6/11/2024 Meeting Minutes
Vice President of MAGLaboratory
2024-06-11 Meeting Minutes
Call to order: 8:41 PM by Richard L.
Attendees
Richard L.
Brandon L.
Hong
Kevin Y.
Michael J.
Past Events
Open Project Night (6:30 PM, Fri June 7th)
Richard L hosted.
People were there.
Ovitt Family Community Library Maker Event (11:30 AM to 4:30 PM, Sat June 8th 2024)
“Pretty decent for a 3 hour commitment”
Met with some other groups.
Was gifted some Arduinos, motor shields, and a ton of ultrasonic sensors.
Some more adults are aware of MagLab.
Talked to Rob from UMakers.
Line-following robots:
1 robot survived out of 5 or 6. Others lost the ability to follow lines.
Bots need to be ruggedized because there are some kids who like to slam them together.
Overall works as an interactive activity for the kids.
Open House Party (6:00 PM, Sat June 8th)
Richard hosted.
Went well. Two non-members showed up.
Upcoming Events
Open Project Night (6:30 PM, Fri June 14th)
Brandon L. is hosting.
How to use the new CNC mill class?
We can advertise that we have a “user friendly” CNC…
Please express interest to Richard or Trent on Discord.
Bantam mill needs tooling caddy
Bantam mill has a home
Would like 2 weeks or a month of notice to advertise.
Combine with the mill or lathe class?
Kicad/PCB Milling/Flatcam Series (July event?)
Proposed by Brandon
Single-layer copper with holes.
Date TBD
Dry-run on Friday.
Happened
Just software or using the CNC as well?
Richard prefers interactive.
USB lantern sample board?
Successfully prototyped. It works.
Relatively easy design for a beginner to use (and ignore design rules checks).
Still need to iron out the details of the class.
Richard volunteers as the class guinea pig.
Split across two days: one for design, one for milling.
Will have reference designs in case you can’t make both.
Section Lead Updates
Brandon L. (CTO)
We’ll be upgrading the MediaWiki to the next LTS version when it comes out.
Tried to replace the fluorescent lights in the conference room with LEDs, but half the tubes came broken.
Is now also a curator.
Michael J. (Quartermaster)
David’s welding cart is still there. It’ll be gone eventually.
Hong (Treasurer)
Not much different.
Need to reach out next month for insurance renewal.
Discussion Items
There are still some bylaws amendment “I voted” gift cards to be distributed.
Kevin to contact remaining card giftees.
Richard to contact Ed.
Sponsorship packet. (On hold because Richard is busy)
Expect a final draft to send out by the meeting of 11/21.
Richard has a final draft.
Now to find where to send these too.
Richard to CC Rosa on company list and outgoing emails.
Companies in consideration:
Monoprice
Hackaday / Supplyframe
Olympus Controls
Digikey?
Mcmaster Carr?
Send more suggestions…
Feedback is generally bad.
Cold calling is difficult.
Organizations with prior relationships are better.
Doesn’t have to be a big business.
Such a scrap materials from the woodworking neighbor?
Making event or class.
Combined fundraising/advertising.
Solicit sponsorships for an event/hackathon.
Donate materials or money.
Possibly a very big organized event.
Keep an eye out for events we can participate in.
Fundraising profit-sharing programs. (E.g. Krispy Kreme donuts or Pieology)
These tend to become us indirectly donating to ourselves.
Paid ads? - Michael
Talk to Rosa.
Example sponsor decks:
Let’s think of a big event for the first half of 2024 that we can use as a fundraising event.
An event that we would market more.
Big tabletop gaming event
Learnings from Active Streets.
We probably don’t want to have an event at MagLab. Instead be a part of a bigger event.
Sponsorship for supplies for such an event?
Are there other big events? Besides bike events?
Recommend attending one before starting our own.
Pasadena next event: June 29th, 2024
City of STEM event
Not a small event, but need more volunteers.
Have the sponsorship packet there?
