there to witness it, honestly it was pretty funny.

Can I let you in on a secret? My effort at i3 Detroit has not been made alone. It would have never worked if it was made alone; we all know that accomplishing anything around here happens when multiple people put their minds together. I've had a secret weapon this whole time.

His name is David Smith.

David or ‘Dave’ as he goes by around here to make it easier for you all; has gone above and beyond so many times that I couldn’t even consider counting; to make each and everyone of you successful. He has helped with fixing and upgrading the majority of the tools here that stopped working during Covid. He’s cleaned nooks and crannies of this place that most of us probably don’t know existed. He has given the best member tours I really do believe I will ever witness. He has an actual pulse on this place; because he constantly shows up to help improve himself and others. He’s offered people unique knowledge and taught people skills to help them live better; more fulfilling lives. He has deep meaningful conversations with everyone who asks; and really enjoys philosophy. He even has a superpower of calling out narcissism and spotting abuse. I have come to trust his memory more than my own because it’s often perfectly accurate to the words that he can recall.

David has given us all the gift of the current state of reality at i3. He has led imagining, innovating, and inspiring reality for a good majority of the members. He has gifted i3 time, attention and perseverance. He has even taught me so much about myself.

When he was appointed secretary not long ago; he took the role so seriously that he spent the time going through our archives to read every single member meeting and board meeting minutes that our organization has. He wanted to make sure he understood perfectly the commitment he made. He very clearly understands how important it is to document; clearly communicate and be a resource to membership about i3. As of this moment; he is behind on publishing one month of minutes while he was secretary.

I can’t speak for him, but I personally feel like David came here to build i3. To make this place better for all of us.

-Sigh-

There’s a few vital stories that I need to share with you to give you the full context and reality of the situation that is existing at i3 right now. They won't necessarily be in time occurrence order; but they will be accurate. I apologize that this will take up a reasonable amount of your time; but I can no longer keep all of these stories to myself because the burden has grown too large; and my involvement in this organization hinges on how you as members respond to being told the truth.

A day or so after potlucks huge success; a woman who comes in as a guest convinced a member to drive her here and leave her overnight without a way for her to “go home” until morning. Dave signed her in after the member left to be kind because he was planning on being there longer. I was there as well. As the night progressed; I finalized some expansion stuff; Dave was doing whatever he chose to do; and ultimately he and I decided to watch a really emotionally charged movie, “I Am Sam and cuddle on the couch in the lounge area. The woman was working on some things in the leather area; and decided to come over halfway through the movie and sit with us - great; no problem. Then she decided to start talking during the movie and essentially she opposed the main themes and values in the movie without getting the full context. After it ends, I'm balling my eyes out, and She brings up that she did research for a movie about a cedar point like island in Detroit. It’s on Amazon prime and she wants to show us immediately. As someone who loves, nurtures and supports Detroit as much as I do; of course I am always down to learn more about it; but at this early hour of the morning and this level of emotion, I was not interested at all. And I expressed this to her multiple times that I really did want to watch it but that now was not the right time for me to properly comprehend it. Even Dave expressed that he was not interested. She ultimately chose not to listen to our opinions and turned it on. She spent about 45 minutes of our time bopping around on her movie; Dave and I both stayed through it as a kindness to this new person in our lives.

I thought this disrespect was done; but I was INCREDIBLY mistaken.

I received a message from the president of i3 on Monday May 27th “We need to talk. Give me a phone call please” “We can talk about it tomorrow night in person, and we almost certainly will. But if your available at your convenience, today would be good”. Immediately; my PTSD bells went off in my mind. I became scared; like I was in trouble by a parent again with no context and being asked to respond to something that would lead to ‘further trouble’. A day later it was ‘Social Tuesday’ and I was in Ohio to see a concert. Matt called me on the phone and the following are some of the key points that were expressed: On May 23rd, this guest took a video of you and Dave on the couch in the lounge area She claims he was sensually fondling you on your breasts and crotch -> Side note: He was not violating me He asked if she expressed to Dave and I that she was uncomfortable, and she did not She asked the board to review the video she took and ‘take action’ She has a ‘crush’ on Dave The guest was offering to have sex with a board member to get the outcome she wanted The ‘social norm’ say that you shouldn't be “cuddling on a couch watching a movie” in public She wasn't consenting to being around Dave and I cuddling We should consider ‘staging’ an event where random members have to ask someone or multiple people to leave.

