https://www.capitalareahousing.org/tool-library if you live in Lansing there is a pretty expansive tool library available
Thanks for sharing your concerns, @Andy_Buhl and @JamesFriend. I’m really glad you feel comfortable doing so. I appreciate the tag too, James.
I like the idea of publishing minutes. If I were to do this, I need to find out what to put on hold to make it happen, which may require consent from the board. I’m having trouble making the connection between a problem and the solution of publishing minutes though. Can you help me identify the problem you’re trying to solve?
From Andy, there’s a feeling that transparency is seriously lacking in most of the decisions that are made here. Can you list some of these decisions? I can use these details to find out if they are actually decisions made by the board and whether publishing minutes would be an effective solution.
From James’ comment, I think publishing minutes may be related to member confidence in the board or perhaps giving members a way to hold the board accountable for decisions being made and actions being taken. Can you clarify whether or not this is the intent and/or explain how you would use minutes if they’re published?
I am a volunteer, and heard about the price increase earlier. I was happy to hear that there’d be assistance if needed to accomodate those who might not be prepared for an increase. I was a bit worried that such a drastic price increase could hemorrage members, but given the space’s offering, I wasn’t too worried.
That being said, hearing members say they had no foreknowledge of the price increase, and seeing no email even after reminders was disapointing. Frankly, this alone seems like enough reason to ask for more transparency.
That being said, it was not my first concern. To name a few: last year, I remember a number of meetings being cancelled due to poor attendance, I remember members and volunteers not hearing any response to class proposals, I remember hearing that the board had fallen behind in filing the books. Some of these issues had easy solutions, and volunteers who were knowledgeable and available did help with them once they heard about them.
I have to second James point that when a member or volunteer voices a concern, we are trying to address a specific problem with a process. I am extremely dissapointed to see people react so defensively. We are all here because we love the space. We want it to be here in the future. We want to help if we can. We are not trying to target individuals. We do want to know that the board is making decisions for a reason. We want to know that the space will be here next year, and we want to know that it won’t fall apart. Or that someone looking past their pride and asking for help wouldn’t have been the difference between a space and no space.
Maybe these rumours are overblown. Maybe the board has good reasons for their decisions. If so, show us. Transparency would inspire confidence. Transparency would make members think that we are in it together, where right now I feel as if we are being treated as beligerent customers.
Thanks for responding to Andy and James, and for reading/hearing our concerns.
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Yes, I get that for this instance but I haven’t been a member for years. So I thought the old price was what it was for the space as it currently is. I realize that it has expanded a lot with out an increase but I wasn’t around to see that. I should add that I’m not super miffed about this one and I understand it. I’m thinking about future increases with my comment.
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@egillespie Why would posting the minutes hinder you so badly that it would require putting other work on hold? At every board meeting you are required to take minutes yes? And at every board meeting the first order of business is approval of the previous meetings minutes correct? I assume in order for them to be approved you have to present them for review (or at least that’s how it worked back when the board meetings were in person) so where is the difficulty in copy pasting the minutes of the previous meeting to the talk site immediately after they are approved when you presumably have them in front of you already? I feel like that wouldn’t hinder your workflow at all.
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Hi Alex, pasting minutes from the format that I inherited isn’t very readable and reformatting would interrupt my workflow, especially if I did it during a board meeting. I’m also not sure the Talk site is the appropriate place to put minutes because my understanding of this thread is that posting to the Talk site wasn’t sufficient transparency.
I want to make sure I understand what’s needed and why. I want to hear that from the people making the requests because they’re passionate enough about this to speak up (and they’re probably thinking about it a lot). If I guess and am wrong then I would only expect more frustration.
Is anyone taking minutes?
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I take minutes for board meetings. 
@egillespie Post the minutes. Post the minutes. Post the minutes.
If it harms your workflow to reformat them during the board meeting, then do it right after. How long does it take to reformat them? Minutes? An hour? I reformat things quite a bit. Somehow I think you can get it done in a reasonable amount of time. If this is your job on the board, and you can’t or won’t do it, then I think you may have to let someone else have your job and seat on the board.
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I don’t want to put you out. If it messes up the workflow to format it, feel free to post it to the talksite unformatted. being super readable is not important. i think that the talksite is a great place for this, especially in a dedicayed thread, but obviously an announcent about the price doubling should have been sent to each member in a more direct way
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No one even posted a notification about price change to the talk site, a board member asked after hearing a rumor.
I can’t speak for everyone but what I would like is published guidelines on what the price increase procedure will be going forward.
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Erik, when were the bylaws last change?
The bylaws i have seen say that the members need to vote to approve changes to the dues.
bylaws were perhaps changed in 2018, not sure if they were ever filed
This means there needs to be an immediate roll back until the increase is approved by the members.
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I have answered my own question. The bylaws were changed shortly before the board stopped posting minutes.
https://wiki.lansingmakersnetwork.org/meetings/201810_minutes
Can you share the current bylaws?
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I can’t speak for everyone but what I would like is published guidelines on what the price increase procedure will be going forward.
Thanks, this really helps me connect the suggestion of publishing minutes to this discussion thread. I take it sharing this separately from minutes would be helpful too.
The formatting isn’t a big deal — I’m trying to find out what problem publishing minutes attempts to solve. For example, publishing future minutes won’t address James’ request for a documented procedure about price changes that happened in the past unless those past minutes (or the price change process James mentioned) are published. Apologies for not being clear, I was trying to avoid bike-shedding. 
Yep. I’ll check with Brian to make sure what’s on the wiki is current.
I don’t think it’s bike shedding, , I think it’s a fairly simple request that helps address the issue of lack of communication. If there are any other ideas to address the lack of communication and transparency, then those could be looked at too. It just seems like this should be the easiest way for the board since the minutes are being written anyway and were being shared up until 2018.
I don’t understand why you are confused that sharing information publicly is increasing communication.
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I asked for clarification about the problem being solved when asking for minutes to be published and three people comment about formatting. That feels like bike shedding.
I’m not confused that sharing information publicly would increasing communication either. My first sentence after some thanks was that I like the idea. I do want to make sure it’s helpful info though and I explained one specific reason why. Are y’all asking for future minutes, past minutes (all vs. the past few), committee notes, or something that may not even include board responsibilities. You’re request for a pricing plan helps, but if I went with my gut and just posted next week’s minutes, you probably won’t get what you’re looking for.
Does that make sense? Maybe this isn’t bike shedding but I feel like most of this convo isn’t getting me closer to helping you all in the way you want.
@egillespie Three people commented on formatting because because you mentioned formatting. You saying that that sounds like “bikeshedding” actually sounds like obfuscation and justifying the lack of transparency that is being pointed out to you and others on the board.
Are there minutes? Good! Start publishing them. You could do the last board meetings minutes here. After that you could post January 2023 through last meeting in a separate post. After that, go back year by year. Don’t worry, we will ask for more. Asking for a list of what more before anything is started will only ensure that there is continued lack of transparency and demonstrate obfuscation.
Where should you post the minutes for sufficient transparency? Start with here. When they are reformatted to your liking, post them on the website. I think a few months back should do, for now. Asking questions which just seem to delay, is not being transparent, it seems like further obfuscation.
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