2025-12-17 Meeting of the Board of Directors 

  Draft - Final Agenda will be published December 10 at 7pm

Contents

Time and Location: 

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Meeting called to order by Evin Grano at x7:xxpm03  pm.

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2025-9-27 Meeting of the Board of Directors

Motion by xxx Evin to approve prior meeting minutes

Second:  Jim

Vote:     Passes by voice vote

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".

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Motion: Move to announce Election for a new Board Member at the next Member meeting.

Consent agenda passes by voice vote.

Officer Reports

Chairperson:

nothing to report

Secretary:

Despite requests, most some Committee Reports are not being submitted.  I am attempting to work with these Chairpersons.

There was 1 Consent in Lieu item.  Fast turn to order network gear for the MS-P lower building due to Miter not renewing their corporate membership.  It passed.

Treasurer:

Budget for 2026 was produced and forwarded for action at this meeting.

Financials

President:

Kiln working.  3D printing new volunteers. HVAC in MS-P helping.  

Committee Reports:

Membership Committee (Ken Fuentecilla) PDF

Marketing Committee (Vacant)

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Leesburg Facility Committee (John Carter)

Nothing to report.

Purcellville Facility Committee (Dave Painter)

BIG NEWS
After a ridiculously long and contentious Purcellville Town Council meeting the council finally voted to approve the replacement of the roof on the lower building and replacement of the leaking panels on the upper building. This is a process that started last spring!

During the Dec. 6th work day.
Replaced broken/missing clear plastic panels on air compressor sheds for both upper and lower buildings.

Emptied dust collector bags and replaced the broken one and cleaned up the mess left by the broken bag.
Installed 2” rigid foam in both large louvered vents in the kiln room.
Replaced defective door knob on door between kiln room and wet room in Ceramics dept.
Began installation of new Miter saw. This turned out to be a bigger job than anticipated as Dewalt made some changes to the design of the saw which will require a deeper dust collection box. Work is ongoing.
Jim Waldron replaced the defective heating elements in the large kiln along with the dodgy contactors (relays).
Jim also got the small kiln up and running. And has run successful tests with it.
In process
The mini-splits for the lower classroom and the ceramics shop have arrived but we are still waiting for the installation kits that go with them.
Electrical work  for the donated mini split is already done and although bigger than needed it can be used for one of the new units.
New electric will need to be installed for the second mini split and we need to source a breaker of the proper size as we don’t have one.
In last months report it was noted that permanent arrangements for cutting the grass and trimming weeds around the buildings and along the driveway would need to be made. I have heard no feedback from the board

It is very important that when we look at renewing the lease in Purcellville that we insist on clarifying the clause about ‘maintenance.” As the lease is currently written Makersmiths is responsible for “all maintenance” in the buildings. This is commonly understood to mean that we are responsible for routine maintenance in and around the building, not repairs to the structure itself.  Town Council member, Mrs. Khalil, who stated that she has extensive experience with real estate and rental agreements interpreted this to mean that WE are responsible for repairing/replacing the 60 plus year old roofs and by extension replacing the doors on the back of the lower building.
Presumably her interpretation could also be expanded to include repaving the parking lot, repairing the fence around the property and goodness only knows what else. Happily, cooler (and more logical) heads prevailed and four council members voted to repair the roof leaks while three sided with Mrs. Khalil and voted not to. We need to remember this when it comes time to renew the lease in 2026

Scheduling Committee (Jennifer Chu)

Report received 12/12.

IT Report

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Standing Rules Committee (Jonathan White)

Report Received.  Via Slack

Finance Committee (Mary Waldron)

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Motion: Move to adopt the 2026 budget as presented.

Second:  Evin

Vote:  Passes by voice vote.

NB2:  IT Capital Investment (Jim for Rob)

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Motion: Move to adopt IT Capital Investment Proposal - Incremental workstation refresh Recommended - Solution #1.  Expenditure of $3,400.00 (slightly more than the $3,073.00 to accommodate any price shifts since the proposal submission) to be drawn from the Equipment fund.  Expenditure to be completed by March 30 2026 with any remaining funds returned to the Equipment fund.

Second: Jen

Vote:  Passes by voice vote

NB3:

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  Frame Shop Reimbursement (Johnathan)

 Issue: At the November BOD meeting, the Frame Shop Maintenance Budget was underspent by $413.37 YTD.  There are excess budgeted funds for maintenance that can be utilized for a small improvement to the shop.

Solution:  Approve purchase of a table for the mat cutter to come from the Frame Shop Maintenance Budget for no more than $50.00 to be spent by 12/31/2025.  The $50 for this table was already spent by Dawn Martin.  The table has been in place for a few months and funds and have been approved through the maintenance budget to add casters to the table.  This motion is basically just to reimburse Dawn.

Relevance to Tax Exempt Status: None

Motion: Move to reallocate $50.00 from the Frame Shop Maintenance Budget to a newly created Frame Shop Improvements Project, to be spent by the stewards before 12/31/2025.

Second:Erin

Amendment:  Move to extend date of new purchase date for frame shop to December 31st 2025.

Second: Jen

Vote to accept Amendment:  Passes by voice vote

New Motion: .

Erin: Move to waive 7 day advance notification for Simms/Showers bill.

Second: Jonathan

Vote: Passes by voice vote

Erin: Approve payment of $411.30 to Simms/Showers

Second: JenSecond:

Vote: Passes by voice vote.  1 Nay

Open Discussion

3D Printer Shop. Plan will be developed for consolidation, sale, disposal, and potential purchase of additional Bambu machines.

Plotter.  Do we really want one ?  If so, we need a reliable one.  (The one we have is problematic and has been struck by lightning at least once.)

MS-P Compressor.  We are eventually (soon) going to need a new one.

Executive Session

None.

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned by Evan at x8:xx  P36

Next Board Meeting will be January 28th.  Seasons greetings !