Time and Location:

January 27, 2021 7:00PM at Virtual Meeting

Call to Order

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 propose 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 Description (John Dubelko)

Problem: Craig Thomas is a Loudoun County Firefighter and interested in a complimentary membership. He would like to help us with our safety equipment setup and general maintenance/cleaning in exchange for membership. Craig likes woodworking and wants to learn more about blacksmithing. He agrees with the 4-6 hour a month commitment for this membership.

Solution: Make Craig a complimentary member.  Currently there are 3 of the 5 memberships available.

Relevance to our tax exempt status: none

Motion: Make Craig Thomas a complimentary member for 3 months.

Discussion - Discussion held about role that he could support.  Idea that there need to be concrete tasks for complimentary members to do.  Questions about whether complimentary members get free classes - discussion that these would be free when they were related directly to the duties being performed for the complimentary membership.  John will supply a list of tasks that Craig will contribute and then the board will vote via Slack at a later date.

Vote: Postponed and will be completed via Slack.

CA2 Description (@Stosh)

Problem: The Town of Purcellville wants to build a kiosk for the historic train station.

Solution: Through my association with the Town of Purcellville Planning Commission, I was contacted by a member of the Town of Purcellville’s Train Station Advisory Board (TSAB). TSAB is interested in hiring the Makerspace to create a product. The City of  Manassas has a kiosk located at their historic train station and TSAB would like to have a similar one made to place at the Purcellville train station. Unfortunately, Manassas has no records on who created theirs or when, and does not have plans.

TSAB is offering Makersmiths the opportunity to build the kiosk. TSAB has funds to expend on this which they must execute by May 2021. I’ve made no commitment to TSAB aside from telling them I would take their proposal to the Makersmith’s Board. A few pictures are attached on the following page, and I have a half dozen more for reference should the Board decide to go forward with it. The kiosk is metal, not wood (and I cited Makersmiths having few metalworkers compared to our number of woodworkers as a reason we might not be able to take it on). TSAB is also open to a little artistic license or suggested improvements, such as adding a solar panel, battery and lights.  If we have the means and personnel, I suggest this would be a way to get local recognition (I’m sure the town would help with local media and probably would have a ribbon cutting) and give back to the community (while being reimbursed for the effort). Should Makersmiths not choose to do this as an organization, I’ll forward this to our members who are metalsmiths and see if they’d want to take it on a job.

Relevance to our tax exempt status: N/A

Motion: I propose that Makersmiths commit to working with the TSAB to build the kiosk at the historic train station.

Discussion: Stosh described the ask from the Town of Purcellville a little bit further.  Dave said that metal will be expensive, but that we don't necessarily have the right tools to make some of the parts.  Stosh said that the town is open to ideas.  Dave believes the metal and processing would be a few thousand dollars even before processing and manufacturing.  Stosh can find out what their budget is.  Christa asked about the impacts on non-profit status - Dave and John said there is no issue.  Would be interesting to use the project to get people interested in the project.  Could potentially get enough from the project to purchase another tool for the shop.  Dave will put a better estimate of costs together.  Lot of upside for both sides.

Vote: Postponed - Dave will provide Stosh with estimate that can be taken to Town for validation that they will spend the value required. Stosh will get feedback from the Town.

CA3 Description (Submitter's @name)

Problem:

Solution:

Relevance to our tax exempt status:

Motion:

Link 

Prior minutes

2020-12-16 Meeting of the Board of the Directors - Agenda/Minutes (Closed)

Officer Reports:

Chairman: Tour Embark - alternative school nearby.  They are interested in rejoining. More will come as they become more interested in the membership. Past MOU posted to Slack for review.  We will need to review the agreement and add some sections.  

Just posted on the Board Slack that the rules on equipment that the rules on member storage may want to be reviewed. There is a $10 per night fee for projects that are stored as projects are getting out of hand at Purcellville.  Suggests we give people notice and then  implement the existing policy.  

Secretary: 

Treasurer: 

Month of December - income of ~7,500, Expenses of $7,200, net income $297.  Majority of income was that December would generate a high membership, donations and class fees, but this was a pre-COVID budget.  So we only received 40% of the budgeted value.  Expenses were 86% of budget. Couple of items - $295 for Contract Services was the fee to remove the lien.  Frame shop running a little late so additional costs were just moved forward from earlier months.  

YTD - Net income $14,042 - budgeted was $12,000.   Donations really helped us in 2020 as corporate membership was way down, memberships were 90% of what we needed.  Donations could make up for missing class fees but couldn't cover all of corporate and regular memberships.  Total income 86% of budget.  Expenses ran at 83% of budget which helped.  Power at both locations, propane and water at Purcellville were both way down which kept costs down.  We also had a much lower operational suppliers - only used 28% of budgeted value. 

Discussion about changing signatories.  Jonathan and Christa will be additional Board signatories.  

Financial Statement:

Member Reports:

Committee Reports:

New Member Orientation Committee (Chairperson Jessee Maloney)

Met this month - Scott and Jessee.  More information on new member deck done now.  More information storage and leaving things in the space.  Where not to park at Leesburg.  Added photo of Raspberry Pi.  Slack will be setup for members before Orientation.  Also discussed starting virtual tours.  Videos have been recorded of tours and these need to be edited at some point.  Having people to edit would be useful.  Jason will edit once he is available again.

Website Committee (Chairperson Jessee Maloney)

Nothing new on website at this time.  Scott said he just signed up a new member that is self employed and does website design.  He mentioned it on the tour.  Need to add Google Site info to the main website on the list.

Membership Committee (Chairperson Scott Newman )

81.7 FTE members as of 27 Jan 2021 .  Sent e-mails to members pending renewals.  Corporate members went down from 21 to 11.  John D said those are Stryker members going off the books.  Their 10 members rolled off.  The 11 left are 10 Mitre actual members and 1 member for the entity itself.  Scott has a list of pending tasks on the todo list for the committee.  

Local blade sharpener could potentially use our space as a location for a service to bring members in.  Jesssee thanks Scott for all he is doing.

Social Outreach Committee:  (Chairperson Jessee Maloney)

Discussion of support from other people to help with this committee. 

Leesburg Facility Committee (Chairperson Brad Hess)

John has hooked up dehumidifier to a more permanent spot.  John working to fix it.

Little photo printer needs to be cleaned - at least one of the print heads is done.

Friday the laser will be getting repaired - replacing X bar and tuned up.  Should be pretty much new at that point.  

Purcellville Facility Committee (Chairperson Tom Hill)

Big deal in the last week was getting the table saw back together.  Big thanks to Dave and Jim for getting the saw fixed. Bigger issue is that the saw was damaged.  Ongoing theme in Purcellville, possibly because so many more people are using the Pville shop and with larger projects.  

Jonathan asked about sign permit.  Dave believes we applied by size only.  As long as we stay with the same size, we shouldn't have an issue.  Jonathan and Scott will work on a new sign for the front.  

Scheduling Committee (Chairperson Diane DeMott Painter)

Special Projects Committee (Chairperson Mike Werling)

Welding Committee (Chairperson Arthur 'Skip' Smith)

Newsletter Committee (Chairperson Diane DeMott Painter )

IT Committee (Chairperson Michael James)

The next IT auction is ready.  Sent out info to some people to look at.  Newsletter template was updated.

Video Committee (Chairperson Adam "Squirrl" McClintock)

Environmental and Safety Committee (Chairperson David Lang)

Custom Frame Shop Committee (Chairperson user-17f4a)

Radio Club Committee (Chairperson Allon Stern )

Old Business:

There is no old business carried over from the prior Board Meeting.

New Business:

NB1 Description (Michael James )

Problem: Starting Ink Set for Empson Stylus Pro 9890 Plotter

Solution: Request for Funds

Relevance to our tax exempt status: None

Proposed Motion: I have a few quotes for third party refillable ink cartridges. I have been requesting donations of the cartridges from various suppliers. Some have offered additional discounts. See attached quotes. I move that we allocate funds in the amount of $750 to get the plotter going. Ink Owl sent an updated proforma quote, Need to check the differences.

Discussion: Dave asked if this was an upgrade from the one in PVille.  Michael said it should be better and that it has high quality inks even with non OEM.  They are going to ask the laser repair folks if it is something they would purchase from us.  For the $420, that printer should run for us 2-3 years.  That should last us quite a long time.  It will cost us more to turn it off and back on as we would have to continue cleaning the ink heads.  We can charge for the plotter use like we do in Pville.  Dave suggested we talk at the members meeting about how many people would use the printer.  Let's gather some more information - laser company buying it, getting corporate sponsorship, seeing how much members would pay for use.  

Vote: More information gathering required before voting as above.

Machine Access Controls (James Waldron)

Problem:  We are not currently able to gather machine operating hours or control machine access. Anyone can use any machine whether they have taken Red Tool training or not. This sometimes leads to machine damage and expensive repairs. Lack of usage information means that preventive maintenance is not related to actual machine time, may be overdue, or be performed too often.

Solution: Fit select machines with access controls. Device to allow only authorized users and to log usage information. There are both home grown and commercial options available. Home grown solutions are less expensive but initially have fewer features. Commercial options are more expensive but more fully featured. Integration with our existing systems and data stores are likely easier for home grown solutions, possibly harder for commercial solutions.

Relevance to our tax exempt status:  None

Proposed Motion:  Adopt Machine Controls for Select Machines. Establish a small Machine Control committee to; determine which machines need to be controlled, investigate the current commercial and home grown solutions and select 3, present those to the Board at the February meeting. The Board to select a solution at the February meeting.

Discussion: Jim says he probably has enough parts to build some working prototypes.  Dave - would like to see building a few of these and putting them in place and testing.  We almost had to buy a new tablesaw this week given the Delta organization being onsold multiple times.  This would have been $250 in parts that aren't available anymore.  Jim said it would be made available for Android and iPhone and you would use an app.  It would enable the machine for an hour at a time and sense current that would then extend the machine on time automatically.

Amended Proposed Motion: Establish a small Machine Control committee to test a machine control solution and present the results and proposed costs to the Board at the February meeting. 

Vote: Unanimous in favor.

NB3 Description (Submitter's @name)

Problem:

Solution:

Relevance to our tax exempt status:

Proposed Motion:

Open Discussion

Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 9:01PM.

Minutes: