Meeting Notes 2015 06 16

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These are the notes from the The 362nd Meeting of Noisebridge. Note-takers: Asheesh Laroia; Moderators: Mitch Altman.

  • One or two bullet points of high-level meeting summary.

Introductions[edit]

  • Mitch - Founder of Noisebridge. Wears hardhats
  • Rubin - Rubin
  • Kyle - Maintains sewing area. Does crafting
  • Scotty - Telemetry
  • Thomas - Does firmware stuff. Now does bitcoin.
  • Frank - Software defined radio, wireless broadband
  • Ben - Hack of all trades
  • John - Does the bookscanner. Tomorrow there is an archivists meeting where we'll build a second one!
  • Miles - From Brazil. Getting into Tech
  • Steve - Physics research/C++ dev/rotating apples
  • J - Bum. Does circuit hacking monday. Gracias adios.
  • Joshua - Plays string instruments
  • Chris - Game developer. Been coming for a few months.
  • Alex - Teaches game development
  • Dan - Been coming for a couple of years.
  • Jade - Neurohacker
  • Patrick - Software "engineer". Blue hair.
  • Torrie - Has an apple
  • Asheesh - Founding member. Came back after 5 years lost in a time vortex
  • Henner - Forgot house key, so I'm building an RFID system to replace it
  • Miloh - Also known as Mr. Noisebridge 2012.

J "explains" "Noisebridge"

Short announcements and events[edit]

  • Cool new projects? Something you'd like people to know? Say now, but keep it short! One or two sentences please!
  • Any happenings at the space of which members should be made aware.
  • Don't hog everyone's time since we all just want to hack!
  • Torrie announces the next Five Minutes of Fame
  • Patrick goes on about Freecon happening October 24th - A free culture unconference
  • Rubin introduces a new fact: Noisebridge "needs" "money". July is the Month of Fundraising. Danny is interviewing @ioerror. Merlin Mann will be here too. Another 5mof. Dorkbot! Telethon! Events! Loads of ways to give money, rubin wants help with all of this, and you should help him and talk to him! There'll be an upcoming media blitz about this to get the word out. Part of the fundraising deal is that we have a bunch of "high profile" people pool $10k that they'd like to use to match whatevre we can fundraise in that month. If we can raise that, the "secret masters of the internet" (title pending) will double our money. This month we need to get folks in the door and really preach the word of Noisebridge to the new noise faithful. Mitch says he'll twist Corey Doctorow's arm into giving a talk.
  • Chris - While I'm not a "M"ember I'd be more than willing to organise a video game party.
  • Asheesh - I work on Sandstorm, and we have a meetup in 2 days. You should google "Sandstorm SF meetup". It's sadly on Thursday (5mof) but it's 6-9 and you could possibly do both!
  • Mitch - 10 days from now, there'll be an all-day event with the American Library Association conference (100k people coming to SF). These are the awesome folks who fight for your rights!
    • Teaching them how to do arduinos!
    • Panels about building hackerspaces in libraries!
    • Mitch will be talking to librarians!
    • Patrick will be at the Hilton doing the same (hot shit)
    • Two day event (unofficial) @ Noisebridge for those who want to stay to discuss digital rights as they apply to libraries
  • Chaos Communications Camp is happening Aug 13-17 outside Berlin and there's a large NB village forming. You should come and be a part of this most amazing thing that only happens once in 4 years
    • rubin - we need a name. Top candidates: "Pen Island" "Emperor Norton's lonely hearts ..." "Golden NAND gate", "Fog in the cloud",
    • resounding roar: "FOG IN THE CLOUD"
    • rubin - this is a bunch of folks, not just noisebridge so needs to be a bit more generic
  • J - This friday we'll have a mini-keg (Alaskan Amber) "NO BULLSHIT" with *wristbands* to hang out, hack talk, pizza. Come on out. 8pm @ the space Friday!!!!
  • Kyle - Donated new sewing machine with a cool walking foot. Does leather and other neat materiarls. had a new fundraising idea. I sell wallets for $27, and I'd like to sell them for $20 and I'll put $7 in the donation bin. If folks would like noisebridge branded ones that could happen too.
  • Josh - Used to do an electronic music class, and I'm interested in doing that again. Come chat after the meeting to sort out dates
  • Torrie - OpenSource bridge happening in Portland next week

