Howdy, hakkers!
I've noticed that there was a meeting on 2014-02-25 and that the minutes are
posted. They are visible on the web at
https://synhak.org/wiki/Meetings/2014-2-25. I've also included them in this
mail for reading at your leisure:
{{Infobox_meeting
|time=7PM
|date=2014-02-25
|venue=48 South Summit
|next=Meetings/2014-3-4
|previous=Meetings/2014-2-18
}}
= Agenda =
* '''Note Taker:''' Chris Egeland
* '''Moderator:''' Omar Rassi
== Introduction and Names ==
* Matt - Makes software
* Torrie - Dishwasher, and victim of butt-to-butt extension
* Matt - Fixes computer and gert a jerb
* Steve - Switches OSes every five minutes
* Becca - Has bewbs, apparently
* Devin - Welds
* Craig - Is scared
* Alex - Writes powerpoint
* Andy - Bends your conduit, ooh baby
* Andrew - Gets proxied by Chris in the future
* Mike - Makes routers reboot themselves
* Philip - Likes to paint, and is here for the fumes
* Omar - Moderates
* Chris - Forgets about himself
* Ken - Arrives late
== Announcements ==
* Any cool new projects? Something you want everyone to know?
* Any happenings that people should be aware of?
* We got a $15,000 grant!
** Knight Foundation called us a “hacker space”. Yes that is a quote.
** Unsolicited grant. Anything we’ve applied for may still be under
consideration.
* Elections tonight
* Torrie has rewritten all of the Ansible and AWS stuff. Most of the
infrastructure is pretty darn forkable. Servers are now disposable.
* Torrie is giving an Ansible talk on March 26, 2014 at 8PM.
* Andrew: There is a dehumidifier in the basement, its purpose is to dehumidify
the basement.
* Devin: Will try to get the issue fixed in the basement where water leaks
through our wall.
* Devin: Welding Class March 12, 2014 at 8PM.
* Philip: Will be recycling all aluminum cans. They are going to AFD who
recycle them and give them to Childrens’ Hospital for burn victims. Martha is
handling the glass bottles.
* Becca: If you have a specific cupcake request for Opening Day, talk to Becca
and get her the supplies ASAP. Needs: Crisco, powdered sugar, flour, eggs,
regular sugar.
* Devin is purchasing 25 pizzas for Opening Day
* Matt: I can offer some sort of cooking arrangements for Opening Day.
* Torrie: Questions about budget reimbursement. Now there’s going to be a
protocol for reimbursement for purchases for the space.
* Torrie: Crazy Uncle Hopp’s Underground Pop-Up Nerd Night happened this
weekend. Got a donation. Made us a sponsor of OddMall. We are the big banner
sponsor. We have a booth. Bigger than last year’s. MAKE SOMETHING FOR
ODDMALL. Becca and Craig volunteer for OddMall. Monique and Andy are talking
to make sure we aren’t stretched way too thin on the same day.
* Andy: We are having our Ye Olde Grand Olde Open House. Saturday, March 1,
2014.
== Membership ==
* Nothing so far. Jimmy has an application, we just need him to pick a date.
March 25 tentatively.
* We have a few people from February 22 event that are possibly going to apply.
== Financial Report ==
* Funds in bank:
** Liabilities: $2828.00
** AP: $2243.00
** Assets: $20,052.32
** AR: $1573.64
** Grant check was put into Savings because it’s over $5000 and has a 10 day
wait limit on it.
== Proposals ==
* Check the page at [[Proposals/Open]].
* Torrie’s proposal about proposals.
** “ Proposals must be sent in full to discuss@synhak.org, with the exact
wording that will be decided upon. Any modifications to the text must be
considered as a wholly new proposal.”
** Andy: Can we approve the old proposal and create a new proposal to modify
the wording of the old proposal? Yes.
** Justin: Commented that he does not currently like the system because it
limits us on time. If we wanted to make a change quickly, this requires us to
wait another 7 days. In 7 days a lot of things can occur.
** Torrie: This has been on discuss@ for a week, no discussion. It happens to
come up at the meeting. There’s ample time to bring up a discussion about a
proposal between meetings. If a word comes up that needs to be changed, it can
be changed with another proposal.
** Matt: Problem is that if a proposal’s wording fundamentally changes the
proposal, it
** AJ9: What comprises a significant change? There’s disagreement about who
gets to decide what is a significant change. Also, there’s the issue of
figuring out what is the “official” method of communication. Lists or meetings?
** Torrie: I understand the statement about head butting. The proposal is that
any change to the wording makes it a new proposal. There needs to be time to
discuss the changes, and make it public for those of us who aren’t physically
at every single meeting.
** AJ9: All members are eligible to have
** Omar: Torrie’s proposal is that: When a proposal is made, the wording is as
it stands. When the wording is changed, it becomes a new proposal to be voted
on at the next meeting. That doesn’t mean that you can’t approve a proposal,
and immediately propose a minor change to the wording.
*** Matt: Omar phrased it very well.
** Matt: I made an announcement that was misconstrued, I am not happy about the
bickering going on.
** Chris: You can be as member as you want. Also, you don’t need to have
** Torrie: Nothing here says that we change the venue of voting or proposals.
It says that discuss@synhak.org is the record keeper for proposals. We need to
have an archive of said discussion.
