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
• 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?