Ultimately, this guest's request to the board and that downfall behavior led to multiple different people being told that Dave and I are a ‘thing’. We made the choice not to share our personal lives and relationship with you and this guest decided she had the authority to bless you all with that information. That bothered me personally; maybe more than her taking the illegal video.

Dave took the time to alert the board that this guest has previous offered him drugs to pick her up and bring her to i3, she has called him incredibly inappropriate words over text message (like actually using the N word) during talking to her for a week back in August, She even showed up unannounced to Daves office in the middle of the night.

A day or two later, she showed up during the ‘screw you’ class that both Dave and I attended with many of you; and went up to Dave to ask for him to sign her in; after we had already been made aware of the video, board request and everything else. It was the most unsafe “what the fuck” moment I have ever felt at i3. Then I found out she had claimed a storage unit without being a member, or having any documentation about it in the CRM.

According to ‘rumors’ of internal board communication; (which by the way is not public access), The board was sent the video that was taken without me or Daves actual bound-by-law consent, the board voted, (which is also not expressed to membership that a vote even occurred), that the person who I could sue at this very moment, not be banned from i3. She would remain to be allowed to be signed in as a guest.

No action is deemed necessary by the board of directors.

- I am content with the amount of knowledge on this situation that you, membership have now been given. -

Something else i’d like you to be aware of:

I have contacted the board and member advocates in regards to the declining health of a contributing member multiple times now. Back in December or January close to when I joined, I noticed what was occurring, and felt the initiative to alert the board that this person's abilities were declining and that it is affecting the members in the space. Fast forward to around Midnight on May 15th, 2024 when very few people were around, the member fell in the space. The member seemed actually hurt and behaved very differently than normal for the rest of the time I was at the space for the night. I spent about 3 hours typing the board, and member advocates a message to alert them of what occurred and the responses I received ultimately showed no care, or plan of care for the member.

A formal camera review was requested of the incident on May 24th on the ask the board channel. My name was then included on this thread, when I very explicitly asked to not be mentioned. May 26th it was brought up again, and as of today, the camera review has still not been done.

The board has still not proposed any sort of plan to make sure that the i3 community is assisting this member in a reasonable, healthy way for all members to interact and understand the current state of their reality.

There is another open request from April 27th, in the auto zone after someone placed rotators in the trash can, leading to a trash bag exploding.

I would like you to be aware that on June 14th, No one had any issue doing a camera review for someone leaving a small mess in the welding zone.

The standing rules read:

Real-Time Camera Access Any member may, under the supervision of a board member or infrastructure coordinator and their delegate(s), view real-time security camera footage when at i3 Detroit for the purpose of confirming camera views. Request to View Historical Footage A member or members may request to view historical video by contacting the Board. Footage may be viewed when approved by and accompanied by one member of the board of directors and one member of either the Board of Directors, Corporate Officers or Zone Coordinators. Information about an approved request will be posted to the mailing list by the Board, said information to include the requesting member(s) and the specifics of which footage was requested. https://www.i3detroit.org/wiki/Standing_rules#Unattended_Cameras

What I have learned from the member advocates: The member advocates are able to use their authority to determine outcomes of situations at i3 without being ‘checked’ by any other members. They are allowed to not participate on slack; and also not show up to the space while being “protected” by others they are in relationships with. They choose to not spend time at the space even with their ‘partners’. They show up for a task and then leave. They don’t engage with the community at all. I do not trust that information they are granted is kept confidential; and it is apparent to me that they have direct interest in protecting ‘their people’ and not acting in the benefit of the doubt for i3 membership. They are welcomed to lobby for punishment; and give advise to the board based on the outcomes they individually desire. Essentially they are allowed and promoted to freely collect the gossip; drama; incidents and decide what to do with the information and execute on those plans under the ‘mask’ of the member advocate. I would love to report the member advocates behavior to the member advocates; but I can almost guarantee that you can predict how that is going to end. And I'll likely be up for getting banned. I would also love to know how I’m supposed to feel comfortable telling the member advocates that I have issues with one or more of their partners. My entire experience with the member advocates has showed me the red flag to watch out for manipulation; and I’ve been witness to it far too many times already. - This is the backstory to give you context to what happened next; It is important to disclose to you that Mark Furland now goes by Mara Furland; and I will be referring to them as Mara from now on. Dave had brought tools to the space to help with the actual expansion and expand upon his work teaching multiple people to hack and code. At this time there was no ‘enforcement’ of any sort of structure to donate, lend or store things in the space. We have policies, and rules and stuff; but they seem only to be used when an individual is not happy with another individual. He even made multiple attempts to have a conversation about the ineffective nature of the current parking permit/parking ticket situation. It’s not a form of healthy communication.

