LMN Meeting minutes 3/1916

Called to order 1:15pm

Present:

  • Brian Adams
  • Carl Raymond
  • Mike Flaga
  • Jody Applegate
  • Rosangela Canino-Koning (interim Secretary)
  • Member - Carl Lance

Discussion of secretary duties and who is going to do it.

  • Should be someone on the board.
  • Could be rotating.
  • Job
    • Custodian of records
    • Meeting minutes
  • Rose is going to do it for 6 weeks, then Mike will take it on.

Carl - addt to agenda - Dues structure

Treasurer’s report

  • Carl has printed report. See link to electronic version – where should we keep
  • Big chunk of cash in January
    • Annual memberships
  • Amortized expenses outstrip income by about $200
  • Insurance went up in the new space. ($268 in new space)
    • Due to correction of square footage. ($116 in old space)
  • Brian wants a comparative report of how we were at the temple vs here.
  • Average membership price is $53/month
  • Discussion of how to normalize the pricing structure
    • General consensus is to leave it as is.
  • Senior membership is very generous (%50/off)
  • Any dues price changes would need to go to the membership for a vote
  • Carl - Dues Structure
    • Dues are on a calendar month basis.
    • This could be robbing us of a week of membership dues.
    • Brian likes moving to a rolling structure rather than prorating.
      • Gives us more visibility on the membership levels
      • Doesn’t like prorates.
    • Signup people are waiving some of the prorating. :/
    • Brian proposes doing it day-of. Signed up on the 16th, membership starts on the 16th.
      • Grace period 5-7 days to renew
      • This would give a member more control of how they use their membership.
    • Jody suggest opt-in auto-renew.
    • Thinking about how to market to grow our membership before worrying too much about the $191 loss number
      • Let it be recorded that Mike does A TON of outreach
      • But this is different, not targeted demographics
      • 496 billboard
    • Jody - the 50/80 cost structure - think about 60 flat fee
      • Frame it as a utility increase?
        • Maybe rather have the members make the decisions.
      • Bring it up in the member meeting
    • People like to dicker/deal
      • Punch-card or some other option to feel like they’re making choices
    • Consensus: Bring it up with the members
    • Brian has been reading a book about non-profit governance
      • Takeaway, always ask more people their opinions.
  • Temple club repairs quote
    • Jody has call out to Will
      • Waiting for quote
      • This is holding us up.
      • Jody will ask Al for help in getting Will's quote.
    • Potentially suggest to Al that we get a quote from Mike’s acquaintance.

Board proposal - Board voting on IRS extensions

  • 990 has been filed. woohoo
  • Carl mailed in the form to the IRS years ago, but GuideStar doesn’t have it.
    • This could be a problem
    • Carl will call and find out if we didn’t do the right thing, or if they didn’t get it.
      • Carl will wait until we receive the notice that we are behind.
  • Historically, we’ve just been filing for extensions, rather than properly filling in the long form.
  • No extensions are being submitted at this time.
  • This is just so we have to vote on it if we were to file for an extension.
  • Objections?
    • Jody Q - Are these time sensitive? Meeting once a month…
      • Email votes may not be valid in Michigan.
      • We should probably amend our bylaws to accept email votes.
      • We can just have emergency meetings.
      • Make sure we schedule every February a meeting about taxes
    • No Objections - Proposal passes.

