Archive for category News
General Meeting Minutes
Posted by Eric Warnke in Meetings on March 7th, 2010
Call to order by Michael Kulpa at 1:02 PM.
Space Naming
- It was proposed that we rename the physical ENTS building to “neurode”.
- Eric Warnke motioned that we table the item for a future meeting with more information being sent out to members.
Elections – Current Nominations
- Norman Lorrain
- Linda Mahoney
- No objections to the nominations. Linda and Norman are now ENTS directors.
Tools Distribution
- Special tools were distributed
SProjects Update
- We decided to run with a Joomla installation for our new website. Darryl demonstrated it for us.
- The website is almost complete and we are looking for volunteers.
Arduino Group Update
- A few people will be getting together to play with the arduinos that were sent out.
Photography Group Update
- Photography groups meets every Wednesday for a weekly challenge.
- The group will start blowing up great photos they take and decorating the space with them.
Brads Course + Supplies
- Supplies were passed out.
Dirty Room
- Work tables have been shortened and clamps and bench grinders have been added.
- Allan brought in supplies for a welder.
- We need to reinforce the floor to handle the weight of the welder and potential damage it can caught. We will look for sheet metal to clad it with.
- Allan is interested in offering a physical design course to teach the basics of construction and design.
Inter Office Machine Cleanup
- The tenants below us have been kicked out. They have abandoned a ton of old photocopier suppliers.
- Most of it will be recycled this week. If you want to salvage things please do so immediately, however, you must wear a coverall suit because you will leave covered in old toner.
Bohemians
- There are new tenants below us. They are similar to ENTS but focused on arts.
- At the beginning of April they will officially move in.
- They intend to set up a cafe/arts collective/live music performances.
“Cafe”
- Our own little coffee area has an automatic coffee machine running. Everything is set to $0.50. Please use it!
Infrastructure
- Dave explains how our network infrastructure has been continually upgraded.
- There tons of files on a shared drive that members can all access.
- We should have a working internal VoIP system by the end of the week.
Space Changes
- The computers that are working and set up aren’t meant to be dismantled or hacked beyond repair.
- We might set up some LAN games on then so members can have some fun 
Group Meetups
- The presentation space is available for use at any time during the week.
- The Solid Works group meets regularly at ENTS.
Corporate Sponsorship
- To keep ourselves afloat we need to gather some corporate sponsorship.
- We are gathering volunteers to for a Corporate Sponsorship Committee.
- To join the committee please contact grant@ents.ca
Open Edmonton Update
- Devin gave us an update about his City of Edmonton involvement with the Open Data/Gov/City movement.
- The City of Edmonton will be hosting a contest called Apps for Edmonton with $50,000 in prizes.
- The SProjects team might enter the competition.
Events
- Ben Zittlau wants to host an introduction to electronics
- Allan wants to host a workshop safety course prior to any dangerous courses
- The next general meeting will occur on the second Sunday of April since it normally conflicts with Easter Sunday.
Safety
- We need to procure some better first aid kits
- We also will compile a list of first aid certified members. If you are first aid certified please contact directors@ents.ca
Meeting adjourned at 2:19 PM.
General Meeting Minutes
Posted by Eric Warnke in Meetings on February 12th, 2010
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
General Meeting Minutes
Posted by Eric Warnke in General, Meetings, Membership, News on November 29th, 2009
Meeting called to order at 1:13pm on November 29th, 2009.
Michael Kulpa leading. 17 members attending.
We apologize to any members that did not receive notice of this meeting. We are aware of some communication errors on our end and we’re working to fix them!
Keycard Access:
- We need something like 12 readers, might be financed by landlord.
- Servers are up and we can start getting fingerprints and handing out cards to members.
- More discussion needed by directors.
Book library:
- We have a book sponsorship with O’Reily.
- We can order any book from O’Reily for free including free shipping.
- Only catch is we must write a review of the book within 90 days of receiving it.
- Books must remain in our library, not for you to keep.
