Oof. This is really demoralizing.

Jonathan's volunteership has been holding mine together. I can't keep organizing meetings or attending Omni meetings or helping newcomers navigate our broken new member system without someone helping me the way he was.

First, is anyone else willing to staff a table at the brewery on the 21st? Because it's no use talking about what we might show off unless someone commits to volunteering to plan and set this up now that Jonathan isn't doing it.

Second, can I get a temperature check on the overall project of making the space useful and welcoming to our community? I've been trying to make Sudo Room into a welcoming community resource since I joined over a year ago. We need more people making use of the space and hosting events and donating to avoid foreclosure at the end of the year. I thought it was a given that we need to make our neighbors aware of the space and explain how a hackerspace can empower them with tools to transform the world around us. At a moment like this I have to wonder if I've misjudged what the median attitude is. I know there are a handful of awesome passionate people, but I'm not sure if my efforts are making a meaningful difference if 18 months after I've joined the first person to try to participate in an off-site tabling event was driven off for doing so.

If anyone here thinks the stuff Jonathan or myself or similarly minded volunteers have been trying to do is worthwhile, please let me know. If so, I'll try to identify a strategy to contribute in a way that serves the collective goals. Otherwise, I'm going to step back too. 


On Fri, Sep 8, 2023 at 11:32 PM Kent Leech via sudo-discuss <sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org> wrote:
Yes, a mis-understanding. 

Though the synth would be neat, it’s pretty darned cumbersome for mobile use. I also think there might be other things we can do. Cere and I staffed a Sudo table for an Omni open house around a year ago- I brought in my Violet Wand and Cere set-up a micro camera for SMD work. 

Something with some visual appeal. Happy to bring my Violet Wand. I’m sure we can find some other neat gizmos to bring. And stickers :)

-Kent

-Kent
-----

Kent Leech Illustration
+1 (510) 504-0634
--


From: Jonathan Cadle via sudo-discuss <sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org>
Reply-To: Jonathan Cadle <jcadle@pm.me>
Date: Fri, September 8, 2023 at 7:02 PM
To: Jenny Ryan <jenny@jennyryan.net>
Cc: <sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org>
Subject: [sudo-discuss] Re: Sudo's September meeting is Wednesday, September 6th!

I think there's a misunderstanding - there was no intention of auctioning any machines, or selling them. Currently, all of the laptops in Sudoroom are sitting in storage, not being given to anyone, because people and children in need are largely unaware of the program and the space. The Temescal Brewing event was not initially organized by anyone at Sudoroom - we were invited to participate in something that the Omni was already doing, and it seemed like a good opportunity to create more local awareness of the space.

The proposed idea was to simply bring 5-10 of the older laptops that we have, both to demonstrate the ease and functionality of open source software, and to give to people who expressed an interest in learning more about open source software. This was just one idea, and we've been asking for contributions of other ideas that would be helpful to promoting Sudoroom. Instead,  the only two ideas that were presented (this one, and a demonstration of the synthesizer) were both shot down, with no alternatives suggested.

Frankly, at this point, I'm not sure I want to bother anymore. There were no proposals for any kind of tabling or community outreach to bring more people into the space, or to inform the community of the services we provide. This one was brought to us, and there have been no constructive proposals for how we can make use of this opportunity. I can accept that my ideas need improvement, but when any discussion of better ideas is either nonexistent or negative, that's just not a group I want to participate in.

------- Original Message -------
On Friday, September 8th, 2023 at 2:54 PM, Jenny Ryan via sudo-discuss <sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org> wrote:

Giving laptops to disadvantaged folks who need them is entirely the premise of the project, which we're tied to via internal ethics as well as our nonprofit fundraising for upgrading, repairing + distributing donated laptops.

They are furthermore in no state to be auctioned for fundraising at a hipster Temescal brewery - these are bare-minimum-specs machines.

Forgive me if I'm missing context here. I initiated this project in 2016, and can share the extensive documentation spreadsheet with whomever is currently working on this.

- jnny

On 9/8/23 14:45, Jake Watters via sudo-discuss wrote:
I think that giving away laptops to people who actually need them and will use them should take priority, and that's not the same thing as handing them out to people as a promotion of our space at a bar.

Also I want to remind everyone that Sudoroom got a $4000 grant for diverting waste, and in order to get the whole thing we need to submit reports indicating actions we've taken to redistribute things that would otherwise become waste.

That translates to: if we give away computers we should record each one (model number at least) and something about who we gave it to, for our report to the granting organization (Altamont Stop Waste program)

-jake

On Thu, Sep 7, 2023 at 1:42 PM Paige P via sudo-discuss <sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org> wrote:
Yea I dont think it is, but maybe it will be different from normal crowd given this is a fundraiser event. If doing a laptop giveaway, we could also make and post flyers outside the temescal area to see if we could get better rep.

But yea Im also generally interested in seeing what the event description looks like. Can someone send that through?

Paige

On Thu, Sep 7, 2023, 1:05 PM ch1rxpy3 via sudo-discuss <sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org> wrote:
Hi Andy,

I think if we want to shift the balance of membership at sudoroom we need to be very intentional about where we do outreach. Can you explain the choice of Temescal Brewery as the best place to reach out to demographics underrepresented at sudoroom and hackerspaces in general? Would you describe it as a predominantly queer, female, low-income, youth, or POC space?

Three


-------- Original Message --------
On Sep 5, 2023, 10:27 PM, Andrew R Gross via sudo-discuss < sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org> wrote:
As always, participate in person or remotely from 8 - 9 PM!

http://meet.waag.org/turtlesturtlesturtles

We will be discussing plans to do a member outreach event at Temescal Brewery on the 21st of September! We'll also discuss our complicated, onerous new member process.

If you'd like to add something to the agenda, reply below!

Cheers,

Andrew R Gross, (he/him)
412.657.5332 - shrad.org
_______________________________________________
sudo-discuss mailing list -- sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org
To unsubscribe send an email to sudo-discuss-leave@sudoroom.org
More options at https://sudoroom.org/lists/postorius/lists/sudo-discuss.sudoroom.org/
_______________________________________________
sudo-discuss mailing list -- sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org
To unsubscribe send an email to sudo-discuss-leave@sudoroom.org
More options at https://sudoroom.org/lists/postorius/lists/sudo-discuss.sudoroom.org/

_______________________________________________
sudo-discuss mailing list -- sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org
To unsubscribe send an email to sudo-discuss-leave@sudoroom.org
More options at https://sudoroom.org/lists/postorius/lists/sudo-discuss.sudoroom.org/

_______________________________________________ sudo-discuss mailing list -- sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org To unsubscribe send an email to sudo-discuss-leave@sudoroom.org More options at https://sudoroom.org/lists/postorius/lists/sudo-discuss.sudoroom.org/
_______________________________________________
sudo-discuss mailing list -- sudo-discuss@sudoroom.org
To unsubscribe send an email to sudo-discuss-leave@sudoroom.org
More options at https://sudoroom.org/lists/postorius/lists/sudo-discuss.sudoroom.org/