Hello! We’re hosting an in-person board meeting this Wednesday (February 28) at 7:00 pm and you’re welcome to join! We have a special portion dedicated to member-led discourse where you can chat with the broad, share ideas, raise concerns, and ask questions. Come on down!
If you’re unable to join and would like to bring anything up, drop a comment on this post and I’ll both bring it up for you and follow up with you afterwards.
Rent was paid, invoice from landlord was late. Investigate if autopay is setup correctly.
President’s report
Brian is not moving to Decatur, IL.
Need to work on driving traffic to classes during the summer months. We have some ideas on how to do this.
Investigate corporate workshops, summer season would be a good time to do it.
(Carl) Create a corporate fundraising letter and send it out to 300 in town.
Strategy Discussion
What would it take to transition leadership?
Specifically money would be an issue.
We don’t have a deep bench right now (Carl)
Find ways to improve the pipeline of volunteers to staff members. How do we mentor people? (Lex)
Setup interview time with new board members
Compare/contrast between our nonprofit and other for-profit organizations in town. Is there a way to do a hybrid organizational structure to bring in more money? (Jerry J.)
Can we charge for help on projects? Use of tools and of an expert. (Joe)
This might be difficult with our current member base, who seem to be a bit more frugal. Our classes and our membership bring in very different groups. (Brian)
Should we update our class price so that it is worth getting a membership to get a class.? (Joe)
Let’s review sponsorships again. (Lex)
We will be rebranding the family membership.
Things that we provide to the community:
Building community
Memberships
Classes
Group Classes
Friday events
What else should we be doing?
Events at schools
Outdoor events/Festivals
Should we do targeted classes right before/after/during outdoor events?
We are struggling to offer classes regularly.
Overall, we offer:
Community
Education
Access
What kinds of each of these do we want to build on?
An event that draws people regionally (Joe)
Makerfaire ?
Could we do a micro makerfare? 25 people, a dozen vendors? How big does it need to be to be good? (Carl)
What would our goals be? (Brian)
Tickets for the event (Carl)
Press factor (Carl)
Name recognition (Joe)
Patreon Page? (Joe)
Early access to classes
Open to people who are not local
Supporting Membership (Carl)
Gets you discounts for classes
Media (Joe and Carl)
Would doing this more help our cause?
One person per month, show off a project.
Volunteer-run
What kinds of content can be created by us? (Brian)
Might allow for outside sponsorship. (Brian)
The CNC demo would have been a good candidate for this. (Joe)
How do we make sure that it doesn’t cause a distraction and allows us to keep our current flow?
Could we work with the school? Comm-Arts people that might be willing to come in, volunteer, and help?
Review May schedule
Schedule the next board meeting
Next board meeting: Wednesday, May 22, 2024, at 7:00 pm
Public board meeting adjourns
MOTION: Adjourn the board meeting and move into the executive session. [Carl, Brian]