- Kulpa is creating the FreeLibrary system to manage our catalogue which will be tied to your card.
Presentation Centre/Room/Theatre:
- The back room is now ready for meetups and presentations and is bookable.
- We had our first paid conference, the iPhone Dev School there last week
- The room is open for any members to meet there for free as long as they aren’t making money on their event. If someone wants to host a big event or conference there that they charge for we need to take a cut.
- This is on a case by case, first-come-first-serve basis to book the room.
- We need to arrange some sort of booking system.
- The space still needs to have some electrical work done.
Dirty Room (workshop):
- We created a workshop for grinding, welding, etc.
- The space is at the back of the building with a venting hood.
- There is some old machinery to take out that we need volunteers for.
Member Social Network stuff:
- We’re thinking of having a membership book or poster or website with photos and contact info.
- We’ll look into Facebook connect to create something neat.
Network Infrastructure:
- We have 4 blades running and a VM running.
- XP box is running to control the door locks.
- Members need to give suggestions for what network infrastructure they want to see.
- Enterprise wifi is still under development.
- Going to develop a “burning centre” with a bunch of distros that any member can burn.
- Scheduling software for booking stuff is in the works.
Admin Stuff:
- Graham Batty resigned as a director last week, he nominated Michael Kulpa to replace him and the directors decided to streamline it and just make him a director.
- There were no objections to Michael’s appointment.
- Money:
- We are getting by on the skin our teeth.
- We have two offices rented and are looking to rent another one.
- Several directors have lent ENTS a lot of money (to the tune of around $5000) and that can’t get any bigger.
- We have a bit of residual income and we only need a few members to pay.
- Member haven’t been paying, and that is the directors fault, not theirs because we have not provided the proper means or encouragement to pay.
- Payments can be made via PayPal on ents.ca, or via cash or cheques to directors… or Canadian Tire money.
- We might not make it to the new year if we don’t get some stuff together soon.
- We will work on getting a better information management system because members aren’t getting emails.
- Google Wave might be used… might.
- We have tons of invites available for anyone who wants one.
Event Stuff (More detailed followup will happen):
- Anyone who signs up to teach a course or something please teach it at least twice! The more times you teach the better it will be and the better the turnout. So teach something one week and then do it the next month too!
- We are going to record all talks and host them for people to see.
- We have some Defcon videos we are going to give out as well.
- Events to come (stay tuned for dates):
- December 3rd is the “Arts Loft Christmas Party” at the space. It’s for all the tenants including ENTS.
- December 9th 6:00. Stuart Collum, director of NOVA Nait will be visiting the space. Please show up.
- Recurring: Wednesday IPTV nights. Michael Kulpa hosting.
- Recurring: Tuesdays. This week in Technology ENTS (TENTS) will be a regular meeting that we are going to have. Will have some sort of story propagating system so everyone is on the same page.
- Recurring: Saturday/Sunday afternoons. Linux study group either Tuesday or Wednesday afternoons. If you need help with Linux come by. Guided installs.
- Recurring: Some weekend. Lightning talks. 12 people, 5 minutes each.
- Recurring: Mondays. Linda Mahony Introduction to SQL Server and databases.
- Recurring: Mondays. Linda Mahony Database design and optimization.
- Recurring: Thursdays in the new year. Grant Bowering. Intro to .NET.
- Recurring: Date TBD. Craig Macarowski: Rocket talks, WX Widgets, Midi Digital Interface stuff, Astronomy.
- Recurring: Tentative dates. Web designer meetup. Potential $5 charge. More presentation based. Less sucky.
- Course instructors should be on time, some members have expressed concern with people not showing up when they said they would.
- Ben Zittlau is going to be our Programming Coordinator to work with software projects.
- Mike Brown is going to be our Make Coordinator for physical projects.
Photo “Booth”:
- Several members have expressed an interest in a photo space.
- The back of the middle space has been proposed to hang some backdrops and such for photographing.
Meeting adjourned at 2:16pm.
