Connected Community HackerSpace: Committee newsletter 2010-10-25

[andyg (@geekscape)]

Welcome to the Melbourne HackerSpace.

This is the first official, consolidated communication from the CCHS
committee to its members (financial or otherwise). The primary goal
of the CCHS committee is to undertake (and/or delegate) tasks that
ensure the continued, self-sustained operation of the CCHS. Our
default position is that this is an open, transparent process ... by
the organisation members, for the organisation members. If there are
any areas in which we can improve, please let us know.

This newsletter contains HTML links, if that is a problem for your
email reader (perhaps text-only), you can also read this communication
on-line (note: there are some handy HTML links) ...

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=15JkpU0-Lr_7BxMAo3HYPbPNqUTsZI2_PhhJAqMrAPB4

Committee selection, Statement of purpose and Incorporation rules
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As noted by George’s (returning officer) email to the CCHS email list
on 2010-09-27, the meeting on 2010-09-21 at Georges (the restaurant,
not the person ... and “yes”, that did lead to some confusion)
accomplished three goals, the voting and approval of ...

1. Incorporation of the CCHS and to permit Andy Gelme to submit the
application and amended rules to CAV
2. Statement of purpose
3. Adopt the proposed (modified) rules

I’ve attached a copy of the 2010-09-21 meeting minutes below.

We would all like to acknowledge and thank George for his efforts,
along with everyone else who became a financial member, attended these
meetings and voted.

Incorporation status
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite all the preparation and voting to incorporate the CCHS (as a
not-for-profit association), this has not happened yet.

Since the 2010-09-21 meeting, (restarted) discussions with Linux
Australia raised the possibility of the CCHS being a sub-committee
under the Linux Australia legal entity. This has become a blocker to
incorporating, because if becoming an LA sub-committee is the best
course of action, that can only happen, if the CCHS is not already
incorporated (we’d effectively have to de-incorporate again).

The main discussion with LA has revolved around CCHS risk and
insurance (how different are CCHS activities compared to other LA
group activities ?). To that end, we need to create a list of
potential risks and our safety procedures. This documentation is
likely to be needed for insurance purposes, regardless of which
direction we choose.

AndyG is currently tasked with producing that insurance risk
documentation. Grant will be maintaining the on-going discussion with
LA. As a priority, we now need to overcome this road-block.

The key reasons for creating a more formal CCHS organisation are to
have a legal entity which can open a bank account, manage finances
(funding, sponsorship), enter into legal agreements (property lease,
insurance) and to mitigate risk for the members (particularly those
leading the group).

Membership status
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mitch has been maintaining the membership list, which currently
includes 15 financial members. Until recently, there was no formal
definition of a CCHS member, but informally anyone who attended a
meeting or interacted significantly within the group was considered or
called a member.

Now that the CCHS is becoming a more formal organisation, the
definition of “a CCHS member” has become ... a person who has filled
in a membership form, paid the AUS$50 annual fee and been accepted by
the committee (according to the Rules of association).

We are in a period of transition from an informal group without any
structure to becoming a financially self-sustainable, not-for-profit
association. This has and will continue to take time and effort, as
well as change what it means to be a CCHS member. This has introduced
a financial cost to be a CCHS member and eventually a (yet to be fully
determined) facility access fees. We will strive to ensure that the
tangible values of being a CCHS member and having access to
significant and broadly available facilities, more than out-weigh the
membership and facility fees.

Those attending the CCHS over the last 88+ meetings have varied
circumstances, and the goal will be for the CCHS to be as inclusive as
possible for all existing and future members.

Location search
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The hunt for a permanent location that is affordable, accessible and
fit-for-purpose ... continues.

Previously, we’ve looked at a number of potential properties, which
have all been eliminated for a variety of reasons (location, size,
cost). We’ve also had discussions with Inspire9 (Richmond based co-
working organisation), where there are clear synergies. Paul Zee has
been particularly active recently, scouting out numerous locations and
keeping up a dialogue with Inspire9.

Everyone is encouraged to help search for a location. This is one of
those problems where “given enough eyeballs, all problems (bugs) are
shallow”.

