ALV June 2021

ALV June 2021
Date	2021/06/26
Time	13:00 - 16:30
Location	ACTA / Jitsi
Contact	Board
Minutes	ALV June 2021/Minutes

ALV June 2021
Date	2021/06/26
Time	13:00 - 16:30
Location	ACTA / Jitsi
Type	Meeting
Contact	Board

1. Opening

1.1. Amount of people present, proxy votes

- Proxy vote form: https://wiki.techinc.nl/File:Generic_proxy_vote_techinc.pdf

1.2. Hybrid meeting with Jitsi, announcement on on procedures

We are going to be running this meeting across two platforms at the same time. There will be people following the ALV in the space, for as much as that is possible while keeping the remaining Covid19 guidelines in regard.  Reservations are required, there is a maximum amount of places available, to be determined. At the same time, we will be having the meeting available to people on Jitsi.

You will be able to follow AND participate in the ALV via 

https://meet.social.techinc.nl/ALV202106

We have decided to go for Jitsi instead of Mumble due to the lower barrier-to-entry ; only requiring a web-browser. If you are not sure if your webbrowser OR computer can handle Jitsi, please take time to check compatibility in the weeks prior to the ALV to try and get a working setup. If you are sure it will not work for you, please consider attending in RL if possible, or contact admin@board.techinc.nl to discuss options for supporting Mumble next to Jitsi.

When using Jitsi or any other conferencing platform, we ask you to use headphones so as to prevent the numerous issues with sound-echoing that is a typical problem.

We strongly suggest that you enable the camera during the ALV , though we do not require you to be visible or recognizable. Voting by holding up a hand when asked to vote for/against something is an efficient way to conduct a vote.

We are still investigating the need to be re-using our online voting-platform at vote.techinc.nl during this ALV. We will inform you of this in a directed mail to your email registered with us.

1.3 Vote: Approving minutes from the last meeting 

Text to the minutes can be found here: https://wiki.techinc.nl/ALV_March_2021/Minutes

Vote is a yes/no/blank/abstain

2. Reports

2.1. Report from the board

This will be prepared for the ALV and included in the ALV-notes

2.2 Financial report + budget

• The financial report can be found on our wiki: https://wiki.techinc.nl/Financial_reports/2020
• There is the Dutch version which is legally binding.
• The English version is loosely translated for our non-Dutch members

With our current financial situation, we'd like to propose a revised budget for the last 6 months of 2021.

We will be post his at least a week before the ALV date at https://wiki.techinc.nl/ALV_June_2021/Budgetproposal

2.2.1 Report from the financial committee

At this moment we have not received a report from the financial committee. They will present their findings during this meeting

2.2.2 Vote: Approve financial report

The vote is: Approve the financial report over 2020. This is a yes/no/blank/abstain vote

2.2.3 Vote: Acquit former board

The vote is: Acquit the 2020 board for their financial responsibilites over 2020. This is a Yes/no/blank/abstain vote

2.2.4 Vote: Approve revised budget for remainder of year

The vote is: Approve the revised budget for the remainder of 2021. This is a yes/no/blank/abstain vote

2.2.5 Vote: Appointing Kasco for 2021

The KasControleCommissie (KasCo) for 2020 has finished their work if the financial report for 2020 has been approved. For the financial report over 2021, a new KasCo will need to be formed.  This requires at least 2 people, preferably 3 . Since the current KasCo members have only been in one KasCo in a consequtive year, so far, they are eligable to participate in KasCo 2021 if they so choose to.

Candidates for the KasCo2021 can announce themselves beforehand via a mail to admin@board.tecinc.nl or at the ALV itself.

The vote is: [The group of candidates] are to be chosen as Kasco for 2021. This is a yes/no/blank/abstain vote, per person.

2.3 Report from Dispute committee

At this point in time, we have not received any report yet; forthcoming at a later date. Lacking that, the committee will be given time to present one at the ALV.

2.4 Report from Social media committee

At this point in time, we have not received any report yet; forthcoming at a later date. Lacking that, the committee will be given time to present one at the ALV.

