ALV March 2017/Minutes
TechInc ALV 2017, March 11
Admin
Number of people present, number of proxy votes, guests?
Start time: 20:24
16 people present, one of those is a proxy vote.
Quorum is 9
21:33: One person leaves, but hands his vote to another member, so the Quorum remains the same.
Two more people left consequentially, but only after all votable points had passed.
Approving the notes from the previous meeting
- 15 yes
- 1 abstain
- 0 no
Notes are approved
Finalizing agenda (any new points?)
There is a discussion about issues with the dispute group votable point.
They are a group of 5 members, which is the maximum amount of members. The minimal amount of members in their committee is 3. There was also a point saying that there is a maximum of two years term per member.
Essentially that means that they all have to step down, since they all have been in the committee for such a period.
A vote deciding wether the 'two years term' should be retroactive, results as follows:
- 15: Yes
- 1: Abstain
That means that the two year term is now retroactively applied
There is some confusion about whether mattronix wants to step down and re-run, but he's not stepping down, because he does not have to.
Reports
Report from the board
Overview of the current member situation, including breakdown of payments.
Average payments:
- 2014: 15.4 (total 14260, individual payments 924)
- 2015: 12.4 (total 15101, individual payments 1213)
- 2016: 14.7 (total 14653, individual payments 2012)
Current member count (marked as active): 113
- On time: 65
- Overdue: 48
This is a breakdown of the payments we get, in buckets, in 2016::
- 0-5: 2%
- 5-10: 18%
- 10-15: 15%
- 15-20: 7%
- 20-25: 18%
- 25-30: 30%
- 30-35: 3%
- 35-40: 0%
- 40-45: 2%
- 45-50: 0%
- 50-55: 3%
Justa also shows these same numbers in a bar chart. There is also a graph showing the income from just membership over 2015 and 2016.
If we take the 95 members, and multiply by the average, 15 euro, our income would be 1425 per month.
The rent is 1540 per month.
Budget:
Projected income::
Members: 12 * 1420 Drinks: 5000 (average over last years)
= 17100 + 5000 = 22100
Expenses::
Rent: 1540 * 12 Board budget: 200 (This is the discretionary budget of the board, used to buy all kinds of useful things for the space) Drinks: 4500 Bank: 180
= 23360
22100 - 23360 = -1260
The income from the drinks should be more than currently projected. We
should be
making at least 45% profit on the drinks, but we barely make 20% profit.
That
means either money gets lost from the donation jar, or people forget to
pay for
their drinks.
Piele notes that a part of the income from drinks is not just drinks, but also donations for hardware.
Justa suggests that we try to apply hygiene to the donation jar. The board also had been discussing these issues in 2016, so this could be seen as a stimulation to put these discussions into practice.
The board has also looked into "Automatische incasso", because a few members have inquired about this optional 'feature'. To make this viable we would need at least 15 people to use this feature due to fees from the bank.
An informal poll showed that 9 people (out of 16) think it might be worthwhile to support "Automatische incasso" as optional feature.
Hamish asks for more exact numbers so that we can get a clearer picture. Discussion continues about fear that people can sue us. Phicoh notes that this is unlikely since people are legally a member for a year, but we are not strict about this term. There's also a discussion about how people stop being a member, such as showing that they want to stop being a member by simply not paying.
Other things that happened:
- Windows were clearned
- SHA meeting was at techinc
- 5 year party
- Had an open hackerspace day.
- Space cleaning events
- There will be an open hackerspaces day in two weeks. Coordinators are
realitygaps and/or webmind for questions.
Financial report 2016
Wizzup made a SNAFU in the last-minute change that he made when he mailed it to the mailing list.
See the report. Main takeaways:
- Equity *decreased*
- Loan paid back
- Drinks reported a small *loss*
Report from the Kascontrolecommissie
bigmac & narya: The first version of the report was OK, the numbers added up. There were some suggestions, that Wizzup incorporated, but hastily. Once the committee sat down with Wizzup again, and fixed his mistake, a final version was created. This version is approved by the committee.
