Meeting notes (2015)

December 29th 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

(3 board + 3 members + 2 guests)

introductions

Edwin talked about the electronics workshop: - Mainly in classroom - Going to keep it stupidly simple, welcome to move into lounge if too simple :) - Jan 11th - There'll be a strip of three Neopixels to play with per kit - Arduino - Planning for five people: five kits available for purchase at $20 each, may be able to have more.

Bedbug hackathon: - Mostly going to be informational - Date set for Saturday, January 23.

November 10th 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-347 Donald

• 6:00:
  • Intros Skipped
  • SkullSpace is now open!
  • Treatments are done for bugs
  • Waiting to re-treat for eggs
  • Nothing found by exterminators
  • People are still worried about it

• • Courtney wants to sell you gift cards

• • Lease is up next month. Asked Landlord about space cost
  • He lowered the rent to 1800 from 2200
  • The Space is now viable to stay. Problem solved? Differed :D
  • There is still a great opportinity to look around
  • Either option is a win, it's no longer life or death!

• • Asked if we'd get as much for the same cost.
  • We're confident we can afford our current space.
  • We're still bringing this up a the next meeting
  • Do we stay, do we go? Details and choice next meeting.
  • Same condition, less cost, "it's a bombshell" - Jay

• 6:05:
  • Events: Festivus in November
  • Fincancials: We were about $300 loss each month
  • Ben went back, good news is the calculation was a bit off
  • The first six months we were paying back rent! Expensese corrected
  • Average loss is only ~$30/mo. Maybe about $150 with cleaners
  • Bad news, average income is seadly declining
  • Membership is down to 60, but that is the lowest mark.
  • Student members up, average income is lower from this
  • We're loosing $200/mo, so we can barely afford the space either way
  • At best, we can build up the emergency funds.
  • Better than in the last 3 years.
  • Moving to a space with greater savings, more money for good stuff
  • Ben to provide financial reports with these minutes
• 6:10:
  • Rent decrease is survivable, but reducing rent enables us to achive more
  • Not as many expenses, rent reduced dramatically.
  • 70 Arthur would be okay with after-hours access
  • We'd have a 60 day notice of termnination on Arthur
  • Checking out Market
  • Since moving here, we've never looked better

• • Gift card fundraiser has not been marked on the books. Had been missing the $400 from that.
  • Social has repaid the deposit, so we have an additional $200
  • Almost paid for the bed bug treatments

• • We've gone from doomed to better than ever.

September 8th 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order - 18:00: 13 members present
• Anti-Social
  • We will be using Facebook RSVP's
  • Awesomichael, Thor, Nate+1, etc. will be early to the venue to help with set-up
  • See the board for tickets!
• B-sides
  • Deadline for speakers is this Friday.
• eSports Training
  • Events held weekly and are being very well attended.
  • Nate suggested that we have membership forms on-hand as there are a lot of potential members present
• Cool stuff
  • Alex and co. managed to get the password reset on a Thinkpad using various tools and dark magic.
  • Please encourage him to make this into a talk for B-Sides!
• Infrastructure
  • Our IPv4 network was down. VOI has worked with us to get it back up
• Water: We need to do a water order. admin@ will see to this
• Mats: It is getting close to
• Extra Life Games Day will be at SkullSpace on September 26th!
  • Admission will be $10, funds to charity.
  • SkullSpace members will still have access to the space, but are asked to pay the admission fee if they wish to play.
• Pricerazzi (local start-up)
  • Hiring 4-5 support / technical people. If you are looking for work see Robert.
• Adjourned: 18:35

June 23rd 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order 18:00 - 18 members present
• Minutes from previous meeting were reviewed and approved.
• We have been approached to get a table at comic con
  • Edwin will head this up
• Meetup
  • We have been getting a lot of traffic on Meetup.com lately.
  • Nate is getting 1-3 new users every day or so.
  • Please communicate event details to Nate if you want them to be posted to Meetup.com
• Anti-Social
  • Hall booked for the 19th, thank Brittany!
  • Jay and Nathan will look after booze.
• Member storage
  • There is a lot of stuff on the shelf that has been there for a long time and we are running out of room
  • Please check the storage shelf and get rid of anything that doesn't need to be here.
• Events
  • Ham radio event this weekend at Shaftesbury high school
  • Bike Jam coming up
• Old freezer
  • We need someone to put it on kijiji.
• Power
  • Please do not plug things into the server ups's.

