Basement Organizing

A place to document the process of collective decision making and organization in the Basement.

Meetings

Meetings

Meeting 0x01

2022-09-19 7:05pm

agenda

Checkin Jonathan, Will, Devin, Steffi she/they, Julien, Josh, Ioan, Myf
Regrets Brandon

Add whatever you want here

goals

jonathan - make home goods, get resin out of the bedroom

myf - facilitate people to do cool things. personally more software kind of person. want to use the cnc machine at some point. nycmesh, self-host more services in the space.

will — when i started here, nothing was in the back of the space, was going unused. summer spent building this cnc machine, get a router and special parts on it. will be able to host different print heads, including pnuematic extruder. large icosahedron building for leds lights and damp plants. Started documenting on https://www.are.na/will-lockett/denial-utilities . Want to explore think-tank/studio ideas, maybe more teaching or studio or factory. Mitch talks about 'neighborhood utilities', but also want to provide context on *why* we want to provide tooling.

myf - what are our differences? as a new hackerspace, we are different because we are part of a community/political space as well

steffi - neighborhood aspect is interesting. workshops in montreal that helped reduce fear of opening computers, fixing them

meetings schedule

maybe later, also we should have food at meetings

our relationship with other projects at woodbine?

concept of woodbine - experimental hub for autonomy. How do we facilitate and experiment with autonomy.


* the gym - self-hosted workout tracking
* food pantry - community food pantry software
* wednesday movie night
* karaoke at gotscheer on saturday
* sunday yoga
* sunday dinner
* monday yoga
* drawing classes
* sewing class
* clothing swaps / free store
* birthday party host (occaisionaly)
* theory talks (politics)
* offer lodgings to comrades
* soccer team

---

**How can we build a relationship with the rest of woodbine?**

* writing signs to invite commentary
* making a diorama / dollhouse of the main floor, and giving people agency to "what do you want upstairs to look like?" 
    * fun workshop?
* hacker parties! leds, decorations, "warp core" elevator
* people making art down here, and spread it upstairs (maybe in phone booths)
* we can present (nycmesh workshop, digital autonomy)
    * cryptoparty?
* we can run workshops
* cook dinner
* faciliate scheduling for gym / soccer league
    *  @Ioan + @myf
* helping groups form: organized channels of communication—group chats. 

**infra walkthrough?**

* set up autonomous computational infastructure
https://hackerspace.zone/Main_Page#
    * check our homepage for links to what we host
    * goal to be on our own hardware in the space
    * goal to be on 'resource constrained' device

**chat chat**
  * matrix/discord exist
  * irc/scuttlebutt not yet etc...
  * i dont want to make an account with our homeserver, just link to the channel
  * i do not want to be forced to use someone elses platform
  * bridges to cli clients, print out the entire emoji reactions as text

**name of the space / domain name**
* woodhack
* thought it was hackbine
* woodbine hackerspace
* subdomain?
    *  https://basement.woodbine.nyc
        * -1.
        * lower level.
        * underground.
        * berlin.
        * purgatory.
        * imaginary.
        * enclave.
        * hackerspace.
        * create.
        * lab.
    *  https://hatch.woodbine.nyc
        *  organic, to create something
* if we dont predefine what it is, people will 
* we are not a shed or garage 
* in ssb, you name yourself, but also other people can name you. what is displayed is configurable

* physical infrastructure
    * networking @myf 
        * woodbine nycmesh is pi-powered!
            * 7 device limit currently, needs work
            * jeff geerling?
            * have experimented with it as main network uplink
    * 3d printing hello!
    * laser cutting
    * cnc machining
    * electronic bay
    * ventilation
    * humidity
    * air quality
        * box fan + hepa? - @jedahan (https://cleanaircrew.org/box-fan-filters/)
        * get/build a filter for that
* monitoring in the space
    * project boxes vs up-for-grabs boxes
* workshops
    * 3d printing workshop
    * intro to arduino
    * intro to raspberry pi

---

* money ideas
    * for ventilation, supplies, etc
    * TABLE for next meeting
    * membership?
    * woodbine has been a free space for everything
        * survival on grants for now
* inventory management system
    * TABLE

---

What are the basement space expectations?

Woodworking shop? Not sure, lets invite the people who use it to join us. Jessie and others seem happy we are using the woodworking space. 

Painting Studio? Mitch promised Vanessa would 'deal with it' by finding other storage space

Elevator Space? Food pantry storage and receiving. Needs to stay clear. Maybe we can help organize by building storage and bins?

Between elevator + woodworking? can be moved

Maybe can move toxic stuff to the front since there are vent shafts. Also sink might make sense in the front by the boiler.

