Member Meeting Minutes for September 27, 2009

Meeting Agenda

• Recap of the last month
  • New members added
  • Events (DevHouse, Maker Faire, Pitch Night, etc.)
  • Classes taught
  • Power is on
  • Lighting issues
  • RFID project status

• Discuss Two Hands
  • When/what/why/how

• Move to meet twice a month
  • Or more
  • Because of upcoming decisions

• Discuss volunteer hours
  • Limited opportunities make it difficult for members to fulfill obligations
  • Two-tiered membership proposal
  • Alternatives
    • Remove volunteer requirement altogether
    • Move to a Resistor-type model
  • Solicit feedback from membership

• Review the current financial status

• Discuss budget for 2010
  • Back of the envelope "what it takes to stay alive"
  • Discuss dues vs. class revenue vs. grants
  • Discuss increased cost of 501(c)(3) (e.g. insurance) vs. benefit (potential grants)
  • Solicit feedback from membership

Minutes by Agenda Topic

Attendees: Doug, Steve, Dave, Amy, Marty, Forest, Matt S., Lori, Nick, Andy, Dan, Pete, Jon, Liz, Matt M.

Recap of September

• New members
  • Welcome Doug!
• Events
  • DevHouse was here
    • We need to charge them for beer :)
  • Maker Faire RI
    • Matt, Matt, Steve, Nick, Maria
    • A group visited AS220
    • Lots of hackerspaces were in attendance
    • A lot of networking was done for HackPittsburgh
  • Pitch Night
    • Highest Friday night attendance yet
    • Great project ideas
      • Bristlebots
      • CD shrink-wrap system
      • Moxie Marlinspike and the Everyone Wins Lottery
      • Weather balloons
      • Laser cutter fundraising ideas
• i3 Detroit has thrown down the gauntlet for a rideable Bristlebot challenge
  • Date TBD
  • Matt M. is leading the charge
  • Be it resolved: this aggression shall not stand
• Classes taught
  • Intro to Programming the Arduino
    • Attendees from Detroit and Ohio
    • Coverage in the PG Tech Man blog and the Make Blog
• Power is on!
  • Now we have to pay for it :)
  • We have a few broken ballasts that need to be fixed
  • We need to run outlets
  • Donations of extension cords and power strips are welcome
  • Pete volunteers to help
• RFID
  • Parts are in
  • We need to get going on the build and installation

Two Hands Project

• Overview of the project
• We anticipate they'll be here tomorrow
• Come down and hang out tomorrow from 6-9!
• Bring your projects!

Meetings

• Frequency of meetings was discussed
• Mitch Altman of Noisebridge provided guidance about meeting frequency
  • They meet once a week
  • They wonder how we get things done meeting once a month :)
  • Could we meet twice a month?
  • Could we meet on a weeknight?
  • Could we commit to starting meetings on time?
• We'll use a Doodle poll to determine the best weeknight to meet (M-Th)
  • We'll target two meetings a month (vote passes)
  • We'll choose one weeknight and one weekend day

Action Items

Matt S.:

• Put up the Doodle poll for meeting nights

Matt M.:

• Organize the Bristlebot Response

Marty:

• Kick off RFID design and installation

Jon:

• Email the Two Hands guys for update (Done)

Council:

• Organize electricity buildout planning