Meeting Notes 2026 01 06

These are the notes from the 847th Meeting of Noisebridge.

Date	January 6, 2026
Note-takers	Julius, Naomi (nthmost)
Moderators	Naomi

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Meeting focused on building repairs, membership restructuring, and resolving a significant community conflict.

Meeting Summary

TLDR of what happened at the meeting:

• Fundraising Update: Identified grantwriting as critical gap; proposal for dedicated grants@noisebridge.net email
• Announcements: South Korean contingent visiting from AI open source group
• Finances: Treasurer's guild volunteers offered assistance; group authorized to contact CPAs for accounting services
• New members: None
• New associates: None
• Consensus Items: Discussion of membership tier restructuring (supporting/access/steward/501c3 legal member categories)
• Discussion Items:
  • Building infrastructure crisis (roof collapse, water damage)
  • CPA outreach for financial management
  • Grantwriting capacity building
  • Community standards enforcement (permanent departure request for member with ongoing behavioral issues)

Introductions

Attendees shared their name, access needs, and preferred gender pronouns, and what they do at Noisebridge:

• South Korea Contingent - Minseong and Dongeon from Nomadamas, an AI open source group backed by MarkrAI
• JD - Teaches laser classes and handles various tasks
• Ken - Also does tasks
• Zack - Newer laser teacher, raises butterflies, uses the space as a sandbox
• Null - Retired musician
• Julius - Note-taker
• Will - Lives in neighborhood, interested in using the space
• Brad - Visited NB once, interested in 3D printing
• HB (Hungry Bogart) - BDS/BBS
• Soderfumez (Daniel) - Working on dual axis control system for coffee equipment
• Zacchae - Hosts the decentralized web meetup, known for AR setup
• Josh - Community member
• WE-Z - ML infrastructure and musician
• Daniel - Does many things
• Travis - Visiting from Joshua Tree; read the Noisebridge manifesto a decade ago and created a hackerspace (though not a social space)
• Naomi (nthmost) - Hacking since 2009
• Frank - Interested in computer stuff
• Alex Peake - Gamebridge

Short Announcements and Events

60-second announcements from the community. See https://www.noisebridge.net/ and https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Category:Events for more events.

Excellence

Our One Rule is to Be Excellent to Each Other.

Being emotionally intelligent and kind, putting your best foot forward. Don't sleep in the space, don't poop on the floor. Use common sense. People who come here sometimes think they can do anything because there are no surveillance cameras. But we are all friends here - we look out for each other and the space.

For more details, please see https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Excellence

Anti-Harassment Policy & Community Standards

Noisebridge has an Anti-Harassment Policy: https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Anti-Harassment_Policy

Everyone is expected to follow it. More approachable & specific guidelines at 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:

• Sean - Showed up for the first time, asked if he could fix the laser computer, fixed it, and left. Only here for one week, so the community hopes to get more fixes from him.
• JD - For coming in to help check out the moisture situation.
• Julius and Daniel - Removed trash and debris dumped on sidewalk, avoiding a $1000 fine.

Zoning, Permitting, & Improvements

Ceiling caved in inside the downstairs bathroom. There are also other penetrations in the music room, and in the RNA lounge near the window. There was mold exposed. The Nazi roofer has been called in by the landlord. His work is under warranty. I came in and punched some holes to see the extent of it.

Draft Letter to Landlord

```letter "UNL1C3NS3D N00B n4z1"
## Draft Letter to Landlord

D34R L4NDL0RD,

W3 4R3 WR1T1NG R3G4RD1NG TH3 C4T4STR0PH1C R00F F41LUR3 4T 272 C4PP ST.

Y0U M4D3 4 CR1T1C4L 3RR0R. Y0U H1R3D 4N UNL1C3NS3D N00B T0 D0 TH3 W0RK, 4ND N0W TH3 SYST3M H4S CR4SH3D - L1T3R4LLY.

W3 H4V3 L0GG3D 3V3RYTH1NG:

- **Y0UR F41L3D S3CUR1TY PR0T0C0LS** (h1r1ng unl1c3ns3d c0ntr4ct0rs)
- **C0D3 V10L4T10NS** (bu1ld1ng c0d3, th4t 1s)
- **D4T4 0N Y0UR L3G4L 3XP0SUR3** (1t\'s... 3xt3ns1v3)

W3 H4V3 R00T 4CC3SS T0 4LL TH3 R3C31PTS. 4LL TH3 PH0T0S. 4LL TH3 D0CUM3NT4T10N. 0UR L4WY3RS 4R3 R34DY T0 D3PL0Y.

T0 4V01D 4 FULL SYST3M M3LTD0WN, W3 PR0P0S3:

1. **R3NT R3DUC3D** BY [X]% - C0NS1D3R 1T 4 P4TCH F0R Y0UR M1ST4K3S
2. **L1C3NS3D C0NTR4CT0RS 0NLY** - N0 M0R3 SCR1PT K1DD13S 0N TH3 R00F
3. **1MPR0V3D T3N4NT R1GHTS** - W3 G3T 4DM1N PR1V1L3G3S N0W
4. **B3TT3R C0ND1T10NS** - 0R W3 L34K TH3 WH0L3 D4T4BAS3 T0 C0D3 3NF0RC3M3NT

Y0U H4V3 **10 D4YS** T0 R3SP0ND B3F0R3 W3 3X3CUT3.

CH00S3 W1S3LY.

--== n0153 8r1])3 ==--

*"W3 D0N\'T F0RG3T. W3 D0N\'T F0RG1V3. 3XP3CT US... 1N D4 W4R3H4|_|z."*
```

