1. Our fabulous MakerSpace is a success in large part because of the goodwill and efforts of many volunteers. How would you foster that goodwill?
I feel the volunteer labor is one of our more valuable and scare resources at the Space, so we need to cultivate it as best possible.
I feel that volunteers are most engaged when they have a sense of autonomy, ownership, and mastery of a subject – yet also have resources to turn to when needed. I feel this is a positive aspect of the do-ocracy that makes the Space great. I think the tour guide handbook put out by the PR committee is a great example of this – it gives our tour volunteers a solid background in the Space, but is far from a script giving them the autonomy to provide their own presentation.
2. What do you believe are the greatest 3 virtues of the MakerSpace?
Fellowship, curiosity, inventiveness
3. What do you believe are the greatest 3 weaknesses of the MakerSpace?
Clique-ishness (only one that comes to mind at the moment)
4. What do you like to make?
Whenever I’m not working on the space itself, I dabble with auto repair, work on my pinball machine, kick around the idea of another pinball machine (likely a solid state), have toyed with 3D printing, and used the woodshop more than expected for others’ various projects.
5. What do you like to teach?
I’ve not really considered myself a teacher, but have considered some teaching a course on LED lighting fixture design and possibly practical Excel usage.
6. What do you want to learn?
Machining. Modern 3D CAD applications. Furniture making. Electronics beyond Ohm’s law. Soldering beyond “the bigger the blob the better the job”. Auto repair. Welding. Probably more.
7. How do you like to help?
I like to do necessary things, which is why I volunteered to do Logistics – not a glamorous role, but it provides services that the Space needs.
8. Are you a clean freak, a hoarder, or somewhere in between?
I am somewhere in between in that I prefer a certain sense of order over cleanliness – but that does put a limit on the hoarding.
9. What is your favorite colour?
Gray.
10. In your view, should the Space be more of a community organization, or a professional service organization, like a TechShop?
I feel that we are in no position to be a service organization due to our finances and structure.
With a pay-per-play service comes expectations of service levels – i.e. the acceptable PolyPrinter downtime would be zero, the HAAS crash would have been fixed next day at considerable cost, the Epilog engraver would be available for use within 48 hours of its arrival, and we would have a $50k dust collection system in the wood shop.
The culture of such a place would also be less one of members and more one of customers – which is not something I feel that we want.
11. Do you have a good understanding of the Bylaws, Standing Rules, and running of the Space?
I feel that I have a yeoman’s grasp of the bylaws and rules, which I would immediately get up to speed on if elected.
12. Banning has been on the rise. The Bylaws cover banning under Rule 4.13
Section 4.13 Expulsion
A member shall be expelled from the membership of the corporation for a period set by resolution of the Board of Directors after providing the member with reasonable written notice and an opportunity to be heard by the Board of Directors either orally or in writing, and upon a determination by the Board of Directors that the member engaged in conduct materially and seriously prejudicial to the interests or purposes of the corporation.
How would you ensure that all the elements of rule 4.13 are followed in the future?
Banning is a difficult decision. As a peripheral participant in some recent incidents – and not always in agreement with the decisions – I do feel it is not something that the board takes lightly.
13. Do-acracy. This often leads to success for the space. Sometimes it leads to drama and/or failure. What guidelines would you propose to guide our community?
Do-ocracy is implied in my earlier perspective on ownership, autonomy, and mastery. They are all are an incentive to act at all – it’s your thing, you get to control how it’s done, and perhaps you get to refine your skill at it in the process. Our assumption about do-ocracy is that you will also conform to our motto – be excellent to each other.
We must always balance the willingness of our volunteers to donate their time, effort, ingenuity, and even material donations against the desire for the optimal outcome of every situation every time. A further consideration is the many possible reasonable interpretations of what being excellent means.
As such, it is difficult to propose a concrete policy on addressing do-ocracy. I feel this has to be addressed on a case-by-case basis with some consideration for the differing perspectives of the involved parties.
14. How many members would be ideal?
Enough to comfortably sustain our infrastructure of real estate, equipment, knowledge, and culture: provide adequate capabilities to keep the membership engaged some margin against unexpected loss, reasonable financial margins, and the capability to do new and interesting things.
15. Where should we be in 3 years? In 5 years? In 10?
I feel that 3 years is nearing the limit of our planning horizon due to the nature of the Space.
In 3 years the issue of handling whatever membership growth we hope to experience needs to be addressed: we need to either have additional space, a new space, or have adapted to whatever form we have taken on by then at our present space. I hope we have begun to adapt to being a larger organization and kept what was good about the old days but begun to embrace the present realities of not everyone knowing everyone else and strong consensus being a vanishingly rare thing.
In 5 years I would like to think that have adapted to being a larger organization. We will have an internal leadership culture that’s immersed itself in lessons learned and has a sort of professionalism to it.
In 10 years I simply hope that we are still around and better than we were in 5 years.
16. Do you support community parties, picnics, and events?
I absolutely support community events – especially those that cross traditional committee/interest lines. We are stronger as an organization when we speak to one another outside of the boxes we check for one another – such as I only do creative arts or I’m a machinist or I only like my fellow woodworkers – and cross the barriers to get past us-vs-them and simply all be makers at DMS.
17. Is there a defining issue that made you decide to run?
I decided that I wanted to contribute to the community in an additional way.
18. Have you been sued? Have you sued any one?
No
19. Have you been responsible for spending large amounts of other’s people’s money.
No
20. Apple vs FBI. Who is right?
Apple is generally right although they likely could have assisted via means other than the objectionable alternative firmware method that the FBI proposed.
And now onto the second set of questions…
What are your thoughts on capital planning?
This is a valuable tool in business where the goals of the organization are aligned with those of key stakeholders, with continuous vision - all generally guided by profit motive. DMS is missing thes factors, which makes capital planning difficult - “management” vis-a-vis the board of directors is subject to relatibely short terms via annual elections, the stakeholders are numerous and also subject to frequent change, and there isn’t a profit motive to encourage adherence to a course that runs over multiple years.
What is your philosophy on the acquisition of equipment? Manifest destiny?
I thought that Kent Bowling’s “dollar voting” concept from several member meetings ago was interesting - make funding major equipment purchases more transparent/democratic and reduce BoD involvement and control over the process. The crowdsource funding mechanism would also let people put their money where their mouths are with some assurance that it would go towards the desired purpose. Implicit was that management and ownership of the entire process would be in the hands of interested parties, which I see as positive do-ocracy.
What is your thought process when deciding if the BoD should contribute funds to purchase a committee item? Should committees generate funds for capital purchases or should the BoD?
My sense is that committees are a key gauge of demand for a specific capital purchase and should play a significant role in the funding of said items. A 50/50 BoD/committee split seems like a reasonable geberal maximum for the BoD contribution to a major capital purchase that clearly benefits a specific committee.
What are your plans for growing the budget of DMS?
I would like to retain more of our recruited members, work on grants, and investigate offering additional paid services without disrupting our membership, culture, and present use of the Space.
Do you understand that you have personal liability as a Director of a nonprofit?
I do. I also understand that director insurance is something DMS pays for - not to give the BoD carte blanche but to protect the BoD against litigation when they have followed the bylaws and behaved reasonably within the eyes of state and federal law. As such, I will pay close attention to the bylaws when acting as director so as to protect the Space as a non-profit entity.
Do you have an formal education, on-the-job training, or working knowledge of corporate finance?
I touched on the subject of corporate finance a few times during my university education, but have no working vocational knowledge of the subject.
What is the role of a Director?
To act in the best interest of the organization.
