Member Meeting Minutes for December 6th, 2023

Called to Order

• The meeting was called to order by Morgan Wable at 7:XX PM

Attendees

• Morgan Wable, Treasurer
• Lucian Chapar, Member at Large
• Wilkes Vaughn, Member at Large
• Rob Bedel
• Paul Cauchon
• Quara'e Canady
• Emily Crane
• Brian "Beebo" Esch
• Jim Fialho
• Allison Leamer
• Kiefer Mansfield
• Bryn Miller
• Josh Mauer
• Alex Reasinger
• Alex Roth
• Dean Roth
• Doug Smith
• Geno Soroka
• Valerie Walch
• Spencer Zacher

New Members or Guests

• XXX

Quote of the Day

Any quotes?

Upcoming Events

https://hackpgh.org/calendar

• Geno's "Learn to Solder a Holiday Tree" class has been changed from this coming Saturday (December 9th) to next Sunday, December 17th from 2pm-6pm.
• Keep Calm and Carry Yarn Club is next Wednesday, December 13th starting at 6pm.
  • PM Becky if you're interested in making a "cancer cap" to donate to Hillman Cancer Center!
• Kyle's Intro to Woodworking class is next Saturday, December 16th from 10am-4pm.
  • We have added two seasonal shapes to the cutting board/breadboard the students can make: a snowman, and a holiday tree. Register now, as there are three spots left!

Organization Updates

• IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: We understand that many of you have concerns, comments, and/or questions regarding our former board Vice President Kirk Hendricks and the allegations against him. We are NOT going to address every complaint and/or allegation at this meeting.
  • Rob Bedel, our IT lead, announced at the end of the November 19th Members' Meeting that he had found multiple security breaches to our network and RFID door system. These breaches were allegedly traced to our former board Vice President Kirk Hendricks. The remaining four board members met and voted unanimously to remove Kirk from his position on the board and suspend him from both the organization and shop premises while investigating Rob's findings.
  • This discussion and announcement on Monday November 20th brought an influx of formal complaints raised against Kirk, written and verbal, both anonymously and otherwise. The complaints in question describe a wide gamut of inappropriate behavior, most UNrelated to Rob's IT/security findings, and the board is in the process of investigating further. Our understanding of the extent and severity of this misconduct is still evolving.
  • We want to remind every member of the following:
    • The board of directors is a group of dues-paying volunteers for HackPGH: a private, non-profit organization. Our first priority is to the organization as a whole and the safety and well-being of its members. As such, we ask for patience and understanding as we continue to collect evidence regarding this matter. As your elected officers, we are doing our due diligence (to both Kirk and the membership) by pursuing and listing only the complaints that have substantial evidentiary support. We have invited Kirk to contact us any time to discuss the matter through the info account. At this time, all we have to say is: thank you for your patience and further information is forthcoming. We are trying to be as democratic and transparent as possible. After we contact Kirk with our findings, we will invite him to a meeting to hear his side and make our final decision(s) and announcements shortly thereafter.
    • We also want to apologize to everyone - Rob Bedel's announcement was both ill-timed and inappropriate.
      • From now on, if you have a complaint about another member or a board member - please speak to a board member that you TRUST in private.

• CLASSES
  • Kiefer is taking off teaching for the month of December. He will return with a TIG-welding class on a Saturday in January. Date TBD.
    • Kyle is teaching an Intro to Woodworking class on Saturday, December 16th at 10am. He will be offering a snowman/holiday tree cutting board options. Register now if you are interested! https://members.hackpgh.org/event-5487469
    • Spencer's next two Intro to Woodworking classes are scheduled for Sunday, January 14th and Sunday, February 11th.
  • Geno is teaching his "Learn to Solder an LED Holiday Tree" class on Saturday, December 9th. Register now! https://members.hackpgh.org/event-5496970
  • New classes!
• Jaimee Gaster is teaching a wood lathe class where you can make a pen or a bottle stopper.
  • The first class will be held on a Thursday evening in January (Exact date TBD).
  • The class is limited to two people. We will add dates as demand and Jaimee's schedule permits.
• Marion Zajdel will be teaching a sewing class and teaching students basic sewing machine skills. Students will make a "mug rug".
  • This class will be scheduled when the Soft Arts area is more "complete", most likely the end of January.

