Talk:Board of Directors Meeting 20121014

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Board Meeting 10-14-2012 Nicole LeCody Andrew LeCody John Haskins Robert Davidson

Meeting called to order at 7:10 pm by Andrew LeCody

Prior Meetings approved by board.

Financial Committee Report: John Haskins

  • Had a meeting last week.
  • working on the invoicing
  • working on getting everything automated.
  • signed up for tax status with several organizations/businesses
  • Policy Change Set up auto-draft for several re-occuring charges (ie utilities)

PR Committee: Nicole LeCody

  • Working on two events: Tanner's and Open House
  • Having regular meetings
  • reaching out to members to help run events.

Security Committee: Andrew LeCody

  • Changes are coming to the security camera
  • Currently camera feed that shows on the website keeps shutting down.
  • some concerned with the feed being open access
  • Wireless link is currently on standstill while waiting for third parties to work on their end of the deal.

Amateur Radio Committee: Mike Eber

  • Progressing on wireless link
  • Petitioned for funds for the tower but membership wants budget before approving.
  • Decided to pick the best pieces of the tower units that were donated and we will recycle the others and any money made will be put towards the committee budget.
  • Having another Tech class in November and a General Class in January

AV Committee: NA

  • no one to present report

Bio Committee: NA (given my misc members)

  • Talking about bringing in plants for the hydroponics system
  • inquiry into how much power the hydroponics system is using
  • a request to move the reloading table to the Bio Room will be brought before the Bio committee

Classroom Committee: NA

  • issue brought up about cleaning the boards
  • Cloth for the screen has been located.

Craftroom Committee: Nicole LeCody

  • starting a sewing class
  • work on rearranging the room to make supplies accessible

Electronics and Robotics Committee: John Haskins

  • attendance on Wednesday has been dropping
  • need someone to drive the evenings activities
  • possible to pair up PR committee and Electronics/Robotics for some fun competitions
  • Suggested we reschedule the night to another weekday
  • suggested we pull the event on the calendar

Action Item: John will search for someone to head up the event night/committee

Operations and Facilities Committee: Andrew LeCody

  • Cleaning team has been paid
  • Ed will write up a budget for bracket to build shelves around the space.
  • moving the Will Call machine inside to the hallway.
  • signs will be made for the donations policy.
  • Paul has been making regular snack runs.
  • scrap plastic now has a housing space
  • suggested we put a donation box at the front of the space

Action Item: Look into getting a guestbook for the space

Warehouse Committee: Ed Kim

  • Policy change: starting Nov anything left on the workbenches overnight it will be moved or thrown away.
  • Scheduled the meeting for the laser committee discussion

Darkroom Committee:

  • will be developing film this week
  • Schedule a darkroom committee

Open Source Ecology Committee: Craig MacPhearson

  • Working on getting board back together for the forge.

Recess called at 8:15 for ten minutes Meeting called back into order at 8:25

John gives recognition to Paul Brown: “mad props” for his work on the financial committee

Consent Agenda: Pulling Pulling WHMCS Pulling Paypal Payments without Credit cards Membership Rates Policy for Allocation of Funds Board Member Benefits DMS Policy regarding children

Consent Agenda: Passed Hot work permit ($125) PR Committee Budget ($50) Domain Name Renewal ($134.50)

Old Business: Pulled

Formal complaint issued about rescheduling of board meeting conflicting with scheduling even after it was stated certain boards members couldn't make it.

Issue pulled from old business: Loaning of Equipment

  • Last board meeting it was voted that we do not donate equipment.
  • John would like to turn this vote over. Certain items that are donated only work best when they can be loaned out.
  • Suggested we create a librarian type officer position that would manage all items that are loaned.
  • Suggested that we make certain items un-loanable
  • Issue being the problem of cost to replace an item that is loaned and lost or damaged.
  • suggested that the committees come up with a list of loanable items from their purview.
  • No loaned equipment to the space can be loaned out of the space unless a signed as released by

John Haskins proposes we create a Librarian Officer position that will manage the committee approved items for loan. Seconded by Andrew LeCody. Aye-4 Nay-0

New Business:

Mandatory Annual Audits: Issue: DMS has grown substantially within the last year. Due to the rapid growth it has been discovered that some members haven't paid but are still enjoying membership privileges. Also it is customary for non-profits to do an annual audit to make sure everything is in order. Solution: We should do a Membership Audit immediately, and add mandatory monthly Membership audit to the bylaws. At present Membership is our only source of income. We also need add a mandatory yearly general Audit to the bylaws. Alt Solution: Do not include any such provision, as there is no way to enforce it. Also, this issue is moot once all membership is tracked via WHMCS.

  • the current WHMCS will have a RFID segment and could be automated so that non-paying members keyfobs will be deactivated.
  • suggested that we see if the WHMCS will help fix this problem, give it a trial period and if it does not solve the problem.
  • Mike and Paul Brown will go through the access control system tonight and compare

Andrew LeCody proposes we do an audit of membership tonight. Seconded by Robert Davidson Aye-3 Nay-1

WHMCS: Issue: DMS is missing one of the major components to a modern accounting system, invoicing. We need a system that tracking members who pay with anything but paypal, sends payment notices for people using cash/check, and reminds us/them when people are overdue. Solution: After researching the available solutions, we have tested and implemented WHMCS. Paul Brown purchased the first month, but I propose we spend$15.95/month on this software

  • it was questioned on whether or not we need to be paying for this.
  • suggested that could potentially make our own program alongside this as we go forward.

