This same concepts of sales, and donations from manufacturer’s could apply to every maker space we currently have and many we do not. I have seen it apply to wood working. Malissa mentions reporting for IRS Purposes. Sales would require Sales Tax and the State is being very aggressive in pursuing smaller vendors.
Sales, soliciting and/or accepting equipment or material from a manufacturer is very different from public fundraising with in the community.
All good points that I hate even talking about much less trying to navigate. I did recently take a tax class but it was geared to businesses and had nothing to do with 501c3s. Framework would definitely need to be in place and strictly followed.
In fact this is probably an issue that will need a lot of consideration. In this entire thread funding and tracking of funds really has been the main concern.
We have a very competent accountant who deals with these issues for us, for the very reason that there are so many pitfalls and gotchas.
So maybe we consider the different types of fundraising that are possible. Divide them into categories and set policy as to how each category is be handled by committees?
The accountant should probably be consulted to give us guidance on how our internal policy is shaped on the different categories of fundraising and equipment tracking and depreciation.
I’m not worried about the account, I’m worried about the information getting from the committees to the board, treasurer, and the accountant. It wasn’t to long ago we had area leads robbing the change in their kitty to buy things as a way to get around the system.
That’s awful about the former leads 
.
They didn’t do anything bad we just couldn’t account for it. Meaning they used the funds to buy items for the area but didn’t turn in the receipts.
Kate, I too will need the same forms for the Mabee Grant. I’m pushing for the Nov 1st deadline.
Another consideration for spending money is something else snagged from Dallas. They have a list of procurement agents.
https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Procurement_Agents
These are designated members who are trusted to ensure that the proper channels were followed before a purchase and they also make the purchase.
Do we want to form a working group to get this in shape for a board vote?
I took a stab at it as I can’t sleep…
Committees
Committees are voluntary groups, formed in order to operate and maintain an area of the Makerspace, foster growth of a community of interested persons, or accomplish certain needs, subject to the oversight of the Board of Directors. The Three types of committees are:
Standing Committees which are formed by the Board and are on-going
Ad Hoc Committees which are formed by the board to do a specific task and serve for a defined amount of time
Specialized Committees are formed by the membership and approved by the Board
Specialized Committee Formation
At least 5 members are required to form a specialized committee, by adding the request to the next monthly Board agenda, that includes:
a. the name of the committee
b. description of what it does
c. names all committee members
d. recommended chair.
There is no limit to the number of committees a member can serve on.
If the number of committee members drops below 5, the committee will have a grace period of 30 days in order to recruit enough members to remain active. Committees initially established by the Board of Directors can only be dissolved by vote of the Board.
When a committee is dissolved by a vote of the Board all monetary assets will return to the general fund of the makerspace. Any physical assets of the committee can be claimed for use in other areas of the makerspace, any physical assets not claimed by another committee can be disposed of using the 3 nerd rule.
Committee Leadership
The principal duty of the Chair is the recruitment of Committee members, and organization of volunteer activities needed to operate and maintain the Committee resources.
Responsible for operations of the Committee, providing reports on the status and activities of the committee at the monthly Board of Directors meeting, and managing the finances of the committee. This will include reviewing financial transactions attributed to their committee and working with the Treasurer or Accountant to correct any errors.
Maintaining the safety of the Committee area, including ensuring the safe operation of all tooling.
Maintaining good order of committee area and resources, ensuring adequate supplies of consumable items are maintained.
Enforcing the rules established by the committee, and of MakeICT within their area.
Maintain an accurate inventory of all tools and equipment, in the format provided by the Board.
Duties of the Vice-Chair
Assist the Chair, as determined by the Chair or by the Committee at large
Provide oversight and supervision of the Committee area when Chair is not present
Serve as Interim Chair when:
The Chair is not available due to vacation or illness
Has resigned or been removed by the Board
Committee Responsibilities and Rules
a. The Committee Chair may make purchases of supplies and/or tooling without Committee vote, for purchases in amounts less than $500, or 1/3 of the Committees total fund balance, whichever is smaller.
b. Purchases for items exceeding $500 require a majority vote of the Committee at the next regularly scheduled Committee meeting, or at a duly called emergency meeting, or by a vote of the Board of Directors.
a. The name of the committee chair
b. A list of all active members
c. A brief statement listing the goals or tasks assigned to the committee.
d. Links to any available owner’s manuals or technical information for all committee equipment.
e. All rules made by the committee for committee areas or covering all committee equipment.
f. Any new rules made by the committee for specific committee equipment.
The previous post has been updated with @David suggested changes. If this is approved by the board, I suggest we determined what are Standing committees and go ahead and set those up. Ad Hoc will come as needed. Members can start forming Specalized Committees if the area is ready for their committee, if not they have until next September to spread the word and get their committee in place.
