12/19/2022 Town Hall

From Fat Cat Fab Lab

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?