Table of Contents

2013/04/15 BOTLab Members' Meeting

Agenda

  1. New space available in G10
  2. Best use of additional space
  3. The finer points of member storage now that our membership is increasing and potential members are asking about storage
  4. DEE's proposal and how the hackspace can accept working businesses as members (workshops, fees, insurance and non members being in the space)
  5. What constitutes a hackspace member (related to 4) and how we can formalize the process
  6. Pay someone to take on an admin/promotional role for the hackspace.
  7. Clarification / Formalisation of process for purchasing equipment with Hackspace Funds
  8. Mitch Altman soldering workshop on May 11th. Decide price and how many places. Allocate roles for obtaining soldering equipment and publicity.

Attendees

Tarim, David Henshall, Patrick Neave, Barney Livingston, Jon Dowling, Alexa Mottram (visitor), ? (visitor), Daniel Quiggin from DEE, Sam Willcocks, Russell Dicken, Ian Stratford, David Wyatt (minute-taker)

Notes

  1. G10 space
    • We have an increasing membership and enough money ⇒ confirmed.
  2. Using space
    • PN:
      • put desks in new space in G11, keep clean/clear, use for laptops on Thurs or workshops
      • messy space in G10: bench to
      • Poppy's space: sofa, knitting, sewing? craft
    • SW: Arthur's keen to have the touch table out somewhere
    • JD: clean up the sink & use Poppy's space for kitchenette
    • SW has made a plan…
    • Soldering area should stay - not have too many tables
    • Moveable/foldable tables - in the architects' space
    • BL: Power points: run stuff along the ceiling? Do it properly. PN: also networking
    • Tarim offered to talk to Robert about putting things on the ceiling.
    • DH: make it moveable
    • Shelves: on wall space? in front of door, separating us from Gareth's space?
  3. Storage
    • For each member: a small box?
    • JD: 9l is too small
    • SW: Nottinghack offer 35l boxes
    • Insurance issue? Tarim: insurance doesn't cover it
    • DH: Better to make the base level too small than too big - could end up with 40x 35l boxes - make people think what they leave
    • Example: long wall in new space is 4.2m, 35l boxes are 40cm wide & 30cm high ⇒ we could get 10 wide x 5ish high = 50 boxes on that wall
    • Provisionally, allocate a 35l box per member included in subscription but get people to buy their boxes
  4. Businesses in the hackspace
    • DQ gave some background on DEE: community interest company not making profit, spoken to Matt, moved out of current space, 1 workshop/month - proposes a trial workshop - he's from the university so they could use a space there, but low-income families are intimidated by the university… - currently he's joined as a member paying £50/month
    • Tarim: complicates matters with rates relief, & building owners might not be happy with us subletting to a business but if they join as individuals that's less of a problem - DQ confirms they have insurance to run workshops wherever
    • Money coming to hackspace from their workshops?
    • Tying up the hackspace space? DEE would like to develop a relationship with hackspace - 8-10 people + 2 facilitators - approx size of meeting table in Pervasive Media Studio
    • Storage? DQ: if storage is an issue they'll go elsewhere - in total they'd want approx a wall's worth of shelving! a couple of boxes would be useful
    • DH: DEE fits with botlab aims from constitution
    • DQ: proposal: not store anything, run a workshop there this weekend, tidy up after themselves, see how it works & what people's reactions are
    • IS: DEE could look for more space in BV Studios for storage for convenience, and use the hackspace for workshops
    • How often? Once a month
    • Whole point is to spread knowledge & skills
    • PN: last Sun of every month is HackKids - need to keep track of calendar - side note: need to put this on the website & combine disparate calendars
    • General view is positive for a trial at least
    • IS: invite more groups now we have more space?
  5. Hackspace membership
    • Process goes through too many stages - some people join & we don't know who they are!
    • RD: maybe make the “open” list an “Associate Membership”? Consensus: not really - don't want people to expect something