Membership Binder [edit]

  • Asheesh explains membership
  • Two applications
    • Meredith Baker - week 4 but needs 2 sponsors
    • Trent Robins - Week 3, has two sponsors (Torrie and Patrick)

Financial Report[edit]

  • Funds in bank:
    • Checking $27,270.73
    • Savings $2,823.48
    • Noisetor ~$9,000
    • Total 21,1000
  • Mitch - we have over 3 months worth of operating expenses, so we're ok at the moment. We also want to have monthly income at least covering our expenses.
  • Patrick - Approximately ~$2500+ of recurring income, our income is lumpy with large one-time donations.

Consensus and Discussion[edit]

  • Torrie - Consensus is the NB decision making process. It's not the best all the time, but it's the one we live with. There's two types, the formal "C"onsensus, and the "c"onsensus where one talks to people about possible changes, get opinions and feedback, and work to resolve any issues anyone might have. Consensus has "blocking" which is a principled objection to the proposal as it stands. You must always give an acceptable compromise or alteration to the item should you have a "blocking" objection.
  • Mitch - Very important to provide a change to the proposal such that you can live with the proposal, and to make it better. The **vast** majority of decisions are made by "Doocracy" instead of consensus. We encourage and empower you to effect the change that you wish to see. You should be excellent about your doocratic change.

Proposals from last week [edit]

Philanthropists[edit]

    • Rubin - I'm known as Rubin. The proposal is called "The Philanthropists". We started with good intentions about access control in the space in the early days, where members would have keys etc, but this was quickly changed to "give keys to excellent people" which resulted in evreyone got kesy. During the reboot there was an understanding that this policy of disregarding access control completely was causing major issues. This changed, there's now "hours" with a certain number of folks having access to the top door. The space has been ** much improved ** since then. There's a problem from this, which is that we're less accessible than we were. The payoff is worthwhile but we can change this. There was a discussion a while ago to give more people access to the machine governing access, and to broaden access as a whole. I as an asshole, came in and pointed out that we don't have enough money, and that we can help solve this with more members. We can't support the space if we can't pay the bills. This came up recently as "what incentives are there to donate other than feels?" My suggestion is this proposal: that we introduce this new simple status. Essentially you're an excellent person, you come to a meeting with a "M"ember in good standing, and they sponsor you for status. Nobody objects and you're given the status, as long as you maintain a monthly donation to Noisebridge at the same rate as the treasurer. The member can additionally sponsor you financially to pay your recurring donation. You read and sign a pledge which states your responsibilities, how you should close the space, who you should call for help if there's problems, how you can lose the access, before you are granted access. With being a member it's near impossible to lose your access, and this is why membership is hard to get. With philanthropist all it takes is one member to bring it up at a meeting to revoke this access. We implore members to have mediation, this scenario shouldn't happen unless

there's serious need.