Status this week? Helpful broad asks to the community?

NB city bureaucracy WG -- JD & Alice, among others.

Guilds & Working Groups

Reports from guilds & working groups. Guilds are self-organized groups that maintain specific areas or functions of Noisebridge.

Music Guild

Wheezy: Music Guild -- lock on the door!!

Null: Can we get metal wires to clamp onto shit to reduce walkaway?

Wheezy: Yes -- notice that PS4 I bolted down years ago hasn't gone anywhere!

Naomi: Yes and we can make enclosures like that aesthetic.

Alex: If you look at the recording in progress sign, the electrical is jank. So we may need to add some outlets.

JD: There were 2-3 quad boxes added this past year.

Wheezy: A lot of them were blocked by junk before and should be accessible now.

Spacebridge

No report this meeting.

Treasurer's Guild

Zacchae: Web Daniel and I were talking about volunteering as additional treasurers to help unblock things. Create a workflow where things are stored not just on one computer.

JD: This afternoon we were talking about establishing a group to look at hiring an accountant to handle the day to day.

New Members/Associate Members

No new members or associate members this meeting.

Financial Report

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

Latest financial reports 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.

• Ken: Dump runs -- receipts are building up. Last one $84
• Signage: $200 for front windows

Fundraising Update

How's it all going

Null: I was talking to someone who is working on going around to monied institutions and basically reminding them that we exist, and suggesting that they should donate to allow the space to continue to exist.

Consensus Items

https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Current_Consensus_Items

Membership Structure Proposal

Daniel: No changes to NB -- Idea: 3 stated membership types

• Supporting member - goal is to lower the threshold to "Memba!"
• Access member (24/7) - needs trust
• Steward member / Policy member [current big M member]

Alternative names suggested:

• "Submissive member" = only org simps are allowed to be this B.I.G.
• "501c3 legal member" - use this name, call it 5Member

Wheezy: Big fan of removing the word BIG because it attracts sm0l people.

Changes needed:

• Change all door access
• Change wiki
• Change language in 501c3 might need to change wrt 501c3 members

Ken: Acting member / active member

Zacchae: I just wanted to point out that as much as you can call this bikeshedding, this does seem important because people want a simple answer to how to be involved, how to give us money. So it can't be any more complicated than that.

Alex: Are we considering having a different category for people who don't do a *recurring* donation?

[General negative response]

I'm fine with passing it and leaving the refining the terminology to a small c discussion. Steward is a great word, but it also describes what Access members do. So maybe describe those people who can block consensus.

Null: Just to tag onto JD's point where there is a requirement of having a voting body, we should call that level "501c3 legal member"

Alex: I also considered 501c3 member, because it doesn't import any value judgments. But I didn't think people would like it because it is too long. Maybe "formal member"?

Discussion Items

Discussion Item 1: Hiring a CPA/Accountant

From/Raised by: JD, Julius

Seeking: Decision/outcome

On topic: Creating a group to reach out to registered CPAs and gather information on how much this would cost, see who is available.

Discussion:

Basically we are creating a group who is empowered to reach out to these people and request their services on behalf of NB.

There is still going to have to be a person who is responsible for actually evaluating [the options].

Alex: Just wanted to reiterate that in years past, the treasurer job was just reading what is on the wiki, and that information was always updated. The treasurer wasn't often even at the meetings. So my question is do we want to automate...

Null: What I would say is that perfect is the enemy of done. Much as we would like, the world doesn't have APIs for everything we would like to know. So PGE saying hey your bill was 20k because someone installed a miner isn't something we can automate our way out of.

