Meeting Notes 2015 10 27

Introductions

• Jarrod - Noisebridge is a 501(c)(3) organisation dedicated to providing infrastructure to the public to work on technical and creative things. We're 100% funded by donations, our rule is to be excellent to each other, we are run through doocracy, (which means being empowered to fix problems and make changes you'd like)

• Robert - long time friend of Alex. Loves Noisebridge, works in cryptocurrencies. Tries to contribute to the wellness of the space every time they're here!
• Danukeru - I wait for things to dry.
• Ralloe - Known alex long time since Weise.
• Mark - Likes to hack on games and stuff. Generally programming and digital art and things like that. Everything. Also working with Mari on Gaming archivists project.
• Jarvis - Like to do android apps, build on them, make games, my passion is 3D art and animation and I do that more than programming and I'm learning Unity and Ableton here.
• Matt - Taking 2 classes with Alex and circuit hacking class. I'd like to become a philanthropist and I started contributing $40 and I want to know how to do my documents to have a key fob and not be a freeloader.
• Attila - Engineer interested in software at Nokia, quit to come to US hungry to marry longtime girlfriend and curious about this place Noisebridge. Budapest hackerspace was cool. Here to help on the weekend, plan to come here more. Interested in FreeBSD.
• Alex - Teach music before meeting and games after.
• Mari - Run video game archivists where we conserve, repair and talk about how epic games were back in the day.
• Jesse - I do security stuff and I've been to the Budapest hacker space too last summer.
• Zephyr - Working on emacs major mode for Z3.
• Jarrod - Wood working at the space, random things that need to be done. I like to draw and learn things that I don't know.
• Patrick - Software engineer in the city and I try to do more hardware and crypto based things because those are important. We have too many apps to deliver burritos and not enough privacy and awesome hacks. I also do numbery things for noisebridge.
• Mari - has a group called the gaming archivists! we play all the games, and hack and conserve them too.
• Jesse - does a lot of security stuff. been to the budapest space too!
• Zephyr - working on emacs major mode for z3
• Jarrod - mostly does woodworking at the space, and works on random things that need to be done! likes to draw, and comes to noisebridge typically to learn new things!

Short announcements and events

• Alex - upcoming hack the future! volunteer opportunity to teach kids on November 14th. hackthefuture.org lxpk contact for folks who want a ride there!
• Alex - restarting the group formerly known as "geeks and depression", a support group for folks to talk about being happier / generally being helpful and excellent to each other
• Jarrod - Monday November 9th @ 1300 - lunch with hackers hosted by the Bejing Makerspace. tl;dr a group from Bejing Makerspace and Chinese officials are coming to SF and part of their trip is to come to Noisebridge and learn about the culture and how it all works. Theyr'e looking fro volunteers to come to lunch and chat about hackerspaces! Check the wiki!
• Upcoming Internet ARchive-hosted Aaron Schwaarz memorial hackathon all the awesome things with workshops about secure drop and onion privacy tools, Allison from library freedom project will be there, someone from Restore the Fourth, workshops galore upstairs, downstairs is hackathon. Patrick will be there hacking on Tor related tools.
• The art wall that has been primered is intended to become dedicated to murals on women in the history of computing such as Ada Lovelace, Grace Hopper, Jean Bartik, Klara Von Neuman, etc. by the artist who did Tesla mural. If you have ideas or suggestions for who would be a really awesome person in history to immortalize on our wall.
• Patrick: Crypto group session to go through Mont?? crypto challenges, 48 challenges that bring you through real-world crypto problems. It is much less dry than long texts like Practical Cryptography. Patrick and Denugru want to do it about biweekly to collaborate on the sets. Join us to hack the planet! Contact Patrick!

Membership Binder

• Mari:

 Being a member means taking extra responsibility for the space. You can come in and hack the space for free 24/7.
 You can also become a philanthropist which is a separate thing to get 247.
 Being a member gives you the right to come into the space and have consensus blocking rights to protect the space. The main thing is to donate your time and monetary support.  
 *Patrick: The application process starts with the binder under the display case. Pick it out and fill out a membership application form. You make a statement about what you want to do at Noisebridge. You ask for two members in good standing to sponsor you in becoming a member. For four weeks, your application is read aloud to people and people hearing it can acknowledge that it sounds like what you are all about. After 4 weeks, if you have the 2 requisite sponsors your application becomes a consensus item. Basically, members ask you lots of questions such as "Are you a cop" and "Are you allowed to say if you are a cop". A conclave without you present decides and when you come back it is consensed by Consenso to bless you as a member.

Your application can sit in the binder up to 12 weeks before it is taken out and you can reapply later.

   membership, and the application process.

Being a member of Noisebridge is not like being a member of a gym or your local chess club. Anyone can come to Noisebridge to hack and learn: you don't need to be a member for that. At Noisebridge, membership is something different: it means taking responsibility and committing to help to maintain, improve, and govern Noisebridge. As a member of Noisebridge, you don't just come here to hack and learn, you actively work to improve what you see around you, help to deal with problems, and make this community and space better than it is today.

• Read off any names from the binder for the past month. Mark down a check or other indicator on every open application to keep track of how many weeks they've been read out.

New applicants this week

Mari: Since I found Noisebridge, I keep the place better than my own home. I like to organize and keep it spiffy. I also want to run events and slap arts on the wall! Week 3 complete, has 2 signatures

• Erica: I need a place to escape the monotony of working from home and have found hackerspaces are it! Week 1 complete, needs 2 signatures

• Anyone eligible to join this week should
  • introduce themselves,
  • answer any questions members may have for them, then
  • leave the area in search of gifts (traditionally beer and a lime, or cookies) for the rest of the group.
• The rest of the meeting should reach consensus on whether they may join.
• Remember to applaud new members when they return.

Philanthropists

• Alex - Philanthropists are a great way to contribute to Noisebridge, by donating monthly and gaining access to the space. You need only 1 sponsor

Financial Report

• Funds in bank:

$32471 after $4350 rent payment tonight.

• Noisetor (See the bulletpoints at the bottom of http://noisetor.net/finances/#summary):

$10-11,000

• After paying rent for upcoming month Noisebridge has $21,000 which is over our 3 month reserve and under our 6 month "would be nice".
• Patrick will be the one who suggests matching donations to your employer.
• Any other details by those participating in handling our financials
• donate.noisebridge.net could use a Rails app upgrade to handle people donating to specific apps.

Consensus and Discussion

• The consensus process at Noisebridge is how we run things. Noisebridge as an organization values the opinions of members and community. We work together to find solutions to problems that will work for as many of the people in the community as possible. As opposed to majority rule voting which leaves out people in the community, we seek all opinions and are stronger for it by not cutting lose people with diverse viewpoints.

It is one of the principles of Noisebridge that is fundamental. The way it works is, ideally, someone comes up with an idea that requires more than being doocratic about it that would affect the entire community in some way. They start by discussing it with the members of the community to build a proposal that will be excellent and solve the problem of the community. The proposal is then brought to the meeting and discussed. The propsal is explained, questions answered, and the proposal is adjusted. Once the proposal language is worked out, it is ready to be discussed at the following meeting for approval or further revision. Once a proposal is settled at a meeting, it can be consensed on the next so that everyone has time to understand it before the final consensus is made on it. It can be revised or dropped depending on how the process goes. Members have final say in the consensus process and many times non-members' viewpoints have influence over the discussion, but it requires members to make a decision and members have the right to block a decision. This happens rarely when a member has objections that cannot be addressed by modifications to the proposal yet. Ideally, when someone gets to the point that they are blocking the proposal, it usually means that the discussions that would form a consensus-worthy proposal haven't been concluded yet. Most good consensus decisions are clearly the will of the space and de-facto in effect before the consensus ratifies them.

• invite a knowledgeable volunteer to give a brief primer on consensus process
• It is important that everyone in attendance understands at least:
  • Blocking with verbalized principled objections.
  • Why we use consensus over other approaches to decision making.
  • How consensus isn't a legislative process
  • Why consensus isn't applicable to some things like conflict resolution, resolution of time sinks, and the like.
• Conflict resolution is usually handled in mediation private talks between individuals and mediators

Proposals from last week

(Add any items which are consensed upon or someone has raised a principle objection for to the Consensus Items History page.)

Proposals for next week

(Add any new items for consensus to the Current Consensus Items page.)

• None this week.

Discussion Items

If any important discussion happens, it should be happening after forward progress is made during consensus.

• Alex: signage and kiosk design group. Would anyone like to help build signage/kiosks? Robert is interested.
• Mari: Small c consensus question: Should the glass pane on the dirty shop. Trent got a quote and it was $280 to fix the glass which is cracked.
• Pitching in $10 for the window? Someone can list their name to collect money in person to have people physically hand the cash or have people post donate.noisebridge.net donations with comments saying "window". Paperclip the word "window" to your cash donations in the box.
• Raise the money, buy the window, and ask to be reimbursed by the Treasurer.
• Jarrod: There are a couple options that came up on Slack.
• Ralloe: Was it broken from outside? From outside. Can we make
• Alex: I can source chicken wire for protecting the windows.

End of Meeting

• Reprise of the Hackernationale. [This is anarchy - we do what the wiki says!]
• PGP Key Signing could happen now (if it doesn't happen before any given Meeting). Ask others around the space or check the list to see who wants in on the action.
• Return the membership binder to its rightful location.
• Clean and tidy the meeting notes including removing all these really verbose instructions, then save them to the wiki.
• Send a summary of the meeting notes to the discussion list.
• Enjoy the company of your fellow hacker, robot, or robothacker.
• Discuss any items for which there was not time during the meeting.