Talk:2018 Board Elections

Discussion from candidates

What follows is a record of statements made by each candidate, either by email or via other mediums, and then copied here.

Secretary

Sam Chen

I understand the secretary position as a record keeper and I intend to keep minutes for board meetings and member meetings as described in the Bylaws. As an organization, I believe the distribution of information can help facilitate community building. With the current structure of PS1 (or lack thereof), this might require new initiatives, such as centralizing communication channels, establishing a better chain of custody, or other processes. Or it just might take some elbow grease such as posting the same info multiple times through different channels. Whatever the solution is, I intend to work towards better distribution of information within PS1 through 2018.

Chief Technical Officer

Sky Nova

I have been a member at PS1 for over a year now and have enjoyed every moment of being a member. Being exposed to such a supportive and creative environment has improved my quality of life and showed me that with a creative vision, hard work, many failures and hours of un-clogging extruders, you can make your dreams come true.

In 2018, I would like to see PS1's network documented and overhauled. I work in IT and have experience maintaining a fairly large network, along with Windows and Linux systems. I also planned and implemented my company's current virtual infrastructure.

Several projects I have in mind are: Rebuilding our virtual infrastructure (Proxmox vs other hypervisors) Organizing and documenting our physical infrastructure Investigating new software and hardware to support our network (New servers? New switches? A world of possibility) Upgrading all Windows machines to Windows 10 (if financially feasible) Complete the Windows Deployment project so systems can be configured or recovered quickly Create a documented disaster and recovery plan Add redundancy for critical systems (DNS/DHCP/AD) Move servers to a more appropriate location (to be determined) The first thing I would like to do (and intend to work on regardless of being elected) is to fix that one issue where our internet keeps "going out". I actually did a small write-up here on what the issue probably is and I have a good idea how to fix it. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/pumping-station-one/-kD5DCYpIYk

Here's to a new year, and to a constantly improving PS1. 🍹

Director of Public Relations

Adam Stein

I came into PS1 almost two years ago with very limited maker experience, and I remain amazed and delighted at the breadth and depth of talent within the PS1 community. Although I'm still a relative novice when it comes to making stuff, I have a ton of experience helping to grow and develop organizations. It has been a pleasure to witness and be part of the progress at PS1 over the past two years, and I look forward to doing even more in 2018.

I take a pretty wide view of the ambit of "PR" to really cover anything related to partnerships, events, and communications both internal and external to PS1. PS1 hasn't done much in the way of traditional PR in the past, and I think this definition is in better keeping with the actual scope of the role.

Although I have a lot of specific initiatives that I'm excited about, it probably makes more sense to start with some overarching goals, because plans have a way of getting overtaken by events. To put it in thematic terms, I'd like to help grow a more connected community within PS1, and to strengthen links to outside people and organizations that share our goals. The organization has over 500 members now (!), and if the current trend holds we are going to be substantially larger by the end of next year. It's just plain hard to keep up with everything that is going on across an organization of this size, but there's a lot that can be done to make it easier.

We can start by beefing up our outbound communications and building internal and external mailing lists. There are a few reasons for doing this. One of the main ones is that we have no way currently of engaging with people who are interested in PS1 but not yet ready to join. (For example: hundreds of people toured PS1 as part of the Open House Chicago event. It would be nice to be able to keep in touch with those folks.) There's also quite a lot happening at PS1 that doesn't get widely publicized internally, simply because, well, it's not anyone's job to publicize it. So we should fix that.

The website got spruced up this year, and it's looking much nicer than before, but there is certainly more that can be done. We can start with some basic analytics. Who is visiting? Where do they come from? What do they look at? The website serves two very different communities: existing PS1 members and prospective PS1 members. Both are important, and it's hard to know where to focus without some data. My hunch is that we should be orienting the website more heavily toward non-members, doing more basic education on what a maker space is, and also shining a bigger spotlight on the people and projects that make PS1 unique. But that's just a hunch.

Speaking of which, I'd like to make it easier to shine a spotlight on the people and projects that make PS1 unique. It's relatively easy to create and share content these days, but it still requires some effort to write up a blog post or edit a video. I have some thoughts about ways to create more bite-sized nuggets that can be put on the website or spread around social media.

And of course I will continue to focus on the more traditional aspects of the role, such as events and media. I also have a strong interest in new member engagement, which has been an acknowledged problem area in the past. Finally, I have some passion projects that I'm hoping to make happen, such as converting the lounge into a kick-ass hangout space, that really are only tangentially related to communications.

On a final note, I should mention that I've spent my career working at and sometimes running start-ups. So I'm well acquainted with the pleasures and pains of watching a beloved organization grow. PS1 is now in the awkward adolescent phase where some of the systems and processes that served us well in the past are starting to creak, or even break. The challenge is to adapt while preserving the things that make the place special. I've seen a lot of progress over the past year, and am excited about what's coming next. 🤘

Directors-at-Large

Kathryn Born

In 2017, I participated in the bylaws committee and would like to continue contributing to that effort as a board member. I'm also working with the efforts to digitize the safety authorization as part of the insurance compliance project.

I do the Make Video Games Group on alternate Sundays with Sam. I develop using Autodesk Maya and Unity 3D. I have a VR and PC game I work on, and I want to work with a group to make a video game: Hacking Station: Two - the Video Game of Us. And maybe we could make a real component in the space. Who knows, it would be fun.

I'm an instructional desinger (Program Manager) by trade. I help surgeons teach other surgeons how to do surgery. Before that I wrote about visual art.

My primary making at PS is to make a tabletop flea circus kinetic art piece.

They say when a problem comes up you should talk to somebody on the board. If I'm elected to the board, then I hope to be of service. I hope I can be an empathatic person that helps people feel comfortable speaking up about anything. Even if it's about not knowing whether to speak up at all. Or what to do next (because one of the first things a board member should do is help someone understand the process; and/or when to broach it to the broader BOD).

Anyway, thank you for the nomination. Ed and Carl are excellent and wise people and I endorse both of them for the Director-at-Large spots as well.

Declined Nominations

The following people were nominated, but declined to run.

Secretary

• Michael Skilton - Declined