Ultimately; this led to him being ticketed in a weaponizing and demonizing matter by Mara Furland. The history of mistreatment that Mara has portrayed on Dave was almost instantly occurring since Dave became a member at i3. The very short history of why this zone named ‘digital infrastructure’ exists is that Mara desires to limit and hold exclusive access to i3’s self developed software tools and not allow others to access, hack or learn about the internals of these systems. Multiple members have asked and are qualified to be involved in improving these systems; and yet the answer has always been “no”. Mara has exclusive access to our digital assets keys which include things like: permissions to access and grant all google accounts, likely has admin privileges on slack with undisclosed amounts of access to private message viewing, fully has access to the RFID controls on the door system; has ‘responsibility’ on the thing that beeped for weeks in media lab, the hardac, and likely a lot more. They are the only person who can access and reset the home automation tools which have been malfunctioning multiple times recently. When home automation goes down; multiple members have opted to listen to light flicker and buzz and not have access to our “digital infrastructure” systems because they don’t not want to interact with Mara directly. I don’t know exactly to what extent that they have permission; but I would not be surprised if they have exclusive access to things like our wiki; and even 24/7 camera access. Dave; who is very much qualified to code; hack and understand computer systems and data storage asked for access to solve many issues that the current set up has; and was rejected. Thomas, who works in software, was rejected and scolded for trying something new. Nick Mcsherry was given slightly more access and was taken advantage of. These are just some of the instances that I’m aware of. Mara has shown up to the space maybe around 5 times in the last 6 months. One would normally check their key card swipes to be able to give you true data; but I unfortunately don’t have access to that.

The following email was sent to all on membership on May 30th.

[i3-announce] [ABANDONED PROPERTY PARKING TICKET] piles of stuff in north commons May 30th, 2024 Ticket applied 2024-05-31 15:42 There are drifts of stuff on tables and carts surrounding elab work supplies

It's completely unacceptable to leave this volume of personal detritus lying around, especially without a permit

This has been here long enough I got complaints about it(but no tickets, so apparently we need to keep thinking about making the process easier)

We moved all the stuff that had a name or was clearly not i3's to be separate from i3's stuff The owner has been contacted

Cheers, Mara

• inserted photos of dave’s collected stuff and building material for elab build out *Items were moved from other locations of i3 to be included in the photos.

Dave wrote the following response and it was sent to Mara; cc’ed to the announce group, where our email system seems to have auto filtered it because of the size of our email. - “Thank you Mara,

 I brought in my own racks for these items to be stored on. The racks are on wheels. Please feel free to move them out of the way if they're in your way.

 I brought in my own cart for the cleaning cart. It's on wheels, please feel free to move it if it's in your way.

 I brought in my own mobile tool-crib that will be in Tool Crib after it's wiki-published. It's on wheels. Please feel free to move it if it's in your way.

   I brought in my own table AFTER cleaning and fixing the existing broken commons tables so that members always have enough table real estate to use the space comfortably. In fact, two of the items you're referring to are pop-up tables that get used by members quite often.

 Please note that the commons area and associated efforts that I've made make and keep the space objectively better. This is what building, improving, and using the space looks like.

 If there were space in large project storage for me to put these things, I'd be happy to. While large project storage has come a long way since the Kyocera's have been moved and brought online; as it stands now, there is not space in large project storage, it is full of some *active* projects, and some INACTIVE projects. 

 I slowed my integration of donations because I received feedback that things should be properly labeled and put on the wiki. I've since labeled each of the items with colors and I've spoken with associated ZCs to verify the welcomeness of the donations.

