Time and Location:

February 26, 2020 at 7:00PM at 785  S.20th Street, Purcellville, VA

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 agenda. However, discussion of agenda items should be done via Slack. The cut-off time for addition to or revision of the consent agenda items is 48 hours prior to the meeting. Please note, agenda items (Consent, New, or Old) that request spending $250 or more must include a section on "Relevance to our tax exempt purpose".

CA1 Purcellville Equipment (Dave Painter)

Problem: Several of the woodworking machines in Purcellville are in need of maintenance.  

Planer Blades  $159.99

Jointer Blades  $119.99

Bandsaw Tires  $209.00

Bandsaw blade guides $ 216.22

Two 3/8" Bandsaw Blades  $90.00

3/4" resaw blade   $110.00

5" flexible duct for Planer $40.00

With shipping this comes to almost $1000, or roughly five months maintenance budget.  We have not spent any money on maintenance since last summer so we should have this amount budgeted already.

Solution: Purchase parts necessary to bring machines back to tip-top condition.

Relevance to our tax exempt status: none

Motion:  Authorise purchase of above parts in one lump sum to get the MS-P's woodworking shop tuned up and ready for 2020.

CA2 Purcellville Lighting (Dave Painter)

Problem: Four or five of the 8 foot fluorescent light fixtures in the MS-P Wood Shop don't light up when turned on. I expect that the problem is a mix of burned out bulbs (there are three varieties) and/or defective ballasts. logically it makes sense to replace them with new LED light fixtures but total cost is probably less if we simply buy some bulbs and ballasts as needed.

Solution:  replace the burned out bulbs and ballasts.

Relevance to our tax exempt status: none

Motion:  replace the burned out bulbs and ballasts. Michael James I would like to suggest that we use the same type of replacements we used at Leesburg. They are ballast bypass types. 8' Bulbs are $17.47/ea in a case of 10. Link is here: https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/208575/LEDT-10071

CA3 100 Women Strong Grant Final Report (John Dubelko )

Problem:  The final report for the grant is due March 13th

Solution: Approve Report

Relevance to our tax exempt status:

Motion: Approve Report and Board Chairmen sign

Prior minutes

Officer Reports:

Chairman 

Secretary 

Treasurer

Financial Statement

Member Reports:

Committee Reports:

Membership Committee (ChairpersonMark R Millsap)

Membership Committee meeting on Wednesday, Feb 12 was poorly attended; only John D. and myself attended.  No new business was conducted.  Well besides some suggestions from John that Tee Shirts be distributed to New Member Orientation attendees at New Member Orientations (which, in theory, is OK idea, but has proven difficult to execute because of logistics).

Next New Member Orientation workshop is scheduled for 2/25 at MS-L.

Current agenda: 

1. Complete cover letter to members to accompany survey form of members skills, abilities, knowledge of maker techniques/technologies, and interests, with the intent of compiling survey results into printed form to facilitate matching new member (or existing member for that matter) interests with existing member skills.  It is our objective to facilitate 'matching' in order to make a sponsor/mentor program viable and effective.  Sponsor / mentor programs have been proven to result in higher percentage of 'sticky' (long term) members.   (Anthony)
2. Distribute a selection of Tee Shirt Sizes to each location so New Member Orientation attendees can try on and order tee shirt from Makersmiths WA 'store'.    Also need photo(s) of tee shirts to accompany store items.  (John and Bryan)
3. Capture Slack metrics and share with membership (John)
4. Create Membership Badges and document process.  (Jen, John and Ed)
5. Export membership database to Excel / Sheets spreadsheet for Committee to review (Mark) done
6. Get 'store' items ready for photos of tee shirts (Mark) done

Social Outreach/Website Committee:  (Chairperson Jessee Maloney)

Leesburg Facility Committee (Chairperson Brad Hess)

Purcellville Facility Committee (Chairperson Tom Hill)

Scheduling Committee (Chairperson Diane DeMott Painter)