5. Yearly revision of membership dues

• The statutes require the members of the ALV to , once a year (at minimum) decide upon the height of the membership-dues for the space.

There is no particular ALV appointed for this purpose, but it is clear that the Jaarvergadering is a good place for this, given the financial nature of its contents.

• • Note that there is another ALV slated at the end of the year to approve the budget for next year that will be available to discuss, revise, revote upon this item if needs be.

• Because the membership-dues are an important topic with far-reaching implications for the association and its members, the board has come to conduct a series of Jitsi-meetings over the course of four consequtive weeks to allow people to provide input upon what they feel is needed, is fair , is possible and desirable.

• As such, a little time is given to present the findings of these meetings first, before presenting the proposal the board would ask the ALV to vote on.

5.1 Report from the ALVMEET meetings.

• The ALVMEET meetings were originally designed to help inform the board of oppinions regarding membershipdues as well as to collect input on ways to improve or strengthen our financial situation which is at current in a declining state that cannot be left to continue over a longer period of time.

• The ALVMEET meetings have resulted in quite some comments about the attractiveness of the space to our members. Apart from the height of the membership fee, the question was raised about just what you get for it. As such, a fair amount of talk has centered around making sure that membership of Techinc is worth it.

• As a result of this, there is now an effort underway to boot up an event-committee which will help organize events and gatherings in the coming year; anticipating the end of Covid19 restrictions. This is an important thing for the space to get right if it is to attract new members.

• Next to this, we have come to the conclusion that the 'state' of our space is one that should be improved. There are areas of the space which are not functional, not suitable for their purpose or simply not maintained/maintainable in any way. One of the results of the points brought up regarding this is that we have a proposal to address some of these issues through the means of a Space Maintenance Committee which would provide for the a structure around improving the space. The proposal can be found under point 6.1

• Regarding the main purpose of the ALVMEET meetings , we have had quite a number of people bringing up that while the 5 euro tier serves a purpose, it should not be implemented in the particular loose way that it currently has been. The house-rules provide for a structure that allows people to 'pay whatever they like, as long as it's more than 5 euro'. While this may work for a large association (enough paying members), or one with low expenses (cheap rent), this is currently not the state that Techinc finds itself in.

• The upshot of the talks is that while we do value the ability for low-income members to be a member of the space, the 5-euro tier does not serve any real purpose for those who 'just want to support the space a little', if we would choose to have these be regarded as donations, instead. 

• For those that cannot afford the 25 euro membership fee (currently listed as 'recommended'), many who we talked to were of the oppinion that this should still be available, but not in the manner that it is currently being offered. It was floated that both the barrier-to-entry should be a little higher (one should ask for this), and that it should be subject to revision (it should not be indefinate, if situations change).

• There were also suggestions about providing 'student' memberships. This will be explored for a next ALV, this ALV does not contain any finished proposal for this to be made possible. The next ALV will still be in time to add this for the next year.

• Next to the talks about membership dues, other solutions were floated that would improve our cash-flow; through workshops, events, sponsorships. It is clear that while these do not provide a predictable cash-flow, they are desirable options to allow us to generate some more income.

• For this reason, this agenda contains a proposal to introduce house-rules regarding how to deal with people who desire to donate to the space (on a regular or one-time basis) as well as those who wish to sponsor the space and what that would mean.

• The subject of running workshops for money is one that we do not currently have a working proposal for. It is expected that we will be crossing that bridge when needed. It needs to be stated, however, that at this point in time the continued existence of the space might be worth having one or two days of the year where the space is less available to its members, if that is something that'd help us out considerably. No proposal is prepared for this ALV to govern this event, though a next ALV might include one.