 If you'd like to help categorize, label, or wiki-publish any of the items in the donation queue, please contact me and I'd love to set a time. I spend a lot of time at the space when I'm having fun, so feel free to drop by and we'll probably run into each other.

 If you came to Potlock, or were witness to these items being used during elab build out, or witnessed the cleaning, or witnessed how they helped with the Screw U class, or the robotics class, or how they helped people find things that were only available in those donations, or saw people using the monitors to learn, or saw the chainsaw being used to cut up pallet racks (in addition to the pallets used to move the furnaces), or witnessed the cleaner fablab (with a new air filter!), or witnessed the extraordinarily cleaner space, or witnessed the tarp I brought in being used to cover the sewing assets, or saw the joy of a person having a q-tip when they needed a q-tip, or first aid when they needed first aid — then your opinion might be different on the 'completely unacceptable' nature of temporary storage of these donated assets.
 In the meantime; these items are ACTIVELY being processed. They are an *Active* project; they are donations to i3 that are available for every member to use.

 If *active* projects are being worked on, these projects are aligned with the tenants of i3: to Imagine, Innovate, and Inspire. Especially when those projects are exclusively to the benefit and welfare of i3 members.

 If it's ever 'completely unacceptable' for a person to try to celebrate the art that is i3 - and succeed - by having fun building, contributing, helping, and making space for others; then I'd like to understand what you define as 'acceptable'.
 You're invited to write as many tickets as you desire for the 'pile of stuff'; it's my joy to see the parking permit and parking ticket system working as a valid form of communication (though, I would have chosen blue).

Thank you, Dave Smith” - If one was in the space to know the context of why Dave collected the tools he brought to be donated; it was because recently, months after tools had been integrated, Jan Henry has decided that it is important to her again that everything get documented on the wiki. She explicitly asked him to post all of his things on there even though they were out being used, and stored. Understanding the scope of work being asked of him, Dave obliged and the method Dave chose to organize this was by collecting the stuff and sorting; it so that he could automate the process of documenting his loans and donations to i3. Then the above ticket was issued. Then randomly out of the blue; Jan changed the donations form from I think 2014 in ways that were drastic and not voted on or communicated tomembership. The timely nature of this was directed to impact David’s good faith effort to document things on the wiki that Jan originally had requested in the first place. I remember so clearly several days after the parking ticket had been issued, Jan printed out a huge stack of these newly finished and structured donation forms, and left them on the table next to Dave without talking to him about it. She basically was trying to nudge him that now he needed to use these. She set them down and walked out without saying anything about them to him. All of this occurred simultaneously with the major work and effort being done on expansion; we were literally building walls and preparing for all of you to be successful while documenting his stuff clearly was not a priority to be accomplished for Dave due to his time and effort being spent on expansion.

On June 4th, 2024; Dave was permanently locked out of the secretary email. This is important because it’s two days before the board voted to do this; and ya know it’s likely the doing of the digital infrastructure coordinator.

As a short amount of time progressed the following is an email that was received two days later on June 6th 2024 with no formal other communications from the board to this individual. Please note: there is a board member going around telling people that David was given ‘warnings’ and this is absolutely not true.

“David,

Based on a pattern of behavior the Board of Directors has decided to remove you as Secretary, effective immediately. If you would like to discuss this decision with us, we can schedule a meeting with you.

Regarding the parking tickets: the Board of Directors fully supports Mara’s actions in regards to the unapproved storage of personal items by you at i3 Detroit. It is clear by our rules that we only accept donations that have been explicitly approved by a Zone Coordinator. If a specific zone cannot be identified to accept a donation, the alternatives are either Infrastructure or Commons. Right now, the Infrastructure coordinators are Evan and Mara. The Commons coordinator is the Board of Directors. One of us would have to approve any general space supplies, which has not yet happened. There is also other paperwork that would need to happen, but it is irrelevant if the donation has not been accepted.

So, the parking ticket, as written, stands. If you would like to donate any of the items covered by this parking ticket, please make arrangements to meet with Mara Furland and Dave Hurt to discuss with them which things you are willing to donate to i3 and which things we are willing to accept. Once those items are donated, they will belong fully to i3 to be used by all members and stored or disposed of as we see fit and you no longer have any claim to these items. Please keep that in mind before you donate anything.

Anything that has not been donated and accepted or removed from the space by the Parking Ticket deadline of 7 June will be moved into the Graveyard where it will be available by normal Graveyard rules.”

Dave replied -

“Dear any Director of i3Detroit,

 Who chooses to respond to this email,
   Who voted unanimously to remove me from the Secretary role,

     So that I can contextualize the words "us" and "we" that are referenced in the email;

       Who sent this email?

     In the consideration of informed consent, this email exchange will be published publicly.

Thank you Kindly and Best, Dave Smith Most Active Member.”

Response from Matt Arnold -

“This email was sent by all seven Board Directors and both Member Advocates: Board Directors Matt Arnold, Jan Henry, Frank Aloia, Evan Allen, Alex Tsuker, and Dave Hurt; Member Advocate and Board Director Mel Gilchrist; and Member Advocate Matt Huber.

On Tuesday night, Matt Huber led a special meeting of the Board and Member Advocates. In this meeting, we reviewed and discussed: - an overall summary report provided by the Member Advocates, - related discussions conducted previously among the Board Directors, and - a draft of the email you received, making one small proofreading correction to it, which in no way altered the intent or effect.

On the Board email list, I as President called an email Board vote on this language: "Motion to remove David Smith from the office of Secretary of i3Detroit." I made the motion, and Evan Allen seconded it. After the motion was seconded, all seven directors (including me) replied with an email, in which we each stated that we waived our right to at least seven days prior notice of the vote, and in which we each voted in favor of the motion.

-Matt A”

The explicit issues I have with what is being discussed here is: Mara has never been granted actual ‘authority’ over infrastructure. There’s no reason to insist that two people who have never gotten along should come together to resolve an issue with one of the two people having authority. Mara, Evan, and Mel (and more friends) having a relationship structure in the way that they do contradicts the good faith effort to not include biases in voting matters. The paperwork issue gets brought up without acknowledging that it was just changed and modified to create a different process; on a whim in the week this was occurring during, strategically.

I quote ” Once those items are donated, they will belong fully to i3 to be used by all members and stored or disposed of as we see fit and you no longer have any claim to these items.” This is not how our donation system works, according to the Wiki; you are able to loan assets to i3. To have the board email this to Dave with no clear understanding or awareness that they even re-write the rules is mind boggling to me.

Speaking of zones; and zone coordinators. Likely I would not have had an issue with storing anything in glass zone till these issues were sorted out; except for that fact that sewing’s undocumented and unworking equipment is still being stored in what has been approved for as glass zone; even though craft has been out of old craft for several months now as sewing’s progress is continuing to creep slowly forward… maybe? Sewing continues to store items in sewing; glass zone, laser, and new craft. Not to forget to mention the ‘left over’ expansion materials near and in large project storage that are not anticipated to be used. *with the exception of some small drywall pieces for the small room in Elab* They are also storing large wood that members are not allowed to use; there’s conduit and more that needs to be disposed of or stored out of the way of member storage. It seems pretty bold to me that someone with this much “detritus” around the space has authority to judge another members space usage when they made the request initially for what occurred. Please note: I am the person who rearranged large project storage to actually allow members to have access to large project storage again. I regret this decision and work that I did because of the explicit mismanagement of this perk being offered to membership coupled with the inability to communicate parking tickets in a healthy manner. - I have been paying attention to the parking ticket situation since I joined; and its actions and authorities have not been anywhere near consistent. We’ve had things with month long expired parking tickets sitting in project storage; to unlabeled stuff chillin; to members writing parking permits while clearly violating the words on the papers. But never before have I seen the deadline actually be used for moving someone’s stuff in the ways that I’ve seen Mara use the system. In a conversation that Mara was having at the space the day they came to ‘supervise’ the removal of Dave’s things (June 7th); they acted harshly and got in arguments with a member by expressing that they refuse to see any good that Dave has done in the space; his stuff should enter the dumpster immediately at midnight and was behaving in a matter that no one would define as “being excellent”. The intention of them showing up here was ‘to destroy’; and that was very clear to everyone when the group of people who don’t normally show up; swarmed in.

To be clear, no parking tickets have been issued for July; and right this second, I see issues that would deserve a parking ticket per the current rules. I would like you to be abundantly aware that directly targeting individual people with parking tickets is NOT a form of healthy communication.