Andrew proposed that we allocated 15.95 per month for the purchase of a WHMCS license for the space. Seconded by Robert Davidson. Aye-4 Nay-0

Paypal Payments Without Credit Card (Paul Brown) Issue: With our current paypal account, members are required to have an account with paypal to start recurring payments. Solution: I propose we sign up for Enhanced Recurring Payments for $20 each month and allocate $20 for it each month. This will remove the requirement for members to sign up for a paypal account to start a recurring payment with DMS. Note: I called paypal about this and they said they would not waive the fee for us, but they confirmed it is only $20 a month with no cancellation fee

  • suggested that if we purchase this process we document the cancellation process.

Andrew LeCody proposes that we allocated 20/month for the Enhanced Reocurring Payments via Paypal. Seconded by Robert Davidson. Aye-3 Nay- AB-1 Membership Rates (Nick Sainz) Issue: The issue is that some members are not paying full rate due to a legacy rate $30/mo. This doesn't seem fair to the members that are paying the current $50 full rate, at a minimum it should be more than the starving rate of $35/mo. There is no visibility as to who is paying what rate on the members page. Solution: Membership rates paid by members should be publicly posted on the members page. Legacy members should be included in the normal rates, unless they qualify for a starving hacker or student rate. Solution: Members on less than a standard rate should not be allowed to vote.

Add the basic breakdown of membership levels on PNL (GNUCash) It was broken down that the legacy rate was past rates that were grandfathered in from a previous rate. Andrew proposed that we add to the PNL number of transactions per payment as well as dollar amount. Not seconded. Vote does not pass.

Recesss called at 10:07 for ten minutes Meeting called to order at 10:20 Policy for Allocation of Funds (Nick Sainz) Issue: It has come to our attention that a large number of fund allocations have gone unused for a long period of time. It is not our intention to force people to spend money however, we cannot afford to have money tied up indefinitely. Solution 1: Put time limits on allocated funds, including earmarked donated funds. Solution 2: Allow the earmarked funds to be transferred to another group or project within DMS.

  • currently the board reallocated funds as needed.

700 allocated to Ops 1300 for table saw (this is currently already under reappropriation by a committee) 1500 for Roll Break Shear

Solution: This issue is already at the board's discretion.

Board Member Benefits (Nick Sainz) Issue: We feel that due to the extraordinary time and effort put forth buy our board members without compensation that we should show our appreciation to them. Solution: Grant our board members a discount on their monthly dues

Cannot be voted on, conflict of interest. DMS Policy Regarding Children (Ed Kim) Issue: As another symptom of our growth we have discovered that some members bring their children to DMS and leave them unattended for long periods of time. This creates a hazard for both the children and the space due the nature of the industrial setting of DMS. Legal liability aside, according to the member rules "Minors 15 and under must be accompanied by Parent or legal guardian at all times." there have been numerous instances where members have violated this provision in the rules on several occasions to the point where it has become a chronic problem. Solution: Revise the rules to state that there needs to be a 1 to 1 ratio of supervision for minors to legal guardians. Add penalties after receiving written warnings for violating member rules. We would recommend that the board add a penalty of suspension to the member rules in lieu of expulsion

  • a formal complaint was brought to the board about kids being unsupervised.
  • suggested that we do not put a limit on the amount of parent to kid ratio.
  • Also suggested that we put a radius on the parent to watching the kid.
  • We need to reinforce the current rule stating that minors need to be accompanied by an adult.

This issue has already been addressed by Andrew LeCody. No further action needs to be taken on this step.

New Business:

Agenda Item: Meat purchase

  • Need to allocate money for the purchase of meat for the Open House cookout.
  • 200 was allocated last year and we had a lot of leftovers. Suggested we only allocate $150.

Nicole LeCody proposes allocating 150 dollars to the PR Committee for the use of Open House supplies. Andrew LeCody seconds. Aye-4 Nay-0

Agenda Item Two: Insurance

  • currently looking for new insurance.
  • our current insurance misrepresented what we do at the space.
  • Robert is looking into another broker for our insurance. This will have a Directors and Board member coverage as well as a Liability section.

Directors and Board Members coverage $1237

  • Suggested that we look at the upper limit of officer coverage.
  • still waiting on what the liability insurance will be. Robert should know something later this week.

Agenda Item Three: RFID Tags Robert would like to allocated 60 dollars for the purchase of RFID cards. Seconded by John Haskins. Aye-4 Nay-0

Agenda Item Three: Emergency Exit.(Doug Emes)

  • Issue is that the exit is a lighted exit and legally should not be blocked. Board will research purchasing a push bar or whole new door and bring it up at the next board meeting.
  • Suggested that OPS will pay for the door.

Meeting adjourned at 11:00 pm by Andrew LeCody

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