The need is to protect our committee and its interests. The other need is that we voted on this rule being put in place in its start and again voted on it after I became committee chair. We have voted to keep it in place because of the requirement to even operate or take part in Amatreur Radio is having a license unless you are a student and want to learn and we have a specific designation of student for that purpose. Being a student still requires direct supervision of a licensed operator.
IF you are not licensed operator you you don’t really have a sense of what our committee is about and what we are doing. This rule was put in place by the committee members and will stay in place until they vote to remove it.
I emailed [email protected] with two things included in my email. My intention to be a candidate for committee chair and a specific request that the board as a whole review our request and make a decision on it as to adding an exception for our committee. This request still stands and it stands for a reason.
We as a committee get to decide within reason what goes on in our committee. For the board to step in and make a rule that goes directly against a committee rule is overreach of the board in my opinion. We as a committee decide and vote on what is best for our committee and we decided that having licensed operators be the only ones allowed to vote on a committee issue was in the best interest of our committee.
@AndrewLeCody, @BenjaminGroves, @Robert_Davidson, @Kentamanos, @AlexRhodes Can we please get an official decision on our request from the board? This way we can appropriately plan for our next committee meeting.
I voted against license only in the Amateur Radio Member’s meeting, as I feel one of the cornerstones of the Dallas Makerspace culture is a spirit of inclusiveness.
Alex’s involvement here is of the same nature but coming from a general concern in the Board of Directors about committees putting up barriers to participation. While your exclusion does not block anyone from Amateur Radio Committee meetings, the barrier to vote can still be seen as a barrier to participation.
We understand the need for a licensed chairperson of Amateur Radio as a license is required to use our equipment, also that 4 licensed committee members need to be on record for us to maintain KD5MS with the FCC. Past that we do not understand the restrictions. We wish for any member to have as much access to the Dallas Makerspace as we can allow and without barrier.
I would like to understand your specific concerns involving “protecting our committee and its interests”, as I do not feel that statement on its own makes a compelling argument.
I do not recall any vote to this effect when I held the Amateur Radio Chair.
The Board of Directors recognizes the requirement of the Committee Chair of Amateur Radio to hold at least an Amateur Radio Technician’s license. Past that, we recognize no exclusions or exemptions.
This is not entirely true. A licensed operator needs to be in control (and hence responsible); however, any person may actually participate in a QSO on the equipment on our end. This frequently is a way of bringing new interest into the hobby. One notable example is when an amateur control allows students to have QSO’s with the Astronauts on the ISS. Few if any of those students are already licensed.
It seems there is a bit of worrying about the potential for harassment/mucking with committees by folks who are otherwise in no way involved.
Instead of implementing more rules to counter this “potential” issue, I believe we need to keep the focus upon our “Being Excellent” model of mutual trust and respect. DMS is largely a trust-based social organization. We all depend upon each other to be communicative, straightforward, and respectful. This is the glue which holds us together. Without it, no rules are good enough to keep the organization together.
Historically, when troublemakers have made themselves known, we have dealt with them swiftly and banned them from the space. People who don’t share, don’t honor the do-ocratic ethic, and love to stir up drama shouldn’t be here.
I’m with Nick. Awesome post. The principles that DMS espouses are awesome and empowering. When we spend any of our time trying to adversely affect someone else’s project, committee membership or leadership we all lose. We should all endeavor to be excellent to one another and show a willingness to pitch in and help one another.
It is what I believe makes DMS unique and amazing. Thanks Nick for a great post.
I’m mixed,
I’ve been called a trouble maker at DMS for holding some contrarian views, which in some cases have become the popular view later. I don’t wish to be banned because other may disagree with me, especially those in power. But, I’m also not breaking laws or tools, and I’ve inferred those are the larger banning offenses. That being said I believe it isn’t clear who has been banned from DMS and exactly why? At least not to me. This is one large part of transparency I wish we had.