02-18-2020_ Scheduling Committee Meeting Minutes.doc

Special Projects Committee (Chairperson Mike Werling)

Highlights:

• Loudoun Grown expo this weekend
• Awaiting response from Leesburg Flower and Garden show
• Coming in March are the LCPS Science Fair and Maker Showcase, and LCPL How To Festival

All activities listed at 2020 Events and Projects

Welding Committee (Chairperson Arthur 'Skip' Smith)

Newsletter Committee (Chairperson Erin Werling)

IT Committee (Chairperson Michael James)

Video Committee (Chairperson Adam "Squirrl" McClintock)

Environmental and Safety Committee (Chairperson David Lang)

1. Due to the absence of the chairperson, the Feb monthly Environmental and Safety Committee meeting was not held.
2. Since Member Meeting Notes have not been posted since last September, it is difficult for the committee to ascertain safety and environmental issues important to the membership.
3. Safety lockout locks were obtained for both the Purcellville and Leesburg locations.  Locks were provided to the Purcellville location, but not Leesburg since Leesburg does not utilize power shutoffs capable of being locked.
4. Projects on the safety committee agenda for March include development of a general safety policy, specific procedures for use of safety lockout locks, and definitions of Red, Yellow, and Green tools.

Custom Frame Shop Committee (Chairperson user-17f4a)

Amateur Radio Committee (Chairperson David Lang)

1. Since the Chairperson was not aware he had been appointed until last week, the Amateur Radio Committee did not meet in Feb.
2. The Makersmiths Radio Club FCC call sign was changed to KE4MA (4MAKE) to further the branding of the club in the community.
3. The Makersmiths Radio Club now has two Accredited Volunteer Examiners (VEs) able to administer FCC license exams.  Once we have three VEs, the club will be able to independently schedule public FCC examinations which will raise the profile of Makersmiths in the community.
4. One unlicensed club member passed his FCC General Class examination this month.  We now have 12 Makersmiths members in the Radio Club and nine FCC licensed Makersmiths members on the Amateur Radio Committee.
5. The Amateur Radio Committee page was established on the Makersmiths Wiki.

Ceramics Committee: (Chairperson Jen Netsch )

Two ceramics classes have been scheduled for March. One is already sold out and the other has four spots available. Jen will share with local fb groups to help fill that class.  Jason Hill is working on ideas for classes that he would like to teach this spring.

Old Business:

OB1 Custom Frame Shop Equipment Loan (David Lang)

Problem:  The Custom Frame Shop does not have all the needed equipment nor funds to purchase equipment (Carry-over from Dec 2019 meeting)

Solution: Accept the attached revised equipment loan proposal

Relevance to our tax exempt status: N/A

Proposed Motion: Accept the attached revised equipment loan proposal

OB2  FY20 Budget (John Dubelko )

Problem:  Proposed budget need updates

Solution: Met with membership chair and adjusted projections. Changed Leesburg rent to the full amount and added the rent reduction from improvements made to the space. Created a Operations Account and Investment account.  

Relevance to our tax exempt status:

Proposed Motion:  Approve FY20 budget

OB3 Description (Submitter's @name)

Problem:

Solution:

Relevance to our tax exempt status:

Proposed Motion:

New Business:

NB1 What are Makersmiths Goals?  And, to follow on, what is the plan to reach those goals? (Mark R Millsap )

Problem:  Diane Painter and Melissa Kowalski proposed to apply for $10,000 Infy Maker Award grant.  They've stopped this and future grant application effort(s) due to a lack of a defined plan for Makersmiths.  So, I ask the Board, what are Makersmiths goals?  And what is the plan for reaching those goals?   Is it the Boards role to formulate goals and plans?  If it is the Boards role to formulate goals and plans, who on the Board will lead in the effort to formulate goals and plans?   If it is not the Boards role to provide leadership in the effort to formulate goals and plans, who will they delegate that task to?  If the Board is satisfied that Makersmiths doesn't need or want goals or plans, does that then result in curtailment of any future grant applications?