---

**what are you working on?**

jonathan - 3d printers in the space. stopped being class coordinator at resistor.

will - building trusses for the icosahedrons, want to model ways of organizing/thinking in the physical world. building cnc machine. interested in playing team-building board games. probably need more fun names than 'the transactional awareness game'

devon - toy with electronics sometimes. want more LEDs in here.

steffi - IT security hacks group at another space, teaching ourselves cryptography with [cryptopals.com](cryptopals.com)

julien - interested in fabric, and learn how to sew

josh - perpetually long list of projects, heading back to SF in a month. Want to complete an explorable explainer on a-weighting / acoustics in the ear canal (inspired by brett victor interactivity papers).

ioan - want to 3d print a part for my bike. want to build a pair of speakers. up for anything that helps the space

myf - ive been working! heard about this concept about 'digital twin' - mapping every object in the physical world into a digital space, watch them play out / predict behavoir. what is the implication of that, what are the discrepencies and what cannot be captured? to know the weaknesses of that system

8:38

Meetings

2025 04 10

Meeting '102' - April 10, 2025

Meeting in main room @ 7pm on thursday

Agenda

*** 

Announcements (No discussion. Post-meeting breakout possible)

Attendees

Local - jonah , daniel

Remote - n/a

Minutes

Bookkeeping: None of the attendees at this week's meeting make regular financial contributions to woodbine. Online Jonah requested financial contribution details from members, but nobody responded. No other basement "members" have notified us about their contributions.

Consensus model (WIP draft)

Abatement / spring cleaning 

    LP has:      - A grey bin on the wire shelves     - A weird vintage saw     - A vacuum chamber     - A vacuum pump

Meetings

2022 09 19

2022-09-19 7:05pm

agenda

Checkin Jonathan, Will, Devin, Steffi she/they, Julien, Josh, Ioan, Myf
Regrets Brandon

Add whatever you want here

goals

jonathan - make home goods, get resin out of the bedroom

myf - facilitate people to do cool things. personally more software kind of person. want to use the cnc machine at some point. nycmesh, self-host more services in the space.

will — when i started here, nothing was in the back of the space, was going unused. summer spent building this cnc machine, get a router and special parts on it. will be able to host different print heads, including pnuematic extruder. large icosahedron building for leds lights and damp plants. Started documenting on https://www.are.na/will-lockett/denial-utilities . Want to explore think-tank/studio ideas, maybe more teaching or studio or factory. Mitch talks about 'neighborhood utilities', but also want to provide context on *why* we want to provide tooling.

myf - what are our differences? as a new hackerspace, we are different because we are part of a community/political space as well

steffi - neighborhood aspect is interesting. workshops in montreal that helped reduce fear of opening computers, fixing them

meetings schedule

maybe later, also we should have food at meetings

our relationship with other projects at woodbine?

concept of woodbine - experimental hub for autonomy. How do we facilitate and experiment with autonomy.


* the gym - self-hosted workout tracking
* food pantry - community food pantry software
* wednesday movie night
* karaoke at gotscheer on saturday
* sunday yoga
* sunday dinner
* monday yoga
* drawing classes
* sewing class
* clothing swaps / free store
* birthday party host (occaisionaly)
* theory talks (politics)
* offer lodgings to comrades
* soccer team

---

**How can we build a relationship with the rest of woodbine?**

* writing signs to invite commentary
* making a diorama / dollhouse of the main floor, and giving people agency to "what do you want upstairs to look like?" 
    * fun workshop?
* hacker parties! leds, decorations, "warp core" elevator
* people making art down here, and spread it upstairs (maybe in phone booths)
* we can present (nycmesh workshop, digital autonomy)
    * cryptoparty?
* we can run workshops
* cook dinner
* faciliate scheduling for gym / soccer league
    *  @Ioan + @myf
* helping groups form: organized channels of communication—group chats. 

**infra walkthrough?**

* set up autonomous computational infastructure
https://hackerspace.zone/Main_Page#
    * check our homepage for links to what we host
    * goal to be on our own hardware in the space
    * goal to be on 'resource constrained' device

**chat chat**
  * matrix/discord exist
  * irc/scuttlebutt not yet etc...
  * i dont want to make an account with our homeserver, just link to the channel
  * i do not want to be forced to use someone elses platform
  * bridges to cli clients, print out the entire emoji reactions as text

**name of the space / domain name**
* woodhack
* thought it was hackbine
* woodbine hackerspace
* subdomain?
    *  https://basement.woodbine.nyc
        * -1.
        * lower level.
        * underground.
        * berlin.
        * purgatory.
        * imaginary.
        * enclave.
        * hackerspace.
        * create.
        * lab.
    *  https://hatch.woodbine.nyc
        *  organic, to create something
* if we dont predefine what it is, people will 
* we are not a shed or garage 
* in ssb, you name yourself, but also other people can name you. what is displayed is configurable

* physical infrastructure
    * networking @myf 
        * woodbine nycmesh is pi-powered!
            * 7 device limit currently, needs work
            * jeff geerling?
            * have experimented with it as main network uplink
    * 3d printing hello!
    * laser cutting
    * cnc machining
    * electronic bay
    * ventilation
    * humidity
    * air quality
        * box fan + hepa? - @jedahan (https://cleanaircrew.org/box-fan-filters/)
        * get/build a filter for that
* monitoring in the space
    * project boxes vs up-for-grabs boxes
* workshops
    * 3d printing workshop
    * intro to arduino
    * intro to raspberry pi

---

* money ideas
    * for ventilation, supplies, etc
    * TABLE for next meeting
    * membership?
    * woodbine has been a free space for everything
        * survival on grants for now
* inventory management system
    * TABLE

---

What are the basement space expectations?

