MemberMeeting20260120

Member Meeting: January 20, 2026

Time & Location

6:00pm Cookout in the Hospitality Zone 7:00pm at Knox Makers Classroom

Minutes

President's Previous Year Report

• Looking waaay back to the beginnings of Knox Makers
  • We were fortunate to have our very first space in Oak Ridge, but suddenly were faced with a 30 day eviction notice because the building was changing hands
  • Luckily Spark saved us at the very last moment and allowed us to move into the space we're at now
  • But five years ago, the building was sold to developers and Spark started looking financially rocky - would we we out on our ear again?
  • We saved and planned and decided we'd approach the building owners and attempt to buy it for ourselves
  • We wish we could say we had it all wrapped up by the time of this meeting but paperwork kept delaying things - but we are *soclose*! There will be so much celebration when it is finished! (Note: the building purchase was finalized a mere 4 days after this meeting)
• Again our Maker Market was amazing, we continue to have great feedback from our vendors
• Larry kicked butt getting Killswitch back up and it was a huge hit at the Market
• Toy Tech did not seem like it was going to happen this year, but Spark finally asked us and we pulled it off yet again - big props to all of our members who helped out and rolled with it even at the 11th hour.
• Last year we started Tuesday night free events again - one week per month a cookout, one week a free craft, and one week a makery lecutre or talk. They have been a huge hit and we've gotten lots of engagement and joy from it.
• Sean graciously passed Arts and Crafts on to Matt (with Ashley as deputy) and the zone is picking up with classes and interest.
• Greenhoe will be moving away for a period of time and is passing the Woodworking zone onto Shawn to head it up in his absence.
• Margaret, who spent her precious time stocking our snacks instead of on her own projects, has given the zone to Jerry. Our cookout food quality has improved significantly!
• Tony also passed the Safety area onto Adam and Nadah who are excited to properly stock our first aid kits and teach critically needed first aid classes to our members.
• Thank you to all of our Czars, Czarinas, Deputies, Ambassadors, and Peace Officers. Knox Makers is able to do so much with your help!

Membership Report

• We hit 400 members right at the end of the year - who can believe it!

Financial Report

• 2024 ending balance was $227,348 and 2025 ending balance was $439,287
• This past year we discontinued the zone profit sharing, since most of our zone budgets were flush and we wanted to focus more on saving for the building
• Donations toward the building fund ($150k so far) were able to help us pay our earnest money and closing costs, but now the real work begins.

KM IT

• Jondale put out a call to join the KM IT group to help with all of our hosted services and our critical technical infrastructure

President's Look Forward

• There is not much else to say except we hope this year we can for real own our own place!
• In addition to just purchasing, we want to make the Knox Makers property *amazing*. There are necessary repairs that need to be done, but we also want to upgrade the landscaping and paint the building and make it an artistic masterpiece - it will be so exciting!
• We also will have quite a large mortgage, so we have started a capital campaign which Tracy and Sue will talk about

External campaign

• We have hired a fundraising company to identify possible local philanthropists that will support our efforts
• We made a landing page at love.knoxmakers.org where we can send people to donate towards the fund, and we have a Case for Support document that we can give to people unfamiliar with us that details our plans and shows that we are a responsible and legit organization.
• If anyone has contacts or employers who want to sponsor or donate, send them to us and we'll make contact

Internal fundraising

• Sue has showed us that credit card processing fees is not a small line item on our budget (several thousand) so has set up a way to donate via ach.
• She has also added options where people can send a recurring donation toward the building fund or a zone of their choice.

Voting

We voted online again, with ballots opening two weeks before the meeting and closing at 7:15pm the day of.

129 people voted

The following board positions were held for election by online secret ballot and filled:

Position	Elected Member
President	Issac Merkle
Secretary	Tracy Homer
Treasurer	Sue Joslin
Tech Director	Jondale Stratton
Facilities Director	Billy Huddleston
Communications	Daryl Learn-Houston
Community Director	Sean Simoneau
Volunteer Coordinator	Russell Portwood

Oh wait one more thing!

• Remember when we said a group from UTK was making a documentary about us? It's done and we have a copy! Let's watch it right now :)