Category: Membership

Annual Meeting Oct 3 @1pm

Posted on by oldpostholder in Events and meetups, general, Meetings, Membership, Posts

Annual Membership Meeting On ZOOM: Saturday, October 3

We’ve scheduled our annual meeting for Saturday 10/3, starting at 1:00pm .

To keep everyone safe we will be holding the meeting and election remotely. You be able to attend the annual meeting via Zoom, look for more meeting information to come.

We’ll go over the previous year’s financial s and major happenings, and talk about future plans. We’ll also be voting for two Governing Board seats that are up for reelection this year. There will be more information coming out as we get closer to the meeting date.

Which brings up a couple of sub-points:

Nominations for board positions are open

Have a member you think would be an excellent leader for out organization and want to nominate for the Twin Cities Maker 2020 Election? Please do email nominations@tcmaker.org.

Eligibility Requirements: Any member in good standing and 18 years of age or older may be nominated to the Board.

The board terms are for 3 years and will expire in 2023.
Please review the Board Position and Expectations and Code of Conduct before making a nomination.
https://wiki.tcmaker.org/about_us/org_chart/duties/board
go.tcmaker.org/conduct

Want to know what a board meeting is like? All of our meetings are open to members! The next board meeting is Tuesday 9/8, starting at 6pm here: go.tcmaker.org/boardmeeting .

The meeting agenda is also open

Got something you’d like to discuss at the Annual Meeting? Let the Board board@tcmaker.org know that too! We need to get the agenda at least mostly set by Friday 9/25, so please submit your items before then. There will still be the chance to bring things up at the meeting, but 9/25 is the last day we can get it onto the agenda that will be sent to all members. (Why do we send it out to all members? We want members to be involved and state law says we have to!)

Want to get Involved another way? We have open shop positions that need Leaders to fill them.

These positions are an excellent way to make a positive impact on the Twin City Maker community, the lives of others in it, and those who are touched by it’s impact.

Shop General Manager

Facilities Manager

Logistics Coordinator

Robotics Team Coordinator

Marketing Team Volunteers

Position details and responsibilities can be found on our wiki here: https://wiki.tcmaker.org/about_us/org_chart/start

 

 

Member Storage clean-out is coming in February

Posted on by oldpostholder in Membership, Storage

When you come into the shop, you’ll see some scary red signs all over the place:

storagesignv2

The signs have got the basics on them, but you’re probably looking for more. Here’s a more in-depth explanation.

What’s going on here?

At our next quarterly cleanup, Saturday 2/4/2017, we’re going to completely clean out and rearrange the member storage area. All the nooks and crannies will be swept out, shelving rearranged, and probably a little bit more shelving added. To get this all done, we’re asking that everyone take their stuff home temporarily, by Friday night 2/3/2017. You’ll be able to start bringing stuff back in on Sunday.

Is member storage going away?

Not at all. We just need to get everything out of storage before we can get any meaningful work done. Also, there are new rules coming that changes the size of bin we’re allowing.

What? New bin size?

Yes. Bins will now be a standard model and size (Ikea Klämtare, which is 22.75″ x 17.75″ x 11.75″). That’s a little smaller than the 18-gallon size we allowed before, but not by that much. Having everyone use the same style bin makes them easier to pack onto the shelves, and ensures that everyone is getting the same amount of space. Bins will need to have their lids attached, no tall stuff poking up is allowed!

So where are these rules?

I’ll put a link up to the new rules as soon as they’re finalized. They’re mostly done, we’re just putting the last bit of polish on them. The basics stay the same: each member can have a bin; stuff that doesn’t fit in the bin has to be actively worked on; don’t store dangerous stuff in your bin. The new rules will formalize the process of requesting space for larger projects, and explain how we’ll be policing the storage room to keep things from devolving into chaos.

What if I can’t get my stuff out by the deadline?

If you don’t think you can get things out by Friday 2/3/2017, please contact storage@tcmaker.org as soon as possible. We’ll try to work something out. We don’t have a lot of additional areas to move stuff around, so we’ll work out details on a case by case basis.

SPRING CLEANING (Quarterly Cleanup)

Posted on by oldpostholder in general, Meetings, Membership, Uncategorized

As a reminder, quarterly clean-up is happening this Saturday, March 28, 2015 from 10AM to 6PM. THE SHOP WILL BE CLOSED.

We are going to take the momentum we started with metal shop love day and start running with it.

During Quarterly Clean-up we are going to be doing some massive purging and hitting up storage (and items that are inappropriately stored in the rest of the shop) really hard. This is just like spring cleaning your house. It is an opportunity for us to get any defunct projects, non-project items, and other junk out of the shop. We need to get rid of clutter in order to have the space that is needed for a functioning shop.

IF YOU HAVE ITEMS STORED AT THE SHOP THIS APPLIES TO YOU:
1) If the items are not an ACTIVE PROJECT, then it needs to go home.

2) Anything you keep at the shop must be PROPERLY LABELED and PROPERLY STORED IN THE PROJECT STORAGE AREA unless you explicitly have permission from shop management to store the item elsewhere. It must still be properly labeled.

3) Any non-project or out of date items found anywhere in the shop, will be disposed of (tossed in the dumpster). We are not a storage facility. You are not renting space to store your personal items, materials for “someday” projects, or “cool things you once made”.

As a reminder, the list above essentially constitutes our general storage policy. The policy in its entirety is found here.

June 26th, 7pm – Annual Members Meeting!

Posted on by oldpostholder in general, Meetings, Membership

Hey folks! Just wanted to give an update to the community about our annual meeting on June 26th!  FYI- the picture below is hundreds of people watching Riley Harrison launch balloons at Northern Spark!  What a great turnout!

IMG_4069

Acting President (David Bryan) here giving you an update!  We are having our annual member meeting on June 26th 2013!  If you are paid up on your dues, you are eligible to vote!  If you want to come in a see how this runs, this meeting is open to anyone, but topics for the meeting can only be brought forward and voted on by current members.

This year there are two board positions that are up for election.  The way our board and governance works, is that the members elect the board members, and the board elects the officers (Pres, VP, Etc).  This year our current president and secretary board seats are up for election.

Bob Poate, who is acting sectary, his board seat is up for election.  Unfortunately, he will not be running for a board seat this year, but he has been an asset for the organization and the board.  You don’t realize how important this position is, as often times it’s taken for granted and can be overlooked.  This is how we communicate with our members about goings on in our board meetings.  I personally want to thank Bob for all the hours of meetings, and times that he has spent helping us by gathering and publishing our meeting minutes and notes!  A big Thank You to Bob!

David Bryan’s board seat is up for election, and he will be re-running for a board seat.  Whether or not the board re-elects him as president is another story, however I would urge you to let a board member know your opinion, and vote in the election how you see fit.

Scott Hill will be posting a compete listing of candidates, and a Bio/Descriptions/Qualifications shortly to the TC Maker Wiki.

Annual Membership Sale! Dec 15th-Jan15th %27 Off!

Posted on by oldpostholder in general, Membership


We are having our annual membership sale/drive this year! What does that mean? If you want to save some $$, and plan to support our community, this is a good alternative to paying for a monthly membership. This sale discounts an annual membership by $180!

  • Who: Any member or new member can take advantage of this.
  • What: 2013 annual membership for $480! That’s %27.27 off annual dues. *
  • When: Only from December 15th, 2012 to January 15th 2013.
  • Where: Website or in person on a Wednesday night.
  • Why: Because we like you, and want to give long standing members a discount.

*Memberships purchased during this sale are non-refundable after Jan 16th 2013, this is a one time sale to raise funds for our space, and we need to count on those funds being available over the 2013 year.