Meetings/2010-09
Date/Location
- September 13, 2010
- 7:30pm
- Shop
- Eat before, or bring food with.
- All members
Agenda
| Topic | Presenter | |
|---|---|---|
| Review of Board Action Items | Chairman | Action Items |
| Treasurer's Report | Treasurer | Action Items |
| Netadmin Report | TBD | Action Items |
| Facilities Committee Report | Facilities Committee | Action Items |
| Project | Chairman | Action Items |
| Publicity & Events | Publicity Chair | Action Items |
| New Member Recognition | Secretary | |
| Decide next meeting date | Chairman | |
| Update "Action Items Closed Since Last Meeting" Redmine Filter 'Closed' date to be today's date | Chairman | |
| Change Door Code | Secretary |
Action Items
- Election Talk
Treasurer's Report
Books
- August 2010
- Donations: $577
- Members: $910.33 (25)
- Expenses: $1280.05
- Net Profit: $207.28
- September 2010
- Donations: $130
- Members: $401.81 (16)
- Expenses: $1000
- Net Profit: $-468.19
Events
- Utilities Deposit
- Omegix faxed Huntsville Utilities to ask for a partial deposit. When we first moved in HU used the previous tenant's electricity usage to determine our deposit amount. They said get back to them in 1-2 years and they'd consider re-adjusting it for us based on our actual usage amounts. Should hear back something within a week
- Grants/Awards
- MrWorld and Omegix both won a charitable service award for their involvement with the Make Shop. Two checks should arrive within the Month at either their addresses or the Shop's PO Box. Amount is unknown.
- Enormous donation
- One member, who wishes to remain anonymous, has made a donation of $400 for August. This has allowed us to leave August in the black.
Facilities Committee
- Heating & Cooling
- Our landlord is also looking for an AC unit for the building, just last Friday he had Tom from the A/C Doctor come out to asses the current HVAC system. I was told that the system is like new and already setup to accept a 4-ton unit. (same size recommended by a previous estimate i believe) Tom said he has a suitable unit to put up on the south wall of the shop. My understanding is that this is a deal being worked out between him and our landlord. It is not yet clear whether Mike is going to get this for us, OR simply find us a cheap offer we can opt to buy. I will try to ask Mike about this, Tactfully. (thanks to Ratmandu for actually being at the shop when Tom arrived.)
- Spacefelix - Would like some help getting foam this coming Saturday to seal off dropped ceiling in preparation for winter. Will later purchase foam and cladding piecemeal per week to insulate walls of Main Room.
- Recycling
- CrashCart & Spacefelix - Discussion on ways to improve recycling. Right now incidence of recycling is observed to be on the low end; 25% of recyclables in recycling, the rest in trash.
- Options:
- Put label on trash can to remind people what is recyclable and point to the bins in the kitchen.
- Move the Blue General Recycling and White PS6 Bins into a fixed location in the main room since they are the most common recyclables we dispose of.
- David Merchant's Truck On Loan
- Spacefelix - What is the status of the truck? Mr. Merchant will be loaning it to us until we are done with it (per an exchange 5/12).
Discussion
- Project Updates, Event planning
- HSIS - WAHOO!! We completed a qualifying competition flight and have submitted the results to Workshop88. We will hear the competition results on September 30, 2010. Awesome job guys! (Spacefelix)
- N-Prize - So far, we have completed a general analysis for the rocket sizing for the N-Prize. We are building and firing a test stage to confirm our analysis. In the meanwhile, we are looking to have a test satellite radio beacon built and flown on a high-altitude balloon to test our proposed tracking methods. If you are interested, please contact Spacefelix.
- Engineers Without Borders Appropriate Technologies Lab (ATL) - The local Engineers Without Borders chapter is interested in collaborating with Makers Local 256 in making an ATL for development of harware for their projects. Doug Wells from Engineers Without Borders is coming to present various projects for Zambia as well as photos from their recent trip to the area. (Spacefelix)
New Members
As of August meeting, Donny and Shae.
Minutes
- Next meeting is
Oct 11thOct 25th, 2010. Elections will be held at this meeting. [Edit: Dickie 13:21, 27 September 2010 (CDT)] - Elections are next month. Mog and Alii have volunteered to run the election. Those intending to run need to declare it on the general mailing list.
- HSIS accomplished a competition flight and got flight data submitted. We will know how we placed on September 30.
- The N-prize team is prototyping with a modified model rocket wrapped in carbon fiber. They need help building a satellite for the project and it has to be launched by Sept 19, 2011.
- We have 2 new members since the last meeting: Donnie and Shea.
Engineers Without Borders
Doug is explaining how EWB works. There are 250 chapters internationally with 2 local chapters. One is professional and one is the UAH student branch with the professional branch acting as mentors. The chapters typically form 5 year commitments to each community they help to make sure improvements are sustainable, effective, what the locals want. EWB is currently working with an agricultural center in NW zambia to improve nutrition and the food supply, because they have mostly hunted out game and overtaxed their resources. They have traditionally been a hunter-gatherer culture and are not readily adaptable to agriculture. Things must be done in a fashion locals can get used to using mostly animal or human power. Manufactured goods such as harnesses are not readily accessible and the locals have no experience with work animals.
Important tasks there are finding appropriate solutions for pumping and cleaning water using minimal or simple tech. There is not a lot of direct water contamination, so the ground water is reasonable.
Maize is the primary local crop. The indigenous population currently burns grassland to drive animals into traps for food. Structures are made of local materials like mud bricks. Collecting water is one of the biggest issues. The water needs to be kept clean and work needs to be minimized. Women and children are doing nothing but hauling water all day. The soil there is very acidic and is currently neutralized by imported lime. EWB wants to develop local lime sources, but needs a simple way to grind limestone.
Well contamination is an issue, because most wells are accessed by dipping. The cleanest source was a well that had been capped with a hand pump.
Facilities
(Tim Reporting)
- Mike the landlord is looking at getting us a A/C unit. His friend at A/C doctor may have a 4 ton unit for us. We need insulation to make A/C effective and not wasteful. It comes in pink or silver and we may have a work party to install it. We will actually be replacing the ceiling tiles with solid insulation blocks.
- We need to push the recycling effort.
- There were questions about david merchant's truck. The keys are currently stuck in the ignition and the battery is missing.
Treasurer's report
- We came out ahead in August and we're on track for September.
- An anonymous $400 donation has kicked us ahead even further.
- We may be getting a utilities deposit refund since they are be reevaluating our power usage soon.
- Jeff and Brian got 2 separate grants for us from Northrup Grumman. (Amounts currently unknown, should receive them within the month).
Attending
- Alii
- Brimstone
- Colby [blue shirt]
- Dickie
- Doug
- Ethan
- Greg
- Hanyan
- Jackson
- Jeff
- Jimshoe
- Justin
- Kinsey
- Mog
- Phil
- Preaux
- Strages
- Tim
- Tuttle