Julius: We will presume that we have the backing of the space as far as saying to CPAs that we are potentially interested in hiring them.

Discussion Item 2: Grantwriting Capacity

From/Raised by: Zack

Seeking: Call for volunteers / announcement

On topic: Call/Advertise/look for a grant writer.

Zack: I don't know how that would work here, but not having a grant writer is affecting everything. This could be a major source of money. It could allow us to afford all the things like buying machines, things we need, hiring a CPA-accountant, etc. The fact that we aren't getting grant money regularly, means we aren't functioning normally as a nonprofit. Every other nonprofit does this.

Naomi: Grantwriting is one of those things that feels like it requires a group consensus but it doesn't. You can just do it. You can just apply on the behalf of noisebridge and come back with 50k.

JD: We can give people a lot more legitimacy if we give them a noisebridge email. Maybe grants@noisebridge.net

David: Has anybody actually *done* this at NB?

JD: Yes. The door grant.

Discussion Item 3: Community Standards Enforcement

From/Raised by: Naomi

Seeking: Documentation of outcome

On topic: Today I asked Elle to leave permanently.

Documentation

There is a page that lays out the series of events that have unfolded with Elle at the center of them: https://nthmost.com/NB_Ellewrites/

This includes:

• Detailed timeline and analysis of conflicts
• Pattern analysis: conflict escalation and credit-taking behaviors
• Impact on community members (Zoda, Wyatt, Justin, Zack, and others who pulled back from participation)
• Three attempted mediations without lasting behavior change
• Specific documented incidents including made-up rules and differential treatment of community members

Discussion

David: How many times have we mediated with her?

Naomi: Three times.

David: Have we attempted this in a group context with multiple members?

Naomi: That's not a mediation, that's a tribunal. [Or a reprimand --Nthmost, added later] Mediation is about repairing the relationship between two people.

Null: There are really great things about Elle. Sewing, grantwriting. But there are also parts of her that are a tarpit. And the question is how you balance those things against each other.

Naomi: She also has a pattern of claiming to do much more than she actually does. I did two different types of analysis, conflict and credit-taking. The other thing she does is she takes credit much more than she gives credit. And what that does is it makes it very unappealing to collaborate with her.

(Story:) Loren was interrogated by elle excessively for 30 minutes and wasn't respectful. Argument: elle doesn't engage respectfully with interrogating if the process is.

Null: One thing that's part of my own process is that when we condemn someone with absolution, there is no path to redemption. Do we feel like there is a path to Elle's redemption sometime in the future?

Wheezy: One thing so you can have context for what she does is making up rules on the spot for how mediation should work. Reframing a disagreement into a gender based conflict and dragging another woman into the argument who was clearly not comfortable and not consenting to being involved.

Null: What I'm saying about the redemption process is that the way that Elle is behaving today is so socially deleterious that I'm comfortable with a sort of invisible 86. Maybe in five years, you have gone to therapy etc

Josh: I don't think that a specific time limit or threshold makes sense. I think if she came back in 7.5 months and said hey I've been to therapy, this is how I have changed, that would be worth considering.

...

Josh: You don't deal with a high conflict individual by listing all the things they did wrong. That just opens up a firehose of conflict.

Julius: She's very good at identifying whose side she needs to stay on in order to not experience consequences for actions and for a long time that was me that's been UJD that's been you (Ken) that's been you (Josh). It's like she's just very good at choosing people to always be nice to always be respectful to. I don't think-- and unfortunately, other people have not been lucky. But when we were having discussion about potentially doing a follow up to the quinceanera, I really tried-- because for context the quinceanera did not actually make money. It was not neutral and only because we got about $2000 in raffle tickets purchased by one person who felt bad for us, but you know in her mind it was a huge success so we need to do this again. And what I tried to do was I tried to redirect her into maybe we can just have a celebration, maybe it doesn't have to be a fundraiser, maybe we can focus our efforts on like just having a party in Noisebridge, make it cheap right, beer and pizza, right we don't have to say that we're gonna do a silent auction and then run around at the last second-- and I didn't say it like that but-- we don't have to spend all this effort. I'm trying to do fundraising activities that aren't going to be necessarily that successful. We can just do a party and her response in this situation was how dare you I don't care about parties for Noisebridge. I care about making money and keeping us open basically screw you and she didn't know who she was talking to cause she called in remotely and I tried to be like hey hi hello it's me you know like and then she, then she backed off when she realized that she was speaking to me because I think you know she hadn't intended to sort of show that to me at that point and I think that's the pattern in a lot of situations she does good stuff sometimes and she does treat people respectfully sometimes, sometimes, but if she's in a bad mood, if she decides she doesn't like you, you get the shit stick. That's that's the thing that is very troubling to me even if she did come in and I saw her being respectful I wouldn't be able to trust that she was gonna be that way around other people or consistently.