5.2 proposal

The board proposes that the space should accept the following:

This will be a yes/no/blank/abstain vote.      A new house-rule that will replace a set of current house-rules beginning 2022-01-01

The set of house-rules to be replace are those under 'Membership', up to and including the 'Possibility of paying per month + set date for checking membership fees'      The new house-rule would be added to our current houserules, only replacing the mentioned sections at 2022-01-01, and marked as such. It would read:         

•     In order to become a member, you are asked to refer to the current Membership procedure, documented on the wiki.
•     Pricing and payment:
  •         Membership of Technologia Incognita is set to €25.00 per month for 2022
  •         You are able to pay this before the beginning of the year, all at once, for the whole year OR in equal terms, per month, starting from before the 1st of jan.
  •         Payment of membership per month should be done before the 1st of each month, in 12 equal terms, every month.
  •         Exceptions on the full membership-fee are possible for those who are unable to afford the full price. 
  •         These exceptions must be discussed with the board and approved beforehand. They are also subject to yearly revision.
  •         Memberships for new members start at the moment they become a member, with a cost corresponding to the remainder of that month

• One-time adjustment:
  •     For the introduction of the above pricing-process at the beginning of 2022 the association will calculate how much 'overflow' from the past year every member has that pays towards the first month(s) of the new year. We will contact everyone about this before the end of 2021 about how much to pay for their first month(s).

    

As you can see, this text is a lot shorter than the current list of items, simplifying its implementation substantionally. More important to note are the implications of the changes they involve:     - The change would only start NEXT year, giving us time to make the space worth the full membership-fee and allowing for people to prepare for the change     - The change would make the financial reporting and admin a lot simpler, as equal terms are expected, as well as payments coinciding with BOOK-years instead of fictional 'months of memberships' with weird cut-offs that we employ currently.     - The memberships would be aligned with 'natural months', allowing for sanity in book-keeping     - The exceptions to allow people to pay less would still be available (it's in our bylaws), but only for those who ask for it and explain their situation. Not available by default anymore.     - While we cannot force reality to conform to our wishes entirely, the above process hopefully provides a more regular payment-discipline to be used.     - The rules regarding becoming a member (aka: membership process) were incomplete and are hard to re-adjust if they can only be changed at an ALV. Thus it makes more sense to have this be a more 'living document' instead: wiki     - The rules regarding what happens if you are overdue will stay in place.

6. Votable points

6.1

Over the past four weeks before this agenda was posted, people have been invited to come chat about the space and come up with ways to improve it, either financially as well as practically. This was done on our jitsi-instance on https://meet.social.techinc.nl/ALVMEET

During these meetings, it became clear that next to financial challenges, we also have a challenge in just how enjoyable our space is with regards to the ability to find things in working order, presented in a welcoming, sorted state and kept in working order.

For that reason, Gorgabal has put together a proposal regarding a function of a Space-maintenance committee

You can find the details here:  https://wiki.techinc.nl/Space-Maintenance_Committee

Note, these may be subject to change leading up to the ALV, but should serve the same purpose as listed: to be of use in making a more inviting and functional space through the means of having a group of selected individuals appointed who are tasked to feel responsible for coming up with ways to keep the space orderly, tidy and useful. This can include simply cleaning the space themselves, or through introducing methods and means that help others keep things tidy.

This will be a yes/no/blank/abstain vote.

6.2

Regarding sponsorships and donations, there are concerns that these would lead to entitlement with those who donate or sponsor us. This is something that other hackerspaces have also discussed and found ways of dealing with this that seem reasonable and implementable in Techinc's situation. Notably the rules of Revspace have been looked at, found useful and translated into english, to be included in our house-rules.          ---     Donations and donors     Technologia Incognita can decide to accept or refuse donations. As a base principle, donations will always be accepted. No donations will bestow its donor any rights or influence.     ----     AND/OR     ----          Technologia Incognita can decide to accept sponsoring of the hackerspace, or to refuse such. As a leading principle, Technologia Incognita desires to remain independent, and as such will accept sponsoring only for particular events. Sponsors who desire to use their sponsorship for the purposes of advertising will need to discuss and agree upon any and all such intensions beforehand. No other rights or influence can or will be given. --- These will be yes/no/blank/abstain votes; one for each part of the two parts of this proposal.