Minutes:Board Meeting Minutes 20150811

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Agenda for 08-11-2015

Chair: Justin Triplett

Cowbell

7:31pm

Introductions

Visitor: Nassar. Kevin gave a tour, and he's chillin'.

Announcements

Elections for the next board of directors are Tuesday September 1st, 7:30pm

  • Greg would like to address the board re: wardens and board items to consider.
    • As a non-board member, it's very frustrating sometimes being a warden becuase you only get half the story
    • Coordinators should be active members; how can someone who isn't a member or not present frequently maintain wardenship?
    • Classroom fiasco might be the worst decision i3 made in my history.
    • /* slight aside on classroom */
    • important that board have some authority over the scope of a zone.
    • need some oversight over new zones and existing zones to better manage and improve efficiency and usability
  • Nate B: many of these points have been brought up before, and should be brought up again.
  • Justin: No doubt there will be more discussions on zones and wardens.

Old Business

Old Air Compressor

Nate B was contacting old owners

  • This has been handed off to Evan
  • Russ wolfe is waiting on email from i3 (evan) to say either "come get the compressor" or "here's a check" (as of July 23)
  • Evan: There is some issue perhaps with ownership percentages
  • Deadline for update is 8/25
Action Item: Evan - Update Russ Wolfe and i3 on air compressor by 8/25/15

Classroom Construction

Greg is helping Konrad and had a construction report at the last meeting

  • Greg has things well documented every conversation he has with someone
  • Landlord will get his construction crews to do it; i3 will still be financially responsible
  • this takes liability off of i3 and placed it onto the landlord and his company plus the engieering designer
  • Timeframe? We need to have the initial taping off and plastic barriers up soon, SWAG on completion is mid-september-ish.
  • when the ceiling is open, they will look at that for advice and study to see if there's something more we need/want to do
  • for whole room : ceiling, heating, power, etc
  • Terry: The Price for construction with landlord is $5k, if less we pay less.
  • Contract we will sign has a maximum $5k fee for i3 to pay; any overage is eaten by landlord
  • Andrew: I am more comfortable with us doing non-structural work (eg. drywall)
  • Mike: Is this something that should come from emergency fund?
  • Terry: For the $6500 total we will have to dip into e-fund, but we should be able to replenish in 60-120 days.
    • will need about $5k from emergeny fund into checking, then leftovers replaced and re-bolstered soonish
  • Terry: Also ask no extraneous expecdetures if we can avoid it
  • Possibly skip Potlock, that's $750 right there
  • halloween party can be revisitied to be not so fund-suckageing
  • Gregg (as unofficial construction manager) will authorize the treasurer to may any payments as necessary.
Proposal:
A sum of $5000 will be appropriated from the emergency fund in order to finance the classroom repair by Ace Landscaping as described in the Sheppard Engineering Report.
Moved by Justin, Seconded by Andrew
7 Ayes / 0 Nays
Result: PASS
Proposal:
A sum of $1500 will be appropriated from the general fund in order to finance Sheppard Engineering to design ceiling support structure.
Moved by Justin, Seconded by Andrew
7 Ayes / 0 Nays
Result: PASS

Jewelry Zone

Is this zone progressing as the board had hoped? Is there anything that we want to communicate to the fledgling zone wardens?

  • The zone needs a wiki page
  • Seems to be progression, and things are being made
  • Terry: been in contact with them a lot, they seem to be doing fine, they want to have their first class in september which will be a big deal as the first test of operability.
  • NateB: There were a couple things that could have been thought through, i.e. they use a 15amp continuous device and there is only one 20amp circuit in that are
  • NateB: There was initially a small concern about chemicals and disposal thereof but Jewelry ZW said they weren't doing anything like that. Now it appears that may not be accurate, but someone needs to talk to ZW to find out what is being used and if it's of any concern or danger.
Action Item: NateB - Contact Jewelry ZW about potential or perceived danger or concern with chemicals and caustic substances

Tax Exempt Number Discussion/Aside

  • They may be using tax ID number improperly, can we check with them to make sure, and also get something from the treasurer that has guidelines?
  • Terry: I have lots of standard forms for various things, I can make a guidelines list on the wiki
  • Jamie: Should the board keep a list of people authorized to use the tax number? Might not be a bad plan.
  • NateB: Simply being a warden doesn't automatically grant use of the tax ID number.
Action Item: Terry - Generate a 'how to use the tax id' guideline

Off-site Storage

Any progress on this? Any action required by the board?

  • Terry: This is not an ongoing project. Offsite Storage is not being studied.

Dumpster Fire

Has this been fully resolved?