General Membership Meeting Minutes for Oct. 18th, 2009
Posted by Eric Warnke in General, Membership, News on October 21st, 2009
Thank you to all the members who came to the meeting yesterday! It was a great discussion and below we’ve supplied the meeting minutes that were taken.
However, first we need to address something very serious. ENTS is a member supported organization and as such we need members to pay their dues. We have had a slow take-off as the place was under renovations for a while but now we’re ready to rock. The space is fully useable and we have keys available for members to get 24/7 access. If you have not paid your November dues please do so, we need them in order to pay rent or else we risk seeing ENTS close down before it can become everything we dream it to be. We accept cash, cheques, and PayPal (see http://ents.ca).
Something really cool that you should check out is the various tutourials and talks we’re having at the space in the near future. Check out http://ev.ents.ca for a list of the upcoming nights. They are also mentioned below in the minutes.
Remember, ENTS is what you make it!
Thanks for reading, see you around!
October 18, 2009
Called to order at 2:09pm. Minutes taker was Eric Warnke.
20 people attending: Rob Davy (vice president), Stephen Olesen (president, aka slepp), Matt Mercer (director), Eric Warnke (director), Graham Batty (director), Chris Simmons (secretary/treasurer), Grant Bowering (director, events committee head), Craig MacRoski, Brent Coglin, Jenn Rain, Doran Douglas, Toby Weingardener, Ben Zitlow, Eugene Chen, Michael Brown, Linda Mahony, Devin Serink, Nathan Baxter, Matt Freisen, Brad Hanes (aka renderman).
Rob Davy leading the meeting
- Elections
- There was one nomination for the vacant director spot.
- No further nominations
- Grant Bowering was elected, all-in-favour
- Fees and dues
- We NEED to have all members pay their November dues!
- Keys are available for any members in good standing. If you pay, you have 24/7 access to the space.
- ENTS will not survive if we do not have members supporting it. You can pay by cash, cheque, or online via PayPal. Please see http://ents.ca and click Pay Dues to pay online.
- You can do a recurring subscription through PayPal so you don’t have to worry about paying each month.
- Keys, status of keycard access project
- We have 30 keys available for members in good standing.
- Keycard swipe program is a future project that will be tasked to certain people who are interested. Talk to Stephen Olesen about volunteering for this.
- Status of space renovations
- We have a metal bin coming on Tuesday. Feel free to bring scrap from home to throw out.
- We need HELP on Tuesday/Wednesday evening to move the metal from the back space in the bin.
- Once the back space has been cleared out we start using it for events and things.
- The utility room will become to “dirty room”. We need to confirm it’s suitable for air flow first.
- The back room will be used for presentations and group gatherings once the metal is out.
- Equipment policy discussion
- Grant Bowering to send out an email about how to treat other people’s stuff and policies involved.
- In short, feel free to bring your stuff to the space, we expect everyone to respect it.
- We do not want to space to become a “dump”.
- A “garage sale” on a semi-regular basis was suggested. The idea needs exploration and a dedicated organizer.
- Consumables are a big issue.
- Michael Kulpa volunteered oversee collecting money for consumable items like solder, vinyl, Coke, etc.
- If anyone wants something to be done, just do it, unless you expect to be paid back by ENTS or it fundamentally changes something (removing a wall for example). You don’t need permission to move a table or set up equipment, but the membership can’t expect the directors to do it for them.
- If you donate something to ENTS and it becomes ENTS’ property we need to insure it, and to do that we need to know it’s value (and serial numbers if it’s new).
- Planning events
- Grant spoke about various events we can host here.
- Potentially host an iPhone app development seminar that is coming to town, and many other conferences here.
- It was agreed that we should charge for space rental on a case-by-case basis. If someone is making money on their conference, then we should as well if we facilitate it.
- User groups should be encouraged to use the space.
- User groups and meetups should be free as long as what they do is in line with ENTS core values.
- A user group is encouraged to donate money or make their users members if they have funding or can afford it.
