June 2025 - Board Meeting

06/04/2025 - Area 515 Board Meeting

06/04/2025 - Area 515 Board Meeting

Attending:

• President: Dave

• Treasurer: Meg

• Secretary: Brad

• Director: Matt

• Director: Chris

• Director: John

Absent:

• Vice President: Jake

Review of Votes Conducted by Email in Past Month

• On May 9th, the board received an email from Janell Pittman saying that her son's team is competing in the American Rocketry Challenge and that they've made it to the national competition in Washington D.C. The team was originally sponsored by Friends of Johnston ELP, and had secured a $1,000 corporate donation. This corporate donation payment had to go to a non-profit or school, but unfortunately the Friends of Johnston ELP was not comfortable with the transaction. Consequently, Janell Pittman was asking if we would be willing to sponsor the kids' rocket team so then we could receive the corporate donation, and use it to fund the kids' travels to Washington D.C. and possible future rocketeering. Since the rocket team was under a time crunch, the motion was voted on by email instead of waiting until the next board meeting.

Motion: That the space fund $2,650 towards the team for the 2026 competition, $1,000 in cash and 3 one year memberships (Effectively a 100% SHR since they are in 7th grade). Additionally, we act as the team sponsor for next year (they have to be affiliated with a Non-Profit to compete) and include this as a project in our next Prairie Meadows Community Grant.

Yes: 6

No: 0

Result: Passed

• The Secretary wanted it noted that John did all the work communicating and coordinating with Mrs. Pittman.

• Channel 13 interviewed the kids at the maker space.

• Ultimately, the kids took 64th out of all the 1,001 teams in the competition. They also did it all by themselves, with no grown-ups, cell phones, or pre-made kits.

• We received the kids' corporate donation. The kids haven't picked up their membership yet.

Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting

Vote to approve the minutes of the May board meeting

Yes: 6

No: 0

Result: Passed

Current Members: 90

• One member discovered he'd been double paying every month. We refunded him all the overage.

Financials

• We received two PayPal donations for our old 3D printers. That money should go to whatever fund was used to buy the new Prusas.

• Back in April, Brad verbally agreed with Jerry to raise our rent by $150 per month. (See April minutes) The rent check for June included the additional money, but Brad was instructed to get the increased rent prive in writing from Jerry. (Note from the future: Jerry complied, no problem.)

Space Updates

• Isaiah is installing the new helical head on the 15" planer.

• Dave purchased a Harbor Freight press brake (Note: This is not the finger break that the past "In for $10" was raising money for.)

• One of our members offered to donate a larger brake, Dave is going to talk with him about it.

• We need to order some routine supplies, particularly toilet paper, white trash bags and paper towels. Jake normally handles that but since he's gone, Meg said she would take care of it.

  • It was also noted that we have an abundance of large black trash bags. We should check if those are on auto order, and if so take it off.

• The bag-less vacuum is still broken. What some board members found frustrating is that a note saying it's broken was taped on it and it was left in the classroom. Instead, the discoverer should have emailed the Tools group or at least posted a message on the google group. It was generally decided that we should try to repair the darn thing ourselves.

  • Chris kindly offered to donate a vacuum of his to the space. John asked if he could bring it to the next Open House.

• The Wood Shop Stewards expressed frustration with members not following all the rules. Brad offered to hang up more of his "Oh S%*#" posters to encourage more Tool Steward communication.

• All agreed on the need to do more orientation training with new members. It would be optimal to do it during Space Work Nights.

• Brad also offered to work on a New Member Orientation Video.

Robot Combat Cage

• Matt is interested in constructing a robot combat cage at the maker space. His first item of business will be asking Jerry if he could use a 4' x 4' space of the courtyard.

Meeting Adjourned

• "Did we figure out what was wrong with the vacuum?" "I just hid it for the interview."

• "... Then I don't have to touch your keyboard. This way we'll both be happier." - Context of this quote has been lost to history.