    • Distinguish between newsletter list & main list (& members list)
    • IS: what makes a member - how do we handle groups? esp. if groups aren't generally interested in hackspace activities
    • BL: don't want people coopting bits of the space or claiming they can avoid paying because of work they put in
    • Tarim: best option is people joining as individuals
  6. Paying administrators?
    • SW: Matt said a US hackspace had paid someone to work on advocating the space & it had paid off in terms of members etc.
    • DH: CentreSpace coop have an administrator - but they're quite big, we're not in a position to do that now
    • Tarim: would need to be clear what we'd want someone to do
    • DW: unneccessary at this point - DH: want to build community organically
    • IS: need to consolidate, show we can use new space appropriately
    • PN: plenty of advertising opportunities - IS: better to advertise once we've got something to advertise - DH: need more blog posts! - DQ: DEE have a newsletter & they could publicise it through that - DH: syndicate blog posts
  7. Equipment purchasing
    • DW: Presumed-consent fund was suggested before - but this was when we were spending less on rent…
    • Ask people to donate/pledge for equipment
    • IS: start approaching companies & asking for old eqpt etc? BL: as long as it's no-strings
    • PN: 2 categories: need-to-have, which Hackspace should supply, and nice-to-have which people should pledge for
    • RD: specific example: Kinect? IS: pledge drive for that item, then owned by the hackspace
    • IS: storing functional hackspace-owned items? - SW: allocate storage space - JD: add description of how things work & what we use it for - put hackspace stickers on our eqpt
    • IS: have a poster in hackspace with people's photos on - PN: or 3d models of people's heads?!
    • Tarim: committee is a backstop - judges mood of hackspace and decides whether to put money in - members can crowdfund too
    • SW: make people join botlab when they join hackspace? That's how London does it - Tarim: better to leave it loosely-coupled?
  8. Mitch Altman workshop
    • Tarim: May 11th - Move to hackspace now we have the space - last time 12-20 people came
    • IS: issue of plug sockets
    • IS: PAT testing? DQ: DEE test all theirs, we could go in - Tarim: Robert would prefer everything PAT testing
    • Tarim: #spaces? say 16
    • How much? £20 if nonmember, £10 if member + kits - Mitch brings kits, ~£15 each - TVBGone, trip glasses, LED cube
    • DH: do we want workshops for existing members or to recruit new ones? - Tarim: encourage new members - don't encourage existing members
    • Tarim: publicity needed - BL offers to do it
    • Soldering: Nathan has offered to try to get some from Farnell - DQ: DEE have 25 PAT tested 80W soldering irons with fat tips - but probably too big… Tarim offers to coordinate
  9. Projector
    • The one we were talking about has gone, but we don't know if we won it…
    • Projectors are in general useful
    • Projector in hackspace has a broken bulb & costs £80 for a new one, 800×600
    • PN: what do we want it for? JD: retro game night! - ask for donations for it via crowdfunding? - IS will do this
    • IS: put the table computer on the wall?
    • IS: wants to play with structured light scanning, needs higher res - interested in running a 3d scanning workshop - RD has one he can bring
    • BL: lock away the projector? consider
  10. Next meeting
    • PN: Here or in the new space? Here - no distractions, beer
    • IS: regular meetings here?
    • Tarim: every couple of months sounds good…
  11. Painting floor
    • When Scottish Dave gets some paint…
    • Tarim will ask Robert about painting a hackspace logo on the floor
    • Just the area where the concrete is
  12. Keys & locks?
    • Tarim: quote for keys & locks for back door: £279 +VAT for back door lock he thinks Robert will be happy with, + 12 Abloy keys
    • IS: crowdfund? plenty of people would pay if they could get keys - or pay as hackspace infrastructure?
  13. Other spaces IS: are we still pursuing? Yes - if it's in G11 - IS: put up a partition - DH: ask Gareth what he wants - Tarim: he's happy for us to take the space we've got