An election will be held on September 19, 6-8pm in the North Lobby Classroom.
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What is on the ballot?
I am, and I believe @denzuko will want to run too, but I donāt want to speak for him. Iām working on a document to make my case.
They are voting on a new chair now that the software dev and vcc committees combined
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What is the biggest problem we face as a committee? We have low engagement. We came dangerously close to being dissolved when the current chair modified the merge board agenda item and meeting minutes without asking anyone.
Our purpose as a committee is to facilitate learning and making software and computer hardware by providing you with a physical space and other resources. We donāt do that right now. People barely know we exist. Our corner thatās close to the south entrance is almost unused. This is the result of bad and almost non-existent marketing.
How do we fix this? If you elect me as chair, I will lead effectively. A big part of that is listening. Before the election, I will conduct a survey to figure out what people want the most out of our committee. At the election, I will present the results and my ideas on what initiatives we should choose and how I would help facilitate their completion. If you elect me, the committee will choose what we think we can accomplish realistically and focus on breaking it down and driving it to completion.
My promises:
- I will focus on spreading awareness and choosing initiatives wisely in order to drive engagement.
- I will collaborate. I will listen. My job is to serve the members of the committee and DMS. What we do is up to you, not me. I will figure out how to get it done and delegate effectively.
- Hackerspace will not bite off more than it can chew. We will work hard to finish everything we start in a timely manner. Initiatives will be broken down into steps that will be assigned to people.
Though people want to help, the current chair is not breaking tasks down into steps and driving them to completion.
If you elect me, the Hackerspace will not be about what I want to do. It will be about how we as a committee will give you what you want from us. That will drive engagement, solve our biggest problem, and create a space for you to learn about and make computer hardware and software.
The first item of the meeting will be to approve the previous meeting minutes. A modified version of the minutes @Draco took exists on the Wiki.
A while back, I scheduled the joint committee meeting (the last one, where we voted to merge SDC and VCC). I spoke with Dwight about this and he agreed. Then on the night of the meeting, I found out that Dwight had created a separate meeting for VCC. I asked them to join us in the north lobby classroom to conduct a joint meeting. Dwight claims that the VCC meeting ended at 7:10 when we moved to the north lobby classroom. Question, @denzuko, did you move to adjourn the VCC meeting, or did you move to move the meeting to the north lobby classroom?
I am, and I believe @denzuko will want to run too, but I donāt want to speak for him. Iām working on a document to make my case.
Iāll point out that the board doing that same meeting did dissolve the committees and stated that its now a sig under electronics.
I would not be running for a fourth year with a sig. Reasons are my own but do not see any success for the new committee.
I donāt see that in the minutes: https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Board_of_Directors_Meeting_20190825
What I see is that they passed the motion as written.
Ask the board
No, that was discussed, but in the end the merged committee gets a few months reprieve to get its act together.
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From the minutes:
6.6 Merge Software Development Committee into VCC (Dwight Spencer and Mike Cole)
- AS WRITTEN:
"
Merge Software Development Committee and VCC Computer Committee into one committee and name the committee āHackerspaceā. All funds, equipment and resources from both committees shall be merged. Brief Purpose: In the Hackerspace you learn how to create software and hack hardware.
"- MOTION: AS WRITTEN
- Proposed: Ken
- Seconded: James
- VOTE
- In Favor: Unanimous
- Opposed:
- Abstained:
- MOTION PASSED
Edit: added emphasis
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No, that was discussed, but in the end the merged committee gets a few months reprieve to get its act together.
I heard that part but that it was a sig with space and funds then after that 3 month period if things where a success then it would be an official committee again.
Iāll invite anyone to talk with the board about that one directly and even reviewing the a/v from the meeting.
Stanās synopsis is correct.
The new Committee will be periodically reviewed for effectiveness/meeting Committee minimum standards required in order to be a Committee for the first several months. The Board may elect to revert the newly merged Committee to a SIG if general expectations for the newly merged Committee are not adequately met and maintained.
This includes, but is not limited to:
Ongoing Committee Member interest, involvement and active participation in the newly merged Committee.
Scheduling, announcing and placing on the events calendar, monthly Committee meetings with associated (and published) Committee meeting minutes
Committee Class offerings that benefit the members and non member guests.
A demonstrated value-add to DMS insofar as it pertains to our goals, memberās education and growth (i.e., demonstrate an overall benefit to DMS and its membersā¦and the State of Texas as a 501C3).
And we need the proposed Committee name Hackerspace changed to something else.
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Awesome! I look forward to driving engagement for the many people who are interested in working on computer hardware and software, both members and non-members.
