Steering Committee Meeting 2024-08-19

Steering Committee Meeting 2024-08-19

Monday, August 19, 2024 from 7:01pm to 8:10pm

Table of Contents
  1.  Present
  2.  Agenda
  3.  Minutes

Present

Don C, Harvey B, John N, Bryant F, Bob F, Patrick C, Katherine K, Jeremy B, MJ W, Geoff S, Lisa G

Agenda

  1. Harvey B: Discuss the WT members. Namely who they are, what they do and who tracks what they do. How can the managers determine who of the WT folks are available, so we can better utilize them for tasks we may need performed.
  2. Harvey B: Discuss email group audience and removing “stale” members
  3. Bryant F: Website access to update shop page, certifications, change shop name
  4. Bryant F: Proposal: Take content from CNC webpage and move it to Machine and Wood Shop pages, update info

Minutes

  1. Harvey B: Discuss the WT members. Namely who they are, what they do and who tracks what they do. How can the managers determine who of the WT folks are available, so we can better utilize them for tasks we may need performed.
  2. Harvey: It’s difficult to know who work-traders are in order to assign them tasks. They need more transparency to better utilize their time. 
  3. Jeremy will take it to Lisa G and Kyle F. 
  4. Bryant F: Icon or stamp on the website that denote work-traders and the shop they’re certified in. 
  5. Harvey likes the idea. Also, “Universal” tasks that can be done in any shop (emptying trash, etc). 
  6. Lisa: Work-trade is a revolving door. It’s not always clear who has lapsed. She is starting to give shop-based tasks to some work-traders. But it’s hard to know when they lapse.
  7. Lisa has a list she can share with Shop Managers. She has two possible staffers for Wood Shop tasks in mind. 
  8. MJ W: Looking for more focused assignments. There should be a list of tasks that is overseen by a Volunteer Coordinator who gives out the tasks. 
  9. Geoff likes MJ’s idea.
  10. Bryant agrees: Too many managers is confusing/frustrating for workers!
  11. Lisa’s capacity is limited. Also, some members could fudge hours or not perform tasks they claim they did.
  12. A cohesive database of names and contacts broken down by dept.
  13. Lisa: Shop Managers send tasks to Lisa so she can process them. She will also share the list of volunteers with managers. She’ll be clear that at-large members can negotiate their tasks. 
  14. MJ and Renee C can help. In her experience, it’s bad policy for many people to be able to assign tasks to work-traders.
  15. Lisa and MJ will discuss it. 
  16. Harvey: I'm in agreement with streamlining this by assigning each WT member to a specific shop so they have one person to report to
  17. Don C: Discuss email group audience and removing “stale” members
  18. Announce List has nearly 2000 members. The Discuss List has over 500. 
  19. Weekly email group is roughly 200 people. 
  20. Is this a problem that needs solving? If so, how?
  21. John N: Start over with email lists?
  22. Harvey: Start over with a new list of active members, then add to the list as new members come on. 
  23. MJ W: There is no reason to lose those contacts from our email lists, emails are valuable, for fundraising for example. 
  24. MJ W: People who are engaged are more likely to donate and invest, some people may be past members and current donors.
  25. Bryant: Auto-updating list that removes inactive members? Or manually re-examine the list periodically to remove old members.
  26. Patrick: What prompted this discussion?
  27. Don: A random member on the list accidentally sent some spammy emails by accident. 
  28. Harvey: Direct Steering Committee Meeting notice emails to fewer, more active members.
  29. Don: Create a new email list?
  30. Don and Jeremy will discuss it further. 
  31. Bryant F: Website access to update shop page, certifications, change shop name
  32. Jeremy can handle that. 
  33. Don: There are shop certifications and tool certifications. 
  34. If anyone is interested in producing more content for the website, please let us know.
  35. Harvey would like to. 
  36. Geoff: Foundry page could use updating. It’s very minimal. 
  37. Don can help with some updates if Shop Managers aren’t available. But Don asks that they create content and photos and the layout they want to make it easy for him. 
  38. Bob F will continue to update the Wood Shop page. 
  39. Bryant F: Proposal: Take content from CNC webpage and move it to Machine and Wood Shop pages, update info
  40. CNC routers were moved to Wood Shop. CNC mills were moved to the Machine Shop. So the pages should be split. They remove the CNC Dept page. 
  41. Metal Shop is now Machine Shop
  42. Bryant: No more generic CNC certifications. Separate certifications. There’s a Novakon mill certification. 
  43. Harvey will think about it. 
  44. Bryant: What about people who are currently certified?
  45. Harvey will discuss it.
  46. Bryant: Keep CNC Shop page?
  47. A landing page for “CNC” that redirects to Wood Shop CNC, Machine Shop CNC, Welding Shop CNC.
  48. Bob F: “Special certification required”
  49. Patrick: An “All tools” page? An index.
  50. Bryant: A single database is good.
  51. Bryant found the “Tools” function on the website where we can list tools per dept. This appears to be what Patrick is talking about. 
  52. Jeremy will talk to Kyle about making the Tools page publicly available.