General Assembly 2/notes

General assembly 12/10/2010

report

report of the General Assembly meeting of Hackerspace VZW (HSB) - 12th of October 2010

• Number of members of HSB vzw: 33
• Number of members present: 16
• Number of members excused: 4

• Number of members needed to have a valid meeting: 11 (1/3 of total)

• present: ptr_, pierre, nicodache, askarel, dragos, tazo,redfern,jurgen, michael, Xflame,hans,wouter,yann,paspas,fs111,jeroen
• excused: chri,teirdes,helixblue,prototypex29a

ACK the notes/report of previous meeting

Notes of last year

OK for everyone, no remarks.

Board members of HSB

the current board (april 2009- october 2010) being: Wouter, Hans, Tazo, ptr_

2 board members are willing to step down because they believe it would serve the hackerspace better if locals are more involved instead of remote people. If nobody steps up, nothing changes. We have a group discussion on who's willing to take up the responsability of becoming a new board member.

New board members stepped up:

New board:

• ptr_
• Wouter
• Askarel !!!!
• Michael !!!!

all hail to the new brussels boardmembers!! unicorns and rainbows!!

Financial status

Status currently

we had our 3 monthly 'books-better-be-balanced' meeting last week, where we kept the bookkeeping up to date. askarel will be the 'financial guy' for the coming 3 months (oct2010-jan2011) (thnx tazo, and wouter for doing this job before)

• rent has been paid till & including october
• 1300+/- in bank
• couple of hundreds cash

tax

the 2010-tax-form (income of the year 2009) has been sent to government administration (ptr_ took care of this and put up his name as a contact there).

Membership fee

• members who don't pay their membership-fee will be contacted by the board. members who don't respond to our call and/or neglect to pay the membership-fee after this warning, will have their membership to HSB vzw effectively terminated immediately (the board keeps a log of communications & motivates these decisions on the first following general assembly).
• pierre calls the meeting to augment membership money to be able to pay the full rent of the space.
• the membership fee got augmented to 10EUR per month. this will be effective from beginning of November 2010.
• the membership is preferably payed by bank transfer in a monthly,automatic payment- members who want an exception to this contact the financial responsible.

Cash money

the cash-jar needs to be counted & emptied regularly. to make this easy, everybody is asked to take his/her responsability in this.

procedure:

• whenever there is too much money in the jar (eg. >25 EUR), count it and put it in an envelope. write your name (nick and/or email), money count and DATE on it and put the closed envelope (with content inside) in the cash register (black box), so the financial responible can find it there. empty envelopes are found in the wooden box.
  • remark: pref. leave a small selection of coins in the jar for change
• the 'financial guy' will recount the content of these envelopes, logs down amounts & date (not the id) and do the bank transfers.

Every member can haz Keys

all members have to be able to get a key to the space. the HSB will do the necessary to install an electronic lock to the front door (so we can easily create/revoke keys). the roller-shutter lock will not be changed (this key is easy to copy).

How many keys in the field? http://hackerspace.be/Category:Keys

Insurance

we are still investigating options for insuring the HSB. the board is allowed to take steps in this once options are investigated.

there is a short discussion on hazards & security measures

a remark is made that the fire extinguishers should be mounted on the wall to make them easily visible and reachable)

Varia

Cleanup

a regular cleanup would be nice: members are invited to organize a regular (monthly?) cleanup meeting through the wiki and mailinglist.

Mailing list

a new mailinglist got created (hsbxl@discuss.hackerspaces.be). this is an open mailinglist, specific to hackerspace brussels (unlike code31) - a public announcement/inivitation to join this list will be sent out to all members & interested.

tazo: admins required; conclusion:

• Wouter
• Michael
• Askarel
• tazo

Workshops

we quickly discuss what can be good incentives for ppl(members) to organize workshop and other activities at HSB. everybody is heard, but no actions taken /decided upon.

Heating

different options are discussed.

• insulation of the flat glass panes in front window will be done (styrofoam panels - wouter)
• the connection to the heater will be revised: two copper pipes will have to be switched - ptr_ and askarel coordinate this
• an electrical heater is necessary in worst-case scenarios. people are invited to do number-crunching on available machines (use those cycles -- don't just burn them!)

Inventory

ptr_ and others are owner of several items in the space. these stay their personal property, but it's necessary to clearly mark name of the owner on the device. members are free to use these devices.

closing the meeting

the meeting is closed.

