Makerspace meeting this Friday 12-07-2012 at 8:00PM at the Wegmans Cafe.

We are running a contest on our Facebook page. Submit your project or hack for a chance to win one of two 16 GB flash drives.

November 30th, 2012
Meeting start time: 7:50 PM

Attendance:

Erik, Krista, Dan,John,Eric, Mike, Drew, Adam, John, Beth, Cathy Kuzia

Pre-meeting Concerns:

• We need to find an alternate meeting space, Wegmans is getting too small.
• Vestal Public library has rooms that can be reserved
• John – meeting space (s) at the Binghamton Riverwalk

Introductions:

Drew: (see previous meeting notes)
Krista: (see previous meeting notes)
Eric A.: Broadcast Engineer
Mike: Armchair DIY, between things, Communications degree
Adam: (see previous meeting notes)
Dan: (see previous meeting notes)
Kevin: DIY, HAM Radio, tinker
Erik: (see previous meeting notes)
Jun: Bu student (major)
Beth: (see previous meeting notes)
John: (see previous meeting notes)

Actions since last meeting:

• In process of attaining non-profit status
• Insurance- One we are an L.L. C, we can apply for insurance.

Prospective Spaces:

NYPENN TRADE CENTER:

• $300 a month
• Cheapest
• Least likely
• We got an Ok from the landlord to sublet but no OK to install access control or internet.

Susquehanna Street:

• $950 / month
• 16′ Ceilings
• Garage Space-25′ x 69′ space
• No heat in Building
• Attic storage

Carol Street:

• $500 a month (asking $720)
• Behind the KNOW Theater.
• Space has been used for storage so currently no active electrical or sewer connections
• Dedicated Parking
• 2/1/2013 earliest move in date
• Gave letter of intent to real estate agent
• Broome County Cooperative Extension has a lead abatement program.
• Wide Access doors- good for machinery
• Close enough to be on-the art walk
• Mike- Plumbing inspection – should be done before move-in.
• Other notes: Waiting to hear back from the land lord and we may have to go in front of the Community Planning Board as any change to a space is Subject to a review. But in this case since there are no zoning or exterior building changes we can most likley file for and receive an exception.

Other Space Ideas:
Outlying areas, cons:

• Public Transit
• Ease of Access

Mike: Find out about grant money from the Susquehanna Gateway Project

Requirements at physical space:

• Asset tracking for items. There will also be different levels of ownership. If you have an item you want to donate to the space it can either be a straight up donation where you surrender ownership or it can be on loan, where you still own it and if you leave the space you can take the item with you. Each item will be tagged and noted as to it’s ownership status

• Items that need to be fixed, but that are to be donated to the space: 55″ LCD TV, 27″ LCD TV, 11 x 17 Epson Inkjet printer, various laser printers. Also on the TC Makerspace Reddit there is a list of available resources.

• Physical Access Control. We need to decide if we want to build something off the shelf or roll our own solution. Most likely implementation will be RFID card and PIN.

• Internet: Looking into a Wideband link from TWC. Eric suggested looking into fiber from Sprint, Verizon or TWC. Wireless ISP was also discussed but the bandwidth is poor and the latency very high.

Other possible locations:

• Fayette Street- used to be legal aid Another possible space.
• Spool Factory– Possible free accommodations on a temporary basis (still waiting to hear back from.
• Tech Works– Water Street (also still waiting to hear back from)
• Kmart Plaza
• Fat Cat Books old building
• Renaissance Florist in J.C. is Moving 277 main street in J.C.

Funding:

• Artists in Residence -Allow local artists to have smaller spaces in the makerspace that they would pay rent on.
• Grants-  Mike-Corning glass- have a program to have an artist in residence
• Laptops- There is a large lot of laptops available. Possibility to buy the lot and have a weekend hack-a-thon rebuilding them and then sell them on eBay with the profits going to the space.
• Talk to Roberson Museum,Kopernic, BCC, and BU (there are a lot of professors who have a community outreach component written into their employment contract) about possible funding
• Possible funding from tool/equipment manufacturers.

Internal Structure:

• We plan to be an LLC, and Drew will be talking to a lawyer this week about getting this done.
• Membership rate:Tentative plan is to have a normal rate, a reduced income rate, a weekly pass membership, and also sweat equity. Sweat equity would involve a memeber doing work at the space to reduce their membership dues, all taks would have to be voted on and assigned a value. Tasks could include repairing broken equipment, running Ethernet, etc. However the rate structure and sweat equity work there needs to be enough money coming from membership to pay for rent, utilities, and insurance.

Action Items:

John- Talk to the hotel about using their meeting room.

Possible space on Susquehanna Street:

Large 3000′ square foot space with 12″ ceiling and concrete floor. The space is very large and has many smaller rooms off to the side of the main space. Issues are that there is potential flooding issues and that the landlord is asking $900 a month plus utilities and there is no heating system installed.

We will be having a meeting this Friday 11-30-2012 at 7:30 PM at the Wegmans Cafe.

For those of you that weren’t at last weeks meeting, just a quick heads up that due to Black Friday and holiday madness there is no meeting.

Here are some pics from the space on Carroll Street that we looked at last week.

11/16/2012

Attendance: Drew, John, Torin, Erik, Zak, Dan, Ben, Rene, Alex

Time 7:40

Introductions from first time attendees:

Dan: Junior at Vestal H. S. Plans to go into Computer Science, Interested in Arduino, Raspberry Pi’s, etc

Torin:  Undergrad, Senior in Anthropology Sculpture Major Interested in metal casting and welding, Projects- Waste Oil Furnace. He is writing his thesis on maker spaces, Gen Space and is maker curious.