    • Rubin - they can lose access by cancelling their donation, by violating the pledge, being unexcellent, there's any number of ways you can have it revoked. The idea is to solve a few issues with this. a) formalize the process of granting access to the space, b) to make it such that regardless of financial status you can have access. The reoccurring donation serves as a reminder to folks of their access. c) We get recurring donations which is really really helpful to our current financial status. d) we solidify what the responsibilies are of folks with 24/7 hour access means, and what it means for them.
    • Rubin - Since the last meeting, we've realised that we need to define what it means for a "M"ember to have access, what it means to give out daytime access, and what it means to give out event-specific access. I've gone through and copied the responsibilities for the pledge and put them into each of these categories, along with how you get them. With a Member it's with membership, with daytime access it's when a member think's you're excellent and gives it to you, and for special requests I think it should go through the secretary or a Tuesday meeting, and it should be for specific dates, as opposed to "every Tuesday for the next 2 years". It's up to the secretary to decide if that's legit, or if they should instead become a Philanthropist / member. Additionally the folks that have the control over access are the Secretaty, the board and Henner. Also the discretion of the secretary and the board as to who has access.
    • Rubin - To get this access you need to print, read fully and sign the pledge which explains all that you need to know. You sign it and give it to the secretary, and then you get the access. One more possible step is that the sponsoring member walks throug each of the responsibilies, (closing up, greeting, tours etc...)
    • Rubin - we have a bunch of users with fulltime access (7am-midnight) the idea is that they seem excellent people, and they'll be more or less grandfathered into the Philanthropist role. They're asked to read over and sign the pledge and grandfathered into the system with a $0/month donation. They're implored to donate, but they're not absolutely required .
    • Rubin - It'd be great to get all the members to read and sign the pledge too to get everyone on the same page.
    • Asheesh - A question: I claim it's important that members should be able to revoke without identifying themselves.
    • Rubin - Functionaly it only takes one member to do this. This doesn't stop any member or non-member seeking proxy through a member to ask that someone's access be revoked. If your access does get revoked, if you can fix that reason within 30 days (mediation, restarting donation) you can have your access readded without any issue. If you don't do this within 30 days then it's back to square one.
    • Asheesh - I'd like to there to be a statement along the lines of "talk to the secretary as your proxy"
    • Rubin - The secretary can help find a proxy for you, but you have to get a member to agree with your viewpoint.
    • Alex - It doesn't read like a pledge
    • Rubin - I'll edit it, make it printer friendly, etc, make it "pledge-like"
    • Alex - If we want to make suggestions should we make small edits?
    • Rubin - We should chat about it now so we can consense on it
    • Dan - I'm pretty impressed with it, but a little concerned about rushing it through consensus. We've traditionally been slower. rushing it through tonight gives some questions about rushing it through. I think it's great, I have my concerns, but I'd encourage folks to look at it, and avoid bikeshedding up front.
    • Steve - This is balanced and great. The separation of powers is good. I don't see it being easily fucked with. I'd not try to rush it to make sure it's legit.
    • Rubin - The proposal is to codify all of the access control rules, to add the role Philanthropist.
    • Interval where the wording of consensus is questioned. Things must be frozen for a week to be eligible to be consensed.
    • Mitch - I'm not sensing that there's any objections to the ideas of this, there's some changes within the last ~day, but let's consense upon this next week.
    • Rubin - I won't change it for the week.
    • Mitch - having this all down, we can pass it next week unless there's major changs.
    • Rubin - Everyone will have a week to look at this, it'll be done tonight. It'll me mailed out. Henner's thing about giving tours etc will be added.
    • Steve - Hopefully this grows the night crew
    • J - The reason that we want this soon, addressing all conerns, is to have some formalized entrypoint when we do our fundraising month. We like to get this implemented so we can make the space more open to folks and as safe as possible.
    • Rubin - Any other comments? I implore you to come talk to me to discuss any concerns that you have, and not to be that asshole that freshly blocks next week.
    • Mitch - We should discuss things. If folks have objections then folks should bring them up.
    • Miloh - I feel like the hesitence, make a concrete issue if you want to wait. don't just hold it back
    • Rubin - Don't be constructive with whatever you might have issues with, so we can work towards a resolution.
    • Alex - Being a philanthropist is a step towards being a member, in c-base if you show up @ CCC they'll take money from you as a start towards your membership.
    • Rubin - Since "member" has a specific legal meeting in the eyes of the state, we need to make sure that you're excellent

Proposals for next week [edit]

Philanthropists[edit]

  • Slight modifications from last week's proposal. It'll rest for a week starting tonight such that it can be passed without issue next week.

Discussion Items[edit]

Not tonight.

End of Meeting[edit]

  • 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.