• reports will be sent out by ptr_
• the new board becomes effective immediately

thnx to all for making this happen!

---

verbatim notes

taken during the meeting:

General assembly 12/10/2010

Number of members present: 16
Number of members needed: 11

[http://hackerspace.be/General_Assembly_%28aka._TechTue36%29 Notes of last year]

== Overview of last meeting ==

Still everyone is ok.

== Board of directors HSB ==

For now: Wouter, Hans, Tazo, Ptr

Tazo:  spending more and more time in ghent, following hans, if there are  people wanting to take over, i'm willing to pass the seat.

Hans:  me too, but know this might cost the space money, so maybe leave me on  it, but we do need to think more about meta-organisation, used to do  this in the beginning, no longer though, had look at the calendar and  seems ok so maybe nothing to worry about.

Tazo:  also concern for me, think people from antwerp or ghent haven't gotten  the time anymore to do this, but would be better to have people from bxl  to do this, feeling like the space is getting in troubles on this level

Ptr: also sharing concern, not sure if my role is bad, i do like to do it though

Hands raising: lots of peoples from bxl present!!

Tazo: anyone up for a board place?

Hans: beware, a member of the board does nothing more or special, except more pulling

Tazo: more responsability though

Ptr: with fork of ghent and antwerp, dynamic bit lost in bxl

Sandb: concerned about lack of enthousiasm to join the board from other members

Michael: wants to do more,  but does not know, what it actually means to be on the board

Ptr: first board: kickstart, new board: focus on making it work for local people from bxl

Xflame: No benefits to change the board, if you continue to stick to the hackerspace concept because it is going to be endless changes

Tazo: but the board carries responsibility 

Ptr: saner to have bxl people to be on the board, local people , we can continue, but would be nicer

Wouter: it's the law, no way to avoid changing, it's normal, I admire people that say when they want to give space to others

Pascal: actual problem: some board members are also members of other spaces, select board members locally, more stability

Ptr: forking spaces is cool, great, i like it

sandb: changing [[Statutes|the statutes]] is not very expensive

redfern: dont need to change it now on the papers, only needed every few years, if it is in the status notes it is official, costs nothing

ptr: lets look it up and find out

askarel: is interested to be a board member, but is afraid of the workload

various peeps: there is no workload!

jurgen: crazy idea, but why not make all members board members?

sandb: legally not possible, a vzw needs at least one member (by law)

tazo: there is a job opening, think about it!

pascal: at least one assembly per year, but we can have more (e.g. next month)

ptr: but we need 1/3 member

wouter: can a mailing list count as gen assembly

various peeps: we don't know

ptr: so we come back on it?

wouter: lets ask people later during the meeting

conclusion: point to be taken up later in the meeting, not concluded yet

hans: point: you can get [[Insurance|insured]] againt personal responsibility as a board member.

tazo: can have a later chat from boardmember to prospect board members to clarify all questions

'''New board''':
* Ptr
* Askarel !!!!
* Michael !!!!

all hail to the new brussels boardmembers!! unicorns and rainbows!!

== [[Finance|Financial]] status ==

'''Status currently''':
* rent has been paid till october
* 1300+/- in bank
* couple of hundreds cash

ptr: put in a tax form, put in his name

pascal: in ghent they have a list in possible investments, do we have this in bxl?

ptr: in bxl we have this (there is a [[whishlist]])

pascal: should we use this money to buy?

wouter: income is drinks, membership is for rent, and very little, e.g. 155 for this month

redfern: don't forget the heating, which is also on the agenda, requires funds?

ptr: rent includes all, also heating, but don't expect too much

tazo: isolation investments

ptr: wants to make big curtain

sandb: don't feel good about the rent

wouter: think it's valuable to raise rent

pascal: think membership might be too high to allow for new members

wouter: we have now almost double members against last year

sandb:  wants to move to a financial situation, where everything is more clear  and strict, when it comes to financials (see also hackerspace design  patterns)

tazo & xflame: if you are a member, you pay, otherwise you are not a member

ruttger: suggests one person resp. for financials, not a loose group

ptr: tazo did all the work in the first year

sandb: financial resp. has to make sure, everybody pays

Michael: if you cannot pay 5€, there is smth really wrong, this is not India!

tazo: have better technology to make it more transparent: "Excelleken" to be published

askarel: go for personal first, then impl. technology solution

tazo: says, that ~20 peeps are paying, wants to publish it, anomised ;-)

sandb: be careful with privacy concerns!

hans: sees no problem

[[Membership]] fee:
fs111 want 10Eur and ask for a vote because its nothing!
_ptr is happy with 5
sandb want more
Hans agree

membership 10Eur by a vote effective on November

What will be done with the money?