  • Smoker's update was sent out by Kevin, smokers and non-smokers appear to be getting along in harmony.
  • Permanent high-visibility cigarette butt disposal still needs to happen.
  • This should be brought up at the member meeting (Konrad)
Action Item: Konrad - Bring up cigarette butt disposal to general membership and then let Jamie know it happened by filing official forms in triplicate

Recap of Board List Discussions

Experimental new section that Jamie wants to try out. In the interest of transparnecy, I think it would be good to run through what we've talked about on the board list, what issues have come up, what proposals (if any) were pass in the last month, etc. It's easy to forget that most of the membership has no idea what's going on in the board list.
  • NateB: board meeting minutes are already public is there more?
  • Jamie: Yes, we don't need to air all the dirty laundry, but we do need to reveal notices and actions that were taken by the board via email.
    • Example: a member was suspended for a month, but no notice to the membership
  • Andrew: Actions that the board takes should be posted in the board minutes.
  • Terry: Please remember that when someone emails the board list, replies don't automatically go to that member. Members must be manually added to replies.
  • // discussion on this
  • Members need better indication of response from board emails they send.

Plan for Future Meetings

  • Document any proposals passed via email
  • Document any issues that members emailed the board about, and their resolutions

New Business

Annual Vote on number of Board Members

  • The board can vote to change the number of board members as needed
  • The membership voted (about a year ago) that a good time to do this would be in July, before the September elections.
  • Better late than never!
  • ANdrew thinks it should stay at seven
  • Justin: Should the number increase as membership has increased?
  • Nate B: 7 is good number, down to 6 was odd. There isn't really evidence that a larger board is less representative. Being of a size that the baord can debate and reach conclusions is more important. Even in it's current size it seems to be a good size.
  • Jamie: I don't think we represent every type of user on the board. It feels like the diversity of the space is not reflected in the diversity of the board.
  • // discussion
  • Max: what's the worst thing that could happen?
  • Evan: odd numbers make decision easy. Having a larger board might make it easier to not be in the situation where we go for unaniminity at the cost of time and effort when simple majority would suffice.

Jampe proposes 8

Proposal:
Increase the number of board members to 8
Moved by Jamie, Seconded by Matt G
4 Ayes / 3 Nays
Result: PASS
*Roll Call vote: For: Jamie Evan Mike MattG, opposed: MattA, NateB, Andrew

Elections are coming up

(Jamie) As we start thinking about if we want to run again, and what we've learned from our term, I really really want to make some kind of a "Best Practices" page for the wiki.

  • Tabled for the board mailing list

Notice of Dissolution Board Standing Budget Committee

  • Contact: Terry Wynn

The position of Head of Budget Committee is too closely linked to Treasurer to be done by two people, much less one person and a committee. I therefore give Notice to the Board that this Standing Board Committee i.e. the Budget Committee which has no other members than myself is disbanding. I recommend and propose putting the tasks of Budget into the description of Treasurer, before selecting new Treasurer, else the job description is deceptive and wrong.

A future Treasurer could always parse tasks to be shared with a Asst Treasurer, but the split isn't Budget/Treasurer, it needs to be handled by the two people involved.

Action Item: Terry - Update Wiki to reflect dissolution of budget committee

Propose to Select New Officers by Oct 1 Each Year

  • Contact: Terry Wynn

LARA (State of Michigan) [ Jamie: BOOM ] Requires Filing an Annual Report (for non profit corps) with the names of Board and Officers no earlier than July 1 and no later than Oct 1 each year. The one for 2015 has already been filed for financial reasons. It would make considerable sense for us to file on Oct 1 with all new Board and Officers which will be valid for a whole year. Thus we would have to have new officers selected by the new Board, but prior to Oct 1. Filing is online and can be done in 20 minutes.

  • Andrew: we could move the whole election forward
  • Evan, can we shift board to calendar year?
  • Tabled for the next board to deal with.

Propose to Create a Board Standing Committee - Floor Planning Committee

  • Contact: Terry Wynn

Board members have the responsibility to do Floor Planning, but not the cycles to do it themselves. I propose opening a Floor Planning Standing Committee to the Board. With a draft of the structure and procedures for Floor Planning due from that Committee in 60 days for Board approval. I further propose Greg Smith and myself as co-chair.

  • There was a member group doing this, but should be a board official committes
  • Evan used to report this, but hasn't had time lately
Proposal:
Create "Floor Planning Standing Committee" with Terry and Greg smith as co-chairs.
Moved by Andrew, Seconded by Evan
7 Ayes / 0 Nays
Result: [PASS

`

Propose to Manage Board Standing Committees

  • Contact: Terry Wynn

Section 7.2 of the ByLaws allows the Board to appoint "other" committees for various tasks. For the purpose of discussion, let us call them "Board Standing Committees" to distinguish them for other ad hoc member committees. Currently there are 5 such committees listed at https://www.i3detroit.org/wiki/Committees

I propose that we abolish any committee listed without a chair, keep this list current as a responsibility of the Secretary, and require each Chair to make a short report in the minutes of each Board Meeting, with, at minimum, a current roster and any actions taken in the prior month.

