ALV May 2018/Bigmac
For the upcoming ALV I'd like to put something on the agenda.
The statutes of TechInc say something about an ALV needed somewhere in November-ish to discuss the budget for the new year, taking into account the preliminary results for the last year - so people can see how we did, and if we're in the plus, what we should spend it on, if we want to do that. That's not exactly how things went last ALV - not knowing the results for last year, we could not propose budget spendings for the next year, and a `rinse and repeat' budget was agreed on.
So apparently "we did well" in 2017; it is wise most of that goes to savings (except for some unfortunate events which require some legal budget).
For the last year, there has been talk about upgrading the power infrastructure for TechInc. The power has been frequently tripping when people were cooking, were plugging in their heavy graphical workstations, or even in the winter when other tenants were turning on heaters. The power requirements at TechInc have been steadily growing now that there is community cooking multiple times per week.
A pledge request was made [1]https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/Pledges/Big_Power_Pledge
A team was formed [2]https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/Powergroup
A project description was started [3]https://wiki.techinc.nl/index.php/Powerupgrade
So far, what has been done is: * I bought a new cable 50m 5 x 6mm2 from my own pledged money * I pulled the cable (with help) from the supply downstairs to TechInc (after waiting 5 months for Remko to get better and assist, we finally managed to get things done without him - I hope he gets better soon) * Side project (in progress): remove all TL lighting and replace by LED bars; bought from my pledged money (this saves power and gives better lighting)
The next steps are * Connecting the new cable (hopefully soon with electrician from Urban Resort, should be < 100 euro) * Upgrade the current fusebox to something bigger so we can switch *all* power used in space through our own fusebox, and not be dependent on the locked switchbox upstairs
The exact solution/suggestion is still under discussion. We can buy a fully wired switchbox new for less than 1000 euro for sure. We can work on cheaper solutions - reusing some components, buying parts second-hand, or hand-wiring the new box vs buying pre-wired. Upgrading the current fusebox with more or smaller switches will not meet the requirements - according to the list we'd need up to 48 positions on the DIN rail (4 rails of 12) for the "ideal" situation, where we have 18 available
The remainder of the current pledge runs maybe 200 euro. We're going to need upto 1000 euro.
I ask for a vote to reserve upto 1000 euro of the "profits" from last year for fixing the power situation. (*not* for refunding already spent or pledged money - my 500 euro on cable and lights was an unconditional donation). Or, if that amount sounds excessive, 500 euro. (500 euro does not buy fully new equipment; reusing parts or finding second hand parts may make it possible to do the job for that budget). Or 0 - just connect the new, higher power cable, to the existing fusebox. Remaining pledge money is only for paying for the electrician.
TLDR:
Power upgrade needs upto 1000 euro maximum; should we spend 1000, 500, or 0 on it? Please vote.