Treasurer's Report

• We have $10,337.02. We just paid rent, insurance, and we have had quite a few emergency expenditures recently.
• Our Autumn Fundraiser has exactly 24 days left! We have raised a little over $2,000 so far.
  • We have water-resistant flyers, a sharable graphic, and an easy way to donate: Text HACKPGHFALL to 707070!
  • Our goal is $5,000 by December 20th (the last day of autumn). We understand that times are tight, but please contribute if and what you can or share the link with family and friends.

Shop Updates

• We know that many members wait to pay for consumables, but we have been going through expensive boxes of red bull and candy bars like lightning and we haven't seen many payments.
  • If you owe the shop for your consumables, PLEASE settle your "tab" ASAP. We don't want to put ALL items in the vending machines because they are evil.
  • We received a request to add sugar-free red bull to the mini-fridge. A case will be donated next week from our "Red Bull Guy!"
• Please clean up after yourself every time. Throw away food waste and paper towels. Wipe down work surfaces. Wash your dishes in the sink!
  • On a related note, throw away your used bottled waters (on Friday, a board member picked up 12 used water bottles just on the clean side). Consider refilling empty water bottles using the filtered water in the fridge. We've gone through four cases of water in a week. When it's hot, that's understandable. But now? It's wasteful.
• Parking Permits
  • When leaving a project or large materials in appropriate areas, always use a parking permit.
  • You must completely fill out the parking permit. EVERY time. Every member. No exceptions. Your name, a contact number/email, the type of project, and the date.
  • If you leave a large long piece of wood or metal somewhere and it sticks out beyond the table, please mark it with a piece of bright-colored tape or fabric.
• The Woodshop Build is still in progress.
  • Cabinets (with labels and liners) have been built.
• Soft Arts is about 60% cleaned out!
  • All items are now organized and labeled either in lockers or the black bookcase.
  • We are waiting for the last member items to be removed so we can bring in:
  • Our new two sewing machines, the new soft arts laptop*, a loveseat, and new carpeting. (All donated!)
  • If you use soft arts materials, PLEASE return all thread, scissors, fabric, bobbins, etc. to their labeled containers & shelves. COVER all sewing/embroidery/serger machines. All machines now have a cover.
• New stuff!
  • Jim Fialho has donated two PCs to the shop.
  • We have two new IBuyPower gaming PCs with two large curved-screen monitors set up behind the conference tables. They are VR compatible (and the "broken" PC has been replaced). Enjoy!
  • Becky has permanently loaned the soft arts an Asus Gaming laptop. It will have Hatch Digitizer 3 installed as well as a lot of other helpful software. Do NOT remove this laptop from Soft Arts without board permission!
    • All three computers will have at minimum: CS5 Adobe Creative Suite, Adobe Acrobat Professional, and Office 2018. They're old licenses, but good enough for what we do.
    • The Board is working on getting CAD and animation software.
• Storage Room
  • We are working on selling the EMPTY lockers to make room. Please clean out your locker if you are not using it. If you have bins on the floor or more than one bin in the storage room without permission, please come and pick up your stuff!
• Metal Shop Updates
  • Kirk, Allison, and Valerie will be heading up to Albany sometime soon to get new machines for the Metal Shop!

Recognition for AWESOMENESS

• Jim Fialho for donating two PCs and working on computers as well as organizing the electronics bench.
• Aaron Stein for helping with Hack's graphics, cleaning soft arts, and installing our new antimicrobial, soft-close toilet seats.
• Jordan Rininger for going all Swedish-death-clean on the 3D printing area. It looks great!
• Beebo for putting out the (literal) dumpster fire on Watson Street.
• Greg for machining
  • The A. Chief from No. 4 said there was accelerant in and around the dumpster. Probably illegally dumped gasoline, kerosene, or even hairspray. So... don't throw out anything like that in OUR dumpsters.

Open Floor

• Security Concerns - Rob Bedel
• Rob is securing the doors

Move to Adjourn

The meeting was adjourned at 8:15 PM

Minutes by Becky "The Icebox" Zajdel