Board of Directors Meeting 20121014

This meeting will be held in MIBS SRC3 format.

Time, location

18:00, Dallas Makerspace

Prior minutes

Board_of_Directors_Meeting_20120902#Minutes

Officer/Committee reports

• Financial Committee - John Haskins will report on the status of our finances.
• Public Relations Committee - Nicole Greeley will report on the status of the PR Committee's programs.
• Security Committee - Andrew LeCody will report on the status of the security system and network infrastructure.
• Amateur Radio Committee - Pat Hykkonen
• AV Committee - Chris Kirby
• Bio Committee - David Rostcheck
• Classroom Committee - John Fields
• Craft Room Committee - Nicole Greeley
• Electronics Robotics Committee - John Haskins
• Operations and Facilities Committee - Andrew LeCody
• Warehouse Committee - Paul Wilson
• Photography Lab (Darkroom Committee) - Nicole Greeley
• Open Source Ecology Committee - Craig MacPherson

Consent Agenda

Newly proposed agenda items appear in the consent agenda. Any member present at the meeting may pull an item out of the consent agenda for discussion, at which point it goes under "New Business". If nobody objects to the solutions presented by the consent agenda, everything in the consent agenda passes by consensus. Items that have more than one proposed solution should be moved to the "New Business" section.

Any member may edit this wiki page and place an item on the consent agenda. However, discussion of agenda items should be done via the Talk Page or the mailing list. The cut-off time for addition to or revision of the the agenda's items is 48 hours prior to the meeting.

WHMCS (Paul Brown)

Issue: DMS is missing one of the major components to a modern accounting system, invoicing. We need a system that tracking members who pay with anything but paypal, sends payment notices for people using cash/check, and reminds us/them when people are overdue.

Solution: After researching the available solutions, we have tested and implemented WHMCS. Paul Brown purchased the first month, but I propose we spend $15.95/month on this software

Paypal Payments Without Credit Card (Paul Brown)

Issue: With our current paypal account, members are required to have an account with paypal to start recurring payments.

Solution: I propose we sign up for Enhanced Recurring Payments for $20 each month and allocate $20 for it each month. This will remove the requirement for members to sign up for a paypal account to start a recurring payment with DMS.

Note: I called paypal about this and they said they would not waive the fee for us, but they confirmed it is only $20 a month with no cancellation fee.

Hot Work Permit Allocation (Paul Brown)

Issue: The DMS does not have a permit to do "hot work". "Any person performing hot work without an approved permit from the Dallas Fire-Rescue Department or any person who violates a fire code requirement for hot work is subject to a fine up to $2000.00."

Solution: Allocate $125 toward the purchase of a hot work permit.

PR Budget (Nick Sainz)

Issue: The PR Committee is requesting a budget of $50/mo to be used for advertising, purchasing supplies for "New Member Packets", signage and other resources for promoting the Dallas Makerspace.

Solution: Authorize a monthly budget of $50 for the PR Committee.

Membership Rates (Nick Sainz)

Issue: The issue is that some members are not paying full rate due to a legacy rate $30/mo. This does't seem fair to the members that are paying the current $50 full rate, at a minimum it should be more than the starving rate of $35/mo. There is no visibility as to who is paying what rate on the members page.

Solution: Membership rates paid by members should be publicly posted on the members page. Legacy members should be included in the normal rates, unless they qualify for a starving hacker or student rate. Solution: Members on less than a standard rate should not be allowed to vote.

Policy for Allocation of Funds (Nick Sainz)

Issue: It has come to our attention that a large number of fund allocations have gone unused for a long period of time. It is not our intention to force people to spend money however, we cannot afford to have money tied up indefinitely.

Solution 1: Put time limits on allocated funds, including earmarked donated funds.

Solution 2: Allow the earmarked funds to be transferred to another group or project within DMS.

Board Member Benefits (Nick Sainz)

Issue: We feel that due to the extraordinary time and effort put forth buy our board members without compensation that we should show our appreciation to them.

Solution: Grant our board members a discount on their monthly dues.

DMS Policy Regarding Children (Ed Kim)

Issue: As another symptom of our growth we have discovered that some members bring their children to DMS and leave them unattended for long periods of time. This creates a hazard for both the children and the space due the nature of the industrial setting of DMS. Legal liability aside, according to the member rules "Minors 15 and under must be accompanied by Parent or legal guardian at all times." there have been numerous instances where members have violated this provision in the rules on several occasions to the point where it has become a chronic problem.

Solution: Revise the rules to state that there needs to be a 1 to 1 ratio of supervision for minors to legal guardians. Add penalties after receiving written warnings for violating member rules. We would recommend that the board add a penalty of suspension to the member rules in lieu of expulsion.

Domain Name Renewal (Andrew LeCody)

Issue: The dallasmakerspace.org and dallasmakerspace.com domain names will expire in the next few months. Obviously, these are vital to the operation of the website and mailing list.

Solution: Authorize funds to renew both domains for 5 years. Cost with our current registrar (Joker.com) would be: $134.50 (averaging $13.45/year). Pricing from other registrars is roughly $10/year but would potentially see the loss of various value-added services compared to our current registrar.

Old business

These are the issues that remained unresolved from the last meeting. In a perfect meeting, there is no old business.

New business

These are the issues from the consent agenda that were pulled out for discussion. In a perfect meeting, there is no new business.

Mandatory Yearly Audit and Monthly Member Audits (Mike Eber)

Issue: DMS has grown substantially within the last year. Due to the rapid growth it has been discovered that some members haven't paid but are still enjoying membership privileges. Also it is customary for non-profits to do an annual audit to make sure everything is in order.

Solution: We should do a Membership Audit immediately, and add mandatory monthly Membership audit to the bylaws. At present Membership is our only source of income. We also need add a mandatory yearly general Audit to the bylaws.

Alt Solution: Do not include any such provision, as there is no way to enforce it. Also, this issue is moot once all membership is tracked via WHMCS.

Draft Minutes

The draft minutes are here.