Start of meeting: 2024-05-01 20:00
Present: FwD, MsFortune, r3boot, buZz, dreamer, melan, Septilion, Berend, aetios, danieltoo, boopatroopa, nzo, rubberduck, eis-t, loempap, giorg10,hutspotmuts, 0,5 folkert, david (remote)
Chair of meeting: Lex (r3boot)
Renovation of the space
- Current status
- Plans wrt electricity
- Planning for next steps
- Gathering people to help
- Someone needs to lead, who wants to? (to formalize the process)
No sign of Berend, who was in charge by default. Not clear if he wants to coordinate the other areas after room 3. The whole effort needs a central person for coordination. Berend sent the bill of some isolation materials (~€400) to a local fund, and this seems to have been allocated. Hopefully this also works for future rooms. Berend arrived, and will take the lead. Biggest hurdle: the logistics of freeing up the rooms where we want to renovate the roofs. Sequence of events: move stuff from room 2 to room 3 once it's done. Then start on the roof of room 2. Room 2 could use leveling concrete on the floor. Addition from nzo: a bit more safety precautions: a kill switch to kill all instruments, and more fire extinguishers. Exit signs/doors.
Septilion: There are quotes for electricity upgrade for the meterboard, and plans for next steps. Also prepare for solar on the roof at a later stage. Plans for 3-phase would only cost a one time investment.
Use of different areas within the space
There are multiple plans for the usage of different areas within the space once all renovation is done. We need to define+pick options and plan ahead. Some options are:
- Make zaal3 a 'dirty room'
- Extend wall in zaal1 and create studio + storage
- Split zaal2 into soldering and 3d printer area
- Rework bar into communal area
- Move studio to accross the bar, where makerarea now is
- Your idea here?
- A corner with ~5 monitors connected to a docking station and all kinds of peripherals for the ultimate hack0r projects
- Creating commissies for doing projects
Renovation of the roof requires freeing up every room at some point. That's a big opportunity to move functions around between rooms.
Consensus from preliminary inquiry:
- Zaal 1 stays as it is, mostly. Maybe move the wall in front of the wall cupboards inward to create 2 extra small rooms, possibly for a studio? There are some doubts about the feasibility of removing and building walls. We could move the desks around to fully utilize the whole room. If the seating area is moved to the (current) printer corner the whole room could be mostly desks/workstations.
- Area around the bar: extend social function into the current printer area. Maybe make a stage in the current printer area where we can put couches. Maybe have more "cultural" activities (performances?) there. Or maybe add a dinner table for food-oriented events. The whole cooking situation could use some improvement.
- Zaal 2: soldering area is used well, the rest is a mess. Needs to be cleared out for roof renovation, and could then be used as a new printer area. Maybe add a small laser cutter. Needs ventilation, because it's either freezing or boiling in there, depending on the weather.
- Zaal 3: sort of a workshop? Easy access for large material, easy ventilation, lots of light.
- Smoking area is not up for debate? Maybe add hard benches without pillows. Church benches?
- Server rack needs a new place to live, take heat into account.
It would probably work best if members take responsibility for parts of this whole movement. Dreamer offers a map of the space and put it on the wiki, so people can draw up suggestions. Library chould be moved to social area near the bar so as to not take up space in the studio.
Next meeting try to make things more concrete?
Reduce energy costs
Over last year we spent 2500 euro on electricity and ALSO 2500 euro on heating. We would like to seriously reduce these, asap. One of the old ideas to reduce heating costs is installing radiatorknobs that turn off whole sections of the building. (Zigbee radiator-knobs are 20 to 30,- on Ali, less if we groupbuy)
Insulation of the windows and ceilings will greatly help keep generated heat inside, so less gas is required.
Another idea is to reduce background power usage in the space, ie shut off stuff that isn't strictly necessary. Small peaks don't nearly contribute as much to the bill as 24/7 sipping of power.
Contract ends, time to renew? find new supplier?
Replace central heater
Save power, turn as much as possible off automatically.
Insulate
Any others?
New energy provider: tips welcome.
buZz: hallo stroom.nl rents out free solar panels for a discount on your bill.
Solar panels are getting cheaper, but we use our energy at night so we'd need batteries.
Server rack and airfryer tend to be most power hungry.
Half of annual energy bill is gas. Isolating the roof will help, but there is more.
Get switches that consume less power.
More efficient servers
Turn more stuff off based on space state
Replace central heating is a big undertaking, but we might be able to tune it a bit to optimise usage by setting water temp to 60.
Remotely controlled radiator knobs on all radiators. They're a blend of brands, so we need a specific knob per radiator. Need agreement on the central system.
Maybe look for subsidy on heatpump?
Electrical heating?
See if airco can be modified to optimise it (dedicated hose+hole outward).
Creation and acceptance of a Code-of-Conduct
We are working on a CoC, and we need your input and advice! Current working document can be found here: https://nurdspace.nl/Code_of_conduct
Once we agree on the content, it will become official.
