Council Meeting Minutes for July 7, 2009

Minutes by Agenda Topic

Work hours

• There are a few events coming up
  • DevHouse 10 on Tuesday, July 21
  • Setup and teardown for DevHouse event
• We should request member support for these events
  • Members can fulfill work hour requirements at these events
• Discussion regarding work hours credits, dues

Classes

• Building the Freeduino
  • Saturday, July 25
• Consider a template for "how to conduct a class"
  • Put it on the wiki
  • Enable more participation
  • solicit feedback for good class ideas

Financials

• Current balance in the account
• Landlord has paid for some infrastructure support
  • Building permits
  • Code certification
• AdWords and Amazon Affiliate programs are bringing in a trickle
  • What should we be advertising?
  • Can we target the group's interest more?
  • There are other affiliate programs to explore
  • Adafruit? Sparkfun? Maker Shed? NewEgg?
• Discussion of scaling rent as membership increases
  • Useful idea
  • Will discuss with landlord

Grants

• Nick will present HackPittsburgh to the KIZ on Thursday
  • Mention DevHouse
  • Mention classes
  • Mention Friday nights
  • Mention specific projects
  • General pitch
• Discussion regarding an NSF grant for "new educational methods"
  • Worth looking into
  • Contact will follow up with Nick

Shop

• Door repaired
• Chimney leak repaired
• Electrician coming next week
• What would the shop need if money were no object?
  • Cover rent
  • Run power
  • Buildout
    • Shelves
    • General shop cleanup and organization
  • Tools
  • Open to general membership
  • Form a committee?

Committees

• Committees were discussed
• Consider soliciting a specific number of volunteers for a specific task
• Updates at every members meeting

Membership

• Discussion about membership
  • How to keep interest high?
  • How to keep momentum on shop cleanup?
  • How to make the shop inviting?
    • Cleanup the space
    • Make it a social space
    • Embark on large-scale projects

Action Items

Matt:

• Send email regarding volunteer hours for DevHouse

Marty:

• Post Freeduino class to the calendar

Nick:

• Address concerns of members regarding dues and work hours on a case-by-case basis
• Discuss member-variable rent with landlord

Forest:

• Continue to investigate affiliate programs
• Volunteers to organize and organization committee

Jon:

• Volunteers to serve on the organization committee