Meeting Notes 2025 05 20

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These are the notes from the The 813th Meeting of Noisebridge.

Date	2025 mm dd UPDATE DATE
Note-takers	Mark, Loren
Moderators	Mark

ALSO EDIT PREVIOUS AND NEXT DATES IN THE WIKI LINKS BELOW

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• One or two bullet points of high-level meeting summary.

Meeting Summary

FILL OUT AT END OF MEETING AND SEND TO MAILING LIST/SLACK/DISCORD Include: TLDR what happened at the meeting:

• Fundraising Update:
• Announcements:
• Finances:
• New members:
• New associates:
• Consensus Items:
• Discussion Items:

Introductions

• Ask people to share their name, access needs, and preferred gender pronouns what they do at noisebridge

Mark - Secretary, Games Guild!
Cloud - I host 5 MoF every Third Thursday
Diana - Repairing the broken door of a vacuum cleaner
It's Brian! - I'm working on a piece of physical therapy equipment today
Ron - Ron
Narcisse - I work on fashion design and I also like to stream
Misha, working on stuff. Hardware, micro-electronics, software.
Loren - talk to me about treasury stuff and software infrastructure

Short announcements and events

• Narcisse - still interested in doing the fashion show and Haunted House thing! On June 13th!

• Loren - Noisebar is restocked! Find snacks and drinks in there and please donate for them! (* Dianna -- There is also a sparkling water dispenser upstairs)

• Mark -- would love help: getting fire extinguishers inspected: Brian, Narcisse volunteer. Brian and Narcisse Volunteer

Elle - Sewing and Mending next Friday the 30th, "Mending Jeans" Sunday after that the 1st, Mending Hoodies, Crochet Class June 6th

"How to have Events at Noisebridge" - next week Tuesday before the meeting - 6PM!

Excellence

Our One Rule is to Be Excellent to Each Other. (On first Tuesdays, seek a few definitions. Other Tuesday, give a 1-3 sentence summary.)

What does that mean? Please see our page on excellence https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Excellence!

Anti-Harassment Policy & Community Standards of Excellence

Noisebridge has an Anti-Harassment Policy https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Anti-Harassment_Policy Everyone is expected to follow the Anti-Harassment Policy, please familiarize yourself with it.) TWO MINUTES MAX More approachable & specific guidelines, https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Community_Standards https://safespace.noisebridge.net/ is one way to quickly raise issues which will be seen by people in Slack.

Brief Kudos

Recent examples of excellent behavior, say 3, unless the passion moves you.

To Misha/Mikhael for helping restore Flaschen Taschen To Diana for Donating the SodaStream thing upstairs! Kudos to Travis for hosting 5 MoF

Zoning, Permitting, & Improvements -- Standing Item

Status this week? Helpful broad asks to the community? NB city bureaucracy WG -- JD & Alice, among others.

Permit has been accpeted, fees have been paid. We are officially changed of use. We are officially ready to proceed with putting the whole wall thing together and then do our first inspection!

Electrical: we were supposed to get an estimate/bid from Rick Brown, who was supposed to talk to Electrical Inspector. He's been busy. Will nudge him.

Also need to have a contractor to do HVAC, as specified by the city. If someone wants to step up and help call around to find someone, I'd accept the help! Otherwise I'll get to it when I get to it.

Guilds

• What are guilds - briefly describe (much like the previous section on "Excellence")

New Members/Associate Members

What are they? Is anyone trying to become a Member or Associate Member? If not move on. No long discussions.

Financial Report (first Tuesday of month only)

Anarchist societies under a capitalist state need money to survive and thrive, yo.

• Monthly revenue, expenses. Big projects. Big fundraising events. Reserves in bank.
• Any other details by those participating in handling our financials
• The latest financial reports from the treasurer are available at https://noisebridge.net/wiki/Finances

Spending Needs

Gotta spend money on XYZ (i.e. Gate, wiring etc.). WHO CAN SIGN THE CHECK OR LEND THE CREDIT CARD!?!?! It doesn't matter if we agree to do something and it can’t be paid for.

Fundraising Update

How's it all going

Big C Consensus Items

Nobody likes 3 hour meetings, only explain if new people are present. https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Current_Consensus_Items

Consensus Items

Only for talking about Big C consensus items, small c consensus items should be discussed with people at the space at the time of the change/new item.

Discussion Items

Template... [num]: [topic-short]

From/Raised by: Seeking: decision/outcome/advice/[?] On topic:

(discussion item) 1: Discontinuing DRG program

From/Raised by: Nick [outrightmental] - sorry I will arrive in meeting Jitsi by 8 but want to put these notes here for now Seeking: decision/outcome/advice/[?] On topic: I’m writing with an important update on the RICOH Ri-1000 direct-to-garment printer. Despite months of effort, the DTG program never reached full operational status. The printer demands daily use and specialized upkeep; even a few idle days let ink dry and clog the heads. After one encouraging stretch of prints, multiple ink channels clogged again, halting production. Restoring functionality now requires expensive cleaning cartridges, new print heads, or a full carriage replacement, plus technician labor. Given those costs and the machine’s delicate maintenance needs, our volunteer environment is simply not the right fit.

I’m profoundly grateful for everyone’s generosity. Together we passed the hat for eighty dollars, and the community approved another one-hundred-ninety for parts. Your time, donations, and enthusiasm were invaluable. Yet I cannot in good conscience ask for hundreds more on a project with uncertain prospects. The responsible decision is to retire the printer from the space.

I will personally remove and rehome the Ri-1000 with a print shop that can run it daily, and I will not claim it as an official donation. Thank you for understanding and for continuing to embody Noisebridge’s spirit of excellence.

Full statement: https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/DTG_Printing for further background and details there today

Corey: is there anyone in the community who is depending on this device to make money? If they are hoping to use this as income, perhaps we could ask them as trade to keep it up and use it on a daily basis?

Nick: Interesting thought, we could ask around? But I think the numbers may be prohibitive... I can not even confidently give anyone a guarantee on how much it'll take to fix it and do upkeep... the new costs they are telling us for repair, totalling upwards of $1000, seems like just way too much of an ask.

Julius - yeah I generally feel uncomfortable creating that kind of a relationship with someone in the community anyway. Would be kind of one-sided, and a precarious balance.

There is a community around the other side of the block ("The Homies"), making custom garments, embroidery, etc etc

Nick: Would like to talk with them and gauge their interest.

All in all, I'd like to honor my initial ask/claim, which is to take responsibility for what happens with this machine and ensure it is not a reverse theft to NB.

Corey - 'Nother Question: can it be drained/flushed in such a way that it can be just left.

If we don't come up with a good strat for handling this...our hassle will become another group's hassle. I suggest we do run it one day a week for now at least. Off to print some things for people. Then restore it to its cleaning solution stasis.

Nick: Interesting idea, but could be costly still. I'll try to model what that might look like.

(discussion item) 2: [topic]

From/Raised by: Corey Seeking: decision/outcome/advice On topic: 16 year old as Associate Member

Elle: We have had discussions about not wanting kids at NB bc insurance issues and such. That said, we regularly do have "kids" at NB. (Teenagers) I'm just not aware of any that are able to be there 24 hours. I'm feeling a bit uncomfortable with that, even with an adult chaperone.

Julius: Yeah, I feel part of being a associate member is that you ARE the chaperone and can hold your own by yourself at the space.

Whats the use case?

Basically want to have him be able to come in the mornings and do work here.

Julius/et al: Well actually we can grant that without granting 24 hour access! Regular hours access should be enough without resorting to membership.

(discussion item) 3: [topic]

From/Raised by: Julius on behalf of Elan Seeking: decision/outcome/advice On topic: Establish new norms around Music Room use

Julius: Ron was the one who originally mentioned this. About a year ago we had a group using the music room loudly fairly consistently. There was an altercation where they were asked to play more quietly. Didn't take it kindly, were asked to leave, but were not 86'd. Just calmed down and they kind of dropped off the radar. There *may* be some overlap between those folks and the ones who have been hanging around using the room loudly lately. But not totally sure.