June 9th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order: 18:00 - 18 members present
• June 2nd minutes were reviewed and approved
• Upcoming events:
  • Star Wars marathon is this Saturday, starting at 11am
  • eSports training is happening at 6pm every Thursday
• Financial update
  • Our rent arrears have now been caught up!
  • Our current membership levels put us roughly breaking even each month.
  • We need to attract a few more members
  • New members joining have increased of late, but regular donations have been reduced.
  • If you are willing to donate extra money it would be much a appreciated
• Edwin has been talking to Tina and she is willing to help us make a plexiglas enclosure for the 3D printer.
  • Tina is awesome
• Edwin has ordered and 8-channel logic analyzer for the space
  • This will be available for anyone who has training
• Nate and Jordan will be collecting donations in the near future to purchase tools for our bike shop.
• Adjourned: 18:15

May 5th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order: 18:00 - 14 members present
• April 28th minutes were reviewed and approved.
• There are two upcoming events:
  • Day against DRM, tomorrow at 6pm
  • Sarah's Epic Star Wars Marathon, June 13th. See Facebook event for details.
• Brittany would like to start a regular tech film/discussion night on Thursdays
• Anti-Social planning is starting up for a fall event
  • Jay/Nate will handle booze procurement
  • Brittany will handle booking the venue
  • Edwin will handle deposit
• We have a giant cool LED sign that we need to get working: stick around after the meeting if you want to hack on it!
• Bike Hackathon meeting will follow this meeting
• Stephen Kiazyk's Papers We Love talk (computer vision) was excellent. Next papers we love meetup is May 22nd.
• Adjourned: 18:15

April 28th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Introductions
  • Rob, Edwin, Jordan Chris J, A. Mike, Zoe, Thor, Alex, Jay, Russ, Nishan, Daniel, Sean
  • Matt (first time)
• Minutes were review and approved
• Blinkenlights purchase to sale at possible blinkenlights hackathon (thinking about $100-150)
• C4 Table? Thoughts on sharing with AssentWorks
  • [Thor] Has anybody talked to Tina yet? She gets the tables
  • [Zoe] They're very disorganized, tend to have no space until the last minute
  • Edwin is talking to Tina, will get details from Thor.
• Cleaning person exists! Her name is Pebbles
  • Jody, but goes by Pebbles
  • Starting some time next week. 4 hours of cleaning
  • Robert is trying to evaluate how much time it will take and how frequently we'll need to clean
• Upgrading printer
  • [Edwin] Not considered worth while, not going forward with it
• Computer vision talk - This Thursday, Here!
  • [Alex] Object recognition and local scale invariant features At 7pm
• Mad Max viewing - Next Monday the 11th
  • [Jordan] Should be pretty fun. 3 movies - $5 at the Park Theatre
• WiFi, in progress
  • [Sean] One up, two more to go. Almost done.
• David to remove junk, if you want anything hurry the heck up
  • Will contact David Mendez to handle e-waste, as recommended by Zoe
  • Last chance to scavenge the pile of junk
  • 3 Tivos!
• Nuts & Volts Magazines, I'll bring a few a week
  • If you want to take them home, please do
• Upcomming Events
  • Bike Jam
• Zoe and the ferrets are happy with all the cans that were picked up for recycling
  • She's graduating this friday!
• [Zoe] Does anybody know anything about docker? Les is looking for somebody
• [Rob] See Rob for stickers
• [Zoe] rang the bell to close the meeting
  • [Rob] It was a good ring

April 22nd, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order: 18:00 - 16 members present
• Minutes from last week's meeting were reviewed and approved
• Hackathon topics
  • We discussed hackathon topics and approved:
    • May: BIKES (preferably incorporating lighting in some way)
    • June: FOOD
    • July: ART (specifically, but not limited to Fabric Art)
  • We discussed the need to have more cool stuff on our walls, so we want to do a hackathon specifically devoted to blinkenlights
  • We discussed revisiting a version of Alex's cool "here / not here" device that would be used to indicate when SkullSpace is open to the public for events, etc.
• SkullCamp
  • Several of us would like to revisit / reimagine the SkullCamp idea. It has been a success in past years, in it's current form, but we would like to make it more skills oriented
  • SkullCamp Strikeforce: Jordan, Robert, Jay, Nate
• We all agreed that we need to do a Great Escape type outing again soon (and beat the record this time!)
• Zoe has 4 free tickets to the ramp up/open data event this weekend. If you are interested, please contact her.
• Operational issues
  • As discussed in the past, SkullSpace will hire cleaners effective immediately
  • Lately there have been a lot of cars blocking the fire escape. Admin will follow this up with the landlord.
• Adjourned: 18:35

April 14th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order: 18:00 - 9 members presnt
• Minutes from previous meeting were reviewed and approved.
• Yuri's night happened - it was good
• Tabletop day happened - it was good
  • We ran a lower-key event this year than last year, but it was still very well attended.
  • People hung out and played games from 11am to midnight or so.
• Events
  • CircuitSpace tomorrow
  • No movie this week
  • No hackathon planned yet for this weekend
  • Papers We Love next week
  • Ramp Up Open Data event coming up (Google it for details)
  • There are several bike-themed events coming up this weekend. See "SPRING LEGS" and "RAINBOW TROUT BIKE JAM" on Facebook.
• Zoe is first Canadian going to Cisco Live
• BSides Winnipeg coming up in a few months (security con at King's Head)
• No stickers yet. Soon!

March 10th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order: 18:00 (no count of members present)
• Minutes from previous meeting were reviewed and approved without modification
• Freezer/drink cooler
  • Freezer is still freezing, disappointment by all
• Network infrastructure update
  • Wifi is now fully funded, please give money to Sean if you pledged to contribute to this project.
• Email from wonderland anime festival, let us know if you'd like to man a table ($60.00 for table)
• Community events
  • Piday / Arduino week (March 23rd) (See discuss@ for further details)
  • Piday is March 14th (RPi workshops, see discuss@ for details)
  • Yuris night is April 12th @ The Manitoba Museum Science Gallery
  • Thor showed off cool ASCII shirts
  • Music night on Friday (March 13th) (Jackd on Debian)
  • Robotics competition on 21st of March (Winnipeg subreddit)
• We discussed creating a SkullSpace subreddit?
• Adjourned: 18:20

March 3rd, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order: 18:00 - 8 members present
• Old minutes were reviewed and approved without modification
• Boston Key Party
  • We had a team and okay
  • Robert solved a hard problem!
    • Got a PCAP of a USB connection (yes, Wireshark can read USB connections!)
    • It was a USB mouse, clicking on an on-screen keyboard
    • Had to map out the XY of the clicks to get the flag!
• Wifi Upgrade
  • Call for moneys! One person still hasn't paid despite committing
  • One new AP is installed for testing
  • The installation is much cleaner than the previous AP
  • The current plan is to install three APs. The outer two are low power, middle one is medium power. This shouldhould be much better coverage/speed.
  • New APs cooperate with each other so they won't conflict.
  • Please send feedback to Sean, if it's slower/better/etc.
  • We will not have 5GHz anymore. It is less congested, but the range is *terrible*
• Circuitspace this Wednesday March 4th!
  • Just a bunch of people getting together to do electronics.
  • Very "open door", come hang out!
  • Andrew is bringing in his quadrotor "first-person view" kit!
• Work from SkullSpace Day is this Friday, March 6th
  • If you can telecommute you should come down!
• International Tabletop Day is April 11th
  • Nate's organizing an event again this year.
  • Any help planning / hosting the event would be much appreciated.
  • Was lots of fun last year. Very well attended.
• Freezer
  • Edwin's firing up the freezer->fridge conversion
  • Worst case scenario, the compressor gives out
  • If anything seems off, feel free to unplug it
• Adjourned at 18:15

February 24th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order: 18:00 - 33 members / guests present
• Candidates introductions
  • All candidates introduced themselves and provided background information
  • Thanks to everyone who allowed their names to stand for election!
• Financial update
  • Ben provided a financial update and overview
  • Hacker jeopardy fundraiser was not as profitable as last time. It was a great community event, but did not raise much money.
  • Gift card fundraiser awareness needs to be increased as this is a profitable venture with little to no overhead cost.
  • Fundraisers accounted for 15-20% of our income last year
  • Our target for a reserve is three months of operating expenses. We are 2/3 of the way to this goal.
  • Hats off to Ben for getting our books in order and implementing / automating systems.
• Year in review
  • We reviewed hackathons, events, presentations in the last year.
  • We need to make outreach and recruitment a priority for the coming year.
  • Thanks to our sponsors
    • Thanks to VOI for providing us rock solid fast internet
    • Thanks to les.net for our telephone and internal network hardware
    • Thanks to Octopi for all of their support
• Election
  • New board elected
    • Edwin Amsler
    • Benjamin Bergman
    • Colin Childs
    • Robert Keizer
    • Jay Smith
• Adjourned 19:05