Action Item: Jamie - cleanup committee list and send notice to members of difference between "member committees" and "board standing committees"

Propose to Provide Adobe Creative Cloud

  • Contact: Matt Arnold
  • Improved graphics processing unit for our VM server: $100
  • Windows 10: $100
  • Nonprofit discounted rate for a one-year license of the complete Adobe Creative Cloud: $240
  • Total: $440

Applications include: Photoshop (raster graphics editing), Illustrator (vector graphics editing), InDesign (laying out multi-page publications), After Effects (motion graphics), Audition (audio editing), Lightroom (photo enhancing), Premier (video editing), and Flash (interactive animation).

Using Windows Remote Desktop, one user at a time may log in to the applications on our VM server from their own laptop.

  • Andrew: This seems like a computer zone thing. Could be part of classroom zone, or infrastructure?
  • What zone's budget should this go to?
  • Andrew: Let's allocate it to Infrastructure zone for now, we can move it later
  • Konrad: Should this be delayed until after the classroom expenses are dealt with?
Proposal:
Spend $499.97 on GPU, Windows Licence, and Adobe Creative Cloud; to be in the Infrastructure Zone; to be spent after October 1st. Annual renewals of Adobe will be handled by yearly budgets and are not part of this proposal.
Moved by MattA, Seconded by Everyone Else
7 Ayes / 0 Nays
Result: PASS

Proposal to appoint new classroom zone warden

Proposal:
Matt A is now classroom ZW
Moved by Jamie, Seconded by Justin
7 Ayes / 0 Nays
Result: PASS

Floor Plan Report

Officer Reports

Treasury and Budget Report for July, 2015

  • Financial Grade: A
  • 7/31 $15K in Emergency Fund
  • $ 7,508 in CharterOne $ 1,182 in Amazon $ 33 In PayPal
  • News:
    • 65 Members on Subscription / 4 on Annual. Up from 52 last month. GOAL: 100 members.
    • Once all the MF reimbursements clear in Aug, we should start building our checking to >10K again. (Excluding Construction)
    • $5K Construction will require Board release of Emergency Funds. Funds to be quickly built back to $15K within 90 days(est.)
    • four new subscriptions on the christmas special
  • Nateb: What kind of notice do people get From amazon of the old pay system?
  • Terry: None from amazon. I'm manually sending notices to those that aren't on the new system.
  • Terry: working through june payments now

Membership Coordinator

  • Max: having issue with CRM,will post later

Secretary

  • elections coming up.
  • Secretary might want to make changes to last years' election process. Thoughts?
  • should voting window be larger?
  • maybe we want to open voting after the speeches?
  • MAttH: do bylaws specify when the vote must take place? must it be at the member meeting?
  • Standing Rules: a little leeway

DECISION: Secretary's descretion

President

no update

Vice President

not present

COWBELL

9:05pm

Lost & Found Party

Action Items

Action ItemPOC
Generate a 'how to use the tax id' guidelineTerry
Contact Jewelry ZW about potential or perceived danger or concern with chemicals and caustic substancesNateB
Update Russ Wolfe and i3 on air compressor by 8/25/15Evan
Update Wiki to reflect dissolution of budget committeeTerry
cleanup committee list and send notice to members of difference between "member committees" and "board standing committees"Jamie
Bring up cigarette butt disposal to general membership and then let Jamie know it happened by filing official forms in triplicateKonrad

Proposals

ProposalMoved BySeconded ByAyeNayResult
Increase the number of board members to 8JamieMatt G43PASS
Matt A is now classroom ZWJamieJustin70PASS
Create "Floor Planning Standing Committee" with Terry and Greg smith as co-chairs.AndrewEvan70[PASS
A sum of $5000 will be appropriated from the emergency fund in order to finance the classroom repair by Ace Landscaping as described in the Sheppard Engineering Report.JustinAndrew70PASS
Spend $499.97 on GPU, Windows Licence, and Adobe Creative Cloud; to be in the Infrastructure Zone; to be spent after October 1st. Annual renewals of Adobe will be handled by yearly budgets and are not part of this proposal.MattAEveryone Else70PASS
A sum of $1500 will be appropriated from the general fund in order to finance Sheppard Engineering to design ceiling support structure.JustinAndrew70PASS

Meeting Metrics

  • Time completed:9:01
  • Funds appropriated: $7000
  • Attendees:20

Attendance

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  1. Konrad Brown
  2. Samantha Letvin
  3. Vivian A Sanders
  4. Terry Wynn
  5. Nas Abdul-Migel
  6. Matt Arnold
  7. James O'Dell
  8. Nate Bezanson
  9. Matt Huber
  10. Jamie Burdeski
  11. Greg Smith
  12. Justin Triplett
  13. Maxwell Gonyea-Alexander
  14. Mike Fink
  15. Amelia Meyer
  16. Evan Allen
  17. Matthew Gardeski
  18. Hangouts: Scott Sheraga
  19. Hangouts: David Henry
  20. Hangouts: Jamsters Henry



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