Meeting start: 1:21
20 members in attendance
Michael K is chairing
Grant B taking minutes
The Sewing Area
There are now:
2x sewing machines.
2x Irons
1x Steamer
General sewing supplies in Michael’s cubby, please ask before searching through his stuff.
Consumables for the sewing area are hard to sell because they are cheap per-use. If you are planning a big job or find yourself using the station often please replenish supplies.
Jenna may supply small amounts of fabric but is well within her right to charge members for material. There is no inventory of her supplies, if you would like to contact her about a project please check with the directors as they have her contact info.
The Photo Area
The photo area is complete to a usable state. Currently it is just a whitebox, Kulpa will be doing some more work on it. There are tripods and lights etc. right now but there will soon be more. There are storage units behind the drop cloth but you must walk around! Do not go under the cloth, for many reasons, just dont do it.
Be careful not to get dirt in there because it’s pure white right now.
Depending on use we may have to start booking the pod if it gets popular.
Michael is considering hosting a monthly photo night if members show an interest. Anybody interested in teaching, learning or just practicing their photography please contact Michael.
The Dirty Room
Still to complete:
The overhead lighting needs to be upgraded
2x Grinding benches
Cleaning
Rob has a buzzbox (light welding) that he has agreed to bring in once it is safe to do so. Allan M is also intending to bring in equipment when his schedule permits it. The dirty room can be used for painting in the mean time. There are four pairs of safety glasses in the dirty room (they are found under the white TV), please use them! Remember to return them under the TV. We hope to acquire welding smocks for protection before taking the weldling equipment live.
Matt F has offered to bring his CNC on the condition that the dirty room gets cleaned up.
All the steam equipment has been removed from the room and taken downstairs, thank you to everyone who helped out with this.
New Workstations
Rob brought in three all-in-one IBM machines. They are perfectly usable and will be installed for member use shortly. These machines are on loan and as such are not for parts. Do not wreck the hardware. The software is yet to be decided but they are licensed for XP pro.
Room Names
There is an open discussion about renaming the rooms at ENTS. Rob prefers the functional names (Office, Dirty Room etc) but Michael would like something more creative. If you have ideas please write them down, mail them to directors or let them be known somehow.
Server Update
Some members have asked about hosting content on ENTS’s servers, we have decided against doing this as we cannot offer a realistic SLA
Members are free to host projects or personal content on our servers but are strongly discouraged from hosting production as the servers can be turned off for many hours by an accidental breaker trip.
The equipment is being treated as a dynamic lab. Unless otherwise noted nothing will be “saved” If a member needs router changes for external access please contact the directors, they will be happy to assist you with this.
Slepp may be able to host production content for members depending on their needs. Please speak with him directly if you’d like further information.
Andrew S has brought lent his Cisco lab to ENTS for learning/certs/such. This is on loan and should be treated with respect.
The server room was cleaned up recently and is much more functional. Feel free to browse around and use anything that’s not already in use but please don’t make a mess.
Security Update
There are now IP cameras placed around ENTWS. These are recording both locally and offsite, keep in mind to act in a way that would not embarass you or the rest of the membership. These have been installed for two reasons, partly to address security concerns as well to allow members the ability to see who is at the space remotely.
Please ensure all doors shut and lock behind you. The key fob activated doors unlock for 5 seconds, please wait for them to lock before walking away. Be aware of strangers in the space and do not hesitate to call or mail a director right away if you have concerns. If you see anything requiring emergency service please contact those services and then update directors once you have placed a call with the appropriate agency.
There is no reason for the ENTS front door (upstairs) to ever be unlocked unless we are having a public meeting or event. Always lock it!
Sprojects Update
Devin is the project lead for the ENTS web pressence project but is currently quite busy. There is a base Joomla install that is available to the SProjects team to work on.
New volunteers are asked to e-mail sprojects@ents.ca
Ben is thinking about creating a Swoopo scrape project under the Sprojects helm. Please speak to him if you’re interested in helping.
Kulpa created a Flickr account for us. Members with photos they would like uploaded are asked to contact him
New Software Projects are still welcome, if you have a software project in mind please speak with Ben, he is the SProjects committee chair and will help you organize a team.
LAN Party
Mack M suggested ENTS make contact with local LAN groups. Most of them already have deals with halls but we have extended an offer to them both none the less. Ben also pointed out that our power is likely insufficient to host a full size party anyways.
If anyone’s interested in hosting a party or bringing people in to play, let us know.
Sparkfun Group Order
No members reported any success with SparkFun’s “Free Day” We have decided to place a group order to be shipped to the space. Depending on participation we may be able to get a group discount. We will at least save on shipping. There has not been an order date set at this point but if you’re interested please talk to Kulps or Dave. This will be a prepaid order, no credit will be offered.
Electronics Recycling
ENTS is now accepting E-Cycling materials that will be picked up by ERA on March 15. Please bring in your old equipment before then so it can be sorted.
Craig reccomends we scavenge printers as they often have motors which are great for robotics.
ENTS Logo Contest
Michael has placed a call to the membership to design a logo for ENTS. This would be used in our promotional material and to help solidify our identity as an organization. Rob expressed that he would rather retain the current wordmark because a logo often ties too strongly tocertain ideas an gives us less flexibility as an organization. Members are still asked to submit logos to the directors.
ENTS Cell network
Kulps brought in some cellular antennas. These are retired from Telus’ old analogue network. Some still operate in licensed space and as such cannot be used until we confirm the legalities,
These are a straight donation and if there is no way to make practical use of them members are invited to open them up and mke use of anything inside.
We currently have no radios to power them but Kulps is trying to get some for ENTS.
We really don’t know what we could do with them but they’re just neat.
They may have value on Ebay if a member would like to list them for sale. Proceeds from the sale would be expected to go to ENTS.
Member Work Areas
There are project cubbies for parts/tool storage. If you would like one feel free to claim it. There are plans to add locking doors but they won’t be ready for a couple weeks. While we are waiting for the doors to be installed please treat these as private space and not go through the.
Lightning Thoughts
The event went pretty well for a first run.The current plan calls for monthly talks staring 1 hour after the general meeting concludes.
Rob suggests that there be a vetting process to ensure presentations are topical and prepared.
Some members have asked that time be more strictly enforced next time.
HU-Con
Members are invited to the Humanities Computing Conference on Feb 26. The conference will feature HuCo grad students presenting their research. Almost half of the presentations are expected to be related to video games.
Keynote Speakers: Yin Liu and John Bath from USask.
Coin-Op Coffee Machines
Graham has two coin-operated coffee machines that available to ENTS if we can arrange to help move. The current owner wants to reclaim the space their are taking up.
Solidworks User Group
Edmonton Solidworks User Group is moving their monthly meetings to ENTS. This is a free event and anyone is welcome. Meetings happen on the 3rd Thursday of every month. There are Solidworks tutorials, reference material and verteran users.
Events:
Monday night SQL has been canceled for Feb 8th as Linda is unavailable. It will resume next week.
Edmonton Linux Users Group is hosting a KDE release party Tuesday night at 7pm
Ben has offered to host a general Electronics course pending interest.
Slepp might teach a course on using the Oscilloscope scope
Membership reminder:
Members have the option to pay $500 a year, saving $100. Members who are interested are asked to speak with a director.
All members should receive and e-mail if they are submitting payments by hand (in any form) This is treated like a receipt.
Meeting adjourned: 2:45