David: I haven't had any bad experiences with her, is perma-ban appropriate? what about a 6 month cool down?

Daniel: Like if she could just be like constrained to certain limits it would work, but that's just not how-- we can't be like you're the one problem person keep them in the pen. Like it's either like you have access to everything or nothing so it's not compatible.

Ken: Whether or not, that's a good kind of reflection list for her to gauge her performance direct to that if someone could--

CHORUS: She's gonna know after this meeting.

Nthmost: She does know about a couple of issues already because I've at-replied her on the discord. For example, the issue with making up a rule simply so you can drag someone in a public place for something minor. [See documentation link above]

[Describes incident where Elle claimed someone was being rude by not seeing her on a call at a fundraising meeting] ...and then she responded him by saying like you're being rude to me in bravespace and I'm gonna need you to disengage and he responded by saying like I don't -- basically he had whiplash by that point -- anyway you should go back and look at this exchange because it doesn't make sense, but she tried to make up a rule that says you're not allowed to talk to people in private messages to work out conflicts. You only do it in bravespace which was never a rule, not ever, like not even even once she just made it up on the spot in order to make him look bad right because if that is the policy -- I don't know how no one questioned at the time -- but if that is the policy, then he just broke it and so she's allowed to treat him like shit for breaking this alleged policy. It's RIGHT THERE, you can read it. It's not hearsay. And the thing is, if you're trying to say "bravespace is confusing" which is what she argued when I called her on it, then shouldn't you assume _everyone_ finds it confusing and give people the benefit of the doubt??

Null: Psychopathy, psychopathy, that's psychopathy.

Josh: [On] redemption rather than five years-- so I think we don't really need that. I think if she came back to us in 7.5 months and said I've been to therapy and I realize I'm trying to get better, anybody would be happy with her coming back so we don't really need to document something that we need to keep track of, you know when she can come back or anything.

[Note: Null wrote a letter to Elle during the meeting; see below in Action Items]

Zack: [Describes a very difficult situation trying to organize events] That was something really very hard to do in the space and Elle harassed me on a couple different occasions why I had to tell her to stop and I had to physically get up and move and then she followed me and it was so stressful that I was faced with the situation of asking her to leave or leaving myself, and I knew that if I asked her to leave that I would never come back here again, even though I had asked her to leave I would just be done so I chose to walk out not you know not to never come back but just to cool off and leave so it's putting me in a situation where I have to basically remove myself from the situation instead of her, controlling it or somebody else helping out and so this year on my calendar, it said arts and open studios again Noisebridge and I looked at it, and I didn't say a single thing to anybody. I didn't try to organize. I didn't try to sign us up for it because I've learned my lesson.

[Another example:] I had a class that I did called How to Banksy and again this is when I first came and I had all the energy. I was putting myself out there and I organized it and we put it on meet up and a bunch of people signed up immediately and because people were saying boys were just going out of business we need money we need classes and so I was just responding exactly to what Noisebridge was saying, and like with events, you have to schedule it. You have to pick a spot so it doesn't overlap and towards the end of my event Elle came out physically took over half the space. Some paint got on one of my people, some of the paint that we had from spraying got onto one of the people that was with her and it just basically just kind of like an ambushment. That's the last time that I have done an event for a class here and it's been over a year. That's what it represents and I literally think that's part of why we have such low membership so if you don't think that's serious, we literally could go out of business and there'd be no more because of one person but it's also because of us not responding correctly. It's like a fire you gotta put it out. That's all I gotta say.

Julius: I think even though this was a hard thing to do this was a successful meeting. I think that this process was the result of a lot of hard work by people who are willing to frankly put themselves at risk and get some bruises and engaged with the community. So yeah as much as this sounds like a bad thing I think this meeting is actually a success. I think it's a successful outcome and I want to say thank you to Zack. I saw what you posted in the discord after that interaction with Elle and I think that that was the best way you could engage with that, just saying, you know, I'm taking space for myself, you know being great about it and thank you for coming back.

Zack: Thank you. Speaking up tonight is very hard for me to do. My face is hot. My heart is beating and I just feel really really fucking stressed out and I'm not sure if speaking up tonight was the right thing for my physical mental health, but fuck it Noisebridge needs it. You know we have to speak up we have to testify or else we keep dying unless there were some significant systemic [changes].

Nthmost on systemic failures: There's some high brow stuff that I put on the wiki -- Anarchy Paralysis is the name of it. I would love some more engagement on this kind of stuff. I mean, the way Zoda would describe what happened about three months ago was that there was consensus and yet no one felt they could do anything. We literally could've had this meeting about three months ago. Maybe a year ago. I don't know. So there's that and then there's also just like how do we develop a better respect for mediators because I think one of the issues here is that we treated mediators as equals like oh that's just another opinion to add into the bucket about this person rather than expert opinion, right -- we're treating somebody who has just come fresh to Linux as being on the same level as somebody who's been like hacking on Linux shit for like 20 years? Do you know what I'm saying? Like oh I guess you guys can both accomplish things on the command line equally. No, we have to treat mediators as expert witnesses and we haven't been. This is just commentary, sorry.

Outcome: Community supports permanent departure with emphasis on future redemption possibilities through demonstrated behavioral change rather than strict time limits.

Action Items & Do-ocratic Task Board

Tasks identified:

• Create noisebridge.net email addresses to bolster fundraising/grantwriting success (specifically grants@noisebridge.net)
• Write an empathetic community letter to Elle (see draft below)

Draft Community Letter to Elle

Note: Null drafted this during the meeting. Naomi noted: "It just has to come from not-me. I am Bad Cop in this whole thing. Someone who has an actual friendly relationship with her."

A Letter About Moving Forward Together

Dear Elle,

We're writing to you because we care about you as a person and about our community. This isn't easy to write, and we imagine it won't be easy to read. We ask that you try to receive this in the spirit it's intended—not as an attack, but as an honest conversation about patterns that have been hurting people, including you.

What We've Observed

Over the past year and a half, we've noticed something that concerns us. When disagreements arise—even small, technical ones—they seem to grow quickly into something much bigger. What starts as a difference of opinion sometimes becomes about character, or about values like fairness and safety, in ways that feel disproportionate to the original issue.

We've seen people leave our community who didn't want to leave. Zoda, who gave so much as a mediator, eventually stepped back—exhausted and struggling with sleepless nights. Wyatt, who was excited to teach, started dreading coming to the space. Justin pulled back from fundraising work he cared about. These losses hurt all of us.

The Pattern We're Hoping You Can See

When conflicts happen, we've noticed a tendency to:

• Skip past the early stages where people can just talk things through, and move quickly to bringing in allies or making it about bigger principles
• Use community safety processes in ways they weren't designed for—as consequences rather than protection
• Take on visible leadership roles but struggle to follow through on the behind-the-scenes work, then not fully acknowledge others who stepped in to help

We don't believe you're doing this to be hurtful. We think you care deeply about this community and about doing what's right. But the impact has been painful for people, regardless of intent.

What We Are Asking

We're asking you to pause and reflect honestly. When a conflict arises, can you try staying in the conversation longer before escalating? Can you ask yourself whether this disagreement really needs to become about someone's character, or whether it can stay about the specific issue?

When you take on a leadership role, can you either commit to the unglamorous parts—the emails, the booking, the follow-through—or openly share that responsibility from the start?

And when others help, can you make sure they're acknowledged? A community only works when people feel seen.

You Are Not the Villain

We want to be clear: you are not a bad person. You have brought energy and ideas to this space. But right now, the way conflicts are being handled is unsustainable—for you and for everyone else.

People are afraid to disagree with you because they've seen what happens. That's not the community any of us want. We believe you don't want that either.

Moving Forward

We're not asking you to be perfect. We're asking you to be willing to look at this honestly, maybe with support from someone you trust—a therapist, a mentor, a friend outside the community who can help you see what's hard to see from the inside.

We want your positive energy. But we need things to change.

With care and hope for what's possible,

The Noisebridge Community

Other Tasks

Participation means contributing to the space. Propose new tasks or pick tasks from Github, from what needs to be done around you, or whatever needs doing!

Wiki maintenance needed:

• What wiki pages need updating based on this meeting?
• What new wiki pages do we need?

End of Meeting

Note taker checklist:

• Clean and tidy the meeting notes
• Fill out the short summary at the top
• Copy paste the notes to the next meeting page
• Email the meeting summary to Noisebridge Discuss and Noisebridge Announce lists
• CC treasurer@noisebridge.net and secretary@noisebridge.net if there are new members and philanthropists
• Edit Current_Consensus_Items if anything is proposed for consensus next week
• Edit Consensus_Items_History if anything reached or failed consensus this week

Fun things to do after:

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