- A very big tech conference at the SHAW called the ICE Conference. We will have a table there on Nov 2-4th.
- Brad Hanes (renderman) has more info for anyone interested.
- We need volunteers for the table, but we are unsure if we get free passes.
- Events by ENTS:
- We need to have our own events hosted! Bring us your events!
- Upcoming events
- October:
- Rock Band tournament – Thursday Oct. 22nd @ 7:00pm hosted by Grant Bowering
- Introduction to Linux – Friday Oct. 23rd @ 6:30pm by Chris Simmons
- Tutourial on vinyl cutting and sign making – Monday Oct. 26th @ 6:30pm by Eric Warnke and Rob Davy
- Into VoIP – Wednesday Oct. 28th @ 6:30pm by Stephen Olesen
- Introduction to Linux – Wednesday Oct. 28rd @ 6:30pm by Chris Simmons
- Rocketry – Thursday Oct. 29th @ 6:30pm by Craig MacRocket
- November:
- General discussion on security (wireless, etc.) – Friday, Nov. 6th @ 6:30pm by Brad Hanes (Renderman).
- Basic web design and development – Saturday Nov. 7th @ 6:30pm by Chris Simmons
- Intro to .Net and the Microsoft Surface – Tuesday, Nov 2nd @ 7:00pm by Grant Bowering
- Intro to electronic microcontrollers – Friday, Nov. 20th @ 6:30pm by Michael Brown
- Bylaws
- Grant Bowering has updated the bylaws. He will finish his drafts and we will mail them to the members in the future.
- Other business
- Donations by companies should be recognized with a letter.
- Eugene (from Firenest, one of our tenants) is here everyday. He says they see a few people come in and ask general questions or are looking for services.
- Director Chris Simmons is working on a job board for the ENTS website.
- We will put a big white board in the front entrance for people to leave messages on.
- Alcohol in the space: ENTS can’t provide alcohol for members but members can bring their own alcohol. Be responsible and don’t go overboard, but drinking beer and playing Xbox is fine
Meeting closed at 3:57pm.
Latest meeting notes and news on ENTS committees
Posted by whisk in Events, General, Membership, News on September 3rd, 2009
Hello folks!
Notes from the last meeting are up (apologies for the lack of timestamps; that’s my fault):
http://wiki.ents.ca/wiki/Meeting_Notes/September_3_2009
Some highlights from this evening’s meeting:
- Chris Simmons (cshaiku@ents.ca) has been elected a director (taking Don Eglinski’s spot), and will assume Secretary/Treasurer duties as well (from Jeff O’Toole). Jeff’s director spot will be up for grabs in the near future, as he has moved out to Spruce Grove.
- Keys will be distributed to paying members very soon!
- Drywalling/mudding/painting/termination of CAT5 cabling remains to be done in the space. If you can volunteer an hour of your time, you will be rewarded with ample warm fuzzies.
- A number of committees are being formed; more on this below.
- Office space is still available at the ENTS property. $600/month, suitable for a team of three or 4 people. Utilities/Internet access included, and excellent deals on phone services available.
- ENTS GRAND OPENING: Thursday, September 17th. All members: bring yourselves and your tech toys! Expect local media presence.
- Graham and Rob have been discussing the potential for properties around the ENTS space to act as incubators for high-tech firms. This is extremely preliminary, but to join the conversation, get in touch (rob / graham at ents dot ca)
- There is discussion over arranging the back space to provide space for *both* a conference area and “dirty work” shop environment. Significant advantages exist for having in-house convertible conference space; as Rob mentioned, it would help ENTS become the focal point for the local tech community by providing a venue for tech events.
A number of committees are being established. Here’s what’s in the works:
- Events – headed by Grant Bowering (events at ents dot ca)
- Communications/Marketing – headed by Chris Simmons (communications at ents dot ca)
- Safety – headed by Mike Brown (safety at ents dot ca)
- Website – headed by Matt Mercer (web at ents dot ca)
If you have hands and a keyboard, get in touch with the folks above. We need your help!