Need a tabling kit
Banner, table, flyers, business cards.
34” x 22” ANSI D color printer available
Temp banner on tri-fold?
Neighbor print shop sponsorship (Promo Gallery)?
Poke Michael J. for actually good mandarin?
They do pad or screen printing, not banner printing?
More 4”x6” flyers
Sponsored flyer printing?
Rosa to provide design 5/31/2024.
Hype video?
Purpose
Giving back to the community.
Practice for fundraising, sponsorship, running events, making connections and pitching..
Not that the event itself is meant to make money.
E.g. asking a company to sponsor supplies for an event.
Attracting people outside of MagLab
Lower cost “day use”/”guest use”/”trial membership”
Not a full membership
no storage
no voting rights
no large dangerous tools.
1 day is not enough to check for trust and competence.
What is the sweet spot?
$20/day?
For reference, bicycle kitchen is $8/hr.
Pose questions to guests and visitors to events and open project nights.
Other questions
What days?
What hours?
Nobody really shows up for David’s curator hours 1pm-5pm.
What tools?
Concerns
Is this in line with what we want community/culture wise.
Abuse of tools & materials.
Type of people this attracts.
Previous bad experiences with transient use.
Require vouching by existing member?
Space isn’t always open.
Dedicated hours? Need volunteers.
At open project night?
Your $20 reserves an at least 4 hour appointment one of these days:
Friday: 10 AM to 10 PM (Brandon)
Saturday: 1 PM to 5-6 PM (David), 5-6 PM to 10 PM (Brandon)
Sunday: 4 PM to 9 PM (Brandon)
Monday & Wednesday: 1 PM to 8 PM (David).
At appointment time, they should give an idea of what they want to do during that time.
A way to get people in the door.
Will need a bylaws change.
Maybe not needed for experimental “fundraising days”.
Need a special meeting.
Should give a questions/comments period during the special meeting, then voting after that.
E-mail based special meetings will begin on June 1st.
Discussion period June 1st to June 16th with the details locked in at 11:59 PM on June 16th.
Voting period will be June 17th to June 30th.
Meeting will be held over e-mail. Proxy through an executive officer is possible if you don’t want to vote over email.
Market Research
$20/day seems reasonable from the people we have asked.
Additional benefits
“Project kits”?
For people who don’t already have a project in mind.
Edge-lit acrylic sign
Cal Poly Pomona Rover Team sponsorship request
The sponsored membership starts in June.
Need to talk to the team about which hours they need to have the space open to work on their project so we can arrange for keyed members to open the space for them.
5 people oriented on Tuesday.
Previous team members have graduated. Team lead will get back to us with which new team members or leads need to get oriented.
When they reach out again, need another person to give general and heavy machinery orientation.
Proposal to have a $60 3D printing class fee + general membership. Get a printer at the end of the class?
Not sure if we can do this.
Trying to get in touch with the principal of the school with the printers.
Farhan talking with the school first.
We can’t do this because we can’t write off this many high-priced items on our balance sheet. Might work if someone takes it personally, but needs to be on the books if associated with MagLab.
Also not doing this because no volunteers are willing to organize the class.
What are David H.’s ideas for the class?
After David gets back in May from vacation.
David will be gone on June 10th. Back for a week at a time about every other week, for about 6 months to a year.
Postponed indefinitely for now.
MagLab flag (July 4th deadline)
Richard’s workplace is creating a demo center where MagLab can have a flag.
Richard to make the flag.
What file format?
Okay with the flag design?
Richard is okay with it as is. Not final so Rosa can change if wanted.
Flag is on The List, but not high priority.
3’ x 5’ flag vertically hanging.
Something visually popping (but not visually busy) is okay.
E.g. elephant on rainbow.
E.g. California flag.
QR minimum 1/3rd of the area to be scannable.
Logo, URL, motto, capability logos.
Motion to end: Brandon L. Hong.
Meeting ended: 9:39 PM