Meetings/2010-01

Date/Location

• January 26th, 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
Reclaiming former board member metal keys and changing of the door code	Chairman
Pig Roast update	Omegix
Donation Recognition System	Omegix

Discussion

• Lease: When is the official end date? Do we want to call and make sure he is good with us re-upping the contract in April vs. finding out we have to leave 4 weeks before the lease expires?
• Who are the new members added since the last meeting? How many members do we have now?
  • simoncion
  • dusty
  • cherryblossom
  • ladymerlin
  • bendersgame
  • kyle

Potential Member Query: Who's the board?

I was explaining the process for becoming a new member to some potentials at the shop. One of the troubleshooting tips they offered was that they didn't know who the board members were. Would the board be willing to place a photo of themselves on the wall or on the website? Omegix 22:19, 20 January 2010 (CST)

1. I'd prefer wall instead of website. Brimstone 08:25, 21 January 2010 (CST)
2. Isn't that the point of the sponsor system? To get to know people around the shop? They'd still need majority approval of the board members to get elected, and two members isn't going to do that for them. Brimstone 08:25, 21 January 2010 (CST)

• Telling potential new members who the board is only helps to undermine the process of getting to know people at the shop. This process was put in place so that board members would have the opportunity to get a feel for someone prior to voting. By telling them who the board members are they can then go directly to those people and try to get them to sign their application instead of interacting with everyone. As far as brimstone's comment about "two members", technically the two board member signatures on their application is sufficient to grant them membership in the event that all other board members abstain from voting, which has happened. --strages 10:15, 21 January 2010 (CST)
  • We need to walk through what the board expects of applicants, and how they can find that information out. One of the requirements to apply is to gain sponsorship from 2 board members. You can't do that without knowing what those board members want to see from an applicant. From talking to potential applicants, the process is currently obfuscated. I personally think the easiest way to un-obfuscate this is to tell people who the board members are, that way they understand whats expected directly from the person who's evaluating them. Supplemental things like info on the webpage\wiki could help. Omegix 10:45, 21 January 2010 (CST)

Donation Recognition System

Perhaps we could have a type of public recognition that someone is financially supporting our organization? Public recognition for contributions could encourage donations overall, from both members and community supporters.

(Edited out Concept of Membership Levels) Omegix 15:13, 22 January 2010 (CST)

Corporate donations will likely enjoy the special recognition on a contributors page of the website. It wouldn't be unreasonable to put up a banner thanking a corporation for a $5000 gift on the website for a time period.

For personal donations, little thank-you services make the fact that others are contributing visible, and encourage others to donate. We could also brainstorm some perks that come with being a certain level of donor, like recognition on the front page of the site, or custom greets from Ackis in the channel. For keyed members instead of "Unlocking for Member" ackis could say something the member requests like "His awesomeness [Member] has graced the presence of the Make Shop."

• If the philosophy of the shop is that everyone is equal and no one is the leader of the shop, then ranking people by how much money they have completely defeats the entire purpose and leads to even more ego trips from people who like to brag about how much money the give. -- --PsychoAU 23:51, 21 January 2010 (CST)
  • I've edited out the section suggesting membership levels. The spirit of this is to recognize financial donations to our 501c3. Small and large recognitions alike encourage continued donations. --Omegix 15:13, 22 January 2010 (CST)