2.14.02
Roboto Monthly Meeting - Minutes for 2/13/02 Meeting

(1) Upcoming Elections
Treasurer Position - the position currently held by Mike Q. Roth will be up at the end of March. Nominations are currently being taken for this position and voting will be held towards the end of March.

Secretary/Public Relations Position - the position currently held by Ian Ryan may also become available at the end of March. Ian is contemplating stepping down from his position to focus on other areas of his life. If Ian steps down, then his position will be voted upon at the end of March as well.

Scheduling Position - the position currently held by Dave Romano will be coming available at the end of April. Dave will be stepping down from this position because he will be focusing his time and energies on other projects. We will begin taking nominations in March and voting will be held at the end of April.

(2) Promotion Goodies!
We are looking into investing into several promotional materials for Roboto, specifically travel mugs and stickers. We are looking for artists to create designs for these materials. If you are interested in creating a design for either, contact us at therobotoproject@yahoo.com.

(3) Membership Drive
A lot of people have let their memberships lapse. We feel that this is mostly because people are either unaware that their membership has expired or they simply forget to renew it when they come to an event at Roboto. We are planning on taking pro-active steps to get people to renew their memberships. One step is to have people call people whose memberships have expired and remind them that they should renew.

(4) Community Space (vacancy of the Tribal Skars storefront)
Our landlord had notified us several weeks ago about the possibility that Tribal Skars, the tattoo shop next door to Roboto, would be vacating their space. He was offering us first dibs on the space. The rent at the space is $400/month, though he said he may be willing to give us a package deal if we rent both spaces. However, it is not 100% certain at this time that Tribal Skars are leaving, so we must wait and see.

The potential reason for renting the space would be to provide a potential space for the community space projects that were going to be housed at Roboto II (Free Ride, Big Idea, community darkroom, silkscreening studio) as well as a practice space for the bands that currently practice at Roboto (as their often are scheduling conflicts between the practice times and shows) The idea is that Roboto would use its relationship with the landlord to get a decent lease on the space, but that Roboto would not be financial responsible for carrying the space. The bands that use it for a practice space would cover the majority of the rent and the community spaces would be responsible for covering the rest of the rent, utilities and other expenses of keeping the space open.

Note: much of this depends on whether the people working with any of these community/art projects are interested in using this space. Most of the people who were actively involved in the Roboto II projects have not really had a chance to discuss this option yet. However, there are several individuals who have expressed an interest in doing this, along with the bands that currently practice at Roboto.

(5) Looking for a new showspace?
Q stated the feelings of the Board of Directors. It was felt that we are not currently actively looking for a new space and we are happy with remaining at our current location. However, if there are members interesting in pursuing a larger showspace, we encourage them to do so. If somebody finds a viable option, we will look into it and have our membership vote on whether or not to pursue the space.

(6) The Big Idea's relationship with Roboto
While at Roboto II, there was no problem with The Big Idea, but since moving back to our original location, we are now worried about it taking up too much room. Potentially if we open the community space discussed above, then The Big Idea could move there. If that plan falls through, then we may look into options to how we can best deal with The Big Idea. We either need to limit the space that it can use, kick it out, or look into other options.

(7) Roboto Office Space in the basement
We are planning on building a small office space in the basement for Roboto. Currently much of our membership records and financially records are kinda spread out and disorganized. Creating this office space is an attempt to get our information into order. We are looking for both a used computer and filing cabinet to be donated to help us with this. Let us know if you can help.

(8) Roboto Scholarship
Roboto is slowly building up a surplus of funds and we are beginning to look into ways that we can use those funds to support our communities. We are looking into creating a "scholarship" of sorts where on a regular basis (maybe every 6 months or a year), we would give out money to a group or groups in need. Members would nominate groups that they think are deserving and the recipient of the "scholarship" would be determined by a membership vote. The recipient could be either a punk/activist group or a regular community group.

(9) Visitors from "Ground Zero"
Pat and Darcy, members of Ground Zero, came and talked about their organization. Ground Zero is basically a Pittsburgh arts organization that organizes events and also assists other organizations find spaces, get money, etc. They are responsible for the local Flux events, The Ultraviolet Loop, and Bingo-A-Go-Go. For more information on Ground Zero, visit www.gzpgh.com.