2022-11-02 Transcript

Steve Barnett
  20:03
Meeting:
Attendees
SteveB, Ali M, Gareth, Andrew W, Andrew A, Bob W, Mike H, Douglas C, Chris R, Aaron, Keith Stimpson


Steve Barnett
  20:11
Announcements and Events:
Sam, Becky, Simon & Steve went down to Bristol with with their combat robot Keith the Teeth for the Bristol Bot Builders Beetleweight Championships. Had a great time and got close to winning some fights, improving steadily. Won the Spirit of BBB Award and hoping to convince the Bristol Bot Builders guys to come visit.
AGM: Next member's meeting timeslot on Zoom. 8pm on Dec 7th. Announcement will go out soon asking for items for discussion, Agenda will be published 7 days before.
Next Hack the Space is Dec 10th - Saturday after the AGM
One Shot Wonders: Last one on Oct 20th Andrew A ran D&D. Thanks to Andrew for running it. Next one is Nov 17th Duncan will be running a one shot of a sci-fi game - Tales From The Loop. Signup page is on the wiki. We'd like to do a Christmas one - let us know if there's something you'd like to run. No commitment to come more than once since we're running one shots.
Milling/Turning/Welding workshops - next dates are 19th and 26th November. £47.50 - emails the form available on Slack to the Trustees to sign up.
Teams
3D Printing: Dave is running an induction workshop that some people have signed up for. Going ahead this Sunday.
Comms: We are looking for help with social media if members are interested.
Craft: Machines have been serviced and will be returned ASAP. Brother, Simplicity, and Embroidery Machine.
Electronics: Dividers have been thrown out, but maybe next Hack the Space we can make some better ones. Maybe some pegboards. (edited) 
20:12
Metalworking: Planning on starting up a working group for the downstairs metalworking area. First step is to figure out cabling. Planning on doing this starting next Tuesday 8th 19:30. Douglas will post more info soon in #general
20:13
Need member involvement to get stuff done.
20:13
Lots of junk removed on Hack the Space day, but there is a lot to get done.


Steve Barnett
  20:18
Laser: Planning on doing some repairs that are much needed.
Software: Some HMS changes needed. Looking for people who know PHP and want to contribute to HMS.
Woodworking: Thicknesser should be reassembled tomorrow, and hopefully will work. Bob has done 12 free tablesaw safety inductions so far, recording names to input into HMS later. Trustees will go through this process with Bob soon. (also noted a HMS bug where neither inductors or Trustees can remove users from a tool, so care is needed).
Bike Maintenance: Team now exists. Doing good stuff getting the bike area ready.


Steve Barnett
  20:24
Membership: Mike and Aaron have created a zine for new members. Lots of tours running. Numbers are somewhat inconsistent. One person said the EventBrite signup told them they would get a reminder email, but no email came through - maybe needs investigation. Mike suggests adding a space and signing up someone from the membership team to see what happens.
Trustees: Looking for grant money for downstairs disabled toilets. Assistance would be appreciated if people have any experience with this or just want to help.
Getting a lot of people turning up on Wednesdays still. Trustees have volunteered to come in and run Open Hack Nights - separate to the tours which are still by booking only. Will start this once a month and move to weekly if it goes well (tracking numbers). Mike covering next week (Nov 9th). Soft launch so not advertising it widely, but people seem to be turning up anyway. Mike suggests membership team might like to hang around incase people turn up.
Andrew A suggests we don't want to avoid overwhelming the membership team so need to enforce the lack of non-booked tours.
Will find out next week if it's busy.
20:27
Membership again: Membership Zine - printed 8 and they look good. Planning to improve as they go and open to feedback or contribution to members. Will litho print them once the kinks are ironed out. Mike suggests might be good to make one for the Woodworking or Metalwork areas.
Current plan is to give them out to people who come to tours - something to do while waiting.
Andrew W asks if we need enough to cover everyone who signs up.
Mike - yes, but currently printing as we go since there will be bugs. Once we're happy we can do a batch.
Aaron - someone who is a member has access to equipment. £2 each but much cheaper if we fold ourselves so will see if that becomes viable.
Mike - can also put these online and send a link to recent new members.
20:28
Andrew W - Suggests we could also have it as a slideshow on projector.
20:28
Discussion about orientation and print/digital versions of the zine.
20:29
Laser again: More laser waste appearing. Please don't leave random laser waste. Will have to send an email about this. Will try and improve the bins to better suit the kind of material that goes into them and make it easier to get bigger bits of rubbish in.


Steve Barnett
  20:50
Financial Update:
No update from our treasurer.
Business rate back payment issue sorted - council agree they were in error so we no longer owe these. Now paying business rates on downstairs though which has increased costs.
Bank balance is 32446.54
Some pending payments for the VAT issue.
Bob asks if rules will be changing at AGM due to VAT
Andrew A this doesn't need a constitution change, just a rules change, so doesn't need a vote at AGM. Trustees have a legal obligation to solve this. We will be discussing and taking questions on it however. May be a discussion on the amount in the future but the change has to happen to keep the Hackspace open.
Constitution itself doesn't cover the specific amounts members are required to pay, this is delegated to the rules.
Bob - suggest this is very good since not being quorate will not prevent us solving this issue.
Andrew A - suggests we should be quorate anyway due to the current quorum. Also points out that having to raise an EGM to change minimum payment would cause big problems.
Discussion of admin (and financial overhead) of VAT registration.
Still waiting to hear from Matt on HMS changes.
Gareth - do we need to find a mechanism to legally remove Matt from this situation? It puts the Hackspace at risk since we're not getting the software or finance support we need.
Andrew A - Will definitely have to tackle this if he doesn't turn up for AGM. Other people can do HMS changes.
Gareth - More worried about treasurer/finances
Mike - Suggests that we could split the treasurer role from the maintenance of the systems. Need to discuss this with him but haven't had opportunity.
Ali - Agrees that it's a massive risk having a treasurer who is uninvolved and not transparent. Is he doing the HMRC stuff?
Andrew A - Trustees took on the HMRC stuff. Need him to submit  the accounts but this can be done late. If he's not willing to be the treasurer we need a volunteer who is capable.
Ali - Is it Matt's choice if he's the treasurer or not? Should it be up to the Trustees or a wider group of people?
Mike - We'd like to see a treasurer regularly please. We agree it's a problem. We do need someone who performs the role and responds to us. Currently we're not getting that.
Ali - None of this is a personal attack on Matt, but it's been month's since we've had an update and they are sporadic, which is a big risk.
Andrew A - Trustees are keeping an eye on the bank account, so it's not a big problem from a day to day operations point of view but it is a medium to long term and planning problem.
Re: business rates we know the situation has got worse but it's hard to project without the compiled accounts the treasurer should be providing. We have info from June - have 6 months of the year currently.
Need this information for future planning, especially now we plan to get moving on downstairs again. Need a float and need to know how much we can spend.
Gareth - When the pandemic happened and we got grants we were kind of over a financial problem, but would we have avoided the VAT situation if finances had been properly reported?
Andrew A - Likely it was a unique situation as finances were extremely low. Previously there would never have been any chance of hitting the VAT threshold.
Gareth - But would it have been spotted properly if we were doing proper reporting?
Andrew A - Due to financial crisis we were actually doing quite good reporting at the time.
<discussion of when the VAT issue happened and whether grants were involved - they weren't as grants didn't count towards it>
Andrew A - Because income stayed steady we went over in 2020, hit a few months where it went over threshold in 2020. Covid grants weren't a thing at that point and VAT free, which is why balance was so high but we've not gone over again. The issue was spotted by Matt while doing finances in late 2020.
Andrew W - Suggests that if there was greater transparency and control we wouldn't have gone over.
Andrew A - None of us were trustees at the time and trustees at the time were very busy with Covid and other things. Hopefully a one time event. If we want to replace the treasurer we need someone willing and able, but currently nobody has put their hand up yet.
20:52
Any Other Business
Bob - has upstairs electrics been signed off yet?
Andrew A - Not yet, but we should be able to get it done. Want to make sure metalworking tools can be plugged in - not much point signing it off is more work needs doing. Joshua should be able to get those sorted soon.
Bob - Suggests new bandsaw will need a 3 phase supply which could be part of that work.


Steve Barnett
  21:00
Mike - Starting to put events on after a big long hiatus due to Covid. Looking at how we can do this better and come up with a process. This was used for the combat robotics workshop. Next event is Dave's 3D printing workshop.
Sent him an email today explaining this and he responded saying that it was lots of paperwork and confusing, so will explain.
Need to do a risk assessment for any event which will be kept with Trustees.
For paid events we need to know how much it costs per person, and how many people show up, and what consumables cost. If the event makes a profit we split 50%/50% between the event organiser and the space.
Andrew W - Conflation of event and induction is causing confusing. Is an induction an event?
Mike - Confusing for us as well as previously people either did inductions for £20 and split it 50/50 or like Bob's safety induction it was free. For Dave's event he has conflated the two making it an event and then afterwards you're inducted on several machines. We're happy for it to run as an event, but we need to above requirements for events to be met (and this is how the previous events have run). In this case he's put a lot of effort in and we're happy for him to run it, but we need to follow the process.
Andrew W - Do inductions require a risk assesment?
Mike/Steve - Normally inductions are a standard process, so not usually
Ali/Mike - Discussion about whether split should be before or after profit.
Mike - If half of the entry fee goes to the space consumables need to be less than 50% of cost which can make things awkward. People running events don't need to keep the profit, in some cases they can donate to the space.
Andrew A - Dave's event makes inductions cheap, which is great, but wouldn't be great if the space has to close due to lack of income. Is this undercutting standard inductions? Is this fair? Should we have a discussion about induction fees?
21:02
Ali - Seems fair to have a standard induction process? If I was running an event outside of the Hackspace I'd still have to pay a lot of money and do a risk assessment, so this seems fair. Risk assessment is a good idea. I like the current £20 induction price and that the space gets half. 50% sounds very reasonable for workshops especially as we're a community, not a profit making organisation. There has to be one rule for everybody otherwise it doesn't work.
Andrew W - Do we distinguish between products and services? People come into the space and make things they sell for profit. What is the difference between that and an event?
21:03
Mike - Not sure how we'd police people making things in the space and selling it.
21:06
Ali - Thinks it's cool that things have spun up out of the space.
Mike - All for Dave running this event, being successful and making a profit from it.
Mike - If a member is taking money of another member at the space Trustees should know about it and have some documentation that it happened.
Ali - Thinks this makes sense for knowledge transfer (obviously doesn't cover things like paying people back).
Mike - Happy for people to charge as much as they like as long as they abide by the rules, as everyone wins. I think this is just how we've always done it and we're just writing it down.
Douglas - Summarises that if you want to run an event and it's complicated talk to the trustees
Mike - There is a flowchart for simple events. Will make it more public and reply to Dave and assist with documents.
21:06
Ali - Risk assessment is pretty much standard for everything these days.
Andrew A/Mike - There are templates, just need to fill in the 3D printing specific bits.
21:07
Meeting Closed