October 2025 - Member Meeting

October 18, 2025 - Member Meeting

October 18, 2025 - Member Meeting

Total Number of Members: 84

Total Number of Full Members: 23

Total Number of Full Members Attending Including Proxy Votes: 13

Quorum required 12 Full Members, and so was reached

Board of Directors Attending:

• President: Dave

• Secretary: Brad

• Director: John

• Director: Matt

• Director: Chris

Financials Update

• We have a net positive income for this year

• We cashed out a CD that we had. (See note from previous board meeting)

• Our rent is currently $1950 per month. Utilities are about $400

Membership Fees Discussion

• Per Bylaws: Fees for full and supporting members shall be set by a vote of the full members at the yearly meeting by a simple majority. (Link)

• No one raised any comment about the current rate so no vote was taken.

State of the Space

• Lately we've been trending towards short term members. Individuals who sign up for a month, do their project and then leave.

• We launched a new website after we lost our old domain name. The new website is through Shopify and has the url desmoinesmaker.space. We also purchased the domain area515dsm.org, currently this url forwards to the other one.

• It was suggested we use the wayback machine on the Internet Archive to recover some of the data from our previous site. John in fact had already done this.

• John has been working to set up new email addresses with our new domain name. Emails under our old domain were handled by Google Workspace. We're trying to set the new ones up through this as well but Google has been difficult to work with.

• We've placed the order for the new laser with BOSS. Now we're waiting on shipping information.

Tool Areas

• We don't know when the new laser will ship, 2 to 6 weeks was the estimate.

• It was noted that the Electronics Stewards are not as available for training as some members would like.

• Lia X was added as an additional Laser Steward to Bailey and Brad.

• Isaiah, one of our Wood Shop Stewards, has left. The remaining Stewards are Jake and Chris. Chris is considering people he might ask to join.

• The idea of offering classes for making little gift items in the Wood Shop was discussed.

Charles "Ward" Mellerup

• Everyone was notified that Ward passed away recently. His sister notified us of his passing.

• In accordance with his wishes there will be no services for Ward.

• It was noted that we should clean out Ward's cubby and ask his sister what she would like done with his belongings.

Vote to Promote Supporting Members to Full Members

• One member requested to be considered for Full membership, but since that member was not present nothing came of this.

Election for 2025-2026 Board of Directors

• Nominations: President - Dave Vice President - Jake Treasurer - Meg Secretary - Brad

• Nomination for general director positions: John W Matt A Chris K

Because there was only one nomination for each board position, the slate of candidates were voted on a yes/no basis.

Yes: 13

No: 0

Result: Passed

Miscellaneous

• Holding a Board Game Night over at the Rook Room was proposed. Many members expressed interest in attending.

• Dave and Matt attended the monthly first Friday open house at MainFrame Studios. They reported that the place was packed. Several years ago we had sent MainFrame a proposal that their members could join our makerspace at a reduced rate. We never did hear back from them about that. It may be time to reach out again and see if they're interested.

• Derek is offering members a knife making class. It's a great opportunity to learn about the knife making process first hand from a professional.

• Discussion about offering other classes ensued. The reason more aren't offered is because we have a difficult time getting people willing to teach them. It is still hoped that Connor S will teach a stained glass class some day.

• Dave and John have renewed interest in erecting the ham radio tower at the space. They're also interested in a new "Meshtastic" device. Chris mentioned he has access to an auger.

• Brad requested that members send photos of their projects. He would like to put them up on our new website.

• Brad also demonstrated the new "Member Dashboard" functionality he's building on the new website. Members can log in and view what Tool Fees they have and have not paid.

• The topic of Space Work Nights was raised. There are only a handful of people who regularly attend - a big thank you to them!

• We're starting a new clean up night the first Tuesday of every month, during the Open House.

• To all members: if you clean something, please mark it on the laminated sheet hanging on the wall. We want to create a culture where everyone knows how important cleaning is.

Meeting Adjourned

• Most of our access to Google Workspace (the service we used to handle emails with our old domain name) used email addresses that also had our old domain name. Without access to those emails, we couldn't access Google Workspace. John had been communicating with Google to try and regain access, but Google wanted evidence that John was really part of our group. One member suggested, "You could change your last name to makerspace."