CommunityMeetingMinutes20260503

See here for the full list of Community Meeting Minutes

Link to join remotely

Roll call / Attendees

Attendees: Michael D, Sanna, Jackie, Charlie, Ali, Adrian, Mike G (joined later) Apologies: Chris H

Actions from the last meeting

• Post-induction emails, blocked on Jackie and Terry meeting (Jackie)
  • ACTION: Jackie to raise an issue to cover this (if there isn't one already)
• Induction processes to be reviewed (Mike and Jackie)
  • Initial draft has been prepared, need to progress this. Been busy with Wirral MakeFest
• Run more workshops (Everyone) #1985
  • Will make this an agenda item instead of an action item
• Create events space booking document that can be used for promotion (Chris T)
  • No updates
• Procedure to induct event organisers (Jackie & Mike)
  • No updates
• Improve reporting of broken sewing machines Suggestion is to put up signage to make this clearer to people using the machines. Make sure the names of the machines are clear so we can track which are breaking. Ongoing.
  • Sanna still working on timing for from Liverpool Sewing Machines to spend a day fixing up the sewing machines but hopefully will book it soon
• People who make things at DoES [#1523] Neil has built a page on our website. (Jackie) to send out an email on our Google Group to find makers to populate this page
  • Jackie intends to do after this meeting
• Organise a Pat test event (Mike)
  • See Events & Workshop section below
• Mike still talking to people interested in taking Gerald
  • Waiting on Vicki to get availability for when the laser can be moved to Aspen Yard, they're preparing a room for it.
• Mike to email google groups to recruit new members to the maintenance team.
  • Get something out in the next few days to ask about availability
• John to check if the evening events payments are showing up in the cost of doing epic and the charts
  • John has looked and didn't see many but thinks there might be more now, will review with Jackie before next meeting
• Fibre arts team will lead on raising the issue of keeping the space tidy and using equipment appropriately, Michael Dales also happy to help. (Mike and Snoof).
  • No updates
• Chris T to create physical broken labels that can be put in place on broken equipment
  • No updates
• Jackie to talk to Scale to see what other groups/events are using their space and whether they'd be able to tell folk about it
  • Jackie checked and apparently they are telling people about it, although the person doing so may now be leaving Scale.
• Adrian to ask on the Google Group if anyone wants to design a flyer
  • Not done yet
• Sanna to suggest a destash date, maybe mid-May?
  • Not arranged a date yet, possibly summer solstice weekend (this was the note from the meeting although post-the meeting we did firm up 16th & 17th May and 20th & 21st June)

TEAM UPDATES

Laser

• Busy month

Gerald

• Still waiting for pastures new, hopefully will be gone this month.

Fiona

• Had a faulty power supply, got it working with help from Nuclear Sean, back up and working now. Small task to do to add the spotter laser. Mike has a replacement monitor but it has a faulty PSU that needs replacing

Sheila

• Faulty door switch hopefully now fixed.

Tony

• Nothing much to report.

Fibre Arts

• Haven't heard an update before the meeting.
• Sanna reports there might have been some progress with machines but we don't have details.
• Rosey donated a sewing machine which is just in the room, needs commissioning
• Bobbin Threading guide on the wiki added by Liz

3D Printing

• Only printer that's working well is the Bambu printer
• Hoping that the CReality printer might be brought back.
• Would be good if someone could help out with the other printers
• Eufy printer has arrived #2160
  • Need to work out costing, London Makerspace do £1/millilitre, seems like that should cover all the costs.
  • Have run some quite successful tests, direct to film doesn't work great. We could do with a mac or windows PC to run the software. Can only have up to four user IDs. We just have an admin account so far.
  • We are hoping to have an introductory session at Maker Day. Powei suggests inviting 10 people people, would be good to have the machine set up in time for it. Incentive on running events is that we should be getting paid for it. Mike suggests checking laptops that have been donated in case they have a windows license. Mike will investigate this week.

Somebody-should issue triage

• The issues are those labelled with the Meeting Actions label
• Updates are made on the individual issues

Agenda items meeting

Finances

• Finances are quite bad, we didn't pay all our monthly invoices.
• Sanna suggests we need to get the circular arts network funding organised so that we can be sure we've taken the money that we're owed from that project. We think Seán is aware but it might not show up in the books properly yet.
• John has updated the cost of doing epic poster although we haven't printed it out and published it but it did suggest we're making a bigger monthly loss. Also updated the income graphs.
• New permanent and flexi desk members have joined recently which should help.
• Tapestry & Fabric District social media are going to repost stuff for us. Tapestry are also looking to do a profile.
• We're wondering if people from the Northern Lights building will be interested in moving to us. Apparently some might be moving to the 1st floor of the other tapestry building but we're wondering if those people might find our equipment interesting.
  • [ACTION] Sanna investigating people from Northern Lights building and considering how we could have the most impact with this community.
• Potential for being a charity, we don't know who we would ask for advise. Landlords were happy enough with the change but were sceptical on whether we would meet the criteria. We would need to work out the best way of highlighting the benefits we're giving to a community, e.g., boost memberships, maker night.
  • Sanna might be able to ask some advice and if we can provide some questions.
  • This issue has some previous discussions https://github.com/DoESLiverpool/somebody-should/issues/321 might also be stuff in the Directors minutes.
  • [ACTION] John to prepare some charity related questions
• Lottery funding
  • John has done some investigation, doesn't seem definite that we would or would not be able to.
  • Long timelines for getting funding.

Events & Workshops

List planned/recent workshops

• Mike has put a call out for dates for PAT testing workshop, will put it out to repair cafe community too.
• Mike preparing for a Latch-Hook workshop, rug making
• Wirral Makefest - was interest in workshops but we need to check if more people filled in forms who might be interested in attending workshops
  • [ACTION] - Jackie will check where the Wirral Makefest workshop forms are, Mike will contact any other people with information about the current workshops.
• [ACTION] - John to make sure there is a calendar available that shows when the various rooms are free to run events in.
• Jackie might run a workshop but hasn't decided on what
• Sanna might run a workshop for destash with the safe space people
• Jackie has also talked to safe space people about running a Maker Night specifically aimed at their community

Other

• Talk of introducing storage to the events room as part of a hack the space day. Or would we just do it rather than trying to make an event of it? Proposing Saturday 23rd May.
• Wirral Makefest seemed very successful, lots of visitors came and also got to hear about DoES Liverpool
• Liverpool Makefest, we may have a fallback option to run an event in our building in September or October. Had a lot of difficulty finding other venues. Sanna mentions whether other local businesses would be interested in doing satellite events. Lots of discussion around dates, could be the 17th October which is the first week of half term but we're not sure if that's a good idea. Depends on what the potential venue can offer.

Date of next meeting

Sunday 7th June 2026