Hackerspace Weekly Digest: Nov 26th - New Location Decision and Cosplay Meetup!

[Christopher Hoffman]

Hey Hackers,

Its time for another weekly digest. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and has successfully fought past the black friday shoppers. We have some interesting things this week so lets get to it!

New Location Vote on Tuesday

First, lets start with an update on our search for a new location. We are expecting to have to vacate the Sun Center by the end of the year. Seeing as the Holidays are approaching, the number of members willing and able to help move is going to start to diminish soon, so we need to make a decision and start the process of moving. We are holding a discussion and vote on Tuesday during our regular meeting (7pm). By the end of the meeting, we will have made a decision on the new location. We want all members opinions to be heard, as this decision affects all of us. Voting members, please make time to come out and be part of the vote. If we do not reach a quorum of voting members on Tuesday, the Board will be the one to make the determination as time is running short.

During the big discussion a few weeks ago, we 3 had possible locations, and were waiting to hear back with details; the 6th street location, the old Lowes, and a few rooms in the old Cade Museum building. Since then, we heard back from the owner of Lowes, who wanted $1800/month for the first 8 months, $2600/month for the next 8 months, and $3000 a month after that. Unfortunately that puts that location out of our budget. 

Based on the choices available to us, and unless someone comes forth with concrete details on other locations, the lead consideration for a new location is the space at 2803 NW 6th Street. If you have updated information on other locations, please be prepared to present them on Tuesday. We will also be discussing what to do with the machine shop; whether to keep it, move it to the new location, or split the bay with Frank.

If you would like a tour of the 6th street space, contact Voting Member Joe DiPietro. He has a key to the new location and is available at almost any time to show you around.

Here is a spreadsheet with most of the information on the spaces we looked at, if you want more details (Thank you Joseph F.). There are many nuances when comparing locations, so just consider that when looking at the data. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RkiB0kr7402fUxVa2O5UMqUg6rssrjfQeugwyWlDJ90/edit?usp=sharing

I made a google doc as a place to hear comments/concerns/questions about locations, as well as listing plans that members have come up with. Use this to list any thoughts: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d_OVuQE7tqxA4JWw0VX5a8o_haVtOVi5GP5clldPgaI/edit#

Finally, Tuesday's meeting will be structured as per Robert's Rules of Order. At the start of the discussion I will move to limit discussion two two-minute speeches per member. This is in no way to prevent discussion, but as a way to allow each member to voice their thoughts without interruption. This means you should use the above documents to ask questions, or join us in the #RentNewSpace room on the slack channel!

Calendar

• Tuesday (11/28) 
  
• 7pm - Meeting to vote on the new location (First 30 minutes), as well as our weekly open house! Everyone is welcome to come and meet the members of the Gainesville Hackerspace. Feel free to bring a project to work on, we'd be happy to help!
• Voting members: We have 3 applications to vote on this week, check your email for the usual details
• Wednesday (11/29)
• 7pm - Cosplay Open Project Night: Its our monthly Cosplay meetup this Wednesday! Come meet other cosplayers in the Gainesville Community, check out costumes, and bring your current project to work on!
• https://www.facebook.com/events/1964721437148978/
  

Misc:

• Join our Slack! If you are a member, and you are not on Slack, you are missing out on a lot of awesome conversations! I sent invites to all the emails I have, but if you are a member and didn't get an invite, let me know!

Christopher Hoffman

Secretary, Gainesville Hackerspace

[Liza Kholodkova]

Hey Chris,

Can you please send out a ballot to vote on Tuesday? 

Example: 

Should we move Hackerpace to 6th Ave? 

Yes or no

Should we keep dirty shop if we move to 6th Ave? 

Yes or no

Attach finicial report 

I won't be able to make it Tuesday but would like a formal vote. 

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Sincerely,

Liza Kholodkova

Founder of Botsy BeDrawn
Gainesville Hackerspace President

Aerospace and Mechanical Engineer

[Brian Bartholomew]

My thanks to the teams which have constructed these alternatives.
However, a one-day notice and comment period is not long enough to
demonstrate we have consensus on this big decision, and a deliberation
period after a new proposal appears Tuesday night is missing. With
concrete proposals now on the table, I think we should talk about them
this week, and vote next week.

Liza, do you have a proposal to instead form a closer association with
one of the museums or prototyping groups in town? Have you written it
up, including their letters of intent and a cashflow spreadsheet? If
you want this, please present it and champion it.

One objection I have is that without a lease in writing, the
landlord's terms could change anytime. Are people willing to donate
hundreds of dollars of lighting, air plumbing, ventilation, etc. and
tens of hours to install it to customize the new space, and then
abandon that investment in a month? The previous landlord's plans
changed after a losing political campaign. Any landlord's plans could
change due to a disabling automobile accident, heart attack, cancer,
divorce, lawsuit, etc. A landlord's track record of favoring
hackerspace charities does not protect against any of this.

Brian

[Joseph DiPietro]

Brian,
I strongly disagree. I don't believe we have another week to waste. Members have been asked repeatedly to search for a new home. I personally have researched multiple locations and refered several of them to the board. This matter has been dragging on for months. It has been discussed, analyzed and scrutinized.  We expect to be required to vacate the space by the end of the year. There is no more time for research, it is time for action.

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[Brian Bartholomew]

Imagine some future large decision, for which you have 24 hours
notice, 2 minutes to speak, no deliberation, and a majority vote which
does not choose to satisfy any of your objections. Is that the
decisionmaking style precedent you'd like to set?

I'm not asking for research, I'm asking to do the process of
identifying a consensus. Last week, I asked for the announcement to
be made then, so that we'd have a week to talk about it. Do we
already all agree? Are there no substantive, concrete objections?
How do we know? My impression is we're hiding from having an open
discussion, and I don't know why.
Brian

[Brian Bartholomew]

Majority vote is a method of pretending bug reports don't exist.

"Who wants Chinese food?"
"I don't, the health department closed that place last month."
"Too bad, you're outvoted!"

Votes should be unanimous. If a minority has a concrete, specific
objection, we ought to want to satisfy it.

Brian

[Joseph DiPietro]

I'm more concerned that the big decision gets delayed until there is no longer enough time left to do a proper job.
This problem did not pop up out of nowhere a day or two ago, we've been aware of the eventual loss of the current space for months. We've known about the various options for weeks. I've announced a willingness to show the 6th Street space to anyone several times over the past two weeks and no one has contacted me. There is no great interest by the members in participating in this quest. It is the responsibility of the Board to now act in a timely fashion and in the best interest of the organization. They have an obligation and responsibility to act to prevent a problem from becoming an emergency due to further delay.

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