Wall Construction and General Meeting
Posted by Slepp in Events, Membership, News, Space on July 23rd, 2009
We’re starting on the construction of the walls for the new space on Friday evening at 6pm. We already have all the timber and we’ve started rearranging the overhead power and lights to accommodate the walls. Now, we just need some help to physically build the walls. Friday will mostly be framing and cutting, Saturday at 9am we’ll start the drywalling and finishing. If you can make it Friday at 6pm and/or Saturday on or after 9am, that would be great.
Also, we’ll be having July’s monthly membership general meeting on Thursday, July 30th at 6pm at the space (hopefully we’ll have some walls up by then). We’ll be covering membership dues, the budget, space planning and projects already on the go or in planning. We should have lots of space so hopefully we can see most of the 63 members out next Thursday to join in the meeting.
With that, have a good afternoon and hope to see everyone over the weekend! (Bring some tools if you like, we don’t have enough for everyone)
The space is ours! Open House Friday
Yes, you’ve probably mostly heard by now, but we have signed the lease for the proposed space. On Tuesday morning, Rob, Eric, Graham and Stephen went to the landlord and signed the lease for the ENTS space. We now are the proud lessees of 3700 square feet of space to use as we see fit and to grow the community even further. We’d like to say the landlord has been extremely accomodating to our rapid growth and how we operate. They have been strong supporters of our group and helped us in many ways to get this space at a price that works for us. The landlord has also agreed to let us keep a large number of items, such as desks, tables, and various pieces of equipment to quickly furnish the space. If you run into Bruce at the space, be sure to say thanks!
We’re already picking up the Microsoft Surface from the City of Edmonton Thursday morning, we’re deciding the final layout plans for the primary walls, and have begun the cleaning of the space. There’s a lot to do, but so far, we have already made a lot of progress on preparing the space for general consumption. If you’re interested in helping with construction or planning, let us know. We’d be glad to have the help, member or not.
ThinkTel Communications has agreed to donate 4 phones lines for the space to work with for operations and learning of phone system operation, two parties have agreed to donate Internet connections on their way within the next week, we’re investigating leads on building materials for the space development, and we’ve raised some money from the members in the form of donations to help with all these things. We’ve also had offers of furniture, equipment and gadgets to fill the space already. To those which we’ve replied ‘not just yet’, well, now you can bring it by and we can put it somewhere.
If you’re a member, now is a great time to join in the building and development of the physical space, to shape it into ways you want to see it used. If you’re not a member, there’s no better time than now to sign up and get your ideas placed into the space development.
To introduce everyone to the space, members or the general public, we’re holding two general events. The main event will be Friday evening at 6pm at suite 201, 10575 114 Street NW. It is just north of the Safeway in Oliver Square. There are so far no set plans for what we’ll be doing Friday, but if you can make it out and take a gander at the space and talk with the members and directors, we’d be glad to have you out. On Thursday, you can come out and see the space, and again talk to directors and other members. Hopefully everyone will have a chance in the next two days to take a look. If you really want to take a look, but the evenings don’t work, let us know and we may be able to arrange a time during the day to take people through.
So, to finish off, thanks to everyone for all of their assistance, time, energy and thoughts on making ENTS grow from a small discussion into a 59 member strong group of Edmonton’s technical community. We’re glad to see everyone that has joined and like to hear all your ideas. Now that we have our physical space, we can make all those ideas become realities.
As always, you can call us at 780-701-9400 (ENTS main line), message us on Twitter @ENTS, or email us.
See you Friday or Thursday night! The public and members are all welcome.
Meeting and Wing Night Tuesday, July 7th, 7pm
Well, it’s that time again. We’re going to be hosting another general meeting and gathering at the Elephant and Castle downtown at 7pm on Tuesday, July 7th (You can find it on our http://ev.ents.ca/ calendar). Everyone’s welcome, members and non-members alike. We’ll cover all the new developments within the Society involving the City of Edmonton and our proposed space.
