NOTE: All community meetings are open to members of the public. Attendance is encouraged! Please bring a potluck item to share.

Date: 04 September 2016

Time:

• 4:00 pm Pot Luck
• 5:00 Community Meeting

1. Officers' Reports

• President's Report
• Treasurer's report
• Business Development Officer: position currently vacant
• Education: Darrel Knutson
• Events Officer: position currently vacant
• Membership: Sara Simon
• Outreach: Charel Morris
• Social Media: Rebecca Snyder
• Area Captains
  • 3-D Printing: position currently vacant
  • Assets: Darren Moody
  • Electronics Lab: Aaron Birenboim
  • Facilities: John Murray
  • Fiber Arts: Sherie Pennebaker
  • Laser: Jonny Romero
  • Metal Shop: Eric Lee
  • Welding: John Murray
  • Woodshop: Gonner Menning

2. Old Business

• ABQ MiniMakerFaire
• Laser Cutter Repair

3. New Business

• TBD

contact us: celeste@quelab.net, officers@quelab.net

Minutes:

September Community Meeting Agenda:

NOTE: All community meetings are open to members of the public. Attendance is encouraged! Please bring a potluck item to share.

Date: 04 September 2016

Time:

• 4:00 pm Pot Luck
• 5:00 Community Meeting

1. Officers' Reports

• President's Report
  • August was an active month here at Quelab. With all the activities and responsibilities that my Officer Corps have taken on, I want to very publicly Thank them for their efforts and professionalism. As you read through their reports it will be clear just how much work went into ensuring that Quelab continues to grow and shine in our community. We also owe Charrel Morris, Craig Zoot and Wendi Flybutter a huge “Thank-You!” for inviting Quelab to Maker Faire year after year.
  • Quelab's success at the Maker Faire was a direct result of each of our Officers taking the time to organize and have examples of what can be accomplished at Quelab.
  • Light sabers! This year Eric Lee was joined by Josh Pedersen. Josh is Quelab metal shop qualified and a sabersmith for a local Star Wars lightsaber sparring club. He brought three of his personally designed full contact rated lightsabers that he constructed at Quelab, for people to try out. Eric reports that since Josh is very experienced with how to conduct safe lightsaber sparring we were able to run much more active and fun lightsaber area than in the years when it was just Eric working that booth.
  • Darren Moody's take apart project proved once again that disassembling is just as interesting as the building of it. Darren has big plans for the future of this area which should expand its draw.
  • Maker Faire attendees were also thrilled that they could sign up to learn to weld. Welding is one of our fastest growing sections. This group had some amazing examples of their work on display. One of our new members, Dennis, brought his Tig welded eye. It even had lashes! Super cool!
  • Adric treated us to a photo booth that could print on the spot. I am looking forward to seeing him expand this for our outreach activities.
  • Gonner hooked the kids in with his bowling alley and lathe. Old school cool was a big hit.
  • All of these activities meant that Quelab was a very busy part of Maker Faire. Sara Simon, our Membership coordinator, had a large number of folks that signed up to do our orientation in Sept. All in all, a very successful event! It would be great to see some new faces around the space!
  • Other important news at Quelab includes the Fire Marshal inspection. We have a number of issues that need to be fixed in our future. John Murray has been busy this month tracking down solutions to the problems the Fire Marshall pointed out during his visit. Please read his report for details. Tuesday 6 Sept will be our next inspection. We'll keep everyone posted how this goes.
• Treasurer's report
  • We have 9700 in the bank are are 88% funded through memberships
• Business Development Officer: position currently vacant
• Education: Darrel Knutson
  • Inkscape class canceled - Jonny will re-work his schedule
  • Welding class on right now, another next month
  • Minimal enrollments for Woodworking classes; may ask to consolidate to one class (Adult & Teen classes)
• Events Officer: position currently vacant
• Membership: Sara Simon
  • Based on reports from Seltzer, looks like about 92 total members, of which 69 are sustaining, 5 associates, 12 students, and the rest directors. We have a list of 14 people who asked to be invited to the next orientation, plus any Sherie has already invited. I plan to send out the letters after the meeting
  • Next New Member Orientation: 9/11/16
• Outreach: Charel Morris
  • I just want to thank Quelab for their support of the Maker Faire!
• Social Media: Rebecca Snyder
  • Props to Adric for gathering up and disseminating photos taken by myself and others during ABQ MMF. I have more that will be coming soon.
  • Also at MMF, The calendars (note: might be some left on the table in core) seemed to be appreciated by interested parties. The fliers I made on plain paper instead of glossy seemed well received. The cost for me to create them was about 3 cents per flyer, “making” them at a copy center and cutting them myself. Take flyers to give to your friends and post in places makers go! (Note: on table in core, more in office NE corner)
  • I've now got the ability to make links to our affiliate account in amazon, so I'll be starting to put those out into the world when it makes sense to do so.
  • Just as a reminder, we can still use affiliate links even with Amazon Smile. If you shop on Amazon you can use smile.amazon.com, select Quelab, and Amazon will donate a percentage of what you pay to Quelab. (At no cost to you)
  • Also, I'm hosting a “Homebrew's Roundtable” at Quelab, Wed September 21, 6:30 pm. For those interested in making beer, wine, cider, and mead. Seeking interested members so we can welcome nonmember guests to visit. Must be 21 to sample anything folks bring. Also seeking anyone interested in starting a batch (which would be considered their personal project) at the roundtable. Please email rebecca@quelab.net
• Tech Manager: Chris Hughes
  • (Adric Reporting): During Thursday before MMF, It looks like Warthog's VPS server host did some upgrades, this caused postfix to crash on pepper.quelab.net and it also looks like google authenticator crashed as well. making it impossible for us to login, John was able to access the console of the vps, and poke things, he got postfix working again, I told SWCP who was queuing mail to go ahead and send it, but while the server was now responding, it was rejecting all mail. (ordb.org, not to be mistaken for sorbs shut down over the same weekend so all mail was failing its spam greylisting. and bouncing.
