EMSBoDMeetingMinutes100324

Eugene Maker Space Board of Directors meeting October 3rd, 2024

Note: This is a draft of the minutes until accepted at the next BoD meeting

Call to order

6:13 PM

Attending: Karen, Ben, Sam, Piotr, Beata, Andrew Also present: SafetyInspector, DeQster

Approve this agenda

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

The motion was seconded by Andrew.

Motion passes, the vote was Unanimous.

Approve previous minutes

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

The motion was seconded by Karen.

Motion passes, the vote was Unanimous.

Reports

President's report

Karen reported on the fire and the impact it has had. She reported on the fundraising efforts and media coverage.

Secretary's report

Nothing to report.

Treasurer's report

Money accounts as of 10/03/2024

Bank    $3191.18
PayPal   $658.23
Patreon $1615.95 (will be paid out to our bank account on October 5th)
OnHand    $96.00 (undeposited cash and check)
        --------
Sum     $5561.36
Rent   -$1575.94 (outstanding October 1st rent, as we are not sure if we actually owe it all to the landlord or not)
        --------
        $3985.42 (diff since Feb +$2299.58 - $400.00 = +$1899.58)
Note: $400.00 loan from Piotr to pay rent in September, see diff calculation.
Note: We have currently $6500 in GoFundMe. This is not included in the above calculation. Not sure how much 

Piotr reported on our current finances (noted above) and also discussed the rent-abatement status that our lease indicates we should be in as more than 35% of the space has been destroyed. We're examining our options and the final accounting will need to take the results of that into account.

Motion: Andrew moved that the Eugene Makerspace Board of Directors that we repay Piotr for his $400 loan to EMS made previously.

The motion was seconded by Karen.

Motion passes, the vote was Unanimous.

Shop status

Early in the morning of September 15th, the Eugene Maker Space shop was destroyed by fire. The Eugene Fire Department investigated and determined that the source of the fire was inconclusive but regardless, the EMS is currently without a shop. We have not yet received permission to begin attempting to salvage equipment/tools pending a sign-off from the building owner's safety engineer.

We do not currently have storage space for donated objects or tools. Clif Cox has offered to allow us to store things at the Art Barn if needed.

No members should be attempting to enter the building. Please contact the board if you have any questions.

Old Business/Action Item Review

Piotr to coordinate with Andrew on Paperless-NG instance

Done. It is a document retention hub for maintaining a digital repository of all of our documentation.

Sam and Andrew will coordinate on next steps for the tool tracking and link shortening projects

In Progress (on hold indefinitely until a new space is available)

New Business

Current status of access to the shop

Covered in shop status. Reiterated: Members should not attempt to access the shop, we have not yet been granted access from the property management company. We would also like to do a controlled recovery of whatever's inside, please contact the board if you would like to coordinate securing personal property once we have that access.

Short term next steps

Sam reports that he's had some conversations with some possible space owners. He spoke with Shayla at the Nexus Business Lounge and determined that there was not a good fit between our needs and theirs. We may be able to assist him in his efforts in the future in some advisorial role but for now, we're on different places in our respective journeys.

He's continuing to put out feelers and believes there's a space out there.

Piotr suggested that we meet with the city council in case they have information or resources to help us find that right next space. He also suggested we contact the Chamber of Commerce. The Pearl Buck Center was identified as another possible resource. Ben offered to reach out to PBC because he knows someone there. We will figure out the specific ask.

Karen suggested we reach out to the OCCU to see if they might be able to help point us in the right direction.

She also noted that we should ask about places to store donations from other people when we're discussing possible spaces, even if they are not able to offer shop space itself.

Sam spoke with the owner of the Dark Pine coffee shop and said they're happy to host an event. The owner also suggested an art walk to raise awareness of the shop and effort.

In the meantime, we're hosting weekly meetups at PLAY Eugene. Andrew will enter those.

Finding a new permanent location

Much of this matches what Sam reported in the previous discussion on temporary spaces.

Piotr noted that we can start looking at properties available for rent. He feels that if we move quickly, we should be able to rent a space around the $2,000 mark but it would need to be a bigger space than what we previously had. He noted that we must appeal to a broader group of people to bring in the membership that will make this feasible.

Karen discussed the cultural differences between different types of makers with different goals and noted that we will need to work to build a good maker culture that's supportive of keeping the shop welcoming to different users.

Sam and Piotr discussed the importance of being able to isolate the different spaces enough that cross-contamination from shop equipment is in danger of producing. Sam noted that pre-divided spaces often cost a premium and that we might need to consider spaces that require manual intervention in this area.

There was some discussion about what features we'd need to consider from power to plumbing. The old Greyhound terminal was noted as one we should inquire about.

Elections

It's time to make a call for nominations. Karen summarized some discussions we had about what our responsibilities are and the definition of 'member in good standing' per the governing documents. The language in the founding documents is not entirely accurate any more due to changes in the membership culture.

Additionally voting and nominations will be available for members at the $35 and above level as we were still in transition from $35 to $45 as the baseline.

We need a recurring item for elections with election status. Today or tomorrow Karen will let the members know about the October 31st deadline for nominations and that the election process will continue from there.

We will hold our next meeting on November 14th to accommodate schedule complications.

Scheduling a Meeting of the Membership

The governing documents have some requirements about membership meetings that would need to be altered if we're holding the meeting with less than 30 days physically mailed notice.

Andrew specified that this need could probably be met by increasing membership participation in board meetings or via scheduled online community discussions as opposed to governing document relevant decisions about the space.

There was further discussion about reviewing some of our governing documents for possible improvement at some point in the future in accordance with the rules established for making changes (membership vote, etc).

If we have an in-person meeting at a physical place, we'll need to get notice to Karen so she can provide her 30 day notice per the current rules. December 7th is the mandatory day per the governing documents currently.

Publishing events as Discord events

We will begin advertising scheduled calendar events within Discord to increase visibility.

Review upcoming events

Weekly in-person meetings at PLAY Eugene as the shop is currently unavailable.

Adjournment

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

The motion was seconded by Piotr.

Motion passes, the vote was unanimous.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:53 PM.