I urge people to vote for me or to run, that way we can meet these requirements and turn the Computer Committee (Iām guessing thatāll be the new name) into a vibrant community with a lot of value for computer geeks.
I think Dwight has shown what he can accomplish. I think none of what the board is saying is new, and yet itās been this way for a long time. Itās time for some big changes. We need to focus on giving the computer geeks what they want. To that end, we need to figure out what they want, choose a few initiatives, do them really well, and show that we can benefit DMS members and non-members.
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we need to figure out what they want, choose a few initiatives, do them really well, and show that we can benefit DMS members and non-members.
Personally, we need to listen to our committee members and the community we do have. They have said repeatedly they want hardware hacking, networking labs, classes for tensorflow, raspberry pi, IoT, python, locksport, and infosec.
All of which we have had with various degrees of success and really need a committee unified to drive it forward.
Iām sorry but the SDC model of āfiguring out as we goā failed them three times and nearly had that committee shut down last year twice. Once by the board and once by the chair prior to my involvement with that committee.
We do not need repeats of the past, we need strong leadership that understands our committee, our community here and the committee to not drag their feet on the issues when theyāre presented.
This isnāt a clubhouse its a makerspace that educates and we provide the tools, education and space for people to learn and make.
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Citation needed, I donāt follow how a ācommitteeā is needed to have classes
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Iād also like to point out that:
- Scheduling, announcing and placing on the events calendar, monthly Committee meetings with associated (and published) Committee meeting minutes
The committee report is published with classes, events, and projects and :
- Committee Class offerings that benefit the members and non member guests.
Considering the number of times we pull from the community at large to have this and monitor the trends on talk for which classes are wanted. Iām fairly confident this can be achieved.
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/c/vcc?order=views
A demonstrated value-add to DMS insofar as it pertains to our goals, memberās education and growth (i.e., demonstrate an overall benefit to DMS and its membersā¦and the State of Texas as a 501C3).
a bug fix or two is nice but value adds have been:
- CommunityGrid a docker cluster with some large scale computers behind that empowers the Smart Makerspace, Blockchain classes, and IoT Sig.
- DMS Radio
- DMS Zine
- Plus our Midnight Hacker CTF, Locksport classes, Vintage PCās, BBS, and payphone are all items that draw in membership and have gained new members at nearly every single one of them since the committee was moved to the front lobby.
Now, Iād love to see this level of commitment and drive from the committee as well.
My questions for the community here at DMS is other than documenting all the things, where are we lacking on this? Whatās the markers for success? How can we continue the momentum that was already set forward?
If youāre happy with how things are currently, vote for Dwight. If you wanr to start fresh and focus on providing value to computer geeks and demonstrating it so that the committee not only survive the probation that weāre on right now, but flourish into a community that is active at the space, I think Iām a much better option.
What Iām talking about is not figuring things out as we go. Iām a huge fan of documentation and planning. The plan is to figure out what the computer geeks want via a survey, present that at the election, create some initiatives with steps assigned to individuals, vote on a few, like no more than three, and work together to drive those to completion.
Also, Iād love to hear an argument for why locksport is part of computer committee. Yeah, you could say itās hardware hacking, but so is chopping away at a tree.
we need to figure out what they want, choose a few initiatives, do them really well, and show that we can benefit DMS members and non-members.
Personally, we need to listen to our committee members and the community we do have. They have said repeatedly they want hardware hacking, networking labs, classes for tensorflow, raspberry pi, IoT, python, locksport, and infosec.
All of which we have had with various degrees of success and really need a committee unified to drive it forward.
Citation needed, I donāt follow how a ācommitteeā is needed to have classes
@Brandon_Green A computer committee is needed to have real estate for lab equipment, tools for pc work and value added community projects. Things of which that do not fit within electronics, vector, nor infrastructure.
These three committees have missions that are different than what has been well established by VCC in the past and what Computing Committee should continue to keep established.
If all one focuses on is just software development then anyone can go to starbucks and get get free wifi there or join any of the software meetups around town for a fraction of the cost of our membership. Whereās the value add there?
None. Do we need a committee to teach these classes? No. ANY ONE can teach classes at DMS and if Iām chair or not; Iāll still be holding CTF, cloud, AI/ML, and python classes at the space.
The thing that hold any value and attracts members is the nerdy stuff they can play with at the space while 3d printing or waiting on a laser cut.
And honestly, @Team_PR has really up my butt to complete the projects we set forth this year so can we achieve that? If we can and get members while having the museum which is open for a small museum grant then smashing! Iāll be glad to see this through.
If we canāt come together as a group then Iāll back to helping PR, printmaking and having fun with the cooler SIGs that are still around.