Date: August 11, 2020, 7pm-8:30pm
Location: Virtual (Zoom Link)
Attendees
- Attendees – Crafty, Morgan, Chris O’Sullivan, Cela, Joanna Times, Matt Cridland, Steven Sheffeld, Sabrina
Minutes
Board Meeting Notes: 8/11/2020
Notes on Meeting Prologue:
Early… where are the people? Craft is kinda over it.
Chris and Cela engaged on the topic of engagement earlier in the day.
Chris resigns board seat. Nominates Cela, but crafty points out there is insufficient board quorum to do anything.
Much emphasis of no heat all around. If board members can’t do the 10-15, they should step down…. Good interview with Nick. Crafty emphasized time commitment, he was good with it. A couple busy months coming up, but overall good. Crafty endorses. Not too much of a “Start up guy” had sufficient other motivations to impress crafty.
Cela will reach out to connect.
7:10 still no quorum, discussion of what we can or cannot do without quorum. Only Cela and Chris present as board members.
Float question of Patrick stepping down. Talk of the idea of an “effort based committee”… “Something between nothing and directorship”
7.16 back to question of quorum. What if the board downsizes too much? Bylaws say five is needed, much time has passed since that was met. Maybe we need to get more creative in recruiting board members. Less “we post and they come and be interviewed.” More talk about intermediate advisory group where commitment is less, work can be picked up and dropped. Should fundamental nature of the board be changed? Advisory committee?
Work the agenda or keep talking about board engagement? Decided to work the agenda.
First topic: board engagement.
Cela – definitely kicked her 10. Had last day, starting new adventure. Met with rachel to talk grants. Hit up sustainability channel w/o success. Continuing to look for people who want to chase down money. Crafty says that she can help with the general grant process, punting leads, general process etc, but doesn’t have the time for specific vetting. Her success has been in asking specific people to do specific things. Went down list of people who got covid certs to find people to do specific things.
7.29 Sabrina Joins – quorum achieved.
Cela asks other board members if they want to engage with grants. Steven is down for budgeting and general crafty-esque help. Sabrina and Chris seem interested.
Note from Crafty: grants come with significant administrative overhead, only going forward with grants if both crafty and steven are on board.
Bringing Sabrina up to speed on earlier candid conversation about board engagement.
Sabrina: Nothing to report from her short term of engagement.
Crafty’s note for goals of repopulating board for diversity and quorum….. She has a meeting with “Homies empowerment“ super engaged 18-24 y/os on Monday to see.
7:38 Steven nominates Cela to be chair, cela seconds, motion carries unanimously.
Racial equality/justice REPORT & TAKE ON
- Reading group / racial equity resources channel > place to gather resources, organize some meetings around readings/discussion – Update? New Lead Needed
Crafty: if nothing is being done, we should table and not just pay lip service.
No one volunteers, it is officially taken off the deck.
- Updates on the commitments and progress is in the SOO
Contractor behind schedule because of death in family from covid. If no memorandum of understanding for racial justice education by end of month looking for new education provider.
- DISCUSSION Need leadership on how these ideas take form.
…Forgot what that phrase means now. Does anyone else know?
Steven talks about reaching out to hypothetical homies empowerment member to be a board member, concerns about tokenization, emphasize “We have resources, do you have a project you want to tackle?”
Discussion about legal parameters of youths on premise. Emphasis on desire to give kids who are not rich/white access to project resources… within the parameters of our insurance.
Program Updates
- All programs/cert efforts require update. No activity to report at this time. DISCUSSION This is concerning. Steward engagement lacking.
Piles of crap in spaces need to get cleaned up before spaces are really usable is an issue. Question of being excessively obsessive about space quality vs… opening up when marginally safe and quickly gets unsafe. Lack of engagement among members and stewards an issue.
However…. Sweeping steward slate clean would involve only having Colm. How do we open without stewards?
Reopening is just the process of putting in the physical effort of actually cleaning and organizing the crap. Crafty has been meeting different people to chip away but cannot be only one.
Crafty is willing to Monster Corps stewards.
However, questions of recruiting are secondary: big question is how do we presently open?
Storage and Metal have been chipped away at, Laser and CleanFab are still issues.
(Trickle of labor volunteerism from board)
Crafty estimates opening by weekend might be possible.
Crafty inspecting shops tomorrow.
Reminds that there are checklist documents available for getting spaces squared away.
- “Oakland Community PPE” – Need to complete set up prior to WFD participants start.
WFD – workforce development college of aleameda closed so use of program uncertain.
