EMSBoDMeetingMinutes060321

Eugene Maker Space Board of Directors meeting June 3rd, 2021

Call to order

7:02PM Attending: Ben, Karen, Beata, Piotr Also present:

Approve this agenda

Motion: Ben moved that the Eugene Makerspace Board of Directors approve the agenda as presented.

The motion was seconded by Karen.

Motion passes, the vote was Unanimous.

Approve previous minutes

Motion: Karen moved that the Eugene Makerspace Board of Directors approve the minutes from the May BoD meeting as submitted.

The motion was seconded by Piotr.

Motion passes, the vote was Unanimous.

Reports

President's report

Nothing to report.

Secretary's report

Nothing to report.

Treasurer's report

Piotr reported: Bank $3,437.22 PayPal $98.60 Patreon $0.00 Overall cash: $3,535.82

Rent and Scaleway pending, afterwards our balance will be $2,026.83

$375 donation received from Broadcom

$539.65 positive from our previous meeting minus the donation is $165.65

We gained a few more members and on the right path!

Karen reported that she checked the mail and there was a payment of $35 from Sam R. that has not yet been deposited.

Shop status

Ben: Dusty, but active. There were folks working on projects and it was good to see.

Karen: If the A/C is a fixture, then its current state of malfunction may be something the landlord should repair.

It is not quite adequate to the space, but it is a little better than nothing. Piotr suggested we may want to ask the landlord if they own it or not.

Karen inquired if we want to perhaps have a refrigerator on-premises. Piotr asked if we should get a vending machine to drive a little revenue and offer some cold beverages.

Old Business/Action Item Review

Karen will update burn rate number on whiteboard at shop

Ongoing.

Ben will see if he can improve the new user flow

Ongoing.

COVID-19 status review - Open Hack closure status

The county has dropped to moderate, the shop is operating in line with the criteria defined on the chart at the shop.

Karen will cancel all meetup events through the next board meeting

Ongoing.

Ben and Facebook Calendar

Recurring. In progress.

Karen will schedule bank trip with Piotr, Ben, and Beata

Unable to continue at this time due to COVID-19. The county remains in Extreme Risk category. Karen's recommendation is that we continue to cancel open hacks through February and refresh the membership's memory regarding mask rules, spacing.

Karen will install a new hard drive in the 3d Printer workstation

Ongoing.

Karen will write a letter to the Meetup.com membership to see if we can convert some of them to members

Ongoing. Piotr brainstormed some language about how we're spending money on Meetup and lack of assurance about whether or not it's providing useful information to the people on the list. "Is there any reason that you being here is something we should keep paying for?" We're moving everything to Patreon where we make money. Please either move there or give us a very good reason why we should stay here.

Karen: At the very least, we should be advertising on Meetup that we have a Patreon. Or maybe we should institute a $1 a year level to cover our Meetup.com costs.

We will revisit next month.

ACTION: board will will revisit Meetup.com situation.

Ben will collect measurements of the shop dimensions for Karen to make a rough Sketchup

Ben took measurements and will send them to Karen.

Board will review our digital communication methods at next meeting

Piotr: Are we using our mailing lists, contacting folks through Patreon, keeping people apprised of what's happening?

Karen: Should we be using Slack? Or should we move to something else like Discord? Is our membership-facing communication method working for our members?

Ben: Can Patreon/Slack integration work?

ACTION: Piotr will will look into Patreon integration options as part of assessing whether we want to stay on this tool.

New Business

AWS

Piotr informed the board that the type of server we are using with Scaleway is being discontinued so our advantage disappears. We are moving to AWS per Michael Bacarella's recommendation which allows us to locate the servers in an Oregon datacenter under hydro-power and lower latency.

Adjournment

Motion: Ben moved that the Eugene Makerspace Board of Directors adjourn.

The motion was seconded by Piotr.

Motion passes, the vote was {{{4}}}.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:32PM.