FCW Phone Board Meeting of June 28, 2018

FCW June 2018 Business Meeting

(June 28th, 2018)

Meeting conducted by phone conference

  1. Financial Summary: Bruce provided a snapshot of the finances.  FCW still challenged by balancing funding for projects against income.  We need to review all purchases and reach board consensus before spending funds on supplies etc until our financial health improves.
  2. Lease Agreement with Mitchell for Suite-B
    1. Description facility as a Suite has an all new connotation for the description as a Suite!!
    2. Two “small” revisions were made to the proposed agreement with Mitch regarding the lease of “Suite 2B” (Reference 2nd attachment).  The proposed changes agreed by the participating board members were to Clause 10 and Clause 11.  In summary: (i) as FCW is a 501c3 tax free entity, Mitch would be responsible for any taxes levied on FCW that he caused by the nature of his operations in the leased facility and (ii),  we removed the last sentence of Clause 11 to enable either party to terminate the agreement.
  3. Membership Status:
    1. Bruce reviewed the membership status for FCW based on payment records.  CMR agreed to follow up with members who were in arears to determine reasons for non-payment of dues.  We discussed procedure for restricting access if a member falls behind in their dues  (with no apparent intention to get caught up) as well as developing and publishing a policy to regarding restricting access to “problem” members.
    2. Procedure for restricting member access. This gets in to the combination lock system we now have and when we can work towards an electronic access system similar to what we had in the Shufford Mills facility.
    3. Policy for dealing with “problem” members. Suggest we adopt an “escalating” approach wherein (after board discussion) we (i) discuss the problem with the member, (ii) verbally warn the member, (iii) provide the member with a written notification and finally (iv) termination and change access criteria to lock out the member if the previous three steps have been in-effective. The decision to change facility access codes must come from a majority agreement of the Board and not from one single Board member. In every case we should work with all parties to resolve the situation before adopting the nuclear option.
  4. Projects & Infrastructure:
    1. Wood shop and CNC router are still priority #1 as agreed in prior meetings. We should strive to stay focused on completing these areas. Much progress has been made and kudos to those folks working in these areas. Key activities are wiring. Mitch to list what remaining tasks are needed and which need to be worked on first. Any estimates as to when we can start turning machines on? Talk about additional activities such as additional lighting dust control and venting etc.
    2. Train Room: Status. Suggest working on this only after woodshop is complete unless we run in to unforeseen delays with the woodshop implementation.
    3. Electrical Upstairs. Michelle to comment. Status of transformer hook up and inspection. What is, “not having the transformer on-line” preventing us from doing now?
    4. Science Area: Let’s list out specifically what needs to be done in the science area and identify any items that have to be purchased. Personal recommendation is that we get some equipment working so that it can be shown to visitors rather than concentrating on advancing the operational status of all equipment at a slower rate. Open to discussion on this point.
    5. Ham Radio Area: Additional kudos to the folks who installed antennas etc. to get the ham radio on the air. Focus should now be directed towards making the ham radio area look more professional – rather like the station photos that often appear in QST. For now, identify what needs to be done to achieve this objective and plan for it later.
    6. Arts and Crafts area: Area is getting better organized. List out where we should focus our activities to improve the “professional look” of the area. Where do we stand with the laser cutters etc.
  5. Outreach and PR.
    1. Garage sale. Talk about plans for the event and activities required to clean up the area where it is to be held.
    2. Report from Southeast Linux fair in which FCW participated. N/A
    3. ARRL Field Day. Successful event despite poor band conditions. Michelle et al to describe the highlights and what we might do differently to improve our operations for future events.
    4. Blackberry Festival in Lenoir. July 13 – 14. What are the thoughts for this event in just over two weeks?
  1. Miscellaneous:
    1. Good House keeping should continue to be an on-going priority. It is recognized that the appearance area will continue to be challenged as we build out. Let’s keep it as clean as we can without being anal.
    2. Pet peeve. Furniture is for sitting on. Is should NOT be used as a convenient place to “store stuff”. We have some expensive furniture and it will quickly go in to disrepair if we continue this practice.

A Hackerspace/Makerspace for the NC Foothills