2014-05-22 AGM Minutes

Roll Call: Steve Barnett, Edward Raisin, Sophie Wilkinson, Daniel Swan, Matt Lloyd, James Hayward, Craig Place, Jake Howe, Rob Hunt, James Fowkes, Michelle Strickland, Mouse, Kate Bolin, Toby Jackson, Lionel Goodwin, Ian Dickinson, Michael Erskine, Pat McDonald, Derek Stunal, Rob Hayward, David Clarke, Michel, Leigh Woosey, Berthill Schau, John Michael Quinlan, Vicke Wince, Ian Evans, Dominic Morrow, Rob Miles, Andrew Armstrong, Matt Little, Lori Amor, Mark Wilkinson, Betty Chau, Chris Gaines, Anthony Godber, Tristan Hessian, Gareth Howell, Gill Zirmir, Keith Chau, Tom Robinson, Ben Wild (with Ian Evans as his proxy vote), Andrew Mannip, Adam Cooper, Don Woodcock, Hazel (names to be adjusted for spelling)

(20:08:57) Katemonkey: NOTTINGHACK HACKSPACE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
(20:09:14) Katemonkey: Jake: Thank you for coming along? Is everyone okay tonight?
(20:10:02) Katemonkey: Jake: Later on, when we come to the special resolutions, when we have discussions, I'm going to have it where people raise their hands to speak.
(20:10:22) Katemonkey: If someone is making a point, and someone makes a very specific counterpoint, we will however allow the other person to respond.
(20:10:27) Katemonkey: State of the Union
(20:10:35) Katemonkey: Notable things that have happened in the Space:
(20:10:56) Katemonkey: * Safe Spaces Policy - if you're not familiar with it, it's on the Wiki and it's something to read to make sure that the space is safe for all people
(20:11:17) Katemonkey: * Laser Cutter - the giant laser cutter has arrived and it is the biggest thing we have pledged for to date
(20:11:38) Katemonkey: * Metal Working Area - We have made serious progress on the metal working area
(20:11:52) Katemonkey: * Over 250 members this year
(20:11:56) Katemonkey: * Craft Room - Major progress
(20:12:06) Katemonkey: * Dusty Area - New and well developed
(20:12:16) Katemonkey: * Maker Faires - lots of members and the space going to a lot of different maker faires
(20:12:29) Katemonkey: * The Brian Churn Donation - lots of cool things donated and being used
(20:12:44) Katemonkey: * Computerphile - lots of good projects and members featured on this YouTube channel
(20:13:13) Katemonkey: * Ardunio Workshops - Five workshops this year with most of them sold out
(20:13:28) Katemonkey: * Other new Groups - ukulele groups, photography groups, and such
(20:13:38) Katemonkey: * Arduino Birthday Party
(20:14:23) Katemonkey: Financial Report
(20:14:55) Katemonkey: James: Year-end report
(20:15:13) Katemonkey: Our financial year runs September to September and our accountants have filed the report for tax purposes.
(20:15:14) chickengrylls: Churm
(20:15:34) Katemonkey: Turnover: 30/9/2012 - 30/9/2013 - £28,025
(20:15:41) Katemonkey: Spent: £24,000
(20:15:55) Katemonkey: Surplus: £3,896
(20:16:11) Katemonkey: Tax liability: £0
(20:16:22) Katemonkey: The full accounts are on the wiki, so please have a look.
(20:16:32) Katemonkey: For an update up until now, now Matt
(20:16:42) Katemonkey: Matt: For last AGM to this AGM:
(20:16:48) Katemonkey: Bank balance: £6,021
(20:16:58) Katemonkey: Including paypal and cash balance, approximately £6,500
(20:17:07) Katemonkey: Started with 175 members, now up to 256
(20:17:19) Katemonkey: Outgoings: £30,086
(20:17:37) Katemonkey: Of which just over £15,000 was to BizSpace, approximately £3000 to electricity
(20:17:46) Katemonkey: £14,000 on other expenses
(20:17:58) Katemonkey: Membership dues: £24,730
(20:18:12) ral: LWK: Briefly, yes
(20:18:17) Katemonkey: Workshops: £1,900 with a lot from Arduino workshops
(20:18:26) Katemonkey: Snackspace: £2,800 approximately
(20:18:47) Katemonkey: Pledges: £3,750
(20:18:54) Katemonkey: Mostly the laser pledges coming in
(20:19:28) LWK: ral we where looking for proxy votes but are good now thanks
(20:19:33) Katemonkey: James: The good thing about buying the laser through pledges means that the pledges come in as income, and then we're able to claim the laser as an expense, and then we deprecate the laser over the years, which means less taxes.
