Meeting Notes 2016 11 22

These are the notes from the The 438th Meeting of Noisebridge. Date: November 22, 2016 Note-taker: Ruth; Moderators: J.

• new philanthropists Juan and Travis & new member Ruth
• discussion about lease ending August 31, 2018 at 5pm

Meeting Summary

TLDR what happened at the meeting:

• Announcements:
  • Trent - Python class restarts on Monday the 28th, it's a 6 week class through mid january
• Finances: We paid our taxes (aka filed our tax returns - we don't actually pay anything)! We also have insurance! We have 10.5 thousand in the equipment fund. Talk to John if you have ideas for the equipment fund.
• New members: Ruth Grace Wong
• New philanthropists: Juan Montana, Travis Herrick
• Consensus Items: None
• Discussion Items: Country is out of whack. If you see something wrong, do something about it or get someone to help you do something about it. New landlord contacts set up & talk of setting up meetings for discussing our plans for our lease ending.

Introductions

• Blake: 2nd time at Noisebridge
• Sam: 4th time, 1st time was Cypherpunk
• Marco: 1st meeting, building up an online learning platform to unleash everyone's full potential, visiting from Germany and has come here several times
• Mitch - teach electronics all over the world and gives talks about how to start hackerspaces
• Trent - web developer, python, teaches intermediate python
• Charlie - works in IT, noisebridge regular for 5-6 months, generally helpful, working on the big red payphone with card reader & LCD display (firmware)
• Patty - circuit hacking monday regular
• Lizzie - security
• Victoria - protocyborg eng queer from alternate timeline
• Ruth -- teaches laser traininer and programming for interviews
• J -- teaches Circuit Hacking Monday, been part of Noisebridge for 4 years
• Christine - developer, front end class regular

Short announcements and events

• Trent - Python class restarts on Monday the 28th, it's a 6 week class through mid january
• Marcos wants to organize a meetup here on education technology, his plan is to make an event when he comes back in December, chatting with J later for set up advice
• Is there a thanksgiving here? Victoria heard something about maybe it is happening? May be Alex Peake.

Safe Space

Being a safe space means people should be mindful of their co-hackers, that is, if you have domestic abuse meetup in the back that's totally fine, but you should let people know that this is happening so those sensitive to that can avoid it. Similar to how people tell other people to wear hearing protection when using equipment, people should be mindful.

Noisebridge has an anti harassment policy posted everywhere in the space and also on the wiki

Noisebridge is a place where everyone feels welcome regardless of color, gender, economic class

J's vision for noisebridge is to make it open and safe as possible

Participation

noisebridge used to be open all the time and have the door unlocked, but that stopped working because it became kind of a homeless shelter for people who did not contribute to the space.

noisebridge reboot

doors are no longer open, but anyone can ring the doorbell and get a tour and be shown what noisebridge is and is not about. The person giving the tour susses the newcomer out. If you hang around you can ask for an rfid. Many people have a clipper card which can be turned into an rfid key, or you can for a small donation get an rfid key. If you hang around longer, you can get access to the Slack, a useful tool for communicating. The only other difference from locking the door is that Noisebridge is only 24 hour accessible to members and philanthropists. Everyone else can stay between 11 in the morning and 10 at night. If someone else has 24 hour access and takes full responsibility for you, then you can stay until they leave.

Noisebridge.net also has a full wiki, and if you need to find out how to host an event, how to get 24 hour access, you can read it on the wiki and go from there.

Philanthropists

philanthropy Noisebridge likes money and lives on money. At the moment we have 10 months of operating expenses in the bank. But we are trying to buy the building so we're a couple million behind.

Besides being a member there's something called being a philanthropist. To be a philanthropist you need to have a member sign your application, and the following week your application can be approved, or it can be blocked by another member. A philanthropist pays every month to noisebridge, the money goes primarily to rent, and it gives you 24 hour access to noisebridge, as well as the power and responsibility to manage that and be a steward of the space. There are a bunch of responsibilities and you can read about them on the wiki

"it's not that bad" - Trent

3 philanthropist applications pending Juan Montana, sponsored by Trent: nobody objects, and Juan becomes an official philanthropist! Travis Herrick, sponsored by Trent: he's not present, but Trent says he's responsible and here 3-4 times a week. Nobody objects and Travis becomes an official philanthropist! Jervon Graves, sponsored by Victoria: he's not present, and the application has been sitting around since August, so it will be discarded. Juan and Travis' papers given to Victoria for processing.