February 17th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to Order: 18:00 - 9 members present
• Minutes from previous meeting were reviewed and approved without modification
• AGM is next week
  • if you want to run, please contact Nate
  • everyone should consider running. Lets get some variety!
  • Hours of involvement per month was requested
    • Board members estimate around 4-10 hours depending on tasks you choose to take on
    • The space practically runs itself compared to SkullSpace 1.0
  • Everyone should plan on attending the AGM. We need 25% of membership for quorum. This is about 17 members.
• WiFi
  • Sean is coordinating WiFi overhaul
  • We are still looking for donations for new equipment
  • Tests will be done before buying new gear
• List management / spam stuff
  • This will be reviewed and discussed next meeting.
  • Adjourned: 18:10

February 10th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order: 18:00 - 12 Members present
• Minutes from previous meeting were reviewed and approved without modification.
• Financial update
  • Current projection were reviewed
  • Graph has flattened out a bit because our rent went up and because we're paying back rent retroactively to the time of the increase.
  • After rent is paid back, we'll still losing money, but at a reduced rate.
  • We have had a recent drop in membership. We need to step up recruitment / outreach efforts.
  • We are still showing a net gain for snack/drink sales
• AGM is in two weeks
  • Everyone should consider running for a board position!
• Community events
  • Papers We Love
    • First meeting is March 26th, 2015
    • Topic will be Painboard: Prototyping interactive character behaviours by painting storyboards
    • http://www.meetup.com/Papers-We-Love-Winnipeg/events/220117454/
• Adjourned: 18:15

February 3rd, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order 18:00 - 17 members present.
• Minutes from the previous meeting were reviewed and approved.
• Cleaning the space
  • Last meeting we resolved to try and find a cleaner to come in for an hour a week.
  • After discussion over this week and at this meeting, we decided to try and do a coordinated group cleaning after each meeting. Nate volunteered to clean the bathrooms if others help share the burden of general cleaning.
• AGM is on the 24th of February
  • AGM announcement will be going out today
  • Today is the deadline for by-law changes. None have been submitted for review.
  • Three of the existing directors are seeking re-election, leaving two positions open. All members are encouraged to consider running!
• Edwin has ordered a new part to repair the drink freezer.
• Community events
  • Friday 8pm: The Room. Be there.
  • Downtown Biz is doing a movable Feast again
  • Sunday February 22nd is Sarah's Annual Pancake Birthday
• Adjourned: 18:15

January 27th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order: 18:00 - 10 members present
• Minutes from last meeting were not available / not approved
• Recap of old stuff
  • Cleaners
    • Last meeting we agreed to pay for cleaners
    • Nobody on the board has "owned it" yet
  • Intro to Music Theory event
    • 8 or 9 people attended
    • Event was poorly advertised
    • It covered basic music theory, including: modes, chords, staffs
    • In around one month the next session in this series will focus on composition
    • Robert will figure out a date and email discus@
• Concerns raised about sleeping at the space
  • Courtney moved to get rid of all of our blankets
  • Opinion: sleeping people don't use blankets, because it's warm
  • Opinion: this is a technical solution to a social problem
  • General consensus was that we are not in favor of getting rid of blankets
• Papers we love
  • New Monthly (?) meetup
  • Mak started a local chapter
• AGM
  • Our AGM is February 24th
  • If you want to run for the board, please email Nathan
  • Alex and Courtney are not running again, so two guaranteed new faces
  • Next week is the deadline for proposed by-law changes
• Adjourned: 18:11

January 20th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order: 18:00 - 11 members present
• Previous meeting minutes were reviewed and approved
• Cleaners
  • We recently lost two active members due to the cleanliness of the space
  • This results in a loss of $80 a month in dues!
  • We should hire the cleaners
  • Should we get rid of the dishes and switch to paper?
  • We discussed turning cleaning into a game. Edwin will look into this
  • Vote to hire cleaners was a Unanimous yes
  • Board will look into hiring cleaners
• Our AGM is coming up on February 2th.
  • Elections will be open to all. If you would like to run for a board position, please contact Nathan.
• Ghost in the Shellcode
  • CTF event was this weekend.
  • Members worked from the space on Saturday and remotely the rest of the weekend.
• Sleeping in the space
  • Please do not be unconscious in the space
  • If any member has concerns, please let a director know
• Drink Fridgeezer
• Edwin is looking in to getting a new thermostat
• Adjourned: 18:15