Piele notes that he was supposed to be invited to the financial report committee, but this had not happened. The board made a mistake there, inviting the wrong person.
The members voted in favour of the report:
- 15 yes
- 1 abstainee
Discharging the board for their actions of last year
Normally this is done in one vote, but due to unclarities we are doing this vote separately.
- 15 yes
- 1 abstainee
Our statutes very clearly that we need two separate votes for these topics.
Appointing new kascontrolecommissie 2017
Piele and meridion are volunteering for the financial committee of 2017.
- 15 yes/approve
- 1 abstainee
Board Elections
Justa, Julf, Phicoh and realitygaps have to step down. Both are up for re-election.
People running for board:
- Justa
- Phicoh
- cmpxchg
Voting committee:
- Piele
- meridion
- ultratux
The agenda wrongly states that Mattronix has to step down, but this is not
true. He will remain in the board.
Currently in the board are:
- Wizzup
- Mattronix
Stepping down:
- Julf
- Arda Xi
- realitygaps
Stepping down and re-running:
- Phicoh
- Justa
Running as well:
- cmpxchg
Nobody else has indicated that they want to re-run.
All three members are voted in:
- cmpxchg
- phicoh
- justa
The board will try to have a meeting soon, where the board will possibly re-distribute roles.
Report from dispute committee
Current committee members:
- cmpxchg
- The Jinx
- voidz0r
- Einstein
- webmind
Last ALV we determined:
- Min 3 members
- Max 5 members
- Two year term
Everyone currently on the committee will step down.
Re-running are:
- webmind
- The Jinx
- thomascovenant
- bigmac
Everyone is voted in, so the new dispute committee consists of these members:
- webmind
- The Jinx
- thomascovenant
- bigmac
Any other business
Narya notes that there are tax deductions for donations to associations. Narya thinks the minimal amount to donate per year is 60 euro (for it to be deductable). If you plan to make use of this, please make sure to check this for yourself.
Justa suggests that the board will look at this, and let the members know if this indeed holds.
Realitygaps mention the upcoming open hackerspace day, and hopes that others will help out making the open hackerspace day a success.
Hamish suggests that we think about how we can encourage members to donate more. Wizzup states that people are informed of the amount that we need to survive as an association, and that the board is not very pushy when it comes to making people pay more, because that is an uncomfortable situation, as the board cannot assume too much about personal situations of people.
Justa states ..(missed it)
Vesna suggests that the next budget should be more ambitious,
incorporating the
notion that we are aiming to save up more money, and not just survive.
Piele suggests that we investigate the possibility to raise the minimal
membership fee. Wizzup questions if Piele wants the board to research this,
Piele states "Yes". Wizzup asks if this is something that the board can
viably
research.
Phicoh states that the board are the only ones who can inquire members
why they
pay a certain amount, of the members generally do not know this.
(Some more discussion follows on this subject, justa, becha and ultratux chime in)
Ultratux suggests that the board should crosscheck how often people are
here,
and correlate that with how much they pay. Wizzup and Justa respond that
this
doesn't seem to be something for the board to decide. But it might be up
to the
board to decide if we need to change the statutes.
(Further discussion follows about the ethics of this)
Ultratux mentions that he didn't realise it wasn't that easy to get the
first
payment for a new member, and suggests that the board does not activate
the fob
until the first transfer is done. Justa says this is more work. Becha, Matt,
Ultratux think it may save some time, Justa and Phicoh see some issues,
so the
item needs further research/discussion.
Justa states that we would really like the procedure for a member to join to
become shorter and not longer.
Vesna states that holding parties bring in money, so we might want to hold more parties.
Phicoh states that someone suggested we should maybe switch to another bank,
because our current bank (ABN) is not the nicest bank. There is talk about
moving to Triodos bank, Justa suggests an informal hand raising, to gauge if
there is interest from members to do this. To poll if 1) We might want
to leave
ABN 2) We want to move to Triodos (specifically)
- 1) 8 (out of 14)
- 2) 7
Wizzup states that we should research the following things:
- How it affects procedures
- If the costs are lower/higher
- If automatische incasso is nicer and/or cheaper
Meeting closed at 22:52