Zak: Industrial Sys. Engineer BU Undergrad, into solder and Dremeling, expert at taking things apart. Saw a TCMakerspace poster in the Engineering Building @ Binghamton University

Alex: Engineering Science at BCC, programs C++, Programming on TI 89, Worked on the BCC catapult

Discussion on physical spaces:

We all decided that getting a time scale together is crucial for getting a space, since it helps us decied what spaces will work for us. We also decided that we want to be in a space in the next 30 days.

Drew and Erik looked and a space behind the Know Theater on Carol Street.

• Brick Building
• Unconnected- Stand-alone building with possible basement
• Currently uninhabitable
• At the moment no electric, heat, or water. The space was sued for storage for years so utilities have been turned off
• $720.00 / month
• Off-street Parking
• Close to Downtown and near public transit lines
• 15′ ceilings
• The paint is all lead based so it will need to be repainted by the landlord before we move in.
• Since we are re-purposing a commercial space and not subletting we will need to get approval from the Community Planning board. The real estate agent we spoke to is looking into that and will give us a time frame.
  • To get reconnected to the power grid the electrical will need to be inspected by an electrician. John knows an electrician named Herman. Erik doesn’t trust Herman… anyone named Herman.
  • Houses nearby to Carol Street. Possible noise issues

NYPENN:

• Cheap, lots of room
• Security problems, since there is shared access the exterior door needs to be access controlled. Possible issue since landlord isn’t very pro-technology.

Since Last Meeting:

Ben, Drew, Erik, and Rene Met with Christie Zwahlen who is the Community Engagement Coordinator from the BU Center for Civic Engagement.

She is contacting the Tech Center in Downtown Binghamton for possible space, she is also looking into possible free space for us. Also mentioned the possibility of getting a marketing intern and discussed what requirements we would have to meet to be able to provide the intern with class credit for their work.  Ms. Zwahlen’s work is in bridging the digital divide, she organizes tech literacy classes and works with students to refurbish donated computers to get low income families computers in their homes. She mentioned the possibility of getting TCMS some computers. She works with many non-profits in the area, and was interested in us holding free classes that compliment her work. She also suggested that we table at the BU student Union to get more interest in the space, this is something that will be discussed at a later date, since it isn’t time sensitive.

We were also able to talk to Unicorn Electronics and they offered to advertise the space in their stores and agreed to give us any broken or donated computers and equipment.

We also want to reach out to other computer stores like Red Barn for possible advertising options.

• Plans of First Friday:
• Back to River Read Books
• Examples of People’s projects
• LED sign again
• LED Throwies 

Action Items:

• Donations from local companies- Beth can work on that.
• Alex- hang up flyers @ BCC and Engineering Club @ BCC
• First Friday – Get your projects!

Circuit Bending- Musical Instruments

DOOMBAS

Roomba Jousting – Velcro Styrofoam heads.

More “throwies”

LED Potato,  Potato Batteries

Redd it-Put your ideas on there

End Notes:

Saturday or Sunday Meeting

Next Week: Because 9- of Black Friday and Tofurky Day

Just a reminder, we will be having our Friday night meeting tonight at Wegmans at 7:30pm.

November 9, 2012

In attendance:Chris,Drew,Adam,Jaimie ,Erik,Krista, and Ben

7:55pm

Adam– Software, electronics Degrees in software and electronics.

River Read -Connie -had a lot of info regarding possible spaces.

Erik- Contacted Spool (art studio) possible space- emailed and voice called

Tech works – emailed

NYPENN? No word at all from the landlord

There is a possibility of  reduced or free rent at Tech works or Spool. Connie, from River Read  knows the people at these places.

Carol street is pricey Rent but, for reduced rent, perhaps, we can upgrade the space. (Ethernet, updated electrical)

Reminded everyone that next week we will probably have an anthropology major at the meeting        (mushrooms ed) -Will follow the group to see how it develops.

We plan to do another First Friday exhibit.

Regarding the LED sign there was discussion of building a laser projection or POV sign

River Read- Connie would like us to have an  event (kid friendly)

Erik suggested Picaxe Robots, 3D printed Turtle  bots(Ben) (Kid friendly-Runs basic) chassis

Ben suggested-Squishy circuits and an Arudino Theremin

Giving Out aluminum iPhone cases etch them with TC Makerspace logo using CNC or toner transfer and acid.

More LED throwies

Electronic Business cards? $7.40 per each

First Friday- Print musical instruments? Josh can play music…

NY Penn-BC Rollers Rent issues

The Makers pace can work with the BC Rollers to secure the NYPENN Space

Expenses

Rent

Insurance

Internet

Electric

Heat / Hot water

501-3C income:

Price of the application increases as (potential) income increases.

Just something to consider when applying for non-profit.

* Having an actual space will def. change the dynamic of Recruiting

More Event possibilities-

Bike Workshop

50/50 Classes, where half the money for a pay class goes to the space and half to the lecturer.

Class Ideas:

Blender

Intro to 3d printing

CNC

Welding

Wood Working

Security

Keypad door lock

RFID – easy to clone, especially with a group of hackers.        More techno-words.

Action Items

Ben, Erik & Drew Meet @ BU -Wednesday center for Community engagement Workshop on Refurbishing old PCS trying to get it underway.

Carrol Street space – Meeting Monday at space.

Adam- Look into space at Binghamton end innovation center.