  • On Monday I was able to get in through the authenticator. at that point i was able to get into the server remove ordb from the mail filtering, and restart postfix, and mail started to flow again. although at that point gmail noticed a flood of spam and started deferring mail messages forwarded from officers/board/money/registrar ect etc @ quelab.net, but that deferment has now subsided and everything appears to be working.
  • As I understand it, sometime in the near future, Chris and the tech team plans to move mail hosting from warthog's vps and onto roadrunner.quelab.net (this has been the intent since before The resigning of Jeremy.) it does have the disadvantage of putting all our eggs in one basket, but its possible we could keep Warthog's vps as a hot spare. allowing us to switch back and forth via a DNS change at SWCP.
• Area Captains
  • 3-D Printing: position currently vacant
  • Electronics Lab: Aaron Birenboim
  • Facilities: John Murray
    • Repaired the leaking toilet flapper valve in the middle stall in the south restroom in the core.
    • Drew and I removed the existing “improper” lighted exit sign which was above the door between Rm 1 and Rm 4, remounted it above the west exit door in the door (existing emergency exit sign/lights were not working). Installed an emergency light (w/o exit sign) above the door between Rm 1 and Rm 4.
    • Worked on correcting other deficiencies found during the Fire Inspector's tour of Quelab and coordinating with other members to use their respective expertise on those deficiencies.
    • Other items - missing ceiling tile, secure some tanks, Gonner has been working in the fenced in welding area, Adric is working on a better exit on the door in room 1
  • Fiber Arts: Sherie Pennebaker
    • We have a new member orientation on September 11
    • Dragon’s Wier is in pretty good shape, we’ll have another dye party in a month or so.
  • Charel mentioned Cotton Kitsune & a possible class on serger repair
  • Laser: Jonny Romero
    • New power supply functioning properly!
    • Inkscape class (due to start yesterday 9-3-16) was canceled.
  • Metal Shop: Eric Lee
    • Metal shop is operating smoothly.
    • No injuries reported.
    • All machines are operational.
  • Welding: John Murray
    • Nothing to report this month
  • Woodshop: Gonner Menning
    • fixed knob on small drill press
    • mmf bowling and lathe
    • cleared outside block house foundation
    • members are still using wood shop for storage and I am photographing to see if it is a project or storage
    • fire code fixes
  • Assets: Darren Moody
    • I would like to begin by saying that some items in my report that may generate questions / comments, and if so, these can be addressed at the end of my report.
    • It’s been said that the Annex looks like a tornado has gone through it, and this month has been so crazy busy that that tornado was an EF5!
    • Although not official, it’s been said to me that I basically oversee the entire Annex, so I have a multi-faceted report.
    • THE LIBRARY
      • The library has been expanded with the addition of four additional bookshelves. These were acquired at Goodwill at a cost of $7.50 each. (Originally prices at $10 ea. But purchased on a Monday when the entire store is 25% off).
    • One additional newly acquired bookcase was put in the kitchen to replace the very wide storage cabinet that was impeding a clear passage between the Core and MASTS.
    • Two additional shelving units (possibly originally designed for LP record storage) were given to Quelab by Sandi Knudson’s Angels Act of Kindness Foundation. The thought with these is to place them perpendicular to the wall to for two reading “nooks”. Now all we need is a couple of comfortable chairs of some kind. (Recliners?)
    • THE ANNEX:
      • Kurt’s Items
        • The biggest news to share, for those that aren’t aware, is that all of the cabinets, shelves, and assorted wood from Kurt’s Camera Corral is now gone! Since I was going to be working in the space to get things better organized for the fire marshal, I threw a Hail Mary, and posted a pictureless ad on Craigslist that I was going to at space from 2-4, and the doors were going to be thrown open and it was first come, first serve. At 1330, a pickup showed up at the back door and said he was interested in the stuff advertised. And when he said he was interested, he meant in ALL of it! Four truckloads later it was gone. Two other people did show up, with one taking some shelves, and the other deciding this wasn’t what was needed to furnish her dorm room!
      • ASSET SALES
        • Two lecture hall tables (like here in the Core) we sold to a member for $10 for a total of $20.
        • Two telephones were sold on eBay for an approximate total of $60 (After Paypal and eBay Commissions.)
        • Quelab donation from sale of Anthro Cart: $15
        • 5 barrels of steel and ¾ barrel of scrap wire were loaded on JT’s truck last Saturday in an attempt to turn them in for money, only to get to the scrap yard (two of them) to find them closed for Labor Day weekend. This will be turned in some other time and should get us $25ish, if not more.
        • In picking items up at Bentley’s Auction, Quelab was able to acquire a medium sized pallet box (Gaylord) of UPS units, a majority without batteries. These were “left behinds” and given to us for free. As a result of my tearing these down and separating, between batteries, brass and transformers, I am expecting to get somewhere in the range of $60 - $70 for these. Exact numbers will be reported next month.
        • We were also allowed to take many remains of desktop computers. (Being government surplus, they did not have hard drives). These computers have processors and (many) memory, which should sell for $80ish / lb. In additional there are the power supplies which after processing add to the wire poundage, internal board with is high grade breakage, the motherboard as well as the steel panels / case.
    • WORKSTATIONS
      • Some may have noticed a new addition in the annex, and that is some very large blue and cream colored workstations. While at the last Bentley’s auction, I had eyed these, and thought that they would be very nice to have at Quelab. Well, somebody upstairs thought so to, as during the bidding, these workstations were in a large grouping of lots that were being offered for $10 per lot! Each side of each station was considered a lot, so these were acquired for $46 (Including buyer's’ premium)! In researching costs of what we acquired, the four workstation assemblies have a catalog price of over $10,000!
      • It needs to be noted that these were acquired at an active live auction, there was no time or opportunity to propose, get approval or discuss the acquisition of these. In the spirit of authority given to my officer position, I made the decision to proceed with the purchase of these. The funds used to purchase these, was from the monies reported on last month that were generated by turning in batteries for recycling. (Essentially found money) The enhanced and upgraded program is one that that I initiated and implemented here at Quelab to generate additional funds for purchases just like this.
      • The overall reaction to these has been overall very positive, from other officers / board members, as well as some members, as both as a means to help grow a professional image at Quelab, as well as provide additional rental workspace for members (with the exception of one double bay to se set aside for use as a large glass workstation.
      • This leads to some additional information / thoughts…
      • Although not publicly listed / announced yet, I have been told that at the Bentley Auction this upcoming Friday (10/9) there are going to be an additional 20 units similar to these, but even nicer! I do not know if this is 20 sides (making 10 bays), or 20 complete two sided bays. Regardless, of number, discussions have been taking place with the thought that if these go for somewhere in the range of what the previous ones went for (or somewhat higher) we, as Quelab should do what we can to acquire them. The idea being to eventually outfit the majority of the Annex in a uniform, professional manner with these benches being made available for rental purposes.
      • Not all 20 would be used, and those that aren’t being used, would be knocked down and stored vertically, minimizing floor space taken up. I am going to be contacting company representatives to inquire, because of the high cost of these items if they do any kind of used equipment buyback or brokering. This being with the thought that we could possible enhance the workstations with partitions between the workspaces, power strips, and / or casters in exchange.
      • With this in mind, we would like to solicit pledges to go towards the purchase of these additional workstations. This way there is some idea of a numbers that can be used in the bidding process.
      • Also, if these are successfully won, labor in helping knock them down and transporting them would be needed and very welcomed! Unfortunately, Bentley’s is only open on Fridays until about 1 hour after the action, and then normal business hours on Monday and Tuesday. If anybody has access to a large box truck with a lift gate that would be a huge help!!
      • This is an exciting and very rare opportunity for Quelab to acquire something of this quality, and at a very reasonable price! If these were not at auction, there is no possible way that we as Quelab would ever be able to outfit our space with something this nice!
    • MINI-MAKER FAIRE – TAKE A PART(Y)
      • Once again, I greatly appreciate beyond words having Take A Part(y) located with Quelab in the makerspace tent, rather than being as a babysitting service in the children’s area. With this change of venue (started last year), the demeanor of the participants greatly changes, and it is taken much more seriously!
      • This year was probably the best event ever in doing this (at MMF and the Railyards). A special thank you to Darrel Knutson for working this space with me and having overwhelming excitement and enthusiasm both Saturday and Sunday!
      • With the exception of the storm which blew in late Saturday afternoon, Pick A Part(y) was busy throughout the duration of the entire MMF, including Sunday afternoon, which typical is a slowing down time.
      • At MMF, I was approached by two separate librarians, one from Cherry Hills branch of Albuquerque Library System and the other being from Farmington, expressing a strong interest in Pick A Part being taken “On the Road” to their respective locations.
      • The ABQ Cherry Hills would be an initial single event possibly leading to other library branch locations hosting it as well. The Farmington event is to be a part of a Maker Faire they are planning, and wanting to hold in the Spring of 2017! The best part of this is that she said that funding would be available to cover expenses! It is unknown at this point how much other Quelab involvement is desired. The ABQ librarian and I have had follow up discussion and I presented numerous questions as to expectations, and after talking with other librarians, we are going to be meeting in early October.
      • Adric had forwarded a neat article about various projects that could be build using the parts from a CD/DDVD Burner. For future Pick A Part(y) events, I would like possibly build one of these projects (a small Arduino based laser cutter that does paper), along with a display board showing all the parts of the drive. Another idea I want to pursue in expanding the section is based on a report from another maker faire that hosted a Take A Part(y) in which the participants took various components and build small “robot” figures (using what looks like epoxy – not solder.).
      • In addition to the actual work involved at MMF, there is a lot of hard work both before and after MMF in dealing with Pick A Part(y). To be honest, I kinda hate it, as I do so much of this on a normal day to day basis, but it was the comments exclaimed by two boys at completely separate times, when they basically said “This is the best part of this WHOLE place!” that puts it all in perspective for me and makes it worth doing and continuing.
    • A SPECIAL THANK YOU AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
      • There are some members that need to receive some special recognition and thanks for actions taken behind the scenes that are unseen and known to most. These individuals are JT Benedetto, Darrel Knudson and Ed Heron. These gentlemen, none of which probably want public acknowledgement, all drive pickup trucks (and trailers), and have graciously come the aid of Quelab (generally involving me it seems…) numerous times in hauling stuff either to or from here, and they really need to be publically acknowledged and thanked!