But most of all; I personally have an issue with Dave being removed as secretary. This is telling me that someone who has made the most good faith effort to take and publish minutes and be a good member and pay money to VOLUNTEER is going to be ostracized over being behind on one month of minutes and a parking ticket? If this is the case, which it realistically is, then that speaks volumes for the board of this organization and its misunderstanding of reality. There had been ZERO and I mean actually ZERO communication from the board to Dave about any issues with him or his things until this email. Everytime I witness a board member interact with him, they are normally asking for help with something. If healthy communication, especially from the board, does not begin to exist here; I actually don’t want to be a part of this. -> Are you aware that there’s an effort that’s been made by multiple members to access i3’s treasury reports and financial statements? Mel and Jody have been keeping this information from membership, the board and most importantly Zone Coordinators for longer than I’ve been a member at i3. We don’t even know the total number of what’s in our bank accounts ; what bills and reoccurring expenses we have; to if our membership dues are covering our baseline expenses. Mel and Jody have not turned in our taxes for the year; and they were begging for new people to take over; and now that new people have been appointed; they are struggling really hard to transfer all permissions and data access over. I have to mention how mismanaged the appointment of Tim Clayson to treasurer, and Kevin Flory to vinyl (again… with the intention of keeping funds separated from craft) was. I’ve even witnessed Tim and Alecia show up for a paperwork party with the understanding that Mel and Jody were coming to meet with the new treasurers, and they never showed up. This has been the biggest actionable flaw that i3 has as an organization right now and it’s legitimately setting EVERYONE back from having open sourced information; but ya know what’s more important than that? Apparently parking tickets and kicking out a secretary who’s one month behind on minutes. I’m pretty sure no zone has been given an accurate account of its dollars since maybe 2021. And yet the boards priority is to kick out a secretary who’s actually been doing their job? Are you kidding me? In the spirit of full transparency, the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search Details shows that we have not submitted tax returns 990ez since 2021. We will likely have to file for a new tax exempt status because we are three years out now. Feel free to look at this on: https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/details/

Do you know that we have several other members who have been told ‘no’ by people in authority positions here over the years? Notably my friend, Paul Lee. Paul has been a member for a very long time. Paul’s had *almost* every leadership position at the space; he’s been at least Vpac, membership, kitchen zone coordinator and he’s planned makers fair and Halloween parties. Last Year people with authority called him in, and stripped him of all of his volunteer efforts. He no longer holds any positions, is no longer kitchen zone coordinator, and still makes the tremendous effort to come to i3 every single Friday night on a four hour bus ride from Flint, one way. He has grown so much as a person since I’ve met him that it is astounding to me that i3 is not willing to give him a chance to contribute. I can’t even imagine being beat down that badly; and still have the energy and commitment to show up like Paul does. Pauls experience was the first time I heard about something like this; but then I kept hearing more and more similar stories. And now witnessing what’s going on with Dave; and analyzing what I know of that happened with Deb Scott - I’m really not sure that I can trust the judgment of the board or anyone in any sort of authority. Multiple other people here have been hurt by i3 ‘authority’ and they come here to put their head down and use tools and not interact with the community. Shoving things under the rug has worked for this group in power for so long that I can no longer continue to support it; or I would be lying to myself. Paul, honestly thank you for coming back to i3 and continuing to make our lives better by your presence.

-> Here are my final thoughts and questions: I have a very strong belief that if you don’t show up to the space than you should not be making decisions for it. Our community fluctuates depending upon who’s present; and if you are not present to even have an understanding of what’s going on at i3; then you absolutely should not be making decisions for it.

Am I wasting my time being a part of this community? Are we just going to continue to allow people who abuse to make decisions for us?

I do want to very clearly state that I think some of the board members have more reasonable realistic individual judgements, but unfortunately with how rampant the manipulation is overall; these more sound individuals have been persuaded and impacted negatively.

Are you aware that we have had more than 1000 people go through and finalize the membership process over the years and only about 100 people still remain as members?