I like clear rules that apply to all, but I want to make sure we keep our rules enforcement based on the spirit of the rule, rather catching members in little technical mistakes and escalating it quickly to black list banning. In excellence there is also forgiveness. So forgiving members for miss steps / bad decisions has it’s place as well. Not saying we need to be Mother Teresa.
I support the idea of every member being able to vote in committees, with the inability of making quorum in membership meetings, committees are really the only place an individual member’s vote caries weight within the space on the day to day. It is also the area that brings the most member services. So having that input at that level is valuable and has a direct effect on the pay off.
AFAIK (I could be wrong) there has been one person permanently banned from DMS, and nobody even knows his real name (guy that had the police called on him). There have been temporary suspensions etc., but I don’t know of any bans.
To bring this back on topic:
I’m Nathan Jones and I’m running for chair of the Foundry Committee.
My goals for Foundry include:
- Increased communication with the general membership.
- Increased communication within the committee.
- Increased cooperation with other committees.
- Continued focus on teaching.
- Building a base of members who use the area regularly.
- Building roster of teachers.
Thanks to individual efford and Board support we have built a great work workspace at DMS for pottery, stained glass, fused glass, and glass beads. I think we have the potential to add much more by combining resources with other committees and working on joint classes or projects.
Considering that Jay was just confirmed as Digital Media Chairman at the last meeting, I wouldn’t think he would need to re-confirm at this meeting. At the least, his name ought to be listed as a candidate, unless he’s trying to make good his escape.
@lukeiamyourfather and @JayJohnson600 both were appointed last board meeting. In the meeting I asked that they each have a meeting with their committees and make it official again as we are trying to standardize a process and a time frame for all committees. This should all happen again in April.
It’s good to know where you stand, but I disagree with the process you are implementing. I believe that you are unnecessarily duplicating work and taking up people’s time by doing this.
You yourself are asking for processes ( https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/what-plans-for-dms-processes/5596) , but raise your arms when one is implemented?
Its only 3 committees out of the 22 that this effects, and 2 were notified at the meeting. If someone doesn’t want to show up to the meeting they can simply send in a proxy vote.
Bump…
Quick Reminder: Alex and the rest of the Board have requested that all committees have their meeting scheduled by today, October 3rd…
I am on my cell phone, so didn’t check to see if all the committees’ meetings have been posted on TALK yet or not… I just wanted to toss out a reminder in-case anyone might have forgotten to post their meeting(s)…
Edit to add… It was still October 3rd when I began typing the post… I just happen to “type” (swipe) slow on my phone… 
Jewelry, Logistics, Machine Shop and Metal Shop are the only committees where no one has emailed admin to declare they are running. Tagging/emailing current chairs to see if they are running again. Anyone is eligible to run, we just need an email that you are running by 8PM tomorrow (member meeting).
@AnneGullett @ALLEN(email sent) @bgangwere @texastboneking @Danny @LeeCJones
Please check top post for current chair candidates. I have updated it as we received emails.
thanks to all that are participating.
The Metal Shop committee met tonight. Lee is running again.
For those wanting a one-stop post on when & where the upcoming committee meetings are going to be held, I tracked down as much information as I could from TALK and our Events Calendar, and came up with the following… The list should be in Date/Time order.
NOTE: I’ll do my best to keep my eyes open for changes/updates; but, feel free to update/correct any information on this post yourself, if needed (please add a comment on the bottom of the post to let us know the reason for the edit… Thanks!)
Financial:
I don’t see any meeting posted on TALK or our Events Calendar yet…
Machine Shop:
I don’t see any meeting posted on TALK or our Events Calendar yet…
Jewelry:
I don’t see any meeting posted on TALK (or our Events Calendar to be held during the time frame suggested by Alex and approved by the Board of Directors)…
Classroom:
I don’t see any meeting posted on TALK (or our Events Calendar to be held during the time frame suggested by Alex and approved by the Board of Directors)…
Metal Shop:
I don’t see any meeting posted on TALK (or our Events Calendar to be held during the time frame suggested by Alex and approved by the Board of Directors)…
Logistics:
Logistics Meeting - October 10th at noon’ish (Sat, October 10, 12pm – 1pm) in the Common Room
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/logistics-meeting-october-10th-at-noonish/5661?u=lisaselk
Automotive:
Automotive Committee Meeting - October 10th 2:30pm (Sat, October 10, 2:30pm – 3:00pm) in the Automotive Workshop
Science:
Science Committee Meeting - Saturday, October 10 (Sat, October 10, 3:00pm – 3:59pm) in the Interactive Classroom
Digital Media:
Digital Media Committee meeting (Sun, October 11, 1pm – 2pm) in the Digital Media Room
Info copied from our Events Calendar. I don’t see it posted on TALK yet…
Laser:
Laser Committee Meeting - Sunday, October 11th 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM (Sun, October 11, 2:00pm – 2:30pm) in the Purple Classroom
Civic Hacking:
Civic Hacking Committee Meeting - 10/12/15, 7:00 PM (Mon, October 12, 7pm – 8pm) in the Purple Classroom
Public Relations:
PR Committee Meeting, (Monday, October 12th at 8:00 PM) at Dallas Makerspace
I don’t see any meeting posted on TALK or our Events Calendar yet; however, according to the Google Hangout, it looks like it’s going to be scheduled for Monday, October 12th at 8:00 PM
Foundry:
Foundry Committee Meeting, 10-12-15 @7pm (Mon, October 12, 7pm – 8pm) in the Foundry Work Area
Wood Shop:
Wood Shop Committee Meeting - October 12th 7PM (Mon, October 12, 7pm – 8pm) in the Interactive Classroom
Amateur Radio:
Amateur Radio Committee Meeting 13OCT15 1900-2100 (In Person or Proxy Required) (Tue, October 13, 7pm – 9pm) in the Lecture Hall
Infrastructure:
Infrastructure Committee Meeting - October 13th 7pm (Tue, October 13, 7pm – 9pm) in the Purple Classroom
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/infrastructure-committee-meeting-october-13th-7pm/5634?u=lisaselk
Creative Arts:
Creative arts committee meeting Oct 14th 6:30 (Wed, October 14, 6:45pm – 7:30pm) in the Creative Arts Studio
Aerospace/RC:
Aerospace/RC Committee Member’s Meeting (Wed, October 14, 9pm – 10pm) in the Common Area
Electronics:
Electronics Committee Meeting - October 15th 7pm (Thu, October 15, 7pm – 8pm) in the Electronics Room
Vector:
VECTOR Committee Meeting - 10/15/2015 @ 7pm (Thursday, October 15th at 7:00 PM) at Dallas Makerspace
Info copied from TALK. I don’t see it posted on our Events Calendar yet…
Blacksmith:
Blacksmith Committee Meeting (Fri, October 16, 7:30pm – 8:00pm) in the Purple Classroom
Info copied from our Events Calendar. I don’t see it posted on TALK yet…
3D Fab:
3D Fab Committee Meeting - October 17th @ 9:00 AM (Sat, October 17, 9am – 10am) in the Interactive Classroom
Laser:
Laser Committee Meeting - Monday, October 11th 2:00 PM - 2:30 PM (Sun, October 11, 2:00pm – 2:30pm) in the Purple Classroom
Civic Hacking:
Civic Hacking Committee Meeting - 10/12/15, 7:00 PM (Mon, October 12, 7pm – 8pm) in the Purple Classroom
Hmmm… ???
Just in case someone misses where it says Sunday later on in that line, or otherwise fixates on Monday, you might want to change that.
Oooops! /blush
It’s fixed now… Thanks for the head’s up, Steve-O!!!
To be clear…
The Laser Commitee meeting is on SUNDAY, October 11th from 2:00 PM to 2:30 PM…
Thanks again!