April 17th 2025

AGENDA

Opening and Mission Statement

• The regular monthly meeting of the MakeICT board of directors convenes on Thursday, April 17 at 7:00 pm in the MakeICT building.
• MakeICT is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization and is operated entirely by volunteers. It’s our mission to innovate, learn, and build community at the intersection of art, technology, science, and culture.

Board Members:

• President: Gretchen Koch
• Vice President: Dean Day
• Secretary: Paul Shackelford
• Treasurer: Aaron Grindstaff
• Director at Large: Eric Manda
• Director at Large: Aaron Norton
• Director at Large: Matthew Cleary
• Director at Large: Serena Oden-Powers

Members:

• Timothy York
• Rustin Atkeisson
• James Lancaster
• LaDeana Dockery

Message of the Day

We've been talking about creating a “volunteer culture” for too long. Culture isn't something we can create from the top down—it emerges naturally from what people actually do. So let’s shift our perspective toward making helping out at MakeICT more natural and rewarding.

Members participate when they: 1) know what needs doing, 2) receive direct invitations, and 3) find the experience worthwhile. That suggests three specific actions we can take:

• Create an Activities Wall on the wall next to the alarm system, including:
• Peer Recognition: A “kudos board,” where members acknowledge each other's contributions
• Awareness:
  • Post reminders about how to maintain the building
  • Post committee information here, where it’s easily accessible.
• Post about upcoming events where volunteers are needed, along with dates.
• Help Requests: Post area-specific signage with requests that make needs visible. Put “clean up after yourself” at the top if necessary. These can either go on the shop’s door or on the activities wall. (Woodshop has one but it has stuff on there from years ago)
• Targeted Outreach: Connect new members directly with areas/committees matching their stated interests based on their orientation form. More on this below.

Thanks and Recognition

Thanks and recognition go to:

• Everyone who participated in the clean-up day on April 5
  • Shout out to the entire Blackhearts group for helping
• Everyone who helped present and lead the Rotary folks on tours
• All of those who have been helping out with the castle fabrication and pulling it across the finish line
• All makers who represented the space at the Ren Fest
• Everyone who chipped in to help unload the 2D printer

Standing Items

(Items that are standardized as part of every board meeting)

Communications - Newsletter

The next newsletter will come out on May 1st. Please send blurbs to communications@makeict.org by April 25th.

• Please send in current photos we can use anywhere (website, newsletter, social media, etc)!
• Teachers, please take pictures of your classes and send them to us.
• If anyone is interested in reviving member of the month, feel free to write it and send it in

NEED MORE PHOTOS

• And events for which we take photos- Maker Markets, Show and Tell (both of which we should do again!)
• Shared Album lives here - please contribute photos
  • May need to pull off a “best of” album as the current shared one has thousands of photos of various quality

First Thursday Board Workshop

The Board Workshop is an opportunity for members of MakeICT to get together and talk about plans and goals for MakeICT in an informal setting, outside of an official board meeting.

Details:

• Every First Thursday of the month
• Workshop to address issues from members 7-8pm
• Closed executive session as needed for the Board 8-9pm

What happened at April’s workshop (4/3):

• Discussion about cleanliness, bids for janitorial services
• Bids to replace west doors

Reminders:

• When leaving an area:
  • Make sure all windows are closed and locked
  • Turn off the lights (except if one room’s lights are left on for security reasons)
  • Drain portable AC units (summer)

Area Reports

Facilities

• LED swap 70%+ complete. Metal and woodshops two largest areas remaining
• May auction old fluorescent bulbs
• 4/4 bids received for janitorial services

Ceramics

• Things going well - kiln firings, cleaning up, cart for free clay storage, reclaiming shelves, reclaiming with pug mill, leading by committee
• Recent visitor indicated they might be interested in teaching a slip casting class

Electronics

• Sunday meetups continue, modest but enthusiastic

Fab Lab

• Resin classes starting 4/27
• Luigi not firing correctly (FabLab meeting immediately followed leads meeting)

Garden

• Majority of beds rented
• Planting season underway with circle bed, wildflowers, community beds

IT

• New server arrived, server room is no longer SCREAMING
• Trying to get automation projects underway
• Trying to figure out time for more public-facing meetings

Inventory

• Need to get more leads trained on system

Jewelry

• Ongoing authorizations for bench use
• Going to work on two-part class where Dean casts first time, student demonstrates they can do it the second time

Metal Shop

• James B starting to teach safety classes

Security

• More cameras up

Visual Arts

• Adding example pieces to show off techniques

Woodshop

• Safety class yesterday

Textiles

• Leigha Patridge of The Peartree Tailor is interested in teaching a corsetry class (her booth was near the MakeICT booth at the Renaissance Faire).

