Meeting notes

2013 minutes are at Meeting_notes\2013

2012 minutes are at Meeting_notes\2012

2011 minutes are at Meeting_notes\2011

2010 minutes are at Meeting_notes\2010

May 20th, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

Minutes

• Call to order: 18:00
• Review of minutes
• Updates
  • Finance (Ben)
    • Ben presented update financial projections. New projections have been done excluding potential fundraising as none of this income has been guaranteed.
    • The board has loaned approximately one month's expenses to the organization. This is intended to buy time to do fundraising and not to prolong it's demise.
    • We will be in the red in two months time without new members and/or fundraising.
    • Shortfall is such that if every member donated $4 per month we would be in the black.
  • Occupancy permit (Jay)
    • We have all of the required hardware for the automatic fire alarm door-release. Colin will schedule a fire alarm test. This will need to be done in conjunction with the alarm company, landlord and other tenants.
    • Colin is awesome. Please don't die.
  • Network infrastructure (Ian T.)
    • SkullSpace now has a dedicated IPv6 network, wired and wireless!
  • Newark/Element14
    • Newark/Element14 approached us to establish a sponsorship / partnership. They would provide us with parts, kits, etc. In exchange for us writing a blog post about their use.
    • If anyone has a project that they would like to do, please contact Ben.
  • Strikeforces
    • Wiki / Website Hackathon: will be meeting shortly. Colin C. is coordinating this project.
    • Event planning strikeforce will be meeting immediately after the member meeting. Great things in-store!
    • Anti-Social 2.0 is progressing. We are awaiting confirmation on the availability of the venue before picking a date.
    • Library partnership: The Winnipeg Public Library has approached us to develop programming. At this point they are interested in having us deliver SkullSpace-themed programming
    • Jay will be meeting with them on Friday to explore options.
    • Hacker Jeopardy: Ron is organizing a one-night Hacker Jeopardy event on June 6th. Everyone buy tickets and come have fun! Tickets are available from Ron, Nathan, Richard and Jay.
• Popcorn machine: discussion deferred until existing popcorn machine departs. Nate will be restocking it (and snacks) on FRI.
• Bread machine: we have one, please feel free to use it. Siu has not been able to get it to make anything resembling bread, and would love it if someone else would see if they have better luck.
• Cryptoparty
  • The next Cryptoparty will be on June 7th!
  • Colin C. will be presenting on Liberation Technology (Tor, PGP, OTR, etc.)
  • Daniel will be presenting on one time pads / RSA
• New printer installed! It is on the network at 172.30.6.46. Thanks to Russ for getting this set up.
• Donor 'membership' level.
  • We discussed the idea of adding a non-voting “friend of SkullSpace” membership tier.
  • This would be a way for remote members and casual users of the space to make regular contributions via PAD.
  • This was unanimously approved.
• Son-of-Skullotron project is progressing. Hopefully there will be a model to review shortly.
• Office dividers: Brittany suggested a few office dividers would be a good addition to the classroom, both to help funnel traffic into the space when there are events in the classroom, and to serve as a notice board.
  • Sean offered to pay for them.
  • Jon and Nate offered to pick them up.
• Adjournment: 18:45

Apr 15th, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

• Reading of minutes
  • Hydro reading submitted
  • Tabletop day was a great success
  • Yuri's night happened
  • Donation boxes for snacks and drinks are in place. They are separate so that we can track them individually.
  • The Skullotron - some folks were talking about a miniaturized version. Talk to Nate
  • Nate is going to try to get some art for the space. If you're interested in helping with that, talk to Nate.
  • Budget meeting will be happening on the 22nd, after the regular meeting. Talk to Ben
  • Pile o' doom: You have 1 day to get stuff from the pile

• Special meeting
  • 6th of May.
  • Brittany stepped down, so we need to elect another member
  • Everybody should run

• Financial stuff
  • Financial situation details are available upon email request
  • If anybody would like to do some fundraising events, big or small, please don't hesitate to ask for help
  • Brittany is hoping to do a social sometime in August

• Yuris' Night
  • It went great, according to Ian
  • Lots of booze was consumed

• PlaidCTF!
  • We kind of sucked this year
  • But it was a good time
  • We ended up in 37th place, of ~530 scoring teams

Mar 18th, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

Members present: not recorded

• Reading of minutes
  • Wiki updates
  • Electrical updates
  • Fire extinguisher
  • Donation tracking/lockboxes
  • Meme cookbook
  • Yuri's night
  • Brewery tour
  • Jordan Justice became a member

• Fire extinguishers
  • Alex purchased at a cost of ~$102, slightly more expensive than expected
  • Nobody objected to repaying Alex
  • Two fire extinguishers
    • 2A-10B-C located near the front (main) door
    • 1A-10B-C located near the rear (fire escape) door
  • They are not mounted yet

• Plexiglass box for donations
  • Jeremy brought it down
  • Requires some modifications
    • Slot to be added
    • Lock to be added

• Server electrical
  • Upgrade was funded by Ian
  • Two new 20 amp circuits have been installed
  • Load has been split between the two circuits
  • Before installing more servers, please seek approval

• Netops mailing list
  • The list has fallen victim to endless amounts of spam
  • New list will be created and not archived
  • The board will discuss with members of this list regarding power usage for non-critical machines

• Wiki updating
  • AMichael began revising some pages
  • AMichael added dates to some events
  • Nothing else significant to report

• Yuri's Night
  • Party at the museum!
  • We can get /very/ creative with our presence
  • A member asked "What is the goal/purpose of us having a presence?"
  • Answer: "Not to sell anything. Just to raise awareness and hopefully make the event more fun."
  • April 12th - contact Jay for more information
• Brief financial update
  • More complete financial update for the previous calendar will be next week
  • We are "uncomfortable" with less than three months of rent in our bank account at all times
  • We currently have ~$2400 in our bank account
  • Our expenses per month are ~$2500
  • Cian asked (paraphrased) "At the AGM, our balance was much higher. Why the discrepancy?"
  • Alex responded: "The last date on graph was 3 months ago, in December."
  • Our membership dues (not including donations) are $2200, so we are not losing much per month but we need to be careful
  • Cian asked (paraphrased) "Why did we drop from $5000 to $2000?"
  • Ben explained that the graph was likely generated between collecting member dues and paying rent
  • The board's thorough report next week will provide a much clearer picture
  • Cian suggested that the board include cash flow projections in the report
  • A member asked about the hydro bill. The board said they will be doing meter readings in the future to prevent wild swings in bills.

• Bathroom maintenance
  • Sean replaced the paper towel holder in the men's washroom
  • He will replace the one in the women's washroom, but would like to reimbursed. ($30)
  • The repayment was approved

• Half Pints
  • The tour is a go
  • March 22nd at 1pm
  • First come, first serve. Contact Jeremy[1] for more details

• Tabletop day
  • GameKnight and Imagine have been approached for sponsorship
  • Planning for the event is underway
  • Having some SkullSpace ambassadors would be nice
  • April 5th - contact Nate for more information

Mar 11th, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

Members present: Cian, Brittany, Courtney, Nate, Jay, Alex, Colin, AMichael, Zoe, Stef, Ben, Alex, Brian, Robert K, Edwin, Sean

• Agenda and minutes
  • Ideally, the board sends the minutes out on Saturday/Sunday
  • They were late last week
  • Aside: once minutes are posted, they become "official" and cannot be changed, so delays are expected

• Reading of minutes postponed until the end of the meeting

• Protelec automatic door unlocking
  • No update yet
  • Action item: Colin C will talk to the landlord and Colin Stanners about this forward and provide an update in the future

• Fire extinguishers
  • Alex volunteered to buy two small ones and bankroll them
  • Show of hands was taken to pay Alex back, majority said "yes"
  • Stef suggested we find out what we require to pass an inspection and buy those instead
  • Action item: Alex to buy extinguishers

• Wiki updates
  • Many pages are out-of-date and a lot of them are ugly
  • SkullSpace has changed a lot and the wiki has not kept up
  • Brittany is looking for some people to help with this
  • AMichael stated that he is organizing a strike force to handle this issue

• Electrical upgrades and server hosting
  • The circuit is approaching overload
  • The quote is $250 to effectively double our capacity
  • Possible solutions
    • Negate the need by getting rid of non-critical servers (VM sever, mailing list, DNS)
    • Fund the upgrade through crowdfunding
    • SkullSpace can pay for it if the membership agrees
  • Rich from Voi offered additional Internet service dedicated to the servers
  • Find out the interest level for people who have machines in the rack?
  • Member comment: "if we upgrade the power, it's not a free-for-all, the power still costs us"
  • Action item: the board will discuss with the server owners and gauge crowdfunding interest

• Donation tracking
  • Proposal: obtain cash boxes that allow deposit but require a key for withdrawal
  • Jeremy volunteered to donate a plexiglass box that he owns
  • How many lockboxes are required?
    • Donations
    • Drinks
    • Snacks
    • 3D printer
  • Lockboxes with non-unique keys are acceptable
    • Stef was asked about the 3D printer box - he indicated that he did not require access to it
    • No other boxes need to be opened by members that are not on the board

• Reading of the minutes
  • Discussed the AGM
  • Discussed the general and student member audits
  • Discussed the splitting of the calendars into community
  • Covered the meetup, and that everybody can create events (not just Brittany)
  • Discussed the CODE event
  • The membership in attendance was not asked to approve the read minutes

• Meme cookbook
  • If anybody is interested in resurrecting the meme cookbook, talk to Nate
  • Needs a lot of work, but Nate is confident we could publish it and sell it someday
  • Ideas
    • Asking Wil Wheton or Penny Arcade to write a foreword
    • Organize with them for the proceeds to go to charity
  • Brian proposed that we simply start working on it as a blog, and then we'll put it all together
  • AMichael suggested that this will be positively affected by the wiki cleanup

• Recurring community events
  • Nate proposed that we have a rotating list of events to mention during meetings to keep members informed

• International Tabletop Day
  • ITD is an event organized by the folks that run the "Tabletop" web series
  • This year's day is April 5th
  • SkullSpace is hosting a get-together for International Tabletop Day
  • Talk to Nate for more information

• User groups and using the space
  • The PHP user group was here, and it went very well
  • The Android user group wants to have their meetings here as well
  • If you want to book the space, email admin@lists.skullspace.ca or talk to Colin Childs

• Yuri's Night
  • April 12th at the Manitoba Museum's Science Gallery and the Planetarium
  • Action item: Brittany will follow up with Jay about getting a table or having some other kind of SkullSpace presence

• Brewery tour
  • Jeremy has a contact at the Half Pints brewery, and might be able to organize a tour
  • By show of hands, many people were interested in doing that
  • Jeremy will email the mailing list to gauge interest

• New members
  • Jordan Justice became a full member today

• Adjournment

Mar 4th, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

• Introductions

• Reading of minutes
  • AGM last week
    • New board elected
      • Alex Weber
      • Ben Bergman - Financials
      • Brittany Postnikoff
      • Colin Childs
      • Courtney Lofchick
    • Events from last year discussed

• Audits
  • Student membership audits
  • General membership audit
  • What is a membership audit?
    • Making sure we have financials backed up for every member
    • Making sure we have forms and the like
    • In short, due dilligence

• Calendars
  • Colin split the calendar into two calendars
    • One for community events
    • One for SkullSpace events
  • Kevin V. wrote a calendar webapp
    • API integration with Meetup?
    • API integration with Google Calendar?

• Meetup
  • Lots of people ask Brittany to add events
  • Anybody can add events if they are subscribed as a SkullSpace member (???) (5:28)

• CODE
  • People from Meetup showed up
  • People scrummed
  • Not much happened at the space
  • Pizza, ideas, and then people went home
  • Mark Jenkins put in a lot of work
    • when-ei.ca

• External community emails (8:35)
  • Once per week, generate a digest of some kind?
  • Forward with the meeting reminder?
  • Bring up during the meeting

• Adjournment

Feb 25, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

Members present: Alex, Mark, Michael, Kevin, Jason, Courtney, Nate, Ian, Cian, Brittany, Edwin, Jay, Sean, Thor, Dave, Ric, Colin, Jeremy, Nishan, Stefan

Annual General Meeting 2014

• Year in review
  • Alex presented with some pictures throughout the year
  • Events
    • CTFs, user groups, social, cryptoparties, Comic Con, hack-a-thons,

movie nights, Peg Jam, Freeze Frame, CDC, game nights

• • Financial update
    • A proper one will be coming, but summary is we are stable
  • The future
    • Fire safety
    • Occupancy permit

• Bylaw changes
  • Late dues
    • Intent is to remove some process and make it smoother for the board
  • Minutes being read
    • Intent is to ensure minutes are taken and agreed upon by members
    • Could be implemented as a policy if the bylaw is voted down

• Board nominees
  • Cian, Brittany, Courtney, Alex, Colin, Sue, and Kenny

• Vote results
  • New board: Ben, Colin, Courtney, Brittany, Alex
  • Both bylaws passed

Feb 18, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

Members present: Courtney, Brittany, Ben, Stefan, Ric, Thor, Brian, Edwin, Sean, Colin, Ian, AMichael, Adrian, Alex, Marcel, Troy, Kevin, Rob

• Nominations closed today
  • 8 people running
  • Last minute nominations allowed, but earlier the better

• Door is almost ready to open when fire alarm goes off
  • Last part is getting building panel connected, which is locked
  • Fire alarm might not even work
    • No battery and no phone line - landlord should bring in alarm company
  • Remote access needs to be tested

• LES.net upgraded our phone line
  • Calls now last more than 30 minutes!
  • No MTS landline needed anymore

• Coinfest last weekend
  • First Bitcoin ATM in Winnipeg!

• David - heritage/community museums
  • Looking for interested members to help create interactive electronic exhibits
    • Push button activated sounds for guessing game
    • Electric fire glow
    • Lit routes on map
    • Fibre optic lights modified to be activated by motion sensor or push button
    • And more!
  • Many small contracts available

• Raspberry Pi users group this weekend

• Booking the space is awkward right now
  • Suggestion made for a webpage for applying to use the space

• Wiki needs updating
  • Brittany will be working on this, contact her if you are interested in helping out

• Switch inside for when we are open
  • Notification on website/IRC/Twitter?
  • Light in the window?

• Next hackathon - Manitoba retro computing
  • Winnipeg was the BBS capital of Canada at one time
  • Some speakers already contacted, more being contacted
    • Les
    • Bill Reed
    • Michael Gelespie

Feb 11, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

Members present: Ian, Mark, Marcel, AMichael, Brian, Colin C., Courtney, Alex, Kevin, Thor, Stefan, Troy, Rob, Cian, Edwin, Ben, Zewwy, Colin S., Dave, Ric

• You have less than a week to nominate yourself for the board
  • Email admin and Nathan

• Crypto currency day last weekend - success
  • Slides will be posted on discuss

• Crypto party last weekend - success
  • People can learn about privacy protecting technology and do key signing
  • Everyone should come to the next one

• Door hardware - no news

• CDC Feb 20
  • 3rd year
  • 10 high school teams
  • No more volunteers needed
  • Virtual env. for students to secure
  • Feel free to come by and hang out

• Sci-fi skirmish day coming up - info on discuss

• AGM Feb 25
  • Email coming to paid-up members with voting codes
    • Make sure you are paid up by the 15th!

• Big hydro bill
  • Likely due to air conditioning for the summer
  • Will check if the bill is est. or act.
  • Will look into going on a budget

• Things that annoy Ian
  • Booking the space and not showing up
    • Please email pics of the space to admin so we can use it to show off to potential renters

• Dedicated IPv6 network being installed by Voi
  • CDC storage servers will be installed here on that network, Octopi donating blade server for VMs
  • Early stages, nothing bought yet, still discussing

• MTS Future First providing stuff like shirts and scholarships, sponsoring CDC
  • Talk to Cian if you are interested

• By-law amendments
  • Can be policy instead of by-law - vote against by-law if this is your choice

• PHP users group tomorrow

Feb 4, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

Members present: Phoul, Sean, Alex, Thor, Ian, Cian, Stefan, Jeremy, Ben, A. Michael, Adrian, Edwin

• AGM - 25 Feb.
  • Elect new board
  • Vote on two by-law amendments
    • Membership dropped if no payments for 3 months
      • Nominate yourself by Feb 17 ??pm
        • admin@skullspace.ca
    • Read minutes
  • Voting
    • You will get a token by email
    • Bring token to do your vote
    • OR give token to a proxy to vote on your behalf

• Door & occupancy permit stuff
  • Getting fire extinguishers
  • Front door quote was really expensive - ~$2000
  • Colin Stanners will be fixing door himself next week
  • New drink machine process
    • If a drink is out, feel free to buy drinks at Giant Tiger, put receipt with name in cash box

• CryptoParty
  • OTR & Tor - Phoul
  • Security from ISP perspective - Theo

• Crypto currency day - Sat. at noon
  • Dogecoin "samples"
  • Crypto stuff regarding block chain

• Big Hydro bill
  • Need to check if that is a reading or an estimate (might be overage from summer)
  • Keep some drinks in the fridge, only use drink machine for events

• Beefs
  • If you schedule an event on the calendar, show up
    • Game day and movie night had people show up when no one was hear

• CDC Feb. 20
  • If you are interested in helping kids fix sketchy networks, contate Nathan

• Thanks to Dave for sorting out the electronics bench
  • There was a mediocre round of applause

• Sunday RPG day
  • D&D style, combining many different games
    • Bring any game rules you have to make the system more robust
  • More info coming to mailing list soon

Jan 21, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

Members present: Ben, Countney, Stefan, Michael, Alex, Thor, Phoul, Brittany, Marcel, Brian, Edwin, Ian, Rob, Jared, Sean, Aemilianus, Cian

• International Table Top Day
  • Beginning of April
  • Nate is taking charge

• CDC
  • This Saturday, Linux experts presenting Linux Security Part 2 with Jared and Theo
  • Preperation for CDC high schooler event Feb. 20

• Hackathon
  • Ghost in the Shellcode - 20th place
    • Pretty impressive, considering we were a small team doing it part time
  • Jim's Unity talk at the last hackathon
    • Went well, Jim is willing to do more Unity talks in the future

• The Annual General Meeting cometh - Feb 25th
  • Need signage for what is being voted on (ie. board and by-laws) 21 days prior to AGM
  • Board vote
    • Everyone that is interested in running for the board should nominate themselves
    • If you want to nominate someone, email admin@
    • You may nominate yourself the day of the election, but it is prefered that you do it sooner so your name can be on the ballots
  • Tabling of bylaw amendments / special resolutions
    • If you haven't paid your dues and haven't made special arrangements, your membership will automatically lapse (currently we need a vote by the board)
    • Probation period for new members, not just two week delay (other spaces have this)
      • Should this impact privelages, ie. voting?
      • Should they be required to be at a minimum number of events? (eg. 3 regular meetings and 3 other events)
      • Should members need to be vouched for by n number of full members by the end of their probation period in order to be a full member?
        • Execution could be complicated
        • Could be combined with complaints
        • Ian's perspectives (food for thought, perhaps need more discussion at a future meeting)
          • Is it in our best interest to make it harder to become a member?
          • Are we looking for people to improve our cash flow?
          • Are we looking to be just sustainable? More than sustainable? Should there be a membership cap? We are the most expensive technology group (other than AssentWorks) in the city
    • If there are any other proposed special resolutions, email the list

• Fundraising
  • Bowling night?
    • All you can eat pizza/popcorn/soft drinks - $25/person ($20 without pizza)
  • Minigolf night?
  • Doodle coming for choosing date
    • Saturday is likely cheapest

• Programming for Beginners course
  • Jan 27, for 6 weeks
  • lectures and assignments
  • Will be a very dense, professional course
  • $60
  • In SkullSpace classroom

• Canadian Open Data Experience Hackathon (http://www.canadianopendataexperience.com/)
  • Should we participate?

Jan 14th, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

Members present: Brittany, Ian, Nate, Thor, Brittany, Courtney, Brian, AMichael, Ben, Jeremy, Phoul, Edwin. Sean, Ric, Colin, Alex, Stef

• Financial update
  • We're stable
  • One social or other event per year covers unexpected expenses pretty easily

• Our "Meetup" account
  • We have 80 people, lots of people that aren't members
  • If you want non-members to come, post your event on the Meetup

• Minutes
  • A request was made to send an email when meeting minutes are published
  • Minutes should also be uneditable by the general public

• Hackathon!
  • Ghost in the Shellcode CTF
  • Unity talk

• Cleaning
  • The cleaner charges $100 for 3-4 hours of cleaning
  • Ian has been paying for it
  • Quick vote was taken: overwhelming "yes" for SkullSpace to foot the bill

• CDC
  • 1/3 forensics, 1/3 presentations, 1/3 securing servers
  • February 20th is the big event
  • If you want to help out with the event, talk to Ian

• Fire alarm/door locks integration
  • No news

• AGM
  • The next Annual General Meeting is on the of February 25th
  • Please consider running for the board
  • Please consider any bylaws you would like to be modified
  • More information to follow

• Comic Con
  • Pop Culture Expo is coming up
  • Last weekend in March (?)

Jan 7th, 2014 - 18:00 @ 374 Donald

Members Present: Ric, Thor, Jarred, Ian, Jeremy, Sean, Courtney, Alex, Nate, Jay, Brian, Stefan, Colin 2, Cian, Michael

• Game Day
  • The place was left a mess
  • Please clean up after yourselves and please date you food

• Missing Gloves
  • If you find them they belong to Dave Stewart

• AGM
  • Will be Feb 25

• Cleaner
  • Will be coming in Jan 13

• Hackathon
  • Jan 18
  • Jim is giving a talk on Unity

• Network Changes
  • See discuss

• Meetings
  • This Saturday, 9:30-11:30 a server security talk for the CDC
  • The PHP user group is going to start meeting at the space
  • Game day is every second Sunday

• Door
  • Ian will talk to Bob