I’m still up for loosening the requirements.
I’d still like to see the minimum group be extended to 6 months minimum before being brought up to a vote. I can see groups like a public garden group struggling to keep the minimum over the winter months.
We are still a club/big amazing group of volunteers and need to keep that focus.
How can we make this FEEL more like just a name change over a complete overhaul of our groups?
We only are saying that the meeting has to be on the calendar. We leave it up to the group to report to the board who all attended and how they meet monthly. The garden committee could call in an expert on winter gardening and have them speak for their January meeting. The Chair could have a group chat on the forum for the meeting. It’s what ever works best for the committee as long as there’s a record and the membership can access the information or get involved if they so decided.
Current committees would need to be addressed if this passes
Finance/Audit , Scholarship, Fundrasing/Grants, Communications, Outreach, IT, Membership/Volunteer, and current areas of makerspace
Building Search, anything related to Booth
Special Events, River Fest, Maker Faire, Creator Showroom
Am I missing something or have something out of place?
Perhaps instead of Specialized Committee we should call them…? Maybe Working Committee or Project Committee or just Special Committee. I dunno, I can’t think of something better, and I don’t like any of them. LOL
Specialized Committee Formation, no. 4, is repeated as f.9 later in the document. Maybe just a copy-paste error.
It seems as if some of the list structure of the document is messed up, which makes it a bit unclear if the whole document (ie the sections titled Committee Leadership and Committee Responsibilities and Rules) from Specialized Committee Formation down applies only to Specialized Committees or to ALL committees because of the formatting of the document since the numbering is unclear. The sections should be numbered, and the subordinate numbering should be checked and fixed.
Specialized Committee Formation / 1 - Add something like: “The board may approve, modify and approve, or deny the request to form the committee. If approved, the board may assign physical space or other assets, equipment, and a budget to the newly formed committee as it sees fit.” Sure it’s implied this would happen, but that just leaves room to argue.
I believe current process may require some oversight / approval for area ‘access policies’ to ensure they conform to MakeICT policies / procedures / and standing rules. How does that work here? At least this was the case when we revised the wiki a year or so ago. Maybe this changed, or it died when we lost our Makerspace Director.
Special Committee Dissolution - physical assets “can be claimed” sounds problematic given how much we like to argue about things. I would suggest something like “Other committees can request the board to reassign physical assets to them.” Not sure about the 3 nerd rule in all circumstances. Perhaps there should be a value threshold that requires board approval for disposal, unless this is covered somewhere else. To be fair, I haven’t looked to see if the 3 nerd rule is officially defined.
30 days after a single meeting where less than 5 people are active isn’t a lot of time to figure out what’s up and work to recruit additional members. I think the grace period should be 60 or 90 days.
I think it needs to be clear to everyone that current areas are considered Standing Committees and removing a current area would require board action. This is at least my understanding, correct me if I’m wrong.
There probably should be a bit saying the board may change a Special Committee into a Standing Committee if it wishes.
Assuming each section in this document applies to Standing Committees, Ad Hoc Committees, and Specialized Committees, equally this does impose a new leadership and operational structure on current areas. However, that doesn’t necessarily have to be onerous, since most current area leads and assistant leads get together to offer a safety class, orientation, or whatnot a time or two a month. They also attend the monthly Area Leads meeting. Any of these times could be opportunities to quickly meet to discuss the business of the area and document it on the wiki.
I’ll have to find my word document update and I’ll set that up in google docs and post a link. It will be 10 tonight before I can get that together.
Committees Standingg Rule 10-12-19.docx (18.8 KB)
I added this to the definition of Specialized Committees.
I don’t think this effects that, it’s still in play without a director they just need to notify the board and we can review.
It should be #4 in formation
changed to 90 with the hope they use the quarterly meeting to recruit.
If this passes I will use the list above to establish current committees in a motion including current area leads as standing committees.
We’re all volunteers, the only committees that really have defined structure are Specialized Committees. The duties are basically the same as what area leads are already tasked with Area Leads Wiki. It just extends it to other committee leads which currently is not defined on the wiki.
I am sorry I will not be able to be at the board meeting tonight. I forgot about a family activity. I like the idea of empowering small groups of members to start new committees ( i like special interest groups in stead of committees less confusion). If it generates new member activity outside of the core group of admin members it will be a win.
In practice I don’t see why that the same group of people could not self coordinate and come to the board today. I don’t see why the board would turn them down. Having a defined policy would steam line things. It would be more important when removing defunct groups and would think it would reduce the amount of debate.
I look forward to reading the minutes to find out how it goes.