Membership Binder

in addition to the 24 hour access, there's the idea that you're more involved in the operation and goings on of the space, rather than just working on your project.

Membership Applications up: Ruth

Questions for Ruth:

   Mitch - What do you think about consensus?
   Ruth - I think its cool. It seems to work really well here.  Consensus is a really productive process when the people working on it are working on it well.
   
   Trent - What do you see as a valid reason to block consensus?
   Ruth - Something that you don't see as right. need to protect things that are a net benefit to the space.
   
   Victoria - How has noisebridge changed you?
   Ruth - It makes me happy. Interacting with people in a productive way.
   
   J - Do you feel confortable with how the space works? Basic procedures etc.
   Ruth - My first encouter with a space was NYC Resistor. I really like how Noisebridge is more accessable. Anyone can come and get something out of it.
   J - What youlike noisebridge to look like in a year or two?
   Ruth - I don't see any pressing issues that have to change right now. 
   
   Mitch - If you see something that makes you uncomfortable in the space, what would you do?
   Ruth - Message other members/people in the space. Example about someone trying to laser cut something after she left. Example about cutting unapproved materials.
   
   Trent - Do you know some examples of things people do that they should get kicked out for?
   Ruth - I haven't really had to deal with that.
   Trent - That's a valid answer.
   
   Victoria - How would you resolve a conflict between two people in the space?
   Ruth - If they're making other people unconfortable I would ask them to leave. It depends. It could be a safe space issue.
   J - If you see two people arguing how would you handle it?
   Ruth - I would probably discuss it with other people.

Financial Report

We paid our taxes! We filed our tax return. We don't actually pay anything. We also have insurance! We have 10.5 thousand in the equipment fund. A bunch of the stuff in sparkleforge was funded by this, new sewing machines, etc.

Trent says we should buy an FPGA development board (i forgot how cheap they are now) I'm down though.

Consensus and Discussion

If you want something to happen you can just do it, but for bigger things that would affect other people or the space (for example moving the Flashen Tashen to the other side of the building), you want to wait a little while and see how people feel about it, bring it up at meetings. There is also the more strict capital C consensus for bigger things, such as moving the space or spending a lot of money. Everyone has to agree, and a member can be blocking. We have to keep discussing it until everyone is on board. It's not really a set of rules, it's a process without rules. We use it until it makes sense to not use it, and then we really reconsider why we're using it and talk about consensus itself and how it works. Part of this weekly discussion is about how we continue to use consensus. The formal process takes 2 weeks. If someone brings up an item, we talk about it for a week before we approve it the week after. If someone has an objection, they can't just say 'i object!'. They are required to say how they sincerely believe the proposal should be changed before it should be moved forward. The concept of a block should only be used if things are really out of hand. It means that I cannot in good conscience be a member of noisebridge if this proposal goes forward as planned. Since the reboot we have not had a process where someone has felt the need to block. For new members or philanthropists, all you need to have is the vaguest feeling that someone should not be a member or philanthropist, and that is enough.

Discussion Items

Mitch - our country is out of whack and this is a 4 year discussion. Last time it was a really good discussion. The main thing was so that people can feel that they can express themselves and be heard, and this was accomplished.

J - very important: it is not okay to see something is wrong and do nothing about it. If you see someone maybe damaging a piece of equipment or trying to harass or talk badly to somebody, it's not okay for you to not do anything about it. it is our responsibility, when you step foot in noisebridge, as part of the community, to do something about it. to say something, or to ask for help if you don't feel comfortable doing it by yourself. but it's not ok to do nothing.

Trent: To enhance the ability to talk about this together, the space channel in slack is a great place to put out something pattern already existed many have noticed but not said anything. Very important to say something if you notice something not quite right. Other people may see that oh, that was below my radar, but now that you say that it is above my radar. It helps people attenuate their ideas of what's acceptable, as they put the pieces together themselves.

Mitch: It's part of our cultural immune system.

J: It's how we stay afloat. When people come here and are brand new, they ask who is in charge. But no single person is in charge. Everyone should feel empowered to do good on noisebridge's behalf. Ask yourself are we benefiting the space, are we benefiting the community, and act upon it.

Trent: Grants. Our landlord put a new roof on which will keep us a lot warmer than last winter. The skylights had holes in them and the roofs had leaks and water would come in and damage our books. So this is a big positive difference. It is a harbinger of things to come with regard to whether or not our lease will exist in two years, because they did not give us hte option to increase the lease for 3 years for 10%, which they gave last time. We should consider and act upon where we should be in 2 years, because the amount of work we need to do to be there might become more than 2 years of work.

renting a different place buying a building waiting for an economic downturn

J: Are there any regular meetings about this? (no) We should talk about it once a month or once every ohter month so that it's fresh in our minds. I think it's important and everyone who wants to be a part of Noisebridge for the next years, next 5-10 years should be helping us explore ways to become more permanent.