Generally, punk music is loud. That is kind of the idea and the point, but it *can* be disruptive to Noisebridge at times. What to do?

Insulation of the space has been brought up.

Eric: I think for production, obviously encouraging headphone usage is great. But for loud acoustic music, maybe some specified "loud hours" that we consense on??

Loren: Often when conflicts come up, its hard to rersolve because there is not much trust often. Often musicians come and use the space and don't integrate too too much into the broader community. We should avoid trying to implement something draconion as established by members elsewhere.

Julius: so it should be worked out excellently between people who are there and bothered by the noise?

Elle: I worry that even with the special "quiet hours" it would be "discriminatory" against the punk style musics.

Corey: NB is a community space that supports a lot of difft functions. The middle path is the righteous path. We need to maximize space usage between groups. That saud, there are community spaces, specifically for musicians. There are studios as well, designed for that kind of use. Not trying to kick anyone out of our community. But our music space is meant for Noisebridgers to experiment with music, on top of the other things they do here. Rather than to be a space that is specifically built for musicians and performance.

Eric: My point is, music has been part of NB culture forever. We even have specific performance nights. You'd be restriction the expression of their art by restricting what they can do at the space. Good Anarchism is about freedom.

Corey: Residential tenants next door. We probably have a noise curfew of 10pm like much the rest of SF.

Daytime hours during the week may be most permissive/useful for "noise allowed" times.

Narcisse: I'm in that room a lot when people come in and start playing loud stuff. Maybe a schedule system of some sort could work?

Elle: Having quiet times sounds appealing in discussion, tho I see some problems with putting it into effect. With people trying to put things into THEIR schedules, it may come into conflict with NB quiet times. Narcisse's suggestion for scheduling may be nice. May create a way for the musicians to work this out amongst themselves.

Corey: Was curious...how loud does it get downstairs when theyre rockin out upstairs?

People: One must raise their voices to talk over the noise.

Loren: Sounds like its worth us making presence of acoustic drums a consensus point. Maybe they can't be left to be played at full volume during quiet hours.

Corey: A thing that could be done could also be to put drums on a slightly raised, dampening material-based floor, like dense rubber.

Dan: electrical limitation of the speakers in the room? Is that a thing we should think about? Restrict resistance on things such that we have a hard technical limit on decibels in the room.

People: Interesting idea...people carry in amps tho.

Dan other idea: decibel meter in the room, that if it goes over a certain limit, cuts power to the whole room.

Do-ocratic Task Board

Participation also means doing stuff to contribute to the space. Propose new tasks or pick some tasks from Github, from what needs to be done around you, or whatever, and see if someone will sign up to work on that task. Anyone can sign up and it's a great way to show you are contributing!

End of Meeting

Note taker posts the notes

• Clean and tidy the meeting notes including removing all these really verbose instructions.
• Fill out the short summary at the top listing just announcements, consensus items, discussion topics, and names of new members and philanthropists.
• Copy paste the notes to the next meeting page. (They will become Last meeting at midnight.) https://www.noisebridge.net/index.php?title=Last_meeting&redirect=no
• Email the meeting summary to Noisebridge Discuss and Noisebridge Announce lists.
• CC on the email treasurer@noisebridge.net and secretary@noisebridge.net if there are new members and philanthropists.
• Edit the Current Consensus Items if anything is proposed for consensus next week.
• Edit the Consensus Items History if anything was reached consensus or failed to reach consensus this week.

Fun things to do after

• Do a 10 minute cleanup, bring dishes up stairs and wash them, clean the bathroom
• Have some beers on the patio
• Prepare the next weeks' meeting notes
• Lick the walls. Or just draw on them
• sing the Hackernationale (this almost never happens)