(20:19:39) ral: ok cool
(20:19:41) Katemonkey: Jake: Special Resolution 2.6
(20:20:04) Katemonkey: James: Resolution is that we change section 2.6 of the constitution to that the AGM will be quorate if more than 10% of the membership attends
(20:20:31) Katemonkey: Pros would be that we would be able to get quorate faster and easier, cons would be that we should be able to get 20% interested in AGM
(20:20:36) Katemonkey: Any for or against comments?
(20:21:04) Katemonkey: Chris Cain: If you reduce it by too much, it becomes possible to have something like a hostile takeover of the hackspace - one person comes in and gets all the people in.
(20:21:13) Katemonkey: Adam: Is there an intermediary number between 10 and 20?
(20:21:18) Katemonkey: James: It's whatever we agree today
(20:21:32) ral: 26 people seems too few
(20:21:49) Katemonkey: Lee: Argument for - if we have 10%, then if the membership increases massively, then we will still all fit
(20:22:20) Katemonkey: James: That is a very good point, but if we get more members, we can always rent space. The amount of physical space in the space should not relevant.
(20:23:01) Katemonkey: Dominic: Last year, we achieved our quorum, this year, we achieved our quorum, and I think there are other things we could do to get our membership involved.  We can work on our proxy voting. We could post proxy forms in the post, we can do a lot more
(20:23:29) Katemonkey: Michael: I know I've been asked more than once if I'm coming to the AGM, but people could pledge to come to the AGM.  We would know in advance that we would be quorate if people were there.
(20:24:21) Katemonkey: Berthill: I'm coming from Loughborough, and it was touch-and-go for me coming, so if I hadn't turned up, you would have possibly not been quorate. I think that 15-18% would be a good option. And also push proxy voting.
(20:24:41) Katemonkey: Lionel: Anybody who thinks that they might not make it can always bring in a proxy.
(20:25:11) Katemonkey: Sophie: I can get keeping it as it is, but also keeping forms around for people to write them in would be good, so people could post.
(20:25:39) Katemonkey: Michael: I know some members who will not have read their emails in the past few months, so we need to figure out other ways to tell people.
(20:26:03) Katemonkey: Chris: Couldn't you change the proxy system to say that all members have given their votes to the chairperson of the AGM unless they show up?
(20:26:07) Katemonkey: *laughter*
(20:26:32) Katemonkey: Adam: Back to email, I don't remember seeing an email, so it might be that people might not get them.
(20:26:45) Katemonkey: Andrew: I knew a member who would've been here, but she never got the email.
(20:27:06) Katemonkey: James: Vote proposed - We are going to vote on whether or not it should be changed.
(20:27:10) Katemonkey: James: Should we keep it the same?
(20:27:13) Katemonkey: Obvious majority
(20:27:17) Katemonkey: Kept at 20%.
(20:28:11) Katemonkey: James: Interestingly, every single proxy vote given chose to change. I think it shows that we should encourage members to show up, because the discussion obviously changed people's minds.
(20:28:25) Katemonkey: Jake: If I remember, the exact same thing happened last year.
(20:28:34) Katemonkey: Jake: Special Resolution 2.5
(20:28:38) nh-holly: (notice) Door opened by: Hazel (last seen 34d 04h 24m 08s ago)
(20:29:49) Katemonkey: James: Proposal to change section 2.5 of the constitution, that deals with election of trustees
(20:30:02) Katemonkey: This is a substantial change to the sections and how the elections will run.
(20:30:05) Katemonkey: Summary of the changes:
(20:31:14) Katemonkey: When trustee positions become vacant - remove the part about trustees needing a month to state that they're going to stand down.
(20:31:53) Katemonkey: Wait, change:
(20:32:16) Katemonkey: Jake will post:
(20:32:18) gmjhowe: A trustee wishing to stand down part way through their term must give one and a half months notice, to allow for the election of a replacement.
(20:32:37) Katemonkey: Replacement trustees only take up the remainder of the trustee's term
(20:32:55) Katemonkey: Normal elections must take place around the AGM, no less than 2 weeks after
(20:33:04) gmjhowe: 2.5.6 Trustees at the end their of term remain on the board until the successful completion of elections
(20:34:18) gmjhowe: 2.5.7 Any member can nominate themselves to stand for election by giving notice to the community during the nomination window.
(20:34:41) Katemonkey: Then it's just renumbering and moving around
(20:34:46) Katemonkey: Comments?
(20:35:02) Katemonkey: Jake: Initially, is there any specific one that anyone wants James to re-read?
(20:35:28) Katemonkey: [name]: Every time when the trustees finish, that's all the trustees?
(20:36:00) Katemonkey: James: It's staggered. This year, it's Kate, Jake, and David Clarke, but James, David Hayward, Gareth, and Matt are still trustees
(20:36:13) Katemonkey: David Clarke: And trustees can stand for re-election?
(20:36:15) Katemonkey: James: Yes.