Strengths and weaknesses of LMN

  • We need to grow.
    • Rent increase $350 in 6-9 months
    • 4 new members for $191 deficit overcoming
    • 6 new members for rent increase
    • We need to get >40 this year.
  • What do we need to do better so that we can grow, so we can support the larger numbers to support grow.
    • + We talk a lot about a lot of stuff
    • + We do checkout classes
      • Suggestion - Open it to the public - $10
    • - Organizing and scheduling checkout classes
    • + We have a lot of interest in soldering classes, etc.
      • Suggestion - schedule these things 6mo in advice.
        • Make a brochure with our class schedule
    • - Classes we aren’t making a lot of money…?
      • Suggestion - raise the price?
        • No, we already made the investment.
      • New classes have capital costs
      • Classes that are already built out don’t cost much to maintain.
      • Neet have to have business plan for new classes
        • Capital costs
        • How many seats
    • - Furnace is too loud
    • + Services - Maker Space
    • + Services - Classes
    • - We don’t have enough SOPs for everything.
      • We make it hard to learn the tools.
      • Some machines don’t need checkout class
      • We need to categorize this.
      • Suggestion: we could do bulk-tool checkout classes
      • Suggestion: we can book the classes ahead of time, and you have to RSVP/Register, or no-one will offer it.
      • Suggestion: online scheduling, or better scheduling of machines.
    • - We don’t have equipment scheduling
      • Suggestion: use google calendar? Scheduling software?
      • Suggestion and look at how other spaces use it.
        • You have a 5-10m grace period for no-shows.
    • + People feel like this is a community space
      • Don’t over-formalize or we could lose that feel.
    • - We’ve created a culture, but we’ve never said what our values actually are.
      • For example:
        • Respect
      • Suggestion: formalize our statement of values.
        • Bring it up with the Membership?
          • Ask them like we did for “What is a Maker?”
    • ++ We aren’t snobby! We are inclusive! We take a very broad view of what a maker is.
      • Artists
      • Writers
    • + A culture of willingness for helping/asking/teaching about how to do stuff.
    • - The cultural participation is hard for new people. Having to ask people for help requires a level of extroversion
      • Suggestion: Make classes for checkout!
    • + We have a space to hold classes
      • Offer more specialist classes - woodworking
    • + We are inclusive of people’s use of their space.
      • Casual non-community is ok.
    • + We are good at showing passion about how we give tours and things
    • - We aren’t good at conversion.
      • Suggestion: give lots of contact, lots of exposures
    • - We don’t give great presentation about the space
      • Disorganized
      • Suggestion: Clutter graveyard to neaten-up.
      • Suggestion: add “presentation of the environment” to our statement of values. Specifics of what our intention is. What level we want to hit.
        • Extremes: Adhoc, more freeform appearance (I3), and clean business (techshop)
        • We’d like something in between.
      • Suggestion: Scheduled space beautification day - projects!
        • Pizza!
        • 3rd Saturday of the month.
        • Decided by committee of area coordinators
    • - We aren’t well organized in terms of the hierarchy of authority.
      • Warden vs Working Groups
      • - We are bad at empowering people to do things.
        • We need constraints so people aren’t OVER EMPOWERED
        • How do we strike a balance?
          • Make a plan and distribute it, then request help for the action.
          • Brian as ED, gives the blessing.
        • Moving away from Do-ocracyo
      • - Brian has too much gatekeeper authority.
        • Defaulted to zone-wardens at Templeclub.
        • Maybe we should have this again.
          • Warden is a terrible word
            • Zone Coordinator
      • We need an org-chart
    • - We don’t have a newsletter
    • - We don’t have a budget
    • - We don’t have an inventory
    • - We don’t have a mission
      • We will discuss this next board meeting

Creating of Coordinator Positions (Marketing, Membership, Facilities)

  • Marketing coordinator - Jody is taking the lead
    • Do or cause to be done
  • Facilities coordinator - Rose is not it. :P
  • Membership coordinator
    • On-boarding
    • Shannon may be taking it on, but in the mean-time Brian will be doing it.
  • Fleshed out descriptions of the roles will be shared with the board in the coming weeks. Org-chart! Yay!

Live Sign Suggestion

  • TV with a cycling list of info, that could pull from the wiki
  • Combine with kiosk, so if you wanted to pop out and access the wiki, you can do it from there.
    • Carl Lance picked up a Pi 3 and would be willing to loan it for a kiosk.

East Lansing Classes

  • Mike needs to have a class to schedule/syllabus for EL Robotics
    • 50% EL people
    • 50% open to the community.
  • 6 months ahead of time
  • 3 weeks long class?
    • Schedule it differently? 3 Days?
  • Brian and Mike + whoever else is interested, will meet.

LMN going to Penguicon - April 29-May 1

  • Artemis - own hotel room
    • Needs to get back to running by April 29.
  • Megas
  • We need list of volunteers
    • 4-6?
    • Opening up to membership for some of the free-spots.
  • They are super organized. How do you do it? What’s your method.
  • Makerspace summit panel? Constitutional convention?
    • YES
    • Ask i3 and some of the others.
  • Info about LMN for their program

Jackson - August 19 - Artemis

  • Setup is 9-noon
  • Program is getting printed, make sure they don’t say STARTREK

Meeting Adjuourned 3:42pm