2. Old Business

• ABQ MiniMakerFaire (for anything not covered in the Officers’ Reports)
  • Red envelopes - Thank you’s for participating in a local maker faire
  • Thanks to William Snider, Zach, Darrel, Jim Overholt, and anyone else that stepped in to run the Learn to Solder booth.
  • This was the fifth year of MMF; already starting discussions for sixth year plans
  • Tent layout was received nicely
  • Quelab has been a part since year one, and is the home of MMF, so thank you to everyone!
  • This was a challenging year, but a GREAT year.
  • Quelab didn’t forward a note of its makers, and we need to find a better solution for that.
  • Charel may be asking of Quelab members for help with makerfaire-related events throughout the year.
  • Charel said Quelab really came through this year, and really took it serious - the president had a table, the membership table, propaganda on hand
  • Celeste talked about how Quelab really owes the MMF folk as this is a great opportunity for us, and we recognize their getting us a tent is a commitment
  • Josh talked that the 3D printer was received well, and he helped chat about it.
  • Darren suggested the Santa Fe engine might be well received, and involving the Boy Scouts if possible.
  • Craig said there will be an upcoming wrapup meeting for MMF, and reminded everyone that Quelab is the official home of MMF

3. New Business

• Eagle Scout Project? (Paul Rosenberg, member of the community)
• Paul discussed his need for a project, and discussion ensued
• Chris Zapotocky talked about he & his brothers’ Eagle projects, rebuilding a park, erecting a building, a park renovation
• Ideas suggested include:
  • Darren suggested E-Waste event combined with Take-Apart(y)
  • Gonner mentioned the Cinder block area in the welding area
  • JT mentioned building Little Libraries