12/19/2022 Town Hall
Location: Zoom with some Members at the lab Joe Kim, Joe S, David Choi, Harold Morales, Hackett, Mars, Simon, Eric, Paul, Ryan, Mehran, Damon, Frank
Agenda
- What does the Board do?
- What responsibilities does a FCFL Board Member have?
- Your questions on the Board Election
- Your ideas for the lab in 2023!
What does the Board do?
What the Board did in 2022
- Organizational
- Corporation Documents
- Bylaws creation using nonprofit template
- Compile corporate binder with initial meetings
- Board assembling
- Membership
- Membership Growth
- from 60 members to 107 members (signed up >100 members)
- 33 members bins
- Community Building
- Skeleton crew to bustling
- Policies
- Membership Terms - removed 2 mo requirement
- New Code of Conduct
- New Member Responsibilities
- Finances
- Taxes
- Find non-profit CPA
- Create books for all years of incorporation
- File all taxes to get current
- Banking
- Transfer checking and reserves
- Create monthly operational budget
- Education
- Classes & Workshops
- Teachers
- New teacher policy
- 7 teachers (5 BUS)
- CNC Router (BUS)
- Laser (BUS)
- Woodshop (BUS)
- 3D Printing
- Analog Electronics
- Residency Program
- Revamped
- Hosted 2 residents
- Meetups
- DC212
- DIY Robocars
- Mechanical Keyboards
- Other Initiatives
- CRNY AEP Grant Proposal with Hack Manhattan
- Physical Space
- Cleaned up - 4000 lbs went to dump
- New Leases for 2022 and 2023
- Reorganized or made new
- Laser room
- Metalshop
- Electronics corner
- 3D Printing area
- Sewing station
- Photography area (by Damon H)
- Painting wall (by Alejandra M)
- Flat storage (by David C)
- Scrap wood storage (by John A)
- Electrical Panel - completely separate from bar
- Equipment / Software
- New right laser comp
- ‘New’ laser laptop
- New 3D printers
- Solidworks CAD/CAM license
- Digital Space
- Updated website
- New wiki (by Kerrick S)
- Trello
What responsibilities does a FCFL Board Member have?
- Ensure FCFL activities compliant and furthers FCFL mission
- Manage & develop FCFL volunteers and culture
- Develop, implement, monitor FCFL programs
- Look for ways to improve FCFL by creating initiatives to achieve
- Build relationships with donors, funders, supporters, collaborators, allies, vendors
- Effective external communication about FCFL organization’s mission, programs, activities
- Participate in FCFL events (ex: Open House, Meetups)
- Engage membership to maintain organizational infrastructure
- Answer member and non-member emails/Slack/in-person questions
- Attend and Contribute to Board meetings
- Enforce FCFL’s physical and digital space rules
- Keep access control online and functional
- Maintain physical space including, but not limited to, limited lifetime items, fire safety, life safety.
Questions on the Board Election
- Hackett: How is this an election if the entire Membership has only 20% voting power?
- Ryan: What do you guys think would happen there was more of a transition (little or no Board overlap)
- Mars: Are there transition documents?
Your ideas for the lab in 2023
- Simon: Collab with people - share ideas, larger projects with 5 - 10 people
- Hackett: Database of skills + interests of other Members. Reaching out to members as a group via email.
- Mars: Open Houses are at a specific time. Staggering scheduled events allows ppl to attend more events with other members.
- Frank: Information on project collaboration is hard to find here. Hackett: physical collab board in the space is better
- Mars: Running these initiatives / meetups is hard work. How can / should the Board support this?