Meeting 2021-01-26

Consensus Agenda

Expense

Approval for initial $400 for containers and storage supplies for Opearation Nascent Hikkoshi

Approve $250 (reimburse Clyde S.) for Mikrotik RB4011 router. To replace foo, which soon won’t have any HM members who can maintain it. Mikrotik is a step up from typical consumer routers but still easy to manage. Avoids having to install OpenWrt, which we all love but is for nerds. (Note: we may be running low on nerds)

Elections in 2021

The pandemic means that we will need to have the 2021 annual meeting on Zoom. Normal votes (with or without proxies) can be handled on Zoom, because attendance at meetings is not huge, but elections are by secret ballot, which is more difficult to handle.

Our elections are by the Scottish Single Transferable Vote system, and have historically been counted using the OpaVote (formerly OpenSTV) software, rather than by hand. OpaVote supports online elections, so I am proposing that we use OpaVote for elections.

Historically, the deadline for announcing candidacy was immediately before the election itself. While not completely impossible, allowing candidacy to be announced during the meeting immediately before the election is impractical with online elections. The Bylaws do allow the board to set a deadline that's up to 1 week before the election. This option should be used to make the election easier to run.

So far, no other votes are planned. In principle it’s possible to do any vote (secret or not) online, but for votes other than elections, such as Bylaws changes, that is less practical because proposals may be amended. So it’s hard to cast all votes in advance; either the rules would have to reject the possibility of amending proposals, or votes would be contingent on there being no amendments adopted.

Decision

The decision to be made is:

1. The board must take care that the elections that are part of the February 2021 annual meeting of members are held online, open for a period of at least 48 hours ending during the live proceedings of the meeting (so that those participating in the live proceedings would have an opportunity to vote), using OpaVote or a similar trustworthy service, and that the live proceedings of the meeting are held by videoconference.

2. The board must set a deadline of up to 1 week before the live proceedings of the meeting to announce candidacy for elections.

3. It is the sense of the members that:

(i) A 3-day deadline is sufficient, but that a “soft” deadline of 5 to 7 days may be set, so that candidates are encouraged to announce by the soft deadline, leaving some time to recruit additional candidates before the hard deadline if not enough candidacies have been announced by the soft deadline.

(ii) The online election would form a part of the annual meeting, and so all members in good standing are allowed to vote in the online election, even if they do not attend the videoconference portion of the meeting. However, any votes other than in elections (if any should arise) are done as part of the live videoconference proceedings; casting such votes would require participation in the videoconference or giving a proxy to someone who participates, subject to the limit on number of proxies each member can vote.

(iii) Conducting an online election using OpaVote or a similar service, as part of an annual meeting whose live proceedings are by videoconference, satisfies the requirements of New York law and our Certificate of Incorporation and By-laws, in light of the emergency orders made by the Governor on corporate meetings during the Covid-19 pandemic.

All items on the agenda passes

New Business

Sponsored Members Induction

For each prospective member, please confirm no later than Thursday before the meeting:

• Has the member visited 3 times at the regular Tuesday and Thursday open nights?
• Has the member received the briefing? When, and who was the briefer?
• Has the member's bio and photo been circulated on the members list? (not just blabber)

Member Reports

Board Reports

President's Report

Spoke to basement residents, looking like they are planning to depart as well. Still pursuing leads for alternate spaces between $USD 1500 to $USD 3200.

Treasurer's Report

Financial Reports have been emailed, 2500-2600 income. Both verbal offer states, no signatures.

Secretary's Report

No report

Directors-at-Large's Report

No report

Member and Project Reports

• Homework Nights: @tandem referenced,
  • logistical planning required
  • matching participants with members
  • organization really required.

• Additional space options
  • Corey Johnson?
  • ChaShaMa Spaces was already inquired.
  • NYC City Hall possibility?
  • Universities not likely to sponsor space for public spaces

Meeting Meta

• Members in Attendance: Jay, Clyde, Robby, Guan, Peter, Gadi, Kevin, Chaz, Eliza, Shway
• Visitors:
• Called to order 19:34 at by Jay
• The meeting was adjourned at 20:03 by Jay.
• Minutes taken and submitted by Jay