Friends, this really actually sucks. It sucks that people want to hold back i3 from imagining, innovating, inspiring itself. It sucks that I had to spend more than 10 hours writing this; it sucks that I had to spend more time thinking about it before even writing this. I don’t want to come back to i3 in this current form. It sucks that I have to explain to all of you what reality really looks like because I don't trust anyone else’s prescription of it. It sucks that the organization is not transparent or open. It sucks that the ‘old guard’ is fighting new members in this fashion. It sucks I didn’t get to start, no less finish the drywall mudding on elab over this. It sucks that my best friend put his membership on hiatus; and that he has no desire to come back. It sucks that I have to put a literal target on my back in order for membership to see reality; and have to encourage all of you to vote and force the right thing to happen. It ultimately sucks that we as membership are all not able to trust the judgment of the current board; by expecting that they are fulfilling ‘be excellent’ to their own members, and really believe that they are the ones “championing” our mission of “imagine, innovate and inspire”.

I just want to be at the i3 I have come to love. The finishing the build out, making jewelry and glass work, listening to your stories; planning events; and most importantly actually having fun and creating real lasting ‘core’ memories.

All of this being said; based on an actual pattern of behavior; I am going to formally request the following at the next membership meeting August 6th, 2024 at 7:30pm: In regards to the Board: Dismiss all current members of the board of directors and hold immediate election. Replace current board, and task new board with expanding the board of directors to include more members. (to consider 12 people) Research the feasibility of moving to an all elected position structure. Give constant reminders that we need to look for abuse of relationships and conflicts of interest that need to be accounted for and publically shared in terms of voting.

In regards to other authority issuesr: I3 to Require treasures to produce a financial report given to membership and zone coordinators MONTHLY Remove Member Advocates from their positions and not appoint more Remove the concept of Digital Infrastructure Zone Coordinator and require that a page on the internal crm with all the ‘keys’ of all digital assets and accounts be given as access to membership. With things containing personal protected information, the board can be given that access and resolve who will be responsible. Eliminate the current state of parking tickets until it is brought to a membership vote that there is a way for this to be transformed into healthy communication. Form a Communication committee discuss what healthy communication looks like at i3. Focus on creating publicly shared procedures for all positions and include “commitments” for them, and that includes creating an option to appeal decisions publicly.

… And maybe more, maybe less- who knows! You will get an email from me at least 7 days in advance to our next members meeting per our rules of voting.

I really do appreciate you taking the time to be aware of the current state of my reality at i3. Thank you and have a good night.

Zone updates

Automotive Zone

• n/a

Bicycle Shop

• n/a

Ceramics Zone

• n/a

Classroom

Monthly Zone Report: Hans C., Zone Coordinator

• The classroom's east door (interior side) has been painted (Thanks Janelle!). This completes the interior painting of the classroom zone.
• The classroom is now BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer). This is to keep the classroom area neat and tidy.
• The classroom is uncomfortably hot due to the lack of air conditioning this summer. I hope that the air conditioning can be fixed either this summer, or before next summer begins.

CNC Zone

• n/a

Commons Area

• n/a

Craft Room

• n/a

Electronics Lab

• n/a

Fab Lab

• n/a

Glass Zone

• n/a

Infrastructure

• n/a

Injection Molding

• n/a

Jewelry Zone

• n/a

Kitchen Zone

• n/a

Laser Zone

• n/a

Leather Zone

• Still need to install slatwall on the south boundary and west wall
• Shelving not yet installed above west slatwall.

Machine Shop

• n/a

Media Lab

• n/a

Sewing Zone

• n/a

Tool Crib

• n/a

Vinyl Zone

• n/a

Welding Zone

• n/a

Wiki

• n/a

Wood Shop

• n/a

Space Project Updates

• n/a

SIGs

MotorSports

• n/a

HAM

• n/a

Letterpress

• n/a

Robotics

• n/a

Combat Robotics

• Arena is coming along! Will be ordering polycarb soon so we can finish construction. Event registration opens this Saturday! https://www.robotcombatevents.com/events/1374
• I will need some assistance the day of the event, as well as some electronics work leading up to the event. If you have any interest, please let me know and I can fill you in on what is planned

Cosplay

• n/a

COWBELL

Broom Party!

Action Item Summary

No action items.

Proposal Summary

No proposals.

Meeting Metrics

• Time completed:
• Attendees:

Attendance

1. Chair
2. Secretary

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