Mechanics Minutes Apr 2010

We had eight attendees: Brittany, Jimmy, Jordan, JP, Justin and Marshall (all keyholders) and Alvin and Elijah.

Old Business

Brittany will stay on Saturdays but will be gone for part of the summer.
Jimmy stays on Wednesdays
Jordan stays on the youth program and floats on Thursdays, but will be gone for 6 weeks after the 3rd week in May
JP stays on Tuesdays
Justin stays on the youth program and floats other shifts, but will be gone June and July
Marshall stays on Saturdays
Alvin stays on Saturdays
Elijah stays on Saturdays

Given that all of the quorum options presume at least eight staff members, it seemed wrong to vote on a quorum rule when we did not have a quorum. We therefore tabled this item for the next staff meeting.

This proposal had been discussed and modified on the mailing list and no major objections had been raised. No one at the meeting had objections, so we adopted it. John-Paul will update the staff handbook.
We discussed that it is important that mechanics know that they can use their discretion to let people in to work if they think that they can handle it, but that on balance it's better to let mechanics use their discretion to accept additional work/stress than to make them use discretion to refuse additional work/stress. Hence the policy.
Brittany asked whether a sign directing people to sign in was one of the ones on the mythical CD-ROM. Ilana (we think) has the CD-ROM; can you check if one is on there?

This was an update, not a voting item.
Jordan knows several people who are interested in setting up a craft kitchen with industrial sewing machines to offer classes on making things, similar to the Bike Kitchen model, albeit probably using more classes and fewer open hours.
His suggestion is that, contingent on such a group having a well-made plan and things being clear with the Board, we offer said group seed money, similar to how Cell Space helped support the Bike Kitchen financially when it got started.
The group is interested in getting space in the courtyard; this would not be happening inside the BK itself.
This is just at the discussion stage; a more detailed proposal is to follow.

We finished early so had time for discussion. Marshall and Brittany asked several questions to clarify the policy around staff access to parts. To summarize the discussion:
As a covering rule, BK staff members aren't volunteering for financial gain. That implies for example that we aren't supposed to build up bikes to flip.
The policy that parts don't leave the shop unless on a bike also applies to staff. In practice, many of us find parts while on shift and don't have our project at the shop, so we take parts home. This isn't a real problem.
Hoarding parts--taking things home because they're totally sweet even when you don't have a project to put them on--is a problem. Don't do it.
The case continues to be problematic. Why do we (a) let staff take parts home, (b) put any "nice" parts in the case and (c) complain about how there are never any good parts in circulation? (a) and (b) conflict with (c), and if one were to go, most staff would probably want it to be (b). This might be worth an agenda item at the next meeting.

We seem to have a scheduling problem. In January we voted to have monthly meetings. That vote was one that raised the issue of quorum et cetera--yet through inertia, we are still scheduling monthly meetings. The February meeting was low, March was good, April was small.
We have also talked about bringing back work nights. In the past, work nights happened every two months, alternating with staff meetings.
If we are going to bring back work nights (for which there was enthusiasm at the March meeting and on the mailing list), should we go back to bi-monthly meetings?
This has an immediate implication. We have talked about having a work night in May, after the Yard Sale (which, if the yard sale is now planned for the 9th, means the work night should be then too, no?). If so, we should perhaps schedule the next staff meeting for June.

Justin and Jordan will both be gone for June and much of July. If the youth program is going to continue during the summer months, we'll need volunteers pronto. All interested parties should talk to Jordan and Justin about this ASAP, since we need to sort this out before the next staff meeting.

Because we tabled this item, it should go on the agenda for the next staff meeting.

Per the discussion above, is the for-sale case worth the trouble? Do we want to keep using it, or just put parts in circulation? John-Paul will write a proposal for the next meeting on this. (He says, while typing the minutes...)

Then we ate pizza, talked about cottered cranks and went home. If I've left anything off, please let me know.