SkullSpace January 2026 Meeting Notes

[Edwin Amsler]

Hi everyone! Here are the meeting notes for January 27, 2026. Prepared by Me! (Edwin)

* Introductions! ? people in attendance
* New things!
* Pretty status quo
* XDJ-RR - What do we do?
* Edwin is going to sell for Bambu Labs P1S and other space improvements
* Coffee Machine
* It was listed on Kijiji for eight weeks
* Every week went down $100 until it was $100
* We're ready to throw it out now
* New Security Person for Events
* We typically hire two members of Boss Security
* We met Justin from other events in the city and and he's made people feel welcome and safe
* At our previous event he shadowed several people as greeters. We want to keep hiring him at $25/h
* He doesn't have his own insurance/license yet, Everett and Justin are working on that
* If SkullSpace wanted to hire our own security staff, it's a $65 reg fee (unsure if it's yearly or one time). We would also need to have liability insurance. We're not sure if that will increase our premium
* Everett sending an e-mail
* Insurance Broker
* We've had them for our event insurance, our agent Neil knows us well. Currently event insurance is ~$400 per event
* We do want to see if we can move our insurance there which would be a lower premium
* Group asks
* Edwin wants to brand SkullSpace an artist collective. What do people think about that? What's our medium?
* General concensus was positive to have that as part of our identity, artist collective has *been* part of our identity dating back to the [early times](https://access-newspaperarchive-com.wpl-dbs.winnipeg.ca/ca/manitoba/winnipeg/winnipeg-free-press/2011/09-27/page-44)
* "SkullSpace is kind of a cross between shop class and a computer lab. It's part artist studio and part club house." -- Winnipeg Free Press, September 27, 2011
* Facilitating space for Electronics
* Digital Art, Painting
* Social club?
* Socialize around art, tech, etc.
* Volunteering for membership dues
* SkullSpace is losing out if folks can't donate their time for their membership
* If there were a free month of membership for donations/skills/etc. it would create a different tier and the arguments on the value of work
* Open question: How do you value the time put in? Is event effort valued at $40, what is cleaning the bathrooms valued at?
* It could be a way to save people from burnout
* A counter argument to labour for membership: Community is the most important part, and the current rate of $40/m is a token amount (we've never increased it). Dues are much more expensive elsewhere.
* Example was given of a co-op run campground, returns for volunteering isn't asked.
* SkullSpace has dabbled with this in the past. It's also created tension based on experiences of other hacker spaces.
* Argument was given in terms of not being willing to pay money for the privilege of working. Counter-argument: What is the *value* of the community over the effort
* We'll re-raise this at the AGM in February
* Projects
* New closet build
* Thor has reinforced the door! Much harder to kick in now! 😃
* Existing fobs don't work with the swipe system but debit/credit cards do. Unify sell properly encrypted cards for $1 each
* We want to shift our security over to Ubiquity systems where access points are powered over PoE and we can tie everything to a SkullSpace membership
* We plan to have a camera within the lock-up room. There original a rule to not have cameras, but it doesn't seem to exist anymore. Also, this will be pointed inside a room and not used to identify who is actively in the space.
* Edwin is going to try and figure out the -12v → -5v regulator for Skulltris today
* Gabriel is working on the Laser setup, doing light design. LSDave is going to bring a drive to build a machine for lighting setup
* LSDave and Jade will be reinforcing the DJ booths to be able to mix from vinyl records. Needs to be stable enough to prevent skips
* Events
* Software Synth / DJ / Flow fun continues on Wednesdays!
* Starts at 7:00pm
* Semi-public, come on by! Usual four to ten people
* Hax 7.0 planning is underway
* There should be a meeting this month, Michael will set up a calendar event for February 10th at 7:30pm
* We're looking for talks! Talk to Mark J (or reply to this e-mail) for that
* If you want to be a promoter, organizer, etc. we could use your help
* Rave Adventures
* Previously, after hours with Junction X happened on the 25th (Sunday at 1:00am)
* Went well! The party started at Club Happenings then moved to SkullSpace
* Expenses were $1,093.63. Revenue $1,762.40. Profit $669.77
* Do we want to donate to PSA for their presence? $100 or percentage
* Gesture of good-will, not paying for the service
* Jade donated their DJ set time. $100 back to us
* LGCA continues to come visit, they're nice folks and have been helpful for us
* Profit sharing happened? DJs were offered $100 for their sets, Edwin to process those funds
* Next First Fridays is this Friday! Starts 10:00pm until... 3:00sih. Alcohol is a "yes"
* DJs are booked! Femme DJs!
* Members get in free
* Movie nights!
* January 16th - Film Noir-ish
* Brick
* The Big Lebowski
* Secret movie?!
* February - Cartoons → Live Action
* Flintstones
* Boris and Natasha
* Financials
* Number go... Slightly down?
* We're employing an external bookkeeper named Kim and our presentation process hasn't caught up yet
* Total value in Gnucash: $8,005.91
* Bank value is currently at $8,293.73 (up $1,822.40 from last month)
* We're missing some of the event expenses here again
* Membership: 51 full members, 4 students