RRRF Meeting Minutes for Dec 19th, 2008
RRRF meeting
Date
19th December 2008, 20:30 GMT, via Skype.
Meeting called byZach Hoeken
Present
Adrian Bowyer (A)
Zach Hoeken (Z)
Vik Olliver (V)
Ed Sells (E)
Apologies
Simon McAuliffe
Agenda
1. Financials
2. Salary
3. Future
Financials
Z reported the current financial situation…
Generally: doing really well.
In 2008, 1200 orders grossed a revenue of $108,000.
Z estimated 1000+ customers/rappers out there.
The bank holds $12,500, and the RRRF currently holds significant random stock.
This is a fairly good representation of the profit made over the last 18 months.
This is approximately $3.3 billion dollars more than GM this year.
Z thought that the RRRF runs from 1st Jan.
Z has hired a professional accountant.
Zach noted a sales trend increase. This trend is boosted by milestones achieved in the project.
After the first 12 months, revenue was only $14,000.
Salary for Z
Z proposed a salary for himself to continue the administration of the RRRF…
Z wanted to declare the salary as optional, and proposed that it should be full or part time to enable the opportunity for freelance. Z suggested $24k p.a.
It was resolved that the RRRF will pay Zach Smith a salary of $3,000 per month for the year of 2009. If, in any month, Zach does other work, then he will subtract the number of days spent doing that from the number of days in the month and pay himself pro rata.
The future
Zach wanted to see the community participate more, wrt development. He proposed that people should be able to submit designs (PCB, lasercut etc) RRRF would then purchase the hardware for the good ideas. Probably no more than one solution would effected per week (rough estimate).
Suggested format might be: person suggests idea, voting (non-binding), RRRF makes part.
All agree that submissions should be free. Everything should be submitted under the GPL, as per the RepRap project. Designs should be fully documented as part of the submission.
Design rules to be discussed further over email.
AOB
V noted that things are hard to get hold of in NZ, particularly stepper motors and round steel bars.
Lasers over 1mW banned in Oz.
V wanted to make things more accessible outside the States. Suggest another RRRF office somewhere outside the US.
A suggested locations: Europe & NZ.
This implies administration manpower for each office.
Z is of the opinion that this good idea. Implementation questions of course will be raised wrt scale and capital.
V: where are the current orders coming from?
Z to find out.
Further details should be discussed through email.
Z spends 5-10 hours per week completing orders.
The RRRF doesn’t have many girls. But as V/Z points out, they’ve already got most of the self-replication equipment.
A: We’re obliged to have another meeting in April. This one doesn’t count.
E: Congratulations Zach!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!
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