[[Keys]]?
How many keys in the field? http://hackerspace.be/Category:Keys

A copy can be done by everybody

what happend with keys about members that don't come anymore?

People need to sign for keys

What happend if you lose keys?

== Every member a key ==
- electronic [[keys]]?

hans: talking about security in a hackerspace can take a very long time

== Cash [[money]] ==

procedure:  whenever there is enough money, put it in an enveloppe, put your name,  count it, put total on it, put DATE on it, put it in the cash register,  envelopes are in the wooden box.

pascal: worries about making an error

ptr: leave like 15 euro in pot so if someone needs change, some change is present

ptr: membership only via bank -> yes, unless its absolutely not possible

sandb: do not worry about errors, it happens, srsly no problem

== Cleanup ==

tazo: do monthly cleanup like in ghent (cleaning caturday?)
wouter: make a monthly move to the container park?
ptr: put it on the wiki to organise?

decision: either cleanup or container park: put it on the wiki to organise?

== [[Mailing list]] ==

tazo: new mailing list?
ptr: tazo already made an open mailing list: hsbxl@discuss.hackerspaces.be

Mail to be send out:
------------------------
Hello,

We will merge the public and the members-only mailinglist into the new public hsbxl mailinglist: hsbxl@discuss.hackerspaces.be

You can subscribe here http://discuss.hackerspaces.be/listinfo.cgi/hsbxl-hackerspaces.be . As a member you get automatically subscribed ;-)

The same patterns apply on the mailing list as in the space: http://hackerspace.be/Patterns

Cu you there and thx Code31 for having us!

Cheers,
Hsbxl general assembly members :-)
------------------------


tazo: admins required; conclusion:
* Wouter
* Michael
* Askarel
* tazo

== Every member a key? ==

current list seems up-to-date?

ptr: go to electronic [[lock]]? roller we will need a key.

pascal: want to do that!!

conclusion: towards 1st of jan: having an electronic lock in the space as No 1 project

fs111: "It's like a firewall on Windows 98"

== [[Workshops]] ==

askarel: we ask for donation for non members, should also be small compensation for speakers

wouter: speakers drink for free

pascal: pay your membership for a year if you do workshop 

various: most people already do give workshop

askarel: free food also for speaker?

fs111: a day of work preparing = fun and personal growth, don't do this unless you want to do this

michael: should not do workshop for money or food or drinks, do it for yourself

hans: well, if you can drink 10 duvels and still do a workshop? respect!!

== [[Insurance]] ==

Ptr: did someone look for the possibilities?

Various: no

Tazo: talked to argenta

Hans: someone of Antwerp, Elias, had a look at that??

Michael: Do we want insurance

Pascal: what in case of fire of the space?

Ptr: I have a fire insurance, but don't know in the renting situation

Ptr: if no one looked, lets not discuss this now?

Jurgen: note: if there is fire, it's not the person, it's the situation

Askarel: insurance: important, definitely need to look into that

Pascal: insurance can also help us to set requirements

Wouter: we have to look into that

Michael: if they ask us for fire extinguishers: there must be a reason for that

Jurgen: is security and safety expert, will take a look at insurance papers

== [[Heating]] ==

Pascal: hot members welcome!

Askarel: gas heater -> be careful with exaust gasses

ptr: likes smell of gas

Wouter: small isomo plates to the walls to decrease the cold bridges

Ptr: ok with velcro or so, not ok with glueing it (permanent)

Ptr: isomo for two window panes?

Hans: put plastic curtain on the outside?

Ptr: still into building curtains here

pascal : let's fix building heating before cold times

sandb:  does heating work -> no; can we fix it? seems not; will it work when  curtain is in front of it? -> most probably not.

askarel: pipes are reversed

ptr: piping is hard to fix

askarel: can borrow equipment to fix this (switch at heater)

conclusion:
two fronts:
* fix heatingdf
* do isolation

as a last resort:
* electric heating

xflame: carpet on the ground?
askarel : ceiling cat^Wfan ftw? 

== [[Inventory]] ==

* How to track ownership?
* How to label stuff?
*e

OPEN POINTS:
---------------------
- how to deal with members who don't pay membership money? 
> kick him (and begin with kicking me out - nicodache)

- techtuesday?
- board