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Plenum 2022-05-24 Minutes

Venue​

  • Jitsi

20:18 Open​

Credentials​

  • Present: Kheng Hui, Jen, Joyce, Huiren, Valentine
  • Apologies: N/A

Reports​

Regulatory (Valentine)​

  • ACRA Annual Report: Up to date. Next due 30 Apr 2023
  • IRAS tax filing done for YA2021; next one is due 30 Nov 2022 for YA 2022
  • IRAS: ECI: Up to date: Next due 31 Dec 2022

Finance (Jen)​

Cash​

  • $21,623.35 in the StanChart+PayPal as of 30 Apr 2022
    • PayPal transfer for April done a few days prior to plenum
    • Payments not claimed by Valentine yet (see pending claims, below)
    • May need to restart from blank slate
    • Looking into Zoho as alternative
  • Actually $6,623.35, because we took a $15K interest-free loan
  • $48.96 in GitHub Sponsors as of 15 March 2022
  • 0.66914519 in BTC

Accrual (up/down $?/month)​

  • Including predicted upcoming costs amortised monthly, we are down $1259.64 a month

  • Pending claims from Valentine

    • M1 ($400), SP ($600) bills since Jan
    • Fire extinguishers ($120)
    • Renovation and move stuff to be claimed:
      • e.g. Tables and chairs
      • Details to be retrieved from Valentine's Google Pay transaction log

Significant changes to regular expenses (if any)​

Regular ExpensesAmountFrequencyMonthly Cost (amortised)
Rental250012$ 2,500.00
Utilities (est'd)45012$ 450.00
Internet9912$ 99.00
CorpSec2402$ 40.00
Accounting/Corp Services (est'd)30001$ 250.00
Aircon2554$ 85
Cleaning (est'd)8026$ 173.34
Income Tax (est'd)6001$ 50.00
$ 3,647.37
  • Val: Aircon cleaning for this month is $255 but varies depending on which units are cleaned
    • Contract no longer signed as no longer required

Space electricity consumption (Valentine)​

  • 1195kWh total in April 2022, for a total of ~$357.
  • Approx. 2.5–3.5 kWh/hour during normal use, or ~$0.75–$1/hour at $0.299/kWh (current electricity tariff)

Memberships/Contributions (Valentine)​

Update on new members and contributions​

  • No changes to the following:
    • New members
    • Downgrades
    • Upgrades

Current membership/contribution breakdown by tiers​

TierCount
168
320
6414
12813
2560
5121
  • Val, Jen: Vouching for new membership may not be as reliable as before, given the addition of Switch and COVID attendances
  • Val: "Do not sue us" (sic) policy is unfair to enforce only on members and not visitors of the space
  • Val: We should buy a public liability insurance policy (somewhere around $200 a year)
    • Previously, onus was on visitors to have personal accident policy, but as we don't require or check for it, the liability insurance may make sense

Old Hardware Pattern (Jun Hao)​

  • Ref: Google Sheets
  • Huiren: Jun Hao has been quite busy, any help would be appreciated
  • Val: Recently donated laptops, routers, and HP Proliant servers to be handled separately
    • Val: Some hard disks and cables missing, may need to purchase
    • Philip Hilton may have contacts to sell the old routers
    • To check old laptops for presence/absence of hard disks (KH)
  • Val: Chairs to be disposed but may need to be broken apart

Further adjustment of membership tiers (Valentine)​

  • (Valentine) Volunteer-for-hours scheme to be removed (for now)
    • May reinstate if we get traction, financial stability, and demand
    • Val: Worthwhile because of power consumption costs per person
  • Membership page on docs site has been cleaned up and should be synced to main site (Val)

Website revamp (Valentine)​

  • (Valentine) Initial backend mostly done, frontend wrangling in progress
    • Val: Linting and CI done, only putting things together is undone
    • Val: Could be done by end of the month

House rules (Valentine)​

  • Now up at: https://docs.hackerspace.sg/handbook/rules/
  • (Valentine) Will need to make some minor changes to bring it to present day norms
    • Val: From Bussorah to KGB
    • KH: Maybe make it future proof if possible
  • Need additional guidelines surrounding acceptable behaviour
    • Val: Current house rules only outline best practice actions, but we might need something about behaviour towards other members
    • Val: Can take reference from e.g. Noisebridge
    • Work on https://github.com/hackerspacesg/admin/issues/2 (Val)