(20:36:37) Katemonkey: Pat: Early ending of a trustee standing down - what about ill health or death or anything where you don't have prior notice?
(20:37:11) Katemonkey: James: I would say that for ill health - you can remain a trustee as long as you're contactable in some way.  And we would just run the elections as soon as we could.
(20:37:36) Katemonkey: Chris: I don't know if the notice period should be in the rules.  It's up to the trustee, and there's no way to enforce that notice.  It's all on the goodness of the trustees.
(20:37:59) Katemonkey: James: It's to clarify what the trustee's role as well.  If you're a trustee, we would hope you read the constitution.
(20:38:09) Katemonkey: Edward: Why are the elections not at the AGM? That might bring more people in.
(20:38:53) Katemonkey: James: It doesn't.  We used to have actual paper elections at the AGM, and we had difficult turnout.  This time around, it'll be electronic voting, they'll get emails, and it will be all over the members.
(20:39:12) Katemonkey: We should have ran the election in the week up to AGM, but this amendment allows us to run the election at any time.
(20:39:32) Katemonkey: Matt: Why do we want to do it after the AGM? Why not do it the week before?
(20:40:00) Katemonkey: James: It's fairly arbitrary - right now, we were thinking this to have the potential candidates stand up so that you can know them by face and by name.
(20:40:15) Katemonkey: James Fowkes: Can you clarify that timing would be "around" the AGM.  That sounds quite wooly.
(20:41:06) Katemonkey: James: It's intentionally woolly so that we can decide at the time.  So, for example, if something very important is happening right after AGM, we can run the election before. We can include a clause about the election not running before X weeks ahead.
(20:41:36) Katemonkey: Vote proposed: For or against, should we accept the resolution?
(20:41:50) Katemonkey: Majority votes yes.
(20:42:23) Katemonkey: Jake: Trustees to Stand Down
(20:42:35) Katemonkey: James: Can the trustees who are standing down please rise?
(20:42:38) Katemonkey: Kate: No, I'm typing
(20:42:46) Katemonkey: Jake: No, I can't stand up to stand down
(20:43:30) Katemonkey: James: I just want to thank the three trustees that are standing down.
(20:43:49) Katemonkey: Jake and Kate are not running for re-election to get new blood into the trustees. David is standing for election.
(20:44:12) Katemonkey: Jake: Election
(20:44:18) Katemonkey: James: Two points that need covering
(20:44:40) Katemonkey: We are currently not allowed to run elections after the AGM.  So there is a proposal that we allow this election to run after the AGM.
(20:44:43) Katemonkey: All in favour?
(20:44:50) Katemonkey: Majority says yes.
(20:45:15) Katemonkey: We have the most trustee nominations.
(20:45:40) Katemonkey: Andrew Armstrong, Dominic, David Clarke, Sophie, James Fowkes, Michael Erskine, and Pat are all running to be trustees.
(20:46:36) Katemonkey: Michelle is the returning officer and the election will start from tonight.
(20:46:47) Katemonkey: We will be using a Single Transferrable Vote system
(20:46:58) Katemonkey: You rank the nominees by the order you want them in.
(20:47:14) Katemonkey: The election will run for 7 days. Please look at the timing in your email.
(20:47:33) Katemonkey: Pat: On this OPA Voting System, you rank candidates by the system. Will it be clear?
(20:47:54) Katemonkey: James: Yes. This is the same system London Hackspace uses for their elections, so it will be very clear and it will more than likely be 1-6
(20:48:06) Katemonkey: Matt: Is there any option for people who don't use their email much?
(20:48:35) Katemonkey: James: If they don't get their emails, they might not know the election is on, but if they want to vote offline, they can talk to Michelle.
(20:49:00) Katemonkey: Michelle: If anyone who wishes to vote online and does not have an email address, they can contact me with another address that the voting code can be sent to.
(20:49:32) Katemonkey: Dominic: Every member has an email address, and all members have access to HMS, and it's all in there and that's how you control your password and access to the Wiki and such.
(20:49:53) Katemonkey: And if you're not getting the emails, then you need to check.
(20:50:03) Katemonkey: Berthill: Plus it might get in the spam filters.
(20:50:49) Katemonkey: James: We use Mailchimp for our newsletters, and it generally doesn't go to spam.
(20:51:09) Katemonkey: Mouse: If you generally tell people to add the email address to their address book, it usually doesn't get into spam folders.
(20:51:48) Katemonkey: James: Any other comments about the election?
(20:51:55) Katemonkey: No comments.
(20:52:15) Katemonkey: Jake: There is no AOB for this meeting.  If you have other business, bring it to a members' meeting.
(20:52:37) Katemonkey: Kate: You should tell them when it is. June 4th.
(20:52:46) Katemonkey: Jake: And that's the end of the meeting.
(20:52:54) Katemonkey: Sophie: There's a large number of krispie treats!