squidwrench

Location: The Palace Diner

Notes/Decisions/Issues

1. The Beahive and the Crucible are other organizations worth looking into. We might be able to work with them, or to learn lessons from them.
2. We should consider a sliding membership scale
   1. Membership levels granting access to certain equipment is bad
   2. Membership levels affecting voting power is not good
   3. Level of participation affecting voting power might be ok
3. More things to think about in looking for a space
   1. Industrial power is billed by peak usage, which has the potential to be very bad
   2. We should look for metered power or the possibility to get metered power
   3. Heating and cooling could potentially be very difficult, very expensive or both
   4. It may not be unreasonable to double the cost of the lease to account for power/utility bills
4. Several potential locations were mentioned
   1. Storefront on Collegeview Ave near Vassar
   2. Google "dutchess county warehouse" and there's a hit for $5/sq ft
   3. Spaces in Wappingers
5. Some things we probably ought to break the ice on
   1. propose a membership structure
   2. propose mode of governance
   3. membership process
      1. Being selective is ok, but being fair is very important
      2. requiring some amount of education on particular equipment before using it is probably a very good idea
   4. try to figure out how much people would be willing to pay
   5. form an official board?
6. Consider offering discounted membership to students or others in need, possibly in exchange for some work requirement
7. Some people might appreciate a demo of the wiki at an upcoming meeting
8. Assigning people office hours could help to make the space more accessible and foster more actual involvement
9. Documenting or otherwise advertising the skills of members would probably be beneficial
10. Places were suggested to hold a "Show & Tell"
    1. DCC
    2. SUNY New Paltz
    3. Art's Church
    4. Pat's Church
    5. Elks Lodge
    6. VFW
11. We should look into Freecycle when in need of furniture/parts/supplies
12. Possibly have lockers or cubbies or other "personal storage" in the shared space
13. We should think about how we're going to manage our limited space to keep it from becoming a storage shed
14. What's the plural for squid? Or what would a group of squid be called?

Tasks

1. Art and Pat will talk to their church's about hosting our "Show & Tell"
2. Someone should try to get in touch with the Elk's Lodge and VFW about possibly renting space for a day (volunteers?)
3. Thor will try to get in touch with DCC (and possibly Vassar or New Paltz) about using a space
4. Thor will talk to Sean about a lightning talk at the next LUG meeting
5. Thor will schedule the next Squidwrench meetings

Next Meeting