If you have an interest in technology and want to get together with like minded people, this is the place to be. Once again, Rob will be funding some free wings for everyone who attends.
We have the room booked from 6pm onwards, so you can show up early if you prefer or have nothing else to do. The official start will be 7pm, however. If you’ve signed up online to be an ENTS member, you can bring your $20 application fee with you.
If you want to RSVP, you can do so with the Facebook event or by letting us know on Twitter @ENTS.
Working with the City of Edmonton
This week has seen exciting developments within the Edmonton New Technology Society. After the City of Edmonton IT Open House, the CIO of the City of Edmonton, Chris Moore, invited ENTS to discuss future plans on partnering with the city to advance the city’s open initiatives and further growth within the technical community. The city has also offered to loan us some equipment and resources to provide some interesting projects right out of the gates that everyone could participate in (things including a Microsoft Surface, photos of us playing with it are on http://d.ents.ca/).
Eric, Rob, Chris and Stephen and a Microsoft Surface
Our membership count is up to 45 total members signed on with the Society. From a sustainability standpoint, we’re almost there. The City of Edmonton would like to see us attain more members to ensure our future growth and sustainability. If you haven’t joined yet, now would be a great time! If we can reach our membership target of 60 members in the next two weeks, we can quickly proceed with the lease signing, wall building and begin our partnership with the City of Edmonton. We would like to start the first events later this month or early August and the more members we have signed on, the easier it will be to accomplish our goals. We’ve already requested the lease documents from the landlord of the space we’ve been talking about for weeks.
The City of Edmonton is looking to have ENTS host some exciting events within the Edmonton technical community. More details will be forthcoming as we fill in the details with Chris. (By the way, if you want to see what’s happening with Edmonton’s IT infrastructure, follow Chris on Twitter).
Also this week, Matt talked to Twitter and obtained the username ENTS, instead of ENTSca that we had been using. We’re quite pleased with Twitter’s support on it (the previous user hadn’t used it in over two years and had 3 followers) and we’ll be moving all the communications to the new username tonight. So, please go ahead and follow ENTS on Twitter.
The road ahead is looking very interesting for the Edmonton New Technology Society, with many projects and public interest from non-profits and corporations alike. The best part is the City of Edmonton is committed to supporting us in our core goals of social collaboration and innovation within Edmonton, and we’re very glad to have the support of the city in our endeavours.
If you have any questions about the society, our goals, our projects or want to join, don’t hesitate to contact us through the forums or the website, or you can call the directors at 780-701-9400.
The First Wing Night
ENTS at Elephant and Castle
Well, we just had the first “wing night” for the Edmonton New Technology Society and it went quite well. A total of twenty-six people showed up to the event, roughly half of which were already members. By the end of the night, ENTS gained another seven members! This brings our total membership count to date up to fourty-four, which is getting close to our critical mass.
It was great to see everyone talking with each other and sharing ideas for the ENTS space and future.
Thanks to everyone for coming out to learn more about our goals and current position and for taking the time to share your ideas and thoughts with the rest of the group. There were still quite a few people talking by 10 o’clock, making this get together one of our longest yet.
At the right, you can see that we eventually figured out the Tetris-like problem of arranging tables to give all the attendees enough room to sit and be social. We later had to redo the layout into more of a U shape due to the number of people.
Interestingly enough, I was too busy doing the hosting thing to even have a single wing for the evening. Even though I didn’t have any, thanks to Rob Davy (Vice-President) and Chris Simmons (Membership Committee) for their donations to pay for the nine pounds of wings. Maybe next time I’ll eat some of them!
If you haven’t yet signed up as a member of ENTS, you can find the membership application at http://ents.ca/m. As I also mentioned at the meeting, if anyone knows of interested corporate sponsors or donors, we’d love to hear from you or your company to help fund the final startup costs of the space.
So, what did everyone think of the Elephant and Castle location and the evening in general? Let us know in the comments.
We’ll let you all know soon when and where the next event will be.
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