08/06/12 Meeting Minutes

[Rob Nickerson]

Davis Makerspace
August x 2012 Meeting
Bike Forth
Loose Minutes

Present: Didnt really formally establish that.  Jordan, Larry, Angel, 
Darin, Steve, RAN, many others.
Started: 7:10pm?

Tim ? lead off with a show and tell on Raspberry Pi, pretty cool.

These are very spare minutes typed up a week late, so sure have missed 
quite a bit.

We talked about what to do next, first off a bit. Someone had a 
suggestion perhaps we pick different persons to chair and take notes at 
every meeting. People asked about having the space yet or not.

Someone, Michael ? brought up that a space is available at $0.60 psqft 
at 1615 2nd St st. Its a frame warehouse, pretty basic but prolly only 
around $1000 per month. He has some space there which is is open and 
about 600 sq ft to do some CNC projects.Larry said its owned by Ron 
Head, someone he knows in town, so perhaps he can initiate contact

We discussed a need  to assess what the community wanted to do wti hthe 
space, and the need to inventory it. Perhpas that is already there on 
the daviswiki.

We discussed the box, and agreed to load Ubuntu on it, and have the 
people involved with that "build it" and get it to Om Networks.There was 
talk of forming a subcomittee dealing with computer technical matters to 
have root access, and others could be given accounts for project usage 
as needed by the "admins" Jordan and Holliday will put that together and 
be in nominal control of it.

RAN Suggested we get a bank account, and the 2 basic documents needed to 
register a non profit, Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws where we 
design how our organization works legally. Then ultimately as well a 
business plan is needed for banks, sponsors, and other areas.

Bank Account access was discussed, including some transfer protocol so 
there was always someone that could write checks. The Bike Church would 
be an example.

Discussion ensued about how those could be developed, from looking 
online for examples, or getting an ecopy of the bike church documents as 
a model. The bike church did agree to be a financial sponsor to help us 
collect donation money while we get our 501c3 status, provided we showed 
them reasonably mature documents and decisionmaking.

We talked about getting more women community members interested.

Should we just jump ship and go into the sac hackerspace that has just 
been aquired?

WE discussed next needed things, like policies and procedures for 
lending tools and using tools and the insurance needed for operations.
Ask other locations for effective software choices, like Berkley tool 
lib or craft center.

Larry asked about insurance for pick and pull type auto dismatler places 
and how they are able to operate with liability waivers in similar 
conditions of a dangerous work environment. Perhaps it is that level of 
insurance that is required for the space. Needs at least liability 
insurance, plus Directors M&O for non profits to help limit liability.

Steve mentioned other dangerous places like the Crucible in Oakland as 
examples of similar places needing heavy insurance, and immunity 
waivers. But also that they generate significant workshop fees.

We thought O'Reilly Publsihing might have pertinent information about 
opening maker spaces.


Someone offered we go to the City of Davis to make our case and try and 
get a grant. Since we will be providing workshops and training.

Once the organization is ready for consensus training, it is available. 
Only once so be ready. Have NAMI out to present people working there 
with training in working with mental health.


Should we get a spread sheet going to see what people want from the 
space, and use that as a guide to creat individual policies for these 
functions and how they will be presented in the business plan. To make 
the organization self sufficeient to operate a space certain monies will 
need to be handled. This also influences the mission statement. This is 
  a crucial piece of the Articles of Incorporation and 501 C 3 filing. 
ITs a general blurb about what the organization does and plans to offer 
the community. Fictiious name statment needs to be filed, and the name 
secured at Secretary of State also for the filing.

Holliday will take a stab at Articles, Jordan will look at 
makerspace.org and online for example Bylaws, RAN will check on 
insurance. We still need people to help work on a spreadsheet so we can 
get  a good idea of what to use for the space. Facebook poll maybe? So 
we can then develop policies for operations we will be carrying out. 
Plus this influences the business plan documents.

Adjourned like around 8:20pm