Large group gatherings in a COVID-endemic Singapore (Valentine)​

  • Joyce: Need to set up the projector, presentation system, and speakers
    • KH: Drywall mounting experience/volunteer needed
    • KH: Dry run needed, time to be decided
    • Joyce: Infrastructure setup and capacity testing to be done prior to dry run

Electronics workshops (Joyce)​

  • Joyce: Planning can resume now that restrictions have been relaxed
    • Pending syllabus creation
      • Val: Projector is usable though not yet mounted
      • KH: Speakers would be nice to have, if not necessary
      • Val: Bluetooth speaker is available

Roof water ingress again? (Huiren)​

Clean desk policy (Huiren)​

Holes in the front room (Valentine)​

Gloomy/dark lighting in the main area (Huiren/Joyce)​

  • Ref: https://github.com/hackerspacesg/KGB/issues/16
  • To switch out current off-the-shelf controller for STM32 (Joyce)
    • Some lights could light up, see renovation chat updates
    • Soldered up shield for connecting lights to microprocessor
    • Need to find time to test during daylight hours
  • Huiren: Request to keep updates in the GitHub issues for better visibility

Smoking in front and back stairwell (Huiren)​

  • Ref: https://github.com/hackerspacesg/KGB/issues/17
  • Huiren: source has been found
    • Opposite neighbour at back stairwell
    • Downstairs neighbours for front stairwell
  • Joyce: test door sealers with Arduino and cheap sensors?
    • May need help from our smoker members

Tasks for hired cleaner (Valentine)​

  • Ref: https://github.com/hackerspacesg/KGB/issues/13
  • Val: Duties more or less settled, but something may have been forgotten
    • Can cross-check and update on GitHub by the end of the week (KH, Joyce, Val)
    • Aim to call cleaner back next month

Membership referral scheme (Valentine)​

Carousell account (Valentine)​

  • Credentials are likely to be recovered but we have to try (Val)
  • Joyce: routers could be sold for homelab hackers, maybe <$100
  • Val: beanbags could be sold
  • GitHub issue should be opened (KH)

Membership marketing (Valentine)​

  • We need to discuss if marketing is feasible, and if so, how
    • GitHub issue should be opened (KH)
  • Huiren: NUS students did a report on marketing* and it can be updated to issue (Huiren)
    • See BAMF group
  • Joyce: some people have heard of hackerspaces but not aware of us
    • Val: proposal needed
    • Joyce: social media would be a start
    • KH: word-of-mouth is not enough, as noted

344B to 336D move and renovation debrief (open)​

  • Debrief will be done after front room is tidied up (Val)
  • KH: kitchen can be cleaned up
    • Val: Adnan suggested using boxes, but this can be done later

Former plenum items to close (open)​

  • Needs cleanup after reference from last plenum minutes (KH)

    • Restore two deleted items

  • KGB premises lease renewal / Potential reboot

    • Retain: reboot ideas

  • Governance reboot

    • To be closed: move to membership/restructuring discussion

Reboot / Social enterprise/non-profit model vs Pte Ltd. (open)​

  • Ref: 2022-03-15 plenum
  • GitHub issue to be opened to get more feedback (Val)
    • References needed to prior discussions e.g. in mailing lists

Events (open)​

  • ZKM visit: to check with Luther (KH)

New business​

Broken power sockets (Huiren)​

Important hardware equipment list (Huiren)​

Equipment borrowing process (Huiren)​

336D balcony (Huiren)​

Cable box partitioning system (Kheng Hui)​

Day Pass Experiment (Huiren)​

RIPE Atlas probe (Huiren)​

Non-functional 3D printers (Valentine)​

Facility maintenance and issues (open)​

Miscellaneous HSG administrative matters (open)​

Any Other Business (AOB)​

  • Huiren, KH: GitHub issues need to be used more frequently instead of scattered updates across channels

Next meeting​

  • 2022-06-21 20:00 tentative (tentatively scheduled for 3rd Tuesday of every month, but subject to change depending on the schedule of key people)

    • KH: will not be available, German classes on Tuesdays

  • KH: propose shift to 3rd Wednesday of the month, i.e. 2022-06-22 for the next meeting

    • No objections from all present

22:05 Close (approx)​