President's Report (April) (2012)

Alex deserves much thanks for taking responsibility for the space. The floor is painted; there appear to be two functional bathrooms; there’s a great solution for the space upstairs. It all looks great, but there’s a ways to go in terms of filling it with tools and parts.
BWN will be open to the public Saturdays from 1-5 starting April 7th, with more hours to be confirmed soon. Services will initially be limited, as set-up will continue. To my knowledge, plans for publicity or a grant opening are still hazy.

The response of many previous Spoke volunteers has been unhurried, but a number of core people seem good to go. Kris plans to run this first iteration of the Spoke, starting in May, with past participants, so they can “help us get it right.”
There will be ~$3000 to spend on technology after the purchase of 3 computer workstations; the plan at this time is that we’ll buy a digital projector.

We received two private donations of $500 each, ear-marked to fund Chris’s trip to Velo-city, based on reading about it in the newsletter. This will be an opportunity for a concerted campaign to generate excitement about some of those ideas in Edmonton.

A friend tipped us off that SCiP grants ($1000 bursary to a returning student for any kind of intern-y position) may be plentiful right now. They even have sample job descriptions for some intern roles such as program assistant, social media, marketing, and IT. Folks at the program seemed to be saying that contracts need to start while students are still in courses, so that means soon. We can post multiple opportunities.
Steph has suggested that STEP and CSJ job postings should go out next week-- they’ll need to go out before we know about funding anyway.

Jim Foley says the website is in some way done, but in some way has a ways to go (like, the Wordpress templates are done but the content isn’t all moved over, or something like that), and the student’s term ends March 17. Chris to liaise with the student. (Maybe offer him SCiP $ to continue?)

I’m told the first week of public consultations went all right. The 95th Ave/189 St meeting today was unremarkable. 116 St (April 5 & 11) is expected to be the most controversial, due to the removal of illicitly lucrative parking. Consultations continue all this week. Additional consultations have been added on April 10th and 11th for 121 St/100 Ave and 116 St.

Adam Burgess, April 2, 2012.

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