Web site
~~~~~~~
Currently, Scott Penrose and the OSDN have donated the domain
“hackmelbourne.org”, which is maintained on an OSDN system, maintained
by Scott. The URL “http://hackmelbourne.org” redirects to our CCHS
Google Group, where we maintain a daggy front-page and various
informational pages, as well as the email list discussions.

Google has announced the re-focus of Google Groups to be just the
email discussions from November 1st 2010, which means we’ll need to
find a new home for our web pages.

The default decision is to move the existing web page content from
Google Groups to Google Sites, until a more substantial solution is
found.

Assistance with this work would be welcomed, so if you’d like to help
out, please contact Andy for access.

CCHS Group projects
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since the start, CCHS members have supported a number of group
projects, which have been a key area of collaboration between members,
such as ...

* CNC milling machine
* Various Lunar Numbat rocketry projects
* Use of MichaelJ’s MakerBot (3D printer)
* Pebble (Arduino shield) design and manufacture for the LCA2010
mini-conference
* Arduino and OpenWRT distributed, embedded systems

Recent and upcoming group projects will include ...

* Building a RepRap Mendel (3D printer) for the CCHS: MichaelJ and
Stuart
* AVR USB project (aka Doodad): Mitch and Ross
* LCA2011 Arduino mini-conference: Jon
* Re-starting the CNC milling machine: Tim and Mitch

All members are encouraged to participate in these on-going group
projects, or start one ... since sharing experience and making things
more significant than anyone of us might tackle alone ... are major
objectives of the CCHS. It doesn’t matter if you’ve had a lot or no
experience in a given domain ... it’s your participation that
counts ... and you’ll pick it up as you go :)

Other activities
~~~~~~~~~~~~
In addition to the regular meetings, many CCHS members also
participate in local (and not-so-local) open-source and/or community
events. Recently, this has included:

* Software Freedom Day 2010
* Trampoline Day 4

The next big event that we’re participating in is LCA2011 (end of
January), where we’ll be assisting Jon Oxer with the Arduino / Open-
hardware mini-conference and Luke Weston will be giving a Lunar Numbat
presentation.

On November 20th and 21st, the RuxCon security conference will be on
in Melbourne. A number of Brisbane and Sydney HackerSpaces members
will be attending and opportunities for catching up with those hackers
may result.

In conclusion
~~~~~~~~~~
As the committee undertakes its responsibilities and outstanding
actions, we’ll continue to keep everyone informed. Please let us know
via the group email or in person during meetings about any matters
that need to be addressed. The goal of the committee is to listen to
the members and deal with those things that aren’t going to happen
just-by-themselves. And, please feel free to let us know how we’re
doin.

Happy Hacking ... from the CCHS committee !


CCHS meeting minutes: 2010-09-21
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chairperson: GeorgeP (returning officer)
Attending: GeorgeP, Richard, StuartJ, AntoinetteC, MitchD, LukeW,
GrantD, JonO, TaraG, AndyG
Apologies: MichaelJ

Action: Change rules to allow non-physical attendance for committee
meetings

Vote: CCHS committee members and positions ...

* President: Andy Gelme
* Vice president: Grant Diffey
* Treasurer: Michael Joffe
* Secretary: Mitch Davis
* Ordinary committee member 1: Ross McKenzie
* Ordinary committee member 2: Luke Weston

Vote: Incorporate CCHS, permit Andy Gelme to submit the application
and amended rules to CAV: Approved

Vote: CCHS Statement of purpose: Approved

Vote: Adopt the proposed rules.: Approved

Discussion: CCHS Association incorporation
Action: Submit paperwork: MitchD to get forms
Action: Insurance ...

GrantD to check with John Ferlito of Linux Australia

AndyG to write list of potential insurance and safety procedures
Action: MichaelJ and AndyG: Make a list of revenue and assets

Discussion: CCHS Permanent location: co-working with Inspire9 and
budget
Action: AndyG and MichaelJ to follow-up

Discussion: Preparation for LCA2011: Rocketry payload, USB Doodad

Discussion: CCHS Group projects, i.e. CNC milling machine, MakerBot
and USB Doodad