Solution:

Relevance to our tax exempt status:

Proposed Motion:

NB2 Contingency or Rainy Day Fund  (@Jim)

Problem:  How much money should we keep in the bank?

Solution: 

I think we all agree that we should have a cushion of cash for unexpected events. Those events, it seems to me, would be related to some sort of upset to our ongoing operations. I see those as falling into a couple of categories, Disasters, Equipment Failure, and Loss of Income. I think we would like to have enough money to keep the doors open while we figured out our go forward strategy.

In Disasters I'll include such things as a broken water pipe flooding part of the facility, a fire in part of a facility, storm damage, a tree falling on the roof, and other such damages. In these cases we or our landlords insurance come into play and should cover the costs of repairs. Naturally there will probably be some inconvenience and some minor expense to take care of the problem. I propose that $5,000.00 is a good estimate of what we might expect for 'out of pocket' costs.

Equipment Failure. Some equipment is more important than other. If the Laser Cutter should die, we have a problem and would need to replace it quickly due to it's popularity. Same probably applies to the table saw and chop saw (power miter saw). We could probably nominate a few other tools that we think are important enough and so frequently used that we would not want to be without them for any extended period. In the case of the Laser Cutter, I assume we would just enter another lease arrangement for a new one (as has been proposed for when we make our last lease payment on our current one). Still, might be some out of pocket costs for perhaps a new electrical circuit, new vent mechanism, connector cable, etc. I assume that we would just outright purchase a new table saw or chop saw. Again, for each of these, I think that about a $5,000.00 reserve should suffice.

Loss of Income. What if we suffered a sudden significant loss of members. Say that half the members resigned. Our current monthly expenses run about $8K, and our current dues income is about $8K. In this case we would lose half of our monthly income leaving us about $4K short each month.   For how many months would we want to be able to continue during which time we would have to address the problem and determine what to do. I'd like to suggest that 6 months is about the right time frame. This would require 6 months of making up the $4K shortfall or $24K.

There are probably other scenarios.

I think it unlikely that more than one of these scenarios would occur concurrently.

Relevance to our tax exempt status:  None

Proposed Motion:  I propose that we keep $25K cash in our bank account as our contingency or rainy day fund.

NB3 Committee Future Planning (@Jim)

Problem:  Determining Future Needs an Budgeting for same.

I would like for each committee to submit a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10 year projection of needed equipment, consumables, and expected maintenance. This will aid us in budgeting.

I believe that there is an intent for us to have modern, fairly state of the art machines and tools (rather than older well used or used up equipment). Asking the committee chairs for projections of needs should aid future planning.

I realize that some of this is crystal ball gazing. Projections can be updated yearly. But, as a committee chair, what piece of equipment would you really like to have next year? Can you justify the acquisition by showing the number of members who would like up to use it? Some areas would have more needs than others. (Eg, Welding just got a whole bunch of really nice new equipment - I would expect needs to be modest. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure that Blacksmithing would really like to have a power hammer.) And, we can't afford everything we might want.

In some cases, technology is moving quickly, and I think having close to state of the art tools would help attract new members. In other cases, for example a power hammer, the tech has pretty much been the same for the last 100 years.

Projections do not need to be fancy. Simple is better.  Example:

Year 1

Power hammer ($4,000), 2 boxes of borax flux ($30).

Year 2

Dies for the hardy hole ($200), 2 boxes of borax flux ($30)

Year 3

2 pr box tongs ($80), 2 boxes of borax flux ($30)

Year 4

5 gallons quench oil ($90), 2 boxes of borax flux ($30)

Year 5

Leg vise ($250), 2 boxes of borax flux ($30)

Year 10

2nd forge materials ($500), 2 boxes of borax flux ($30)

Solution:  Projections from each Committee.

Relevance to our tax exempt status:

Proposed Motion: Move that each Committee Chair be asked for a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 10 year Projection of needed equipment, consumables, and expected maintenance.

Adjournment

Minutes: 

Action Items:

Approved Spending Tracking: