BoardMeeting20150314

Board Meeting: March 14, 2015

Time & Location

1:00pm - 5:00pm @ Tech 2020

Attendees

All board members present

Minutes

The board unanimously voted James back into the Communications Director position.

Discussion of the current status of new website development and the pros/cons of moving to new hosting. It was decided that Brian would take charge in keeping our hosted software up to date until September. Jondale would be the backup but we would ask the membership for volunteers for this duty.

We discussed having a 3D printing SME and having Doug as an technical advisor to the SME. Followup added to the next board meeting agenda.

We plan to fill out a Form 990N for tax exemption reasons. Issac is taking point as he's done this before. Followup added to next board meeting agenda.

Doug, Issac, and Sam met with the UTK Business School people and answered questions. This is an ongoing project and we hope to learn things from it.

We have many opportunities for outreach events. It was decided that we need to either pass or revisit most of these later so that we could focus on our move.

We plan to do a booth at the Kingsport Maker Faire and Doug will take point. We are going to consider the other maker faires in the area (Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta) as they get closer and they have been added to the next board meeting agenda. We'll reach out to the member to ask for exhibit ideas and volunteers.

Toby and Justin are going to show off 3d scanning at the Marble City Comicon and we think that's cool.

We're going to wait until we are in our new space before having a talk at PechaKucha.

Makhan brought up the idea of us providing a space for the Smokey Mountain Astronomical Association (SMAS) to hold meetings. We all think it's a good idea and hope we can convince some of them to give talks.

James had an idea about using the items we've been donated such as the Makey Makeys and Circuit Scribes to form a tech cart which can be loaned out. We think there is a good opportunity here where we could provide a training to teachers on the items who can then take the items back and show their students. This will take a backburner for now and be revisited after the move.

Doug is doing much work on getting our plans together for the move. There is much concern about the electrical/build out cost. Numbers need to be finalized before we can move forward on this. We will need to submit a formal architectural package since we are building walls and that's not a normal thing for the mall.

We spoke more things about the new member orientation. We're going to ask for volunteers to be part of the mentor pool. Mentors will act as a point of contact for new members.

Issac demoed the new website in development at the end of the meeting and we were like cool.

Agenda Items

• Get Issac to demo the status of the webpage as-is. Compile notes on what we need to launch.
• 3D printing needs a SME badly
  • Buy filament
  • upgrade hot end?
  • Do we need a new stepper?
• January Financial Review
  • Form 990N for IRS

• Discuss outreach/development programs
  • UTK Business School (ongoing, 3/9-4/23)
  • Marble City Comiccon (4/25-26)
  • PechaKucha Night Knoxville Volume 15 (5/17)
  • BSides Knoxville (5/15)
  • Children's Festival of Reading (5/16, need someone to ping Shane and Bess Connally (Work number is 215-8754 or 215-8700 and work email is bconnally@knoxlib.org) with decision, and if we commit, to run point)
  • BCPL Makey Makey Day Demo (5/30)
  • Steampunk Carnivale (6/6)
  • CodeStock (Free sponsor table, 7/10-11)
  • BCPL Adult Summer Reading Program (7/11 1-4 PM, need someone to ping Becca with decision, and if we commit, to run point)
  • Kingsport Mini Makerfaire (July 18)
  • Chattanooga Mini Makerfaire (Sept 19)
  • Maker Faire Atlanta (Oct 4 & 5)
  • SCA events
  • Jewish Day School
  • Caleb@United Way
  • New library partnerships (James)
  • Senior education programs (James)
  • Outreach tech cart tool share (MaKey kits, Circuit Scribe, etc)

• Moving/Space Concerns
  • Space leasing contact from David Bolt through Joe asking if we would be interested in discussing leasing space at David Bolt's Sustainable Future facility (3-4,000 sqft, unknown terms, need someone to ping Joe back to let him know if we are interested and should arrange a meeting.)
• New member orientation
• Funding Materials for an on-going art class
  • If so, we probably need to look at sales tax exemption in TN: [1]
• Discuss newsletter as possible new way to engage membership.