Mitch: There was someone who said they were good at facilitating rental buyouts? But I think they don't live in the country anymore. There's a discussion on Slack about that 1/2 a year ago or more. They said they would help us see if it's possible, and if it is possible help make it so. We didn't pursue it at the time, but we should do that soon.

Victoria: Do we all know when our lease is up? August 31, 2018 at 5pm. - less than 2 years from now.

J: I think we should do that. If we need to meet once in a while or as frequent as once every one or two weeks, I'd be happy to participate.

Trent: is anyone willing to facilitate the meeting? you don't have to be the manager or owner of the thing to facilitate the meeting. You just have to create the space. If you have extra time and feel like that would be for you, that's a need we have. (like, actually going to the meetup.com website and organizing the meeting)

J: One thing I wanted to add is that if anybody is interested in teaching a class, ask J. Or if anyone else is interested, point them to J. His contact info is on the card on his locker. People are more than welcome to send him an email, and he can send an email or set up a meeting or call.

Charlie: News on the elevator? J: Elevator repairman person we delt with last couple times said that the problem is that the elevator is very old. So much so that ther'es not even the proper documentation on it. Unless the landlord decides to put in a lot of money, we might be better off replacing it, because it's that old. It's never going to be quite the way it used to be. That being said, I wouldn't hold my breath for us having a fully functional elevator. There will be people coming in andout and when it breaks they'll put up a sticky and fix it temporarily, but things will continue to happen. The elevator is buggy and will remain so.

Do we have any idea of the source of the unreliabilty of the elevator? switch jamming? Connection somewhere?

J: it's old, sometimes it gets stuck, you need to reset it. it's not like something is going to break downa nd you're going to fall and die. But somebody will get stuck.

J was stuck before, and he figured out how to open the door, and put on the wiki how to open the door if you get stuck. So if you get stuck open the page on the wiki.

The elevator is buggy, and if you feel comfortable, go ahead and use it. J likes to use it so that if it breaks we can move forward.

Victoria: Who is in charge of dealing with the landlord right now.

Trent: Ah yes!

Mitch; Th econtact of the landlord has been Mitch early on, Patrick was the last one, and Rubin.

Victoria: Nobody's picked taht up since then.

Mitch: I'm ifne taking that on. I travel a lot though. Mitch also already has their contact information

John: one of the door locks broke last time (Brian), so if someone emailed me and said hey we got a problem here, I could do it. I also live near by.

Trent: add yourself to the emergency contact info

John: I try to avoid leaving my personal info out

Victoria: wiki page?

neurotech or neurotech1

J: I do not live close to the space (90 min commute), but as a person of contact i would be more than willing to deal with the landlord if need be, and i can be contacted in an emergency directly by the landlord.

Trent: You are thep rimary contact for the landlord

J can deal with communications, and he can message other people to get them to the space if need be. He would also really appreciate help from others.

Victoria: Anyone willing to volunteer with talking to the landlord about the end of the lease?

Trent: he's a younger guy who manages everything with his elderly parents

John: I was researching a city program. We missed the window for the grant because we didn't have up to date tax filings. It was a non profit displacemetn grant, you can get some money for a rent increase, and you can get money for technical assistance. They can also help people buy new buildlings. I think we can just apply on a rolling basis for technical assistance. We've missed the last cycle of the grant. There's always more grants coming down so we just have to pay more attention to that.

J: this is something we should think about on a regular basis.what are our options 2 years from now in august 2018. We need to know what's going to happen.

John: From looking at the property map, there are a bunch of weird things about this land that prevents them from doing other stuff with this space. Prop X was a proposition where if you're going to displace community space (and other space), you have to build an equivalent amount. If you displace 5000sqft of pdr space you have to build it elsewhere. it's jsut for this neighbourhood and the south eastern neighbourhoods. There's also liquifaction things here, possible groundwater contamination, rules around keeping the 1st floor retail. There's a lot of rules about what you can do with this specific building, which is helpful for a nonprofit wanting to keep this space.

John is interested in being the point of contact with the landlord. He will be out of town a couple weeks in December, but J can be backup. We need a few people. Trent has their email address, and probably their phone number. Mitch has all the landlord contact info.