Hey folks -- let's get some agenda points started for next Wednesday night. We'll have the back room at Common Roots again & it'll be down to business.

So far we have a draft constitution; we need to get that finalized and established. We also need by-laws drafted and agreed upon. It's tedious but we can probably hammer through a bunch of them in one sitting. The draft of our proposed by-laws, what we have so far, is here in the Wiki. Please, folks, give it some time this weekend if you can at all. Remember, the conventions we're using are boldface for additions, and italics for "deletions" in the Wiki text. (I think Paul recently got strikethrough enabled in the Wiki, too, but I'm not sure how/whether folks are using that.) The more bylaws we can get refined ahead of time, the more painless they'll be in the meeting.

We need to get ourselves established as an entity so we can start collecting dues, and of course we need to decide how we're going to do that. (Hello, by-laws!) Because:

I've been looking around, along with some other folks (Nick, Medios, etc. -- thanks guys!) and there are definitely some good options out there for potential workshop spaces. Info here, here, and a bunch more here. (I might even try to visit this one today with my camera.) There's also some more info in the Wiki.

I plan to attend Studio Bricolage's steering-committee meeting on Monday night*, and I'll be bringing location questions & a stack of commercial real-estate info with me. I'll report back on Wednesday (and most likely post about it here on the forum, as well).

OK, gonna post this now; I still haven't even had coffee yet, let alone breakfast. Thoughts? Additions? Concerns? Pie? Reply reply reply!

*EDIT: My bad -- that's not until Monday the 13th, but Michael & I are actually sitting here with Steve J. in Leonardo's Basement as I type this. So we will have stuff to talk about, related to the search for space! - 4/4/09, 10:00 AM

it's *really* important to do the strikethrough/bold for edits. the reason is that a wiki is a snap shot and it's really tough to look across 5+ edits to see what was taken out or changed in each one. the key thing is being able to see what the original was, AND what is being proposed at the same time.

do NOT delete stuff to make it easier to read it makes it impossible to figure out what's changing, and get an idea of why that might be happening.

this is draft stuff, put in annotations or concerns or alternate lines if you cant' decide between a few ideas.

Updated my agenda post... anybody have items to add?

More agenda items:

What kind of income from membership dues can we expect, rough numbers? Do we mass-email all registered forum members, requesting them to participate in the poll?

Do we move forward with merging or partnering with Studio Bricolage, under the umbrella of their Leonardo's Basement 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, perhaps with distinct identity & accounting?

Do we go with that TCM logo which Wammie's been working on?

Do we do the Humpty Hump, y'all?

one more: theo and i met with steve from SB yesterday, and a brief thing became HUGE. i think we should discuss forming some committees before we dig into the bylaws and maybe generate some direction for them since the bylaws will be how we really operate, and there are a host of things to ponder. full thread on that here: http://www.twincitiesmaker.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=249

So what kind of committees are you thinking of, Metis? I don't see any specifically exampled in the other thread.

What? There are four, with boldface and descriptions...

Sweet jeebus. Not enough coffee yet. I would like to be on Site Selection and Finance.

I think we should run under our own 501 instead of someone else. It doesn't mean we cant work with them i just think it limits our options. For the meeting i suggest forming a transitional board so we can pursue 501 status and any other legal hoops to jump thru.

orion can i ask why? and the follow up there is, thoughts regarding partnering with another group as an outside entity vs joining.

incorporation, and then receiving NFP status is a minimum of about 6 months plus in the ball park of 1100$ in fees plus probably a lawyer to keep things kosher. (i was on the fringes of one being set up recently and it took almost a year to get all the i's crossed and t's dotted)

while having a parent corp can limit us in some ways, it can also benefit us in established connections, insurance, and having administrative infrastructure set up (accountant, etc)

n.b. i'm not saying we have to do this, but that i think we really should look at collaboration closely and see if it fits.