View source for Meeting Notes/20171018

( Thanks to Andrew Cottrell for minutes )

Item 1: Upcoming elections for board positions.
Eduardo Longoria is running for Director of Finance, replacing Mert Eastman.  Iewan (Ivan) Vandenberg is running for Director of PR, replacing David Glusenco.  They each spoke briefly about qualifications and answered various questions (e.g. what is their vision for the future of ATXHS?)

Item 2: Discussion of purchasing a shop compressed air distribution system.
Discussed purchasing a RapidAir distribution system to run compressed air to various locations in the shop, possibly purchased from Northern Tool + Equipment.  Estimating $800 before tax, with ATXHS allocating a budget of up to $1000.  This project does not include the price of a new compressor, which may also be needed.  This still requires a formal proposal and vote.  Alternatives were briefly discussed (e.g. PVC which was deemed not up to professional levels of safety, and copper piping which is what TechShop uses).

CONFUSION NOTE:  "Proposal" does not mean the member meeting should discuss something.  A Proposal, in terms of ATXHS, is a fully documented proposal with actual costs that can be put up for a vote.  If you want to discuss something at the meeting, just request that it be discussed but do confuse the issue by calling it [Proposal].  I made this mistake today and I'm guessing others have as well.

Item 3: Discussion of abandoned property versus unlabeled projects.
Discussed the technical differences of what is abandoned property versus just someone's unlabeled project.  No consensus reached.  (A lot of this conversation happened before the meeting technically started.)

PERSONAL NOTE REGARDING UNLABELED PROJECTS :  If you are leaving ANY material/project at the space you need to label it with your full name, a contact method, and when you will be returning for it.  This is REQUIRED to maintain a usable workspace and is necessary to show respect for ATXHS and its members.  If you don't do this, you have no right to complain if your materials are discarded or claimed by other members.  Especially if you leave it on our extremely limited workbenches!  (Again, this is my personal note and not necessarily the "official" position.)

Item 4:  Prophase Biostudios proposal
Based on feedback in the email discussion group, Mike Kiamanesh pulled the proposal so it can be reworked and resubmitted.  There was also a brief discussion about the unprofessional behavior in that thread on the discussion group and apologies were made.  Nobody resigned their positions and no chairs were thrown.  Alternatives to the proposal including possible legal issues and rent vs membership were discussed at great, massive, tiresome length.  A multi-step process for creating a new proposal was put forth:

1. ATXHS needs to determine an acceptable reduced-price membership for members of Prophase Biostudios (which I will abbreviate as PB because I said their name wrong, repeatedly and in multiple ways, throughout the meeting).  This is the same thing as has been done for corporate memberships in the past.  This also means PB members will be full ATXHS members with access to the entire space.

2. PB will determine an additional amount they wish to add on top of that reduced price to meet their own requirements (e.g. for purchasing experiment materials).  It was discussed that the total should at least match that of the base standard ATXHS membership price so that becoming a member of PB doesn't become a way to get a discounted ATXHS membership.

3. ATXHS and PB need to determine who will collect the total from the PB members.  This is a technicality.  The total PB per-member price will be divided so that ATXHS gets the reduced-membership portion and PB gets the remainder.  (Danny Miller expressed concerns about the legality of this as PB is a 501c3, but as a personal note my opinion is the burden of legality questions falls on PB and not ATXHS.)

4. The biolab will become a badged-access area requiring elevated clearance beyond the existing ATXHS badge-readers.

5. As the experts in that area, PB will manage the biolab.  This is similar to other areas of ATXHS where the experts in those areas (e.g. lasers) teach classes and determine who is allowed to use them.

6. Individual ATXHS members will be able to gain access to the biolab without becoming members of PB if the lab managers (PB) deem they are sufficiently trained/knowledgeable to use it safely.  (Might be via a safety course, might just be via talking to the lab managers, undecided.)

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