[sudoroom] July 9th Meeting Notes

[Marina Kukso]

Sorry everyone, forgot to send these around!

- Marina

_________________

Attendees: Eddan, Anthony, Victoria, Marina, Matt, Aestetix, Timon, Jehan,
Troy

Agenda: Announcements followed by discussion of draft proposal

Announcements:

   - Code for Oakland: July 21st:  Sudoroom has been invited to set up an
   info table. (Who wants to table?)
   - Oaklandwiki: http://oaklandwiki.org/ has just launched! If you want to
   be involved, you can start adding pages! If you'd like to receive emails
   and be further involved in activity-planning, brainstorming, please contact
   marina.
      -  Suggestion: use oaklandwiki as the sudoroom wiki
   - Sudoroom Radio!: Project for the future. Start livestreaming.
   short-range FM broadcast (series of wavelengths) that are exempted from FCC
   regs. Action item: create wiki page about this. (equipment needed,
   interested parties, etc.)
   - Next first friday event: Aug. 3 Ghostbusters playing at the Paramount.
   We have 2 marshmallow men. We should reserve the classroom and start the
   planning for this FF.
   - Tech Liminal 3rd BDay event:
   http://techliminal.com/event/tech-liminal-is-3/?instance_id=
   - Eddan's fundraiser: Folks who want to contribute to June/July rent
   should let Eddan or the list know by the end of the day 7/10. After that
   point, Eddan will divide rent by the number of people who have agreed by
   the end of the day 7/10.


Discussion of Governance Structure:

Presentation of draft ideas on governance page:
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Sudo_room/Governance_Structure

****This is a proposal for by-law production protocol - ie, how do we
generate the bylaws while staying in a house. This isn't a proposal for the
actual governance structure.

- Initial suggested draft discussion

- Everyone had had time to review and comment on the draft last week and on
the wiki, so there wasn't a great deal of discussion.


- Matt's draft discussion:

- need to start contributing money

- voting happens only on issues that touch on financial, liability, and
governance (this leaves all other decisions in the hands of users of the
space).
- what happens if individuals have disagreements about whether, for
example, an issue creates liability for the group? response: goals of
having folks settle disagreements outside of the larger group, ie, without
the whole body needing to decide.
- concern about whether the three categories are too loose. suggestion to,
for example, list the actual financial decisions that concern the group
(such as rent).


- question: what does access mean?
- comment: price as a barrier and disincentive for new potential
participants - if financial/equivalent contribution is required for making
decisions about the direction of the organization, this may prevent new
interested parties from feeling like stakeholders. getting to vote and
participate in the direction of the group is a key way that people develop
an investment in the group.
- a robust system for non-financial ways to contribute is necessary for
this to work. (there are options that the group has researched - all
available on the research space)
- suggestion: explicitly list the # of things that exchange for monthly
dues.
- the monthly price point can also make a difference to level of access
- question: how does this draft proposal with interpersonal
disagreements? response: the draft doesn't deal with this


Other comments:

- Idea to try different organizational/financial structures over time. Ex:
reach out to other hackerspaces one month to pool together for our rent. Ex
2: Raise rent via ebay
- Comment: Experimentation is interesting and can be used to fund specific
items/projects (or can be used alongside other forms of revenue
generation), but the fact that rent is a constant means that a steady
revenue-generation stream is necessary.
- Comment: joint membership in a community umbrella group. Ex: Noisebridge
and techshop have joint membership.


End of discussion of different proposals, we moved on to areas of
agreement/disagreement/suggestions which we mapped out on a whiteboard. The
final product is what we've presented here:
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Sudo_room/Governance_Structure#Final_Proposal
which
everyone can vote on via: http://www.ballotbin.com/voterReg.php?b=35609
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