2022-08-03 Transcript

Meeting 3rd August 2022
Roll Call
Gareth, MikeH James Spence, Andrew A, Malcolm, Betty, Steve, Ali, Andrew W, Aaron, Ian, Sam Roberts, Douglas, Claire, Benji.
Betty Chair.





8:05
Announcements and Events
Combat Robot Workshop on June 23rd. Great turnout. Thanks to Sam, Becyy, Gareth, Others who organised and helped out.
Informal Combat Robot tournament on Monday 15th. Advice and some parts will be available.
Milling and Turning workshop on the 20th and 27th of August.  20th definitely going ahead for milling and turning. Welding workshop also if we hit the required number.
Betty will run Crafternoon (mainly sewing) on August 21st at 1pm for a few hours. For members to get to know the craft room a little better.
Bob & Julian join.
8:06
Gareth asks: A new member was looking at the embroidery machine and someone said it was broken.
Betty: Someone hit an issue with it, but this was with the old machine, which has been fixed again.
8:06
If they are a new member they will need an induction on it anyway.
8:06
The machine upstairs is definitely working.
8:07
Ian: Invited to join Green Festival again. Sep 11th at the arboretum. Usually a good event for recruiting new members and showing off what we do. Would be good to get some volunteers and projects to bring along. Ideally green and environmentally friendly projects. Fully vegan event so can't show any projects with animal parts - no wool, leather, etc.
8:08
Event is off grid, so if you need power you will need to bring batteries unless it's solar, wind, pedal powered etc.
Let Ian know if you want to get involved or have something to show
8:09
Quick reminder:
Anyone using the old version of Zoom will need to upgrade before the next meeting as it is being deprecated.
8:09
Actions and Minutes of Last Meeting
Brief discussion of tablesaw (has its own agenda item later)


Steve Barnett
  8:15 PM
Financial Update
Andrew A: Finances wise is variable at the moment. Membership income quite static. Bumps from grants (february), workshop, snackspace, etc. Membership payments not really covering expenditure currently and has been for months. Some yearly outgoings e.g. about 1k for insurance, lots of purchases for safety and repairing fire damage. See wiki for details.
Ian asks if most of these things are one off or recurring.
Spending more on Snackspace but should also be bringing more in. Spending for EMF but that has brought income also that is now banked and will show up next month. Electricity usage has gone up also which is costing us.
Bank balance quite high at the moment. June expenditure incorrect in the graph - should be about £5000.
Looking at potential financial problems due to backdated business rates. Shouldn't be the case and this is being looked into.
Membership payments currently too low and rent likely to increase. Regardless of backdated payments business rates will likely increase due to usage of downstairs so will still cost us somewhat.
8:16
This is the main issue we need to sort out in the next six months to keep things sustainable (excluding spending on improvements and equipment).
8:18
Bob: Asks about electricity. Back in autumn asked if our unit cost was going to go up. After contacting BizSpace we were told it wasn't going to go up.
Andrew: Electricity increase is due to usage not cost - it has gone up from £200 to £500 because the space is back in use again.
Bob: Suggests this is similar to what it was before the LED lighting was installed.
Andrew: Dec 2018 it was £797 for electricity, so we are still less than that, though the data is confusing as we didn't get charged for the month after. Billing seems to be more consistent now.


dpslwk
  8:19 PM
https://hms.nottinghack.org.uk/instrumentation/electric


Steve Barnett
  8:20 PM
Sep 2019 is £855 but he suspects this is not a typical month.
Bob: asks if we're still at 26p a unit and points out it will likely go up, need to look at how we use electricity.
Andrew: Suggests LEDs have helped.
Bob: Encouraged that lights seem to be off far more than when we had flourescent tubes. Might be because there are less people or people are switching them off.
Steve: Points out it's much easier to find the switch now.
Andrew: Seemingly using less from the graphs


dpslwk
  8:20 PM
we are still iusing about 50% less than in 2019


Steve Barnett
  8:20 PM
Could also be down to less people coming in, however.
8:21
Bob: Suggest machinery usage may be the main consumption now rather than lights, but in the flourescent tube days it probably wasn't.
Andrew W: Points out that refridgeration may be an issue (but not a lot of scope for savings there).
8:21
Bob: Suggests keeping the chiller on Snackspace off. Suspects they are expensive.
8:22
Betty: Suggests we re-evaluate when we know what fixing the chiller will cost.
8:23
Teams Update
Douglas: CNC update - not an awful lot has happened. Tested dust extraction. Not quite complete but does capture dust.
Will try and do a CNC workshop, hopefully after milling/turning workshops so people can come in with a bit of experience.


dpslwk
  8:23 PM
£495.40  last 6 month average
£749.51  6 months average in 2019


Steve Barnett
  8:23 PM
Ian: Laser maintenance complete just a few minutes ago


Andrew Armstrong
  8:24 PM
Financial Graphs
5 files 
4 Expenditure Income and Bank.JPG


