Time and Location:

7pm ET Virtual Meeting https://meet.google.com/tyz-nvui-mbj

Call to Order:

Meeting called to order by Jonathan White at 7:12pm.

Consent Agenda

Any Board Member may make a motion in the Consent Agenda.  The purpose of the Consent Agenda is to propose motions that have been discussed by Board Members in advance and/or are expected to pass without objection.  If the item does not fit this description, it should be proposed in New Business. Discussion of Consent Agenda items should be done via Slack prior to the meeting.  Any Board Member present at the meeting may request that an item be moved from the Consent Agenda to New Business.  The motions in the Consent Agenda (after any items are moved to New Business) may be passed as a group if there are no objections.  Any motion that requests spending $250 or more must include a section on "Relevance to our tax exempt purpose".

CA1: Appoint Co-Stewards of Cosplay (Jessee Maloney)

Issue:  Maggie Gilligan (current steward) and Jason Gilligan (member/volunteer) work hand in hand on the cosplay room.  The room is undergoing change (moving from the basement to the first floor in Leesburg) and would benefit from having co-stewards.

Solution:  Have Maggie Gilligan and Jason Gilligan serve as co-stewards of Cosplay.

Relevance to Tax Exempt Status:  None

Motion:  Move to appoint Maggie Gilligan and Jason Gilligan as co-stewards of Cosplay.

Vote:  Motion carries by voice vote

Approval of Prior Minutes

2023-12-20 Meeting of the Board of Directors

Motion:  Move to approve meeting minutes

Vote:  Meeting minutes approved

Officer Reports

Chairperson:

Verbal update - docs will be shared (more during committee report)

Secretary:

Verbal report - planning for upcoming votes for Directors positions at next Annual Meeting of the Membership
There will be 3 open positions (currently held by Mike Dewan, Beverly Murdock, Jennifer Chu).

Treasurer:

President:

No report (not present)

Committee Reports:

Membership Committee (Mark Milsap)

Marketing Committee (Jason Gilligan)

• Magfest a big success (see newsletter).  Larger, non-local convention but attended by local convention hosts.  Opportunity to connect with many other makerspaces.    
• Preparing for annual membership survey (targeting June/July response timeframe).  Gathering topics on which to collect information.
• Need someone to run Leesburg Garden Festival

Website Committee (Maggie Toth) 

• Working on list of red-tool approved people (general list available but not in individual profiles due to WA limitation)

Leesburg Facility Committee (Jessee Maloney)

Verbal report

• Had a cmte meeting earlier in the month to review ongoing discussions of room allocation
• Classroom goes to basement along with member storage
• 3d printing to previous classroom
• Cosplay to 3d printing room
• Electronics and print making swapping 
• Moves will be coordinated by individual stewards
• Door leaking still - landlord aware and working on it
• Door address change will be required by Town (numbers only on "main door" but either can be used)
• Discussion on rotary tool material that's being revamped to align to machine as it differs greatly from ULS
• Additional trainers for advanced or basic laser training have been signed off on

Purcellville Facility Committee (Dave Painter) 

• Monthly work day this weekend
• Spent the day reviewing machines
• Bringing fire extinguishers up to code (one needs refilling)
• Warmer weather will allow some other work to take place
• New router table previously approved - may get a better deal as a package rather than just table (researching)
• ULS status request - to be sold next month per Board plan
• 3D printer (PVL) that went to magfest - request for status
• Lulzbot Status - by EOW
• Discussion on light usage in PVL
• Jim provided a steward report below on various equipment

• Question on heat for ceramic studios (too cold currently).  Answer:  Mini-splits donated (Ian) and work to begin as soon as this weekend to hang units.  Then will require HVAC teams.
• Question on bay door for garage (not currently functional).  Would be helpful for cooling room.  Custom sized door, long lead time.  Noted that mini-split will provide cooling however.

Scheduling Committee (Jennifer Chu)

Newsletter Committee (Melissa Kowalski)

IT Committee (Scott Silvers)

Nothing urgent to report

STEM Committee (Diane Painter)

Committee no longer needed since Google grant satisfied - committee will be removed from future agendas

Standing Rules Committee (Jonathan White)

Legal review complete, clarification meeting held on non-Director officers, then updates refined to reflect meeting.  Some highlights:  Proxies for directors will no longer be permitted.  Generally removed restated statutes.  Doc will be posted in next 72 hour in a Slack channel.  Actual committee will be kept small to be manageable.  Any output of committee generally comes to Board for review/approval.

Unfinished Business

OB1: Replace Drum Sander in Leesburg (Jessee Maloney)

Issue:  The drum sander in Leesburg is not working.  It is also a co-located piece of equipment.  Where possible, we have been replacing co-located equipment with Makersmiths owned and maintained equipment.

Solution:  Purchase a new drum sander (FILL IN DETAILS HERE AS TO PURCHASE PRICE AND SPECIFICATIONS)

Relevance to Tax Exempt Status:  None

Motion:  Move to allocate an amount not to exceed $XXX from the equipment reserve fund for purchase of a new (insert equipment name here) drum sander, to be coordinated between the facility manager and the woodshop steward.   Remove from agenda as interim solution continues to suffice.

Vote: XXX

New Business

NB1: Funds for Cosplay Room (Jessee Maloney)

Issue:  The Leesburg cosplay room is moving from the basement to the room previously used for 3D printing as part of an approved change made earlier this month by the Leesburg Committee. When they received funds in early 2020, a large chunk had to be used to make the area usable, which only left a small amount of funds for tools and nothing for furniture. They are now moving to a room with tools that have nowhere to go, as well as a shortage of much needed tools.

Solution:  Purchase new work benches, shelves and tools to make the entire room completely workable as well as comfortable, bright and ready to teach in. This will also make it look very appealing during tours and other open house events since it will be open to reception and the front door.

Relevance to Tax Exempt Status:  None

Motion:  Move to allocate up to $1724.66 to cover new furniture and tools as part of the Cosplay Room move, to be administered by the Cosplay steward(s).

Motion seconded

Vote: Motion carries by voice vote

NB2: Funds for Electrical Work in Leesburg (Jessee Maloney)

Issue:   The Leesburg location needs electrical work to address issues like extension cords hanging from the ceiling, plugs hanging from the wall and the UV resin printer needing a dedicated plug in a new location. 

Solution:  We had an electrician come in and quote us $1500 to correctly install and fix everything. We would need to purchase the non-combustible self-retracting cord reel on our own and those run between $500 and $800.

• 20A dedicated plug on back wall for uv printer
• Correctly installed 20A plug in ceiling instead of hanging from the wall and an extension cord pulled through the ceiling
• Install an explosion proof self winding 20A reel over the tall table in the main room. We provide the reel (most places have them on backorder currently)
• tap into a non dedicated 20A plug to create a new one in the center of the back wall, so we can move the tv there for ease of teaching, meetings, etc and people can see the tv better (we get a lot of complaints about it being too far from the table) and plug in the routers without extension cords.

Relevance to Tax Exempt Status:  None

Motion:  Move to allocate up to $2300 to the Leesburg Steward from the building reserve fund to cover electrical repairs to make the building safer, easier to use and protect our expensive equipment.

Motion seconded

Vote:  Motion carries by voice vote

NB3: Grant Asset Usage (Jennifer Chu)

Issue:  Laptops purchased through the 100Women Strong grant and the Google Grant were used for other Makersmiths activities and were not available for Makersmiths STEM programs and classes, which are initiatives stated in the original grant proposals.

Solution:  Make the laptops available for general Makersmiths use when they are not being used for STEM activities.

Relevance to Tax Exempt Status:  None

Motions:

• NB3A:  Move to codify in the standing rules a process as follows:
  When grants are awarded, Makersmiths must meet the grant objectives/goals and use the assets as the grant initiatives intend them to be used until one of three things occur:
  1) The stakeholders (the grant writer and persons implementing grant initiatives) report to the Makersmiths BoD that the grant goals/objectives were met and the assets are no longer needed to support grant initiatives that are still ongoing.
  2) The Makersmiths BoD meets with the grant writers and stakeholders and mutually agree that the originally stated objectives/goals and grant requirements were met and the grant initiatives shall end.
  3) The assets are no longer viable (i.e. in working order).
• NB3B:  Move to create a Laptop Reservation Calendar to allow Members to reserve a laptop ahead of time and to keep track of where the laptops are.  Priority for reserving a laptop will go to grant-related initiatives unless the laptop is no longer needed for the grant per Motion NB1A.
  

Motion seconded

Motion withdrawn.  IT committee will set up equipment on calendar with KidWind on reserve through March 2024.

Vote: xxx

The following motions all came in after the 7 day advance deadline and will require individual waivers before they can be acted upon.

NB4: Additional Tool Steward for Laser (Jessee Maloney)

Issue:  The current laser stewards are overwhelmed due to going from one laser to three, and one of the stewards is having health issues.

Solution:  We would like to add John Carter on as a third steward. He is very knowledgeable about all of the machines and cares about them.

Relevance to Tax Exempt Status:  None

Motion:

• NB4A:  Move to waive 7 day advance notice
  Motion seconded
  Vote: Motion carries by voice vote
  
• NB4B:   Move to add John Carter on as a third co-steward
  Motion seconded
  Vote: Motion carries by voice vote

NB5: Blast Cabinet Steward (Jennifer Chu)

Issue:  We don't currently have a steward for the Purcellville blast cabinet, spray booth, and powder coating area.  Evin Grano has expressed an interest in being the shop steward.

Solution: Appoint Evin Grano as the steward for the Purcellville blast cabinet, spray booth, and powder coating area.

Relevance to Tax Exempt Status:  None

Motion:  

• NB5A:  Move to waive 7 day advance notice
  Motion seconded
  Vote: Motion carries by voice vote
  
• NB5B:   Appoint Evin Grano as the steward for the Purcellville blast cabinet, spray booth, and powder coating area.
  Motion seconded
  Vote: Motion carries by voice vote
  

Open Discussion

• Waiver Forever - Secretary and membership committee will work on message out to any members missing waivers on file
• Control Boxes - project officially retired without execution, no budget expended
• Future discussion or actions:
  • Facility Committees
  • Integration of Business Systems
  • Wild Apricot licensing
  • Google Review response

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned by Jonathan White at 9:15pm