January 13th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order 18:00 - 13 members present
• Minutes for previous meeting were reviewed and approved without modification
• Edwin is monitoring the temperature of the drink fridge to see if it can be fixed up.
• Linux course
  • Mark's first session was attended by five members.
  • Most folks in attendance were already familiar enough with the installation procedure, so we ended up focussing on the VM-Server
• AGM is February 24th.
  • In order to be eligible to run or vote for board positions your dues must be paid up by February 15th.
• Ghost in the ShellCode is this weekend!
  • Come one, come all. This CTF will be a great time. GitSC is one of our favourite CTFs and promises
• Board games on the 18th
  • Join us this Sunday for our next open gaming day.
• January 25th: Music notation / theory presentation
  • Presentation by Mark (a friend of Robert)
  • Open to all
• January 16th: Innovation Alley documentary
  • Members and friends will be meeting up at the space before the event.
• Gift cards
  • Courtney will be doing a gift-card order up shortly. Please contact her if you would like to order some. See www.fundscrip.com for details.
• Adjourned: 18:12

January 6th, 2015 - 18:00 @ 200-374 Donald

• Call to order 18:00 - 12 Members present
• Previous meeting minutes reviewed and approved without modification
• Ben's brother's gaming tournament was a success.
• Cleaners
  • The Cleaners Ian has donated to us for the last year cost about 20/hour.
  • A quick vote was taken on who wants cleaning to be done monthly at a cost of 20/hour.
  • Majority paying cleaners.
• Financial update
  • Previous meetings stated we should have been paying more for rent the last few months.
  • The landlord has given us permission to pay back the missing rent over the next six months.
  • If we had to pay it in the very beginning we would have been in the red.
  • Financial projection puts us a projected capital of just over $2500.
  • We'd rather be near $7500.
  • https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TSR8eZ4IubLAWSQL3OaOQPxDUW461vwmkkWjoXv2tTE/edit#gid=334356055
• Cleaners
  • Cleaning of the space is estimated as taking 4-5 hours @ $20/hour each month. (80-100)
  • Group suggested looking into the costs of cleaning just the bathroom and if the cleaner would even come to just clean the bathrooms.
  • To pay for 4-5 hours each month might put us in the red rather quickly. We could have more fundraisers to make up for this. A clean and tidy space is more attractive to prospective and new users.
• AGM is next month (February 24th)
  • By-law amendments should be given to the board more than three weeks before the AGM (End of January)
  • Ian suggested that a student is selected from all the student members as an advocate on behalf of students and potential student members to make it less intimidating. Ian has fears that students perceive it as difficult to be a member.
  • Jay mentions that his preference is for all members to be seen as equal regardless of membership type. The point of student memberships was to offset a societal economic balance, not introduce a new one.
  • Ben: "Students may not have time to run on the board"
  • Ian: "Being on the board is a Career/resume booster and would give the student body power on the board." (students are already allowed to run for the board and have been voted in in the past)
  • Jeremy (reads actual bylaws) "The current bylaws state by law changes must be brought up three weeks in advance of any amendments"
  • Jay: "Bylaws can be changed AT ANY TIME but the 21 day period is mandatory." (getting them down at the AGM is nice)
  • Jay: "If you want to run for board positions PLEASE DO! It's not as stressful as you think."
• Events for 2015
  • If you have any ideas for cool events get your strike force together! The AGM is a great time to announce them.
  • Robert Keizer: "An Intro Music Theory class will be taught by Robert's friend, 21st of January. More notes to go out to the list(s)."
  • Jay: "Mark Jenkins will be hosting an Intro to Linux study/discussion group" (tied to the $60 online course from edX https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-linux-linuxfoundationx-lfs101x-2)
• Recent Development
  • The Drink Fridge froze and was discovered today (Jan 6.) Lots of cans expanded and exploded all over the inside. Some simply expanded (drink them) Some sticky soda had leaked on the floor.
  • It was cleaned up by Robert Keizer, Courtenay Lofchick and Stephan. Give them a pat on the back!
• The end of meeting bell rang at 18:19.