20160821 BOD Notes

Attendees: Board: Joshua, Jay, Tanju

General members: Sam, Mike Y, Luke, (Bret and Sigyn showed up for 2nd half of meeting)

Notes

Meeting agenda driven by Trello board as dated for 20160821

• RFID Cards: Reviewed the draft policy. Josh Mckorkle will be the lead BOD member responsible for managing the system. Agreed that Steve Lundeen can be back up and work with Joshua to manage the system and process. Agreed to publish the policy after adding fee for users that wish to supply their own RFID devices.

• Member discounts for long term subscriptions. We need to discuss with Chris/Treasurer to make sure that they can be properly accounted for to handle it appropriately. Jay and Tanju need to follow up with Chris asap to get give her opportunity to to comment on this. Need to update the gumroad page to make the refund policy bold and a sentence about agreeing to the terms.

• Membership report. Reviewed report. 4 new members and lost one. Once again brought up the need for a crowdsourcing/patreon account system. All agreed that it would be good to have one. Just need someone to take the lead on it. Previously, Chris was going to pursue this but hasn't made progress on it. Also discussed on the ongoing need for marketing strategy and sending out press releases, etc. Luke has reached out to Marietta Daily Journal to get a press release out about the upcoming Nation Of Makers Event in Washington DC. This is opportunity to learn how work with the local press. We need to get a better handle on the target number of members needed for both breaking even and beyond.

• Nation Of Makers at Whitehouse update. Tanju is going for the meeting on Wednesday. 160 people from Makerspace's across the country going. There has been a private Facebook group started for the participants but it is being opened up to more people that are interested.

• Frankenbot printer update: donated by Bret and is functional but has some nuances that need to be followed. For now contact Bret prior to using, but intent is to have a wiki page for it as well as instructions on the wall for it.

• Dragoncon Update: lots more active engagement this year. Powerwheels in the parade. Makervillage, Powerwheels, and SteamPunk Museum of Alternate History.

• Makerfaire: Luke has graciously raised his hand to lead our booth there. He will be setting up another planning call next week. Jay has requested a double space. Bret planning to bring his photo booth. Tiffany planning to take the "lunar rover" and support kid's activities.

• Lasercutter update: very close to being functional, one final test is pending. Upon successful completion of test, we will need to procure an $80 software license to run the laser.

• UnInterruptable Power Supplies (UPS): Josh brought in a bunch of salvaged UPS units currently in the back. He's asking for $5 from anyone wants to take one home. Any left over will be given to the space.

• Marketing efforts: Sam suggesting that we make a photo repository to upload photos to that can be used to support marketing efforts. Gumroad also has a repository system for files, but we currently are not using that product...we need to contact gumroad to see if we can migrate our existing products over to the ones with the file system. For the near term, will set up a dropbox...Sam will set up a dropbox account.

• Workstation computers: Josh is working on cleaning up some old computers and laptops with intention of donating them to the space to be used as needed.

• Signage: All agree that we need a sign up in the marquee above the door. Could also use signage off of Cobb Pkwy and for the parking lot. At least during open houses for starting

• Sam has been working on cleaning up the logo graphic to make it easier to laser cut, etc.

• Sam raised question about which gumroad product we are using: freemium vs premium? We need to revisit what we have and see if there is opportunity to lower our operating cost.