5 Expenditure Income and Bank.JPG


1 Income.JPG


2 Expenditure.JPG


3 Income vs Expenditure.JPG




Steve Barnett
  8:26 PM
Bob: Woodworking: Circular saw is now usable. Extractor works and saw works. What he doesn't know is how well it is extracting as the arrangement has changed. Intending to have some sessions (first next Tuesday afternoon - the 9th) where he observers how it is working. Possibly second session on the Wednesday 10th during the open night. Raised with Andrew about security of the plug.
Betty: According to last meeting discussing we were going to buy a key locking system for the plug. Asks if he's happy to continue with the supervised sessions for now.
Bob: Yes, but this will be him announcing when he will be around. Hoping that after a few sessions he'll have a good idea of how usable it is. One issue is there's no effective extraction for the top of the blade with the current setup. Not sure if this matters but need to find out or do something about to get better extraction.
Andrew W: To disambiguate, this is about the table saw, not hand held circular saw.
8:27
Bob: As far as other machines go, wood lathe is requiring more frequent attention than he'd like. Suspect Ryobi bandsaw is going to fail catastrophically soon and refuse to work at all. Currently tempermental. Likely capacitor failure on the motor. May be a cheap repair, unless it's the motor itself.
8:28
Betty: Bem mentioned he might want to donate or lend a lathe. Apologises that he couldn't make the meeting.
8:29
Bob: Heard about this but not pursued it. Worried about the situation with tools that are loaned to us. Got the feeling people don't really want loans.
Betty: Has made the difference clear between a donation and a loan. Still need to discuss it.
8:29
Andrew W: Points out if it's in the middle or towards the end of the life we'll wreck it because we'll hard on tools.
8:29
(so really needs to be a donation)
8:30
Bob: Doesn't know if the lathe is repairable currently. Previous repair is not good and need to do a better one. Could possibly reinstate the old lathe as we have parts except head bearings need replacing before it is usable. Might be £100-150.
8:31
(also a not insignificant amount of work so only viable if someone does it)
8:31
Betty: Asks if it could be done during Hack the Space weekend.
Andrew W: Proposes taking the topic out of the meeting and the woodworking team doing a review of the tools. Currently a bit ragged and not a lot of budget.
8:32
(or discussion on Slack)
8:32
Betty: Update from Matt - on average last 6 months of electric is £495.40 vs £749.51 in 2019.
8:36
Andrew A: Asks if membership team is able to do more than one open night a month
Ian: Suggests we need more volunteers for that to be practical
Andrew A: Points out we've lost members and need to find a way to run more open nights, which requires more members for the membership team.
Betty: Asks for volunteers
Benji: Asks what comms we use as nobody seems to know we are here.
Betty: Suggests we didn't have a comms and social media team currently and need help.
Benji: May be able to offer help with this.
Betty: Trying to come back out of the woodwork and do events again. Trying to get in touch with university too.
Andrew A: Also looking at a newsletter soon.
Mike: Left Lion will take our events, but not done it for two years. Need to get back into running stuff.
8:36
Andrew W: The concerning step is running membership tours, so need to get back into a state where these can happen again.
8:37
Before lockdown we didn't advertise but got 7 or 8 people every Wednesday evening for tours and would sign up half of them.
Bob: Reiterates we're currently doing a month's worth of tours on one night and we will struggle if the number of takers significantly increases - not short of potential members on the 2nd Wednesday of each month.
8:37
Ian: Would be nice to get back to weekly, just need more volunteers to run them at the moment.
Betty: Open Hack Night is also a good way for non-members to come and use tools and check the space out.
8:39
Fire & Health and Safety
Andrew A
Looking at getting RFID on tools that require or planned to require induction, but need parts.
Induction for tablesaw is under discussion. Need to discuss with Bob and of course the process needs to cover turning off the extractor appropriately.
8:40
Betty: Points at #metalworking Slack channel Re: Safety inductions for tools even for experienced users
Betty and Malcolm put up more fire extinguishers, but need to look at one near workshop exit at Hack The Space Weekend as scrap metal is in the way


Steve Barnett
  8:47 PM
Minimum Membership Payments
Andrew A: We went over VAT threshold of £85,000 in 2020 which was not noticed due to Pandemic. Have explained this to HMRC via a consultant accountant, but waiting to find out if we need to pay anything as a result of this, This happened during the last financial crisis so not exceptional circumstances. Unfortunately currently all our income counts towards this threshold and going over would essentially immediately take 20% of all our income which would make the space unsustainable.
Professional advice was to account for payments and donations separately as the latter are not VATable, so anything above the minimum membership fee would not be VATable.
We can't claim the defacto minimum of a penny as a minimum as the rules are not written this way and such a low value would not be accepted by HMRC. So we have to decide on a minimum payment. £5 is a value that we feel will be acceptable to HMRC but also does not place undue burden on the vast majority of our members.
Many Hackspaces do this and suggest a higher fee to their members, but most also have a higher minimum than this.
Aiming to implement this before Christmas but there is various work required to implement it.
There will be a future meeting to cover this in more details.
8:48
Mike and Andrew: Discussion about whether we directly communicate this minimum to HMRC - we don't but it's used during our accounting.
8:50
Unfortunately due to the way the law works there can be no exceptions to this minimum as it undermines the process. Everyone who pays over the minimum has to receive the same level of service so offering the same service for a lower amount effectively lowers the minimum. (edited) 
8:52
Betty: Points out that a lot of discussion has gone on to find a suitable figure that constitutes a legitimate minimum for a monthly membership.
8:53
Douglas: Need to reiterate that this hasn't changed the pay what you want system and the Hackspace still relies on donations above the minimum to survive and to improve.
8:53
Betty: Any questions please shout now, or email trustees who can answer questions, but this has to happen to solve the problem we are facing.
8:54
Mike: Points out that we are currently at a slight deficit and taking away 20% of that would be a huge problem.
8:54
Malcolm: Glad we are taking professional advice on this and that is has been brought up.
8:55
Betty: We will keep people up to date, once we hear back from HMRC (they are currently backlogged) or if there are further developments
8:55
Any Other Business
Mike: Out of space for drawings
Mike: Hoping to run some more events on Open Nights in the near future. Would be good if other people want do do stuff. Would be great to get back to where we were, but it needs people to run things.
8:56
Will put it in the newsletter.
8:56
Previously the events had to rhyme but dropping this as it is too hard.
:heart:
1

8:56
Meeting closed.
9:01
Andrew W points out new jigsaw, which Bob says is excellent.
Mike offers to make more QR code signs - just ask. :slightly_smiling_face: