Board Meeting Summary - August 2025

The speaker has not had time to update the wiki and events channel and is looking for a partner to help with documentation.
This is due to personal health issues and the effort required to get his boys to be productive students.
The speaker apologizes for not having done a better job in his role as president this year.

The board is planning a social event for the 40th anniversary of “Back to the Future” not this coming Friday, but the following one.
They are also considering a social event for the 50th anniversary of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
A Halloween-themed movie event is planned for October 24th, as October 31st is Halloween.
Jordan has offered to bring a projector for the events, which will allow members to watch movies together at no cost.
The board is considering having members vote on future movies to show.

The account balance is $19,960. This is lower than the usual $23,000 because they prepaid the $3,200 annual insurance to avoid monthly surcharges.
The organization hopes to get more funds from the North Texas Giving Day.
The move to a new location will cost several thousand dollars, and the board wants to avoid the account balance dropping below $10,000.
The speaker believes that proper double-entry books would be a good use of time if they are applying for grants.

The organization needs a new location of 2,000 to 4,000 square feet in or around Richardson, Texas, within the next 60 days, as the current lease ends in November and the rent could double.
A commercial broker, Greg, is assisting with the search at no cost to the organization.
It is preferred that the new space is east of Highway 75.
It was mentioned that a move might necessitate an increase in member dues.
A new space is desired that has better air quality and infrastructure.
The wood shop requires a space of 800 to 1,200 square feet to be viable.
It may not be possible to build a partition wall in the new space, so the workshop might be entirely a dusty area.
A deep cleaning and selling of old objects is proposed to fund the move. A member proposed setting aside an hour every Tuesday to go through items.

The board is considering getting a premium membership for the Glowforge website, as the basic functionality is lacking. A channel for the Glowforge was also proposed.
There is a need for a “hand” or a bookkeeper to help maintain a set of low-maintenance books, particularly for grants, though a full-time treasurer is not deemed necessary at this time.
Admins on the lab are now required to have multi-factor authentication.
There are no fall conventions, but the city court challenge kicked off last Friday and will run for three to four weeks.
The blue laser is no longer working properly, and the board is debating whether to part it out or give it away.