What does this mean? Do we require existing and/or new members to sign it? Or is adherence implicit?
Still under development, and might be in flux forever.
How does the CoC relate to the Space Rules page (https://nurdspace.nl/Rules_and_guidelines) on the wiki? These need to be related but not contradictory.
Adherence is implicit and the whole thing should be agreeable/common sense. If you object, you can cancel your membership.
Print QR-code to CoC-page, put it at the entrance, because it also applies to guests/friends
Maybe make it part of the onboarding process for new members?
Remove last line (funny, but not relevant)
Communication within and outside of the space
Currently we have IRC, the Wiki and a mailinglist as our 'official' communication channels. We also have facebook, twitter, telegram, hackerspaces.nl's wordpress, mastodon, signal, whatsapp(?), matrix(?) and discord(?) as 'unofficial' channels.
We would like to consolidate these platforms a bit, and also think about different options that do not involve 3rd party infrastructure.
Furthermore we are looking for people that would like to do more communication over these channels, plus other platforms where we can publish info about stuff that is happening at the space.
Some more info can be found here: https://nurdspace.nl/Communicatie
Suggestion: 1 responsible person per medium, and list them centrally?
Streamline all media/channels so we can also use them as a "marketing outlet"?
Maybe make distinction between internal and external communication.
External communication: Facebook/Instagram to reach people, and use LinkTree to keep track of all the media in use.
Self-hosting might be a requirement, to set an example. Or maybe at least prefer open systems. Use Big Tech platforms only for propaganda purposes.
TechInc seems to get a lot of influx from spamming meetup.com
AID (WUR introduction week) is a good opportunity to get new students in.
Aetios volunteers to be in charge of (digital) communications and propaganda.
Maybe paper posters in Forum building to attract students?
Eis-T + nzo can do physical propaganda material.
We should consider why we want a stronger online presence. Do we want more members? Sponsorships? Form of expression?
Creation and distribution of promo materials
NZo is working hard on a design which can be used for stickers, posters and flyers, but also tshirts, hoodies, mugs and other items we can put the logo on.
There are also plans to do more promotion by distributing tags which can open the door on a wednesday during the opening hours.
What other plans are there, and how can we get this all done?
Lots of praise for the mug designs.
MsFortune has access to an embroidery machine, so we can do more with that.
Maybe reuse nzo's designs on other products?
Maybe replace SpreadShirt by cutting vinyl on the cutplotter and making our own gear?
No real plans to organise this.
Getting the lasercutter working again
No description of agenda point beforehand.
We sold some hack42 inventory and had a reservation to fix it. The whole thing is hard to use and hard to move, so we could sell it (and give money to the owner jglauche) or simply bring it back. Even if we got it working it's less useful than the alternatives. R3boot will contact the owner to see what the options are. Or use it as a pool table? No.
Maybe buy a laser engraver? Or a K40 tabletop one? Safety is an issue, it needs to be enclosed. How to determine what to get instead? Could be part of the redesign of Zaal 3. Or a CNC that does alu/mdf?
Feedback about the member meeting
No description of agenda point beforehand.
We should do this more often. Maybe try to keep the room together a bit more?
Frequency: quarterly, or ad-hoc as needed
Additionally: events, like a movie night, talks or other events (other than drinking)
Minutes on the wiki
Change to form: make more explicit decisions or owned action points. And bullshit bingo cards.
Props to r3boot for organising this
WVTTK
FwD: next time prepare agenda points more so we can make decisions. Decisions are made by those who show up.
buZz: wants to resign as beforesitter. Also: maybe party at Superette?
Eis-T: this was really nice. Maybe combine a next meeting with an activity, because we have a lot of hands present.
Dreamer: the map is on the wiki, so download it and start drawing!
Giorg10: nice to see everyone and get a bit of an overview
Hutspotmuts: solarpanels so we could DC non-grid power setup for some lights and chargers and power supplies etc. Maybe with a battery. Fire safety and smoke detectors seem to be missing. We should fix this.
Melan: hark.
Boopatroopa: finds a lot of useful stuff, he could bring stuff over. Make your wishes heard.
D2: We should separate small projects from bigger efforts and general topics to keep meetings efficient.
Aetios: As chief propaganda I need some support. Also, we should make decisions (like the laser cutter) explicit. Berend: requirements for lasercutter or CNC: maybe we can make a project page to start listing requirements and see what our options are. Pro's, con's, price for options on a wiki page.
Aetios: lots of projects lying around that don’t fit in drawers. Maybe a rule: what doesn't fit in your drawers either goes in the trash or to your home if not marked otherwise. We will need the space to move stuff around for the renovations.
MsFortune: let me know when I can start sledge hammering walls
Floralab: would like to have a proper kitchen (stove+oven) so we can cook a decent meal. Make a proposal on the wiki.
Nzo: really happy with the CoC, nothing to add. Just happy to be part of the space.
Meeting closed 21:58