Gallery

• Doug Tripp having 2nd of 3rd showings during Maker Monday
• Sean Reida - professional magician, illusionist, and MakeICT member interested in teaching a magic class

Printmaking

• PEX card issues
• Emulsifying screens after meeting

Welcome Area

• We won the siege weapon contest - go admire our trophy
• Reorganized entrance to give better access to alarm and reduce clutter

Radio

• May have donation of ground wire, waiting to hear back
• Amateur Extra (top-level) license class end of the month

Stained Glass

• Glasstravaganza April 26th
• Using Maker Mondays as open lab time
• Display case - lighted and locked - will be available soon to show off projects

Elections

• Going to kick off stuff more in May

Treasurer’s Report

• At a Glance
  • Income: 14000
  • Normal expenses: 3500
  • Utilities insight: 1970
  • Instructor pay: 750
  • Area expenses: 5400
  • Pex expenses: 3000
  • Total expenses: 11600
  • Cash Positive by: 4000

• Projects in Progress
  • $3,500 spent of $6,000 from the Collins grant to improve ventilation in the metal shops and wood shops. Could be used for Resin ventilation.
  • Looking at Evergy rebate for changing fixtures to LED. Waiting on the final count and install.

Approval of Previous Minutes

March 20th 2025 Board Meeting

Motion: Paul moves to approve the minutes as stated.

Seconded by: Eric

• Dean votes: Yes
• Paul votes: Sure
• Aaron G votes: Yeah
• Matthew votes: Yes
• Aaron N votes: Yeah
• Eric votes: Yes
• Serena votes: Yep

Result: Motion passes.

@DECISION: March 20th minutes are approved.

Old Business

(Items brought up for discussion at a previous board meeting that haven’t been resolved, in order of priority)

Election Committee

• Do we have any nominees? It’s currently Matt (chair) and Paul (secretary). They are to be appointed by the board per voting policy. It appears we’ve more or less waived actual approval in previous years.

Responsibilities:

• Collect nominations
• Contact nominees, see if they accept
• Post candidates to the wiki
• Create Q&A threads for each candidate on the forum
• Create and send ballot
• Voting starts at beginning of annual meeting, goes for 48 hours
• Tabulate and post results

@TODO (Paul, no date): Put out call on forum for committee help

New Business

(Items that haven’t yet been raised for discussion, in order of priority)

Woodshop Lead

The Woodshop has been without a lead since January. Dave Hanson has volunteered to step into this role.

Motion: Gretchen moves to approve Dave Hanson as Woodshop Lead.

Seconded by: Paul

• Dean votes: Yes
• Paul votes: Yes
• Aaron G votes: Yes
• Matthew votes: Yes
• Aaron N votes: Yes
• Eric votes: Yes
• Serena votes: Yes

Result: Motion passes.

@DECISION: Dave Hanson is now Woodshop lead.

Visual Arts Lead

The Visual Arts area has been without a lead for a couple of weeks. Kris Paxton has stepped down to assistant lead. Timothy York has volunteered to step into this role until we find someone else.

Motion: Paul moves to approve Timothy York as Visual Arts lead.

Seconded by: Aaron Grindstaff

• Dean votes: Yes
• Paul votes: Yes
• Aaron G votes: Yes
• Matthew votes: Yes
• Aaron N votes: Yes
• Eric votes: Yes
• Serena votes: Yes

Result: Motion passes.

@DECISION: Timothy York is now Visual Arts lead.

Property Tax

Need Authority from the board to handle the combining of plots for tax reasons. Cost of under 500$ to set in motion as most is only filing paperwork.

• Tabled until we find more

Metalshop Lead

The Metalshop has been without a lead since October.

Policy-palooza 2k25

Very highly recommend that we commit to the whole thing tonight or approve none tonight. They overlap and rename things enough that it’s a massive pain to try to separate them.

Four proposed policies:

• Areas and Committees Policy (read the stuff up top to learn about all of the first four policies)
• Leads Policy
• Classes Policy
• Infrastructure Committee Policy

Motion: Eric moves to approve the Areas and Committees Policy, Leads Policy, Classes Policy, and Infrastructure Policy to replace the current Committees, Authorization and Area Leads, Workshops and Classes, and Refund Policy pages.

Seconded by: Paul

• Dean votes: No
• Paul votes: Yes
• Aaron G votes: No
• Matthew votes: Yes
• Aaron N votes: Yes
• Eric votes: Yes
• Serena votes: No

Result: Motion passes.

@DECISION: Areas and Committees Policy, Leads Policy, Classes Policy, and Infrastructure Policy to replace the current Committees, Authorization and Area Leads, Workshops and Classes, and Refund Policy pages.

Proposed New Member Orientation Form Policy - Tabled for now, to be discussed at next workshop.

Decision Summary

• @DECISION: March 20th minutes are approved.
• @DECISION: Dave Hanson is now Woodshop lead.
• @DECISION: Timothy York is now Visual Arts lead.
• @DECISION: Areas and Committees Policy, Leads Policy, Classes Policy, and Infrastructure Policy to replace the current Committees, Authorization and Area Leads, Workshops and Classes, and Refund Policy pages.

Task Summary

• @TODO (Paul, no date): Put out call on forum for committee help