** Omar: This is one of the reasons we have meeting minutes mailed to the list.
** AJ9: Those who come to the space physically could have an advantage over
those who choose to participate online or less frequently in person.
** Torrie: Motion to vote. Seconded by Chris
*** 5 yea’s, 0 nays.
== Discussion Items ==
* Mike: I feel it’s great to see the discussion of a proposal, but having all
of the proposals on a mailing list makes it difficult to find previous
proposals if you aren’t familiar with the wording or topics.
** Torrie: So, we had propos...@synhak.org. It would send it to the list and
update a wiki page. After a meeting, the secretary page and put it on the
SYN/HAK Unified Code page. It lists all protocols, policies, proposals, etc.
There are mechanisms and procedures in place to hold and hang onto these
proposals. It’s the de facto temporary way to hang onto this stuff. It’s
there, but it just needs a bit of spit shine.
** Steve: It should send to members@ and discuss@.
*** Torrie: it does, it just needs a bit of work.
* Devin: When is the board meeting?
** Torrie: It’s when the champions call it.
* Devin: Let’s put a 100% freeze on all new funds until we figure out a game
plan for it. Use a financial advisor, Miami Foundation.
** Torrie: I take offense that we would spend the money irresponsibly.
** Devin: There’s already so much talk going around about how to spend the
money. We haven’t handled this much money before.
** AJ9: I have a bit of experience with the KF. Experience with Torchbearers.
$15K is chump change for KF. Make a big impact with it, and impress them and
satisfy their mission. Separate accounts for each gift. Do fewer big projects
instead of more small ones.
** Torrie: I have experience working the KF. Not completely unfamiliar with
how their grants work.
** AJ9: Document everything that you do with the money.
** Justin: Proposes that we create a working group for this grant.
** Tim: Do they have specific restrictions?
*** They use the words “charitable use.” Which carries more meaning than may
appear at the surface.
** Torrie: Idea of hacker grants. Take about $5400 over 3 years and give $150
to someone each month who has a project idea each month.
*** AJ9: Would this be something for the working group?
** Ken: Is money exclusively controlled by the Treasurer?
*** Torrie: Yes, but I like being Treasurer, so I’m not going to spend the
money willy-nilly.
** Omar: There’s been discussion on discuss@ for procedures to new ways to
determine how money is spent.
*** Torrie: The way the bylaws work now is that Treasurer has absolute control
over money. But Champions have oversight and can “supervise, direct and
control” the Treasurer. They are responsible to make sure the Treasurer
doesn’t go crazy and deposit $10K into a personal bank account.
** Justin: I created a list of several grant vectors. ACF is sourcing through
Knight, and they are wanting STEAM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts, Math) in
Akron.
* Omar: We could use Young Aristotles as a great grant attracting program.
** Becca: Essentially agrees with Omar, should use YA or other youth programs
as a way to attract grants. But it needs careful consideration and proper
organization. We need advice and recommendations from people experienced with
this type of thing.
* Devin: We need to remember that this isn’t about figuring out where the money
goes, just how it’s handled. The community will still determine its
destination, the working group or committee or financial advisor will just
determine the administrativia.
* Tim: What are the fees for using the financial advisor?
** Unknown
* Torrie: People can’t get along. It pisses me off. I’d like to call a
community working group, bylaw sanctioned. The CWG’s group is to make the
community work together and fix problems. There’s way too much arguing going
on. In KDE, their CWG has 5 people who receive complaints and deal with issues
and they are trained experts on conflict resolution. No power to change policy
or otherwise. They just resolve disputes. Champions are not well equipped to
handle these situations.
** Becca: It sounds like peer moderators.
** Mike: It would be good to have
** Torrie: I have no problem with champions and CWG coexisting or even
Champions being on the CWG. CWG’s only purpose is for community health.
** Matt: You’re saying we need a group of people with the power to say no. And
the power to say “You and you, stop bitching. Now.”
** Torrie: They would come up with a solution, propose to the board, the board
decides within X days, or the board is dissolved and reelected.
** Mike: Community working group doesn’t suspend people but makes a
recommendation to the board.
** Torrie: Correct
** Becca: Are the board members allowed to be part of the community working
group?
** Torrie: No!
* Tim: Creating a bureaucracy to address immaturity is unlikely to be
successful. You can’t legislate maturity. You can point out when people are
unexcellent. Coach one another when others are less than excellent. More
bureaucracy is growing than projects and hacking.
** Omar: This seems like “holy carp last ditch effort let’s fix what’s on fire”
* AJ9: We should possibly have a guest speaker give a presentation on conflict
resolution. Knows someone who could possibly give said presentation. Could
possibly resolve issues of needing an outside committee to solve issues. Self
regulate yourselves.
* Torrie: I feel this is a necessary evil, but we need rules so we can get
along and figure this stuff out. General consensus is resilience, not
collaboration.
* Matt: Proposal for next week: As an organization, we need to stop drinking
before or during meetings. It sound horrible, but damn that flies in the face
of logic, drinking t3h b33rz then choosing how we spend $15K.
* Omar: I wanted to give everyone the opportunity to speak, sorry things took
very long.
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