Rebranding updates
- DISCUSSION Next steps
- DBA Filing – Somebody needs to own filing a DBA for Ace. This means researching how to do it, doing it and then filing the records in a the Secretary google drive and etc. It also means when you learn about it communicating any requirements we may have for posting in the space or in website disclosure or on reciepts. etc. – It is possible to recruit a member to do this as somebody might have experience. Owner would still be responsible for owning the process and being the point person for the member. (ie don’t roll this work back to Crafty)
Crafty mentions that someone in membership had said they had experience. Chris expresses desire to help on that topic, says that the form is a 2 hour task. Crafty reminds this has to be done in 30 days. Chris and Cela will sync, Joanna also volunteers as an asset for help if need be.
Reopening Planning and actions updates
- Basics and Construction – Done
- Occupancy Tracking and Scheduling – 90% done – Few bugs, but really almost there and all stations are installed. Audry was a superstar in getting it set up.
- Pre-Opening Inspections – Pening room layouts – Checklists – opening criteria published.
- IT and Remote Staffing (network and cameras) -90% done – Close to cutting over to new network next week.
- C19 Safety Program – Live program underway, recording next – 40 people certified. Log-jammed in recording. Just needs one recording partner to do recording then turn over for editing, then go up for non-live trainings.
- Room Layouts and Set-up – Lagging – Previously discussed issue with spaces getting de-crapped.
Crafty SOO- Mostly same as June. demographics on diversity are tanking. No member engagement tracking. Social media – people still googling us, we’re ditching meetup for event brite.
New charts up through the new fiscal year. Some upticks on finances, but mostly still in the valley fiscally.
Oakland PPE – No contracts, ongoing relationships. Evergreen program, crafty owes board public description, wants to do something novel and not dry and dull.
Steven update – small uptick in member revenue but nothing too much to report. Coming up – draft of annual report. Basics, assets, liabilities, what is paid to officers. Looking to merge with other information for rebranding resources. Wants to spiff it up, but will effectively be last year’s fiscal report.
Matt – Not too much new, set up laser for occupancy tracking. Been busy.
8.21 – Patrick joins.
Updates on secretary search? Language updated for self-starterness, but not much response. Sabrina will meet with Crafty to figure out approach.
Next meeting? 9/15 to give time to prep SOO, 7?
8.23 – crafty moves to close. Seconded. Approved, meeting closed.
Agenda
- Determine Note Taker (preferably somebody who hasn’t done it before)
- Call to Order
- Attendance
- Approval of the Agenda (1 min)
- Approval of the Minutes (link to July 16 Minutes) (1min)
New Business
- Board Engagement / Attendance – Director Check-in’s and process updates – REPORT & DISCUSSION
- Board members to report on what they are contributing
- Last Board sub-group meeting notes
- Board Election – There has been no election yet this year. Lets do one.
- Pending Board Projects
- Updating HR documentation
- Collecting demographic information
- Fundraising
- Director Search
– Board Match Update: Cela emailed them, there are no plans from them yet to hold virtual event.
– Volunteer Match – has been updated, but we should rebrand there as Ace Makerspace.
– Efforts/ideas for recruiting person(s) of color to board
- Board members to report on what they are contributing
- Racial equality/justice REPORT & TAKE ON
- Reading group / racial equity resources channel > place to gather resources, organize some meetings around readings/discussion – Update? New Lead Needed
- Updates on the commitments and progress is in the SOO
- DISCUSSION Need leadership on how these ideas take form.
- Program Updates
- All programs/cert efforts require update. No activity to report at this time. DISCUSSION This is concerning. Steward engagement lacking.
- “Oakland Community PPE” – Need to complete set up prior to WFD participants start.
- Rebranding updates
- DISCUSSION Next steps
- DBA Filing – Somebody needs to own filing a DBA for Ace. This means researching how to do it, doing it and then filing the records in a the Secretary google drive and etc. It also means when you learn about it communicating any requirements we may have for posting in the space or in website disclosure or on reciepts. etc. – It is possible to recruit a member to do this as somebody might have experience. Owner would still be responsible for owning the process and being the point person for the member. (ie don’t roll this work back to Crafty)
- DISCUSSION Next steps
- Reopening Planning and actions updates
- Basics and Construction – Done
- Occupancy Tracking and Scheduling – 90% done
- Pre-Opening Inspections – Pending room layouts
- IT and Remote Staffing (network and cameras) -90% done
- C19 Safety Program – Live program underway, recording next
- Room Layouts and Set-up – Lagging
Reports
- Executive Director
- Q&A from latest SOO
- Treasurer
- Q&A from latest SOO
- Update on Relief Efforts – relief dashboard
- Vice President
- Q&A from latest SOO
Old Business
- Secretary role is open DISCUSSION
- Interim plan
- Recruiting plan
- Volunteer Match updated to promote for a self-starter.
See Admin Work Party-list from Asana
Comments and Announcements
- DECIDE Next Board Meeting date and contact person (responsible for calendar, agenda) >> ASSIGN to temporary volunteer.
Adjournment