Woodworking shop? Not sure, lets invite the people who use it to join us. Jessie and others seem happy we are using the woodworking space. 

Painting Studio? Mitch promised Vanessa would 'deal with it' by finding other storage space

Elevator Space? Food pantry storage and receiving. Needs to stay clear. Maybe we can help organize by building storage and bins?

Between elevator + woodworking? can be moved

Maybe can move toxic stuff to the front since there are vent shafts. Also sink might make sense in the front by the boiler.

---

**what are you working on?**

jonathan - 3d printers in the space. stopped being class coordinator at resistor.

will - building trusses for the icosahedrons, want to model ways of organizing/thinking in the physical world. building cnc machine. interested in playing team-building board games. probably need more fun names than 'the transactional awareness game'

devon - toy with electronics sometimes. want more LEDs in here.

steffi - IT security hacks group at another space, teaching ourselves cryptography with [cryptopals.com](cryptopals.com)

julien - interested in fabric, and learn how to sew

josh - perpetually long list of projects, heading back to SF in a month. Want to complete an explorable explainer on a-weighting / acoustics in the ear canal (inspired by brett victor interactivity papers).

ioan - want to 3d print a part for my bike. want to build a pair of speakers. up for anything that helps the space

myf - ive been working! heard about this concept about 'digital twin' - mapping every object in the physical world into a digital space, watch them play out / predict behavoir. what is the implication of that, what are the discrepencies and what cannot be captured? to know the weaknesses of that system

8:38

Meetings

2025 04 24

In attendance: daniel, omni, p, jimmy, micro

Nobody took running notes but here is the outcome of the discussion.

There is a lot of debate around how hazardous asbestos situation in the basement actually is, but regardless of the actual risk it poses, the situation is widely known, newcomers to the space don't feel safe being around it, and it has effectively closed the hacker space since March.

At least one of the directors communicated that they'd prefer we don't raise funds for this particular project but instead focus on getting more basement folks to contribute monthly revenue through recurring donations, and they will fund and handle the abatement. Furthermore, we can kill two birds with one stone by using this as an opportunity to de-clutter the space. Our attitude is that it's been over 2 months and a decision has still not been made about what to do, coupling the abatement with other efforts is more likely to ensure it never gets done, and we are willing to fund and organize the abatement ourselves.

Action items:

Meetings

2025 07 16

next action items

Meetings

2025 07 23

meeting notes 2025 07 23

attendance: cal, llama, daniel, p, jimmy

agenda
1. charter: https://pad.riseup.net/p/73OEl3gXjkRy5qQU-z_P
2. asbestos
3. hope

Charter
https://pad.riseup.net/p/73OEl3gXjkRy5qQU-z_P

last week we took stock of what in particular people were intereted in in being involved with the space. the main themes were:
    - a communally maintained workshop
    - technical skillshare community
    - infra improvements to space
    
cal: we need to stop bringing broken stuff into the shape
jimmy: wants to see more involvement/initiative/collective care of the space. skillshares a good start

gym's charter includes a list of required recurring space-reproducing labor in order to be a member. what would that look like for us? possibilities:
    - rotating hosting of weekly(?) craft sessions / pre-post meeting times
    - cleaning?
    - specific tool maintenance tasks?
    
fundraising?

branding ourselves as the technical researchers / tinkerers of the space that people can go to if they want to tinker. "applications of autonomy".

"A technical skillshare group teaching practical skills for autonomy-- one of these practices is maintaining a shared workspace"-- but also we're trying to build self-sustaining practices and infrastructure whether or not it's DIY or self-hosted

cal: should we be fixing people's phones and desk lamps and stuff?
jimmy: yeah sure sometimes. we should help people fix things themselves rather than fixing it for them

llama: do we want people who have solid specific goals to use our gear in an extractive way? maybe we can cater to them in a way different from "membership"?

p: i feel a desire to make the group / space more invitational/accessible to those who are turned off by a status quo hackerspace without political committments

jimmy: we have a lot of software skills in the group. focusing on that for initial skillshares could be an easy win. 

jimmy: this group can provide a supporting role for the tech admin committee. 

there are liability concerns around using some of the gear
we need better airflow
cal: maybe the fact that the basement is so inaccessible has protected us from theft
the fire hazard of the basement. having a one-way lock that only opens from the inside but stays locked from the outside

we've never really though much about security

add something in the charter that specifies what things are off limits for "non-members"

something in the direction of making people sign a waiver before they go downstairs?

p: microcredentialing on particular pieces of gear

TODO: work out details around liability

add something about flooding? is dealing with backflow still an issue?

In what ways could your group potentially come into conflict with other groups or others who use the space, and how can you mitigate this potential conflict?]

daniel: we want clarity around who is part of this working group vs separate ones (like screenprinting). jimmy: we need clear boundaries about who is responsible for managing stuff storage in basement.
Meetings

SPOKES MEETING 2025-08-09

Representatives: Micro (speaker); daniel (notes)

Amendment: "All working groups should commit to working with the Fundraising committee to find ongoing ways for our group to support Ridgewood Commons"

"Relational Skills" prospective committee withdrew their charter because they decided that although the group of people who were involved in this group will continue to meet, they decided that they are, at this time, not sure if a working group is the right "form" for this group to take. This action raises questions about how a group of people who aren't incorporated as a working group/admin committee may be formally recognized in this space.

Spokes council Planning Group (SPG) amendment: change to allow only Spokes Council delegates to be involved .... ?

There was some discussion of difficulty/lack of clarity about distinguishing Tech Admin vs Technical Collective. Also difficulty distinguishing basement facilities management vs technical collective. Not yet resolved. 

A point was made about writing the charter in such a way as to use open-ended, generic phrasing over specific phrasing. For example, the charter should declare: "we will work with the Fundraising Committee to determine a monthly contribution," rather than writing, "we will make a monthly contribution of $200/month." The former is flexible enough to allow for changes in monthly contribution without going through the lengthy process of re-ratifying the charter.

Comms Admin Committee does not yet know what sort of process will be put in place to allow other people to make social media posts.

Spread the word: 
- on this Sunday, 2:30-5pm, there will be cats in the space
- September 4, Narcan training, 6:30pm-7:30pm
- Opening party fundraiser: September 20th 5pm-11pm (with tabling recruitment from each group, + fundraising raffle, + talent show + food/beverage)
- food pantry wants support with driving/sorting --- anyone have a car? or late night helpers on sunday/?
- Wed 27th August, 6:30, queer line dancing + brokeback mountain screening
- this Tuesday, Mark doing electrical work in the space
- anyone want to be a yoga instructor?
- Aug 15th, there's a whole space rental for a film shoot. They're looking for extras!
- Aug 31st til 3pm, whole space rental
- in 6 months, there will be an opportunity to review and revise the "two-wheel" spokes council model
- every saturday, noonish, there will be an opportunity to table when CSA pickup occurs
- commons.nyc

"ask it later" counter: 3+
"is it a direct response" counter: 3+

Meetings

SPOKES MEETING 2025-09-11

Representatives: Jonah (speaker); daniel (notes); micro ("advisor")

Jonah questioned if individual working groups should establish an internal quorum so that their voting delegate can faithfully speak and represent the members of the working group. At this time, spokecouncil has not established any quorum-like mechanism to address this concern, but it could be useful in the future. For now, the delegates will cast votes reflecting the group to the best of their knowledge, and if specific group members are upset with the results then those people can get more involved and bring forward changes to address their concerns at a future Spokes meeting.

After last month's Spokes meeting, the council received feedback that they should allow for more dialogue and discussion among attendees. In response, they have begun considering establishing a parallel meeting format in the style of a community forum.

Finance + fundraising updates:

Facilities

There are now three separate digital forms that anybody can use to book the space for an event. Rentals are a major way to bring in $$$ to RC!

Tech&Comms updates:

On Sept. 20th there will be an opening party 5pm-11pm

Proposals

  1. Bathroom cleaning - there are amendments proposed!
  2. Community announcements chat - approved!
  3. Coordination chat - this has been withdrawn, as issues were raised and Ash (who wrote the proposal) was not in attendance to respond. ie. Does each working group need to have (at least) one member?
  4. Physical calendar - approved!
  5. Sunday trash - approved!
  6. stopping rags in sink - its an announcement/demand. its approved, just barely. andrew is forcing the issue as a tactic for establishing a better channel for these types of announcements.
    • according to some past document, this type of announcement is a concrete proposal to the culture of our community 

WG announcements:

If we want to put any proposals forward next Spokes meeting, we should write them to be submitted within 2 weeks from now. 

Meetings

2025 11 06

2025 11 06 Full Basement Meeting

attendance: daniel, micro, llama, sy, pcm

Agenda

Personal / Action Item Checkins (10 min)

Disaster Preparedness (10 min)

Object Stewardship & Lifetimes (10 min)

Outreach (10 min)

Storage / Layout (15 min)

Action Item Roundup (5 min)

Notes

vibe check

paul: too much on my plate, need to delegate stuff

myf: feeling much better than last year. alive again, but a newborn baby, a human again. happy to help w/ tech micro: feels like everyone else is doing stuff but is excluded

sy: had a heated discussion w/ jimmy where he felt like he was being picked on for his stuff/mess given that it's a more general problem with everyone

micro: hopefully will be addressed by object stewardship stuff

woodshop updates:

sy & jessie bought tarps, will hang them next week. just tarps & grip clips, everything modular, moveable, temporary. tarp will extend to next to the picnic table. the tarps will box off the woodshop from the 3d printer / ooza area and extend all the way to the wall next to the picnic table, with a zip door.

disaster preparedness

flood prevention

updates on what happened during flooding

sy: - in the areas where the water is pooling, slant the floor towards the drains - the collapsing ceiling is threatening water and electical damage. we should remove the ceiling and either leave it exposed + keep it clean or re-add sheet rock.

micro: leaving it open is gonna contribute to more dust in the space

sy: polyurethane or wood-filler could be used to seal in-between the floorboards. leaving the sheetrock off will lessen the flood damage

ACTION ITEM: plan a thursday to replace the sheetrock to save us from an electrocution flood

llama: there is no asbestos in the ceiling

sy: we should still wear masks & put a hepa filter on the shopvac

backflow prevention

llama: marc will give us a quote on installing a backflow prevention

pcm: dino also says we should snake the drain

moving the soldering station

if we repair the ceiling the flood pattern will change so maybe we shouldn't decide on that yet

micro: until the area is clear just move electornics up front

micro: why are we hanging out at the work tables instead of up front

TABLED: think about why our activity is centered around the current work tables and consider moving up to the picnic tables

Object Stewardship & Lifetimes (10 min)

micro: i label things with blue tape but not everything. proposal: label stuff with blue tape with a question mark to prompt the owner or whoever knows whos thing it is to label it.

sy: good idea but let's also add a date (if you see a question mark with a date months in the past then curb it)

PROPOSAL: label objects with blue tape as above

bi-weekly cleaning party

should tackle physically cleaning the space + also trying to figure what shit is abandoned or whatever

PROPOSAL: the monthly full-basement meetings should be followed immediately by the group cleaning / wtf-is-this session

PROPOSAL / ANNOUNCEMENT: thursday nov 13 11am ceiling repair session (until the spokescouncil meeting)

TABLED: where should we put the announcement about this & how should we phrase it

more rigid process for bringing stuff into space

micro: addressing outake (with the blue tape solution) solves the intake problem because it creates a p

marc shows up with an update!

backflow update

marc: heard back from the plumber about the backflow. the valve needs be installed on the city-side of the ptrap and requires a bunch of work

outreach

naming the space

sy: "ridgewood commons workshop"

daniel: "what about the writing workshop"

llama: something that invokes autonomy and exploration. "hackerspace" captures this

micro: nobody actually puts "hackerspace" in the name of their hackerspace

sy: something that indicates that it's a physical workspace

PROPOSAL: "ridgewood commons hackshop"

sy: "ridgewood commons autonomous hackshop" could be shortened to AHACK

micro & llama: [feelings about hacker school / recurse center]

sy: "hackshop" makes it clearer that it's not just tech nerd shit and there's an actual workspace here

pcm: it sounds more working class-- "bring it to the fuckin' hackshop they'll fix it up for ya"

sy: "it's important to me that there isn't a divide between working class and tech people in a space like this"

sewing collective

we'd love to have them and micro want to by faraday bags from them

Meetings

2025 12 04

2025 Dec 04 Meeting Notes

finances

relationship w/ facilities & dino

potential termite damage on the right side of the roof

backflow update

lighting for the basement

Meetings

2026-03-05-Basement-Logistics

Wood storage

M belongings

+ Big shelving for hallway

 Scheduling talk

Availability of roasting & screenprinting

Dust wall check in 

Not addressed / Lightly addressed

Express the needs we have

Are there actually 4 groups in the basement coordinating within their groups or just a bunch of individuals

Action items

Agreements

We cannot allow the other side of basement to be "repaired" in the same manner.

    -
Meetings

2026.05.28 - ppp

May 28th, 2026 9:00pm

Agenda

Review of history of meeting cadence and scheduled space use

Onboarding + (welcoming)

Shelving build out & shelving sections (@L)

Cohere around plans for building out "hallway* storage.

Assess use and arrangement of current sections: hack/build, setup/cleanup, electronics, hand tools, textiles, doom/to file, print

Backflow (@L)

See wiki

Points of unity / CoC (@L)

Agree on and record some basic points of shared space use. (including storage, cleaning up, organization, "resetting" the space)

Membership (@m) - clarity around self-identified members, for practical (cleaning rotation, yearbook) and philosophical (relationship with the space and goals) reasons

Ventilation Proposals (@m) - writing a proposal for ventilation work, goal to support existing + future activities

Resin Printing (@m) - layout what work is needed and if we should support resin printing in the space

Purchasing Priorities (@m) - ridgewood commons has a budget, let's figure out what needs and wants to address

Last minute additions

Dust Wall improvement (@L)

Replace black tool cabinet (@L)

Hackshop name consent (@L)

Blog (General or Hackshop?) (@L)

Hackshop tool marking (@L)

Notes

- small history of meetings 

- doing a regular monthly meeting for hackers could be on a tuesday before circuit hack 
^set up circuit hack on red cal! 

- outreach for new ppl - what is it like for people to come down, what is it like for people to enter the space? what can I touch? are we welcoming to ppl (physically ie wood, precarious materials, squeezing around stuff, etc.) 
    - onboarding
    - having the space be welcoming
    - want it to feel like a nice space for new ppl 

- what do 'members' do 
    - self identified members 
    - how do we know what needs to be done 
    - if we want individual responsibility how does it work to ask for it 
    - what does it look like between the hackers and the greater space 

- ^ we've had a lot of conflict about this

- woodshop space usage 
    - maybe strictly defining a space for woodshop to stay inside (tape off spaces?) 

- consensus! consensus! consensus! (we're thinking about it)

- looking at more woodshop waivers 

- TODO lists (have todo lists) 
- QR code for tasks list 

To add to TODO:
    - checklist for circuit hacking 

LP proposes and is moving forward with using money to buy shelves for storage - should cost about $150 - agrees to documenet the plan and the spending

backflow/flooding

    - we might need a backflow prevention system 
    - we need to contact an expert

- start trial consensus decision making NOW (amongst the hackers)

 

Meetings

2026 06 15 Basement Logistics

TEMPORARY SHARED DOC TO BE COPIED TO WIKI HERE https://wiki.ridgewoodcommons.nyc/books/basement-organizing-documentation

Basement Meeting 2026 Mon June 15 8:30pm

Agenda

Notes

Tool labels

Tool labels would keep S & J's tools from getting lost / mixed in with other stuff

S: we should have some more signage

3 colors for tools

Visioning for Spatial Use

C: I've been coming here for a year and a half and it's unclear to me what can happen here or when. S: I was taken aback that you came here and didn't ask me about using the space C: I realized I though the quiet hours were the entire Tuesday and not just after 8pm

J: LP had mentioned implementing some kind of time booking system

M: the gym does something similar but doesn't feel restrictive

S: the time slot booking thing this could work if there was a finite number of quiet hours

L: If I had a magic wand, would implement a system where each entity in the basement gets one unit of booking time

J: I don't pay but

$280 for woodshop $100 for coffee roasting

C: can we scheduled use of the space ahead of time

S: yeah just ask ahead of time

J: there's asymmetric scheduling, where the people doing loud sounds can do stuff whenever they want S: we just talk about conflicts when they arise L: the quiet hours sign should stay small but be posted more prominently C: what I like about the upstairs is how collaborative and possible it is to propose anything B/JJ: I thought the expectation that was set if anyone wants to book for times outside of quiet hours they just need to ask in advance M: the current way to enter the space is unintelligible and a barrier for entry. there should be clear onboarding processes S: I agree. I don't think there should be a way for random strangers to book time in the space. I think people should come spend time and see if they can gel etc, there is more expensive, sensitive, dangerous stuff. Who pays for shit if something gets broken. J: There's a tension between private tools etc in the space vs this being an open space that is open to community buy-in. L: frustrated that people haven't noticed the info sheet. we made agreements that weren't kept because people didn't notice it somehow. we should pin messages. Participation here is based on social capital. S: want to note the difference between necessity vs convenience. You can move circuit hacking upstairs sometimes. I cannot physically do this work anywhere in the space. Is the dust barrier good enough? Do we want to start doing some kind of open shop day? B: it would be good to have a doc that lays out how a new person's first time tour should look P: programming refuses to engage with the logistics chat anymore for scheduling. people who are in community and

Renters

J: S, your rental deal was with Matt right? S: I met LP, LP said talk to J, I brought some stuff in. Matt changed the door code and shook me down for money. When the split happened Dora talked to me about the new deal. J: to the point of private vs public, if a 3d printer is broken, that is a collective loss. if I had magic wand and started from scratch, any tools that were brought in here would be collective and liable to damage etc. if people stopped paying rent that would mean a more horizontal way of relating to the space. M: I am removing the Resin tent because it is not longer serving the community. i've brought in a lot of stuff that L brought in and don't want to do that anymore. L: Uncomfortable with lack of clarity around public vs private tools & stuff in the space. I wished for a layout where there were two private cabinets one each for Jessie and Sy. I am constantly cleaning & removing stuff and it's leading to a build-up of resentment. S: I was fine with communal use of my tools until Matt made me start paying. My shit got moved around a lot. It's only recently that I actually have dedicated space. If we make stuff communal we also need to make sure they know how to use them and acknowledge the cost and labor of maintenance. C: it sounds like further containment of the workshop would be useful in terms of disruption & clarity of what tools are public/private. The existing barriers have been a great improvement but could we use the organization of physical space to make the usage boundaries more clear. Containment may also increase space safety by hiding all the dangerous stuff. Should there be a point of contact for onboarding to particular things. J: I think the paradigm should be reversed: if you bring something down here, the space is allowing you to store you thing in this space in NYC where space is very expensive. If you are uncomfortable with something getting damaged, then it shouldn't be here. If I could pay $100 to store my stuff here I would but the opportunity was never presented to me. M: I removed the resin tent because I wasn't willing to put the labor into making it a communal object. We should put personal labels & stuff on objects. This place turned into storage for a while.

Hallway Storage

L: gonna ask for money to implement the hallway storage. We should make a spreadsheet that is the same shape as the shelving & will allow us to collaborate on what should go where. [stuff about screenprinting I missed] M: thanks for asking for money

Wait One Last Thing

L: you wanted to do a sheetrock workshop? can we chop the sheetrock up into smaller squares? S: yeah we can chop it up or get rid of it.

ACTION ITEMS

Proposals

Can be proposed by anyone and consensed on by eligible members.

Proposals

Consensus Model

Consensus model (WIP draft)

This is a proposal for a Temporary consensus model. The idea would be to use it for the time being, and if passed, in 6 months review our experience with it and decide if we want to continue using it

(from jonah: this is simply a basic implementation of the consensus model/rules from 'consensus' by Peter Gelderloos thank you P for the rec - the things I have added/specified are the 2 meetings to vote rule, and the 3 votes to pass minimum aka a quorum)

voting proceeds as following:

  1. first we count "stand aside votes". stand aside meaning you dont care/arent super in favor of the proposal, but that it doesn’t contradict your core principles
  2. then we ask if there is a block vote - Block meaning the proposal stops - means it violates a basic tenant of your principles - should essentially be used in cases which you disagree with something to the degree that it passing would mean you would leave the group - Ideally most votes fail from stand asides and not blocks
  3. in order for a proposal to pass it must have at least 3 votes “for”
  4. based on the discussion that occurs during the meeting and online afterwards, it may become evident that the proposal is flawed in some way, and could be improved. - Proposals cannot be revised after voting has begun, but a proposal can be withdrawn by the sponsor. - Anybody can create a new, revised and improved proposal

Comments

 

Proposals

Adopting Bookstack as our Wiki

Person or group submitting

p

Proposal History

Motivation

To reduce friction in the creation and retrieval of Basement documentation to the benefit of new and old members alike.

Proposal overview

I propose moving from our current Hedgedoc as our wiki to our existing Bookstack instance.

Details

Background info

The basement has been using Hedgedoc as an improvised wiki since 2022. The recommendation for Hedgedoc was taken from the hackerspace.zone suite of self-hosted software. Hedgedoc is designed to be and works well as a collaborative markdown editor, but we then attempted to build an entire wiki on top of it. 

These are the biggest problems with using Hedgedoc as a wiki:

Bookstack (a fully-featured wiki software) solves these problems by including search as a feature, and enforcing an information hierarchy of Shelves, Books, Chapters (optional) and Pages. These metaphors would appear to be easily grokable by less technically savvy users, and so far I have found them adequate for organizing documentation.

Additionally, Bookstack has a WYSIWYG editor while also allowing the user to switch to editing the raw markdown. This is more accommodating to less techie users while allowing seasoned hackers to keep writing markdown if they want.

Groups this affects

The Basement Group

Work required

work that was already completed towards this effort:

Individual or group doing labor

I (p) am willing to do the data migration. 

Money required

This does not cost any additional money to implement, but does depend on the digital ocean droplet that runs our self-hosted stack which I believe costs around $80/mo.

Proposals

I propose moving from using our current Hedgedoc as our wiki to our existing Bookstack instance. Both systems are up and running, so implementing this proposal consists of changing our habits in generating new documentation as well as migrating existing documentation to the new platform. While it might be a bit of work to migrate the historic contents I believe the effort will be worth it even solely for the indexing and search features in the new platform.

This proposal does not say anything about what to do with the existing Hedgedoc instance itself. It's likely still useful in  a google doc / cryptpad role.

 

Comments

 

Proposals

Working Group Charter

collaborative charter WIP here: https://pad.riseup.net/p/73OEl3gXjkRy5qQU-z_P

brainstorming new name list here: https://pad.riseup.net/p/Y_uF66zycNpboaXTGKbN

Decisions

Proposals that were adopted after reaching consensus.

Asbestos

Asbestos

WB Asbestos History

Condensed Timeline

Full Overview

The following overview was compiled by consulting basement meeting notes, a page on talking to asbestos labs, a page tracking progress on interacting with abatement contractors, and various signal chats.

It appears that concerns about asbestos in the basement were first raised in or before February 2023 and were last explicitly mentioned in basement meeting notes May 2023. Meeting notes discuss self-collection of air samples to send to labs for testing but it's unclear if this ever actually happened.

In March 2023 a number of lab were contacted for quotes. The quoted prices ranged from $650 to $2000.

Around that time Renewal with Grace, Inc visited the basement and their assessment was summarized as such

We can have the asbestos removed if we want, more for mental health - he seemed unconcerned about it being actually unhealthy. He said if we ran an air quality test right now, it will be negative.

It appears this assuaged concern about asbestos until February 2nd 2025 when the following was reported in the woodbine.basement chat

hi so the asbestos insulation on the pipe near the soldering station is becoming friable

i blew on it and a strand came loose

i dont hav reason to believe it's gotten all over the place yet but it's gotten to the point that we need to act

i know a guy who knows an abatement guy who i will talk to tomorrow

this same person contacted Patrick Hogan of Leinster Contracting Services on February 6th 2025

Hogan visited the basement on March 17th 2025 and quoted $4500 for abatement.

asbestos guy came and pointed out all the places where it is incl some places i didnt know about

gave us a quote of $4500 for abating the whole basement

he said that the last abatement wasn't handled great. he said it's crumbling even when it's not being disturbed, and bits of it must be on the ground and getting kicked up into the air. [...] he said the situation seemed so visibly problematic that he didn't even feel it would be necessary to run further air quality tests

Hogan said the largest area of asbestos is on this pipe. interestingly this spot was not included in the prior group of photos documenting the asbestos locations.

image.png

an inquiry was made to 311 in March 2025 and the following was noted

three different processes

because it’s a commercial space it is not under the jurisdiction of the HPD. the landlord will not get a ticket if he doesn’t care. it’s not clear whose responsibility it is.

if you report it. you can say it is exposed, and that report gets send to the DEP. then an inspector comes out and makes an assessment.

if a suspicion of the air, you reporting an air quality issue, not an asbesthos issue.

April 29, 2025: Walkthrough with Igor from KAC/Excellence Consulting

Walkthough hosted by daniel and paul

Interestingly, he mentioned that it's good that ventilation is so poor in the basement because the asbestos could become airborne if air was circulating better. (To me this means that its urgent for us to perform abatement prior to improving ventilatinon. --daniel)

Finally, he pointed out 1-2 small asbestos joints in the boiler room. The fee would be the same whether or not he removes those. But it might be in our interest to ask the landlord if he wants us to have abatement done in the boiler room, and see if he's willing to cover a small portion of the expenses.

May 4, 2025: Walkthrough with Juan from Undaunted

As of April 6th 2025 we have heard back from the following abatement contractors with quotes:

There still seems to be debate around:

  1. doing an air test and just delaying abatement if it comes back negative (to save money)
  2. doing a full abatement

it's also unclear how willing or what the terms would be of WB paying for either of these.

May 16 (-DS)

Daniel called a bunch of air monitoring companies (details: link). Quotes/proposal documents from the two standout consultant and air monitoring companies are being shared in the WB Coordination chat. Those two companies are Athenica and Testor Tech.

First: The lowest air monitoring quote was from Testor Tech. They have a baseline fee of $650 to bring a consultant out to the site for the day, plus an additional fee of $6.90 per sample. They expect to need about 10 samples -- Igor from KAC confirmed that 10 is typical. Igor and Testor Tech have never worked together before, but that shouldn't pose a problem. So that would bring to total to about $3200-$3300 for the abatement and air monitoring. 

Currently, Igor (KAC) is available to schedule the abatement sometime after Memorial Day. That means we could be asbestos-free by the end of the month! 

Second: I was referred to Athenica by Laboratory Testing Services Inc.. Laboratory Testing Services is a lab that does analysis -- they do not collect samples themselves. Consultants and air monitoring companies collect the samples, and then send them to labs for analysis. Good consultants like Athenica try to be as neutral as possible, and they watch over the abatement contractor to ensure that all conduct is done in a responsible and properly-regulated manner, with proper forms filed, etc.. 

… One final question is: how do we know that we have asbestos? Has there ever been a lab test? Spiro from Athenica , who was one of the consultants that I spoke to today (40+ years experience), said that no human has the capacity to truthfully know from sight or touch alone whether or not a material is asbestos: the only foolproof test is to put it under a microscope. To my mind, it's a no-brainer to run a $660 test if it can save us from spending $3500. I am certain that no lab analysis occurred in 2024/25, and general knowledge seems to be that we never had a lab test in the past, either. 

Note: the quotes from Testor Tech and Athenica are for totally different services. They are both testing for asbestos, but the tests serve different purposes, and we might need to run both of them. Testor Tech will provide air monitoring on the day of the abatement. Igor from KAC will not do the abatement unless we have air monitoring on site, and Testor Tech gave us a lower quote for air monitoring than anybody else. But before we do abatement, it might be worthwhile to have Athenica test the insulation material to verify that we are dealing with asbestos at all. 

I see three (or four) possible paths from here:

  1. Spending ~$660: We hire Athenica to sample the insulation material. If the lab test confirms that it isn't asbestos, that's the end of it.
    1b. Potentially, somebody within Woodbine could purchase necessary equipment to collect samples and directly interface with a lab for analysis, bypassing the consultant and collection company. But we've been discussing this for months and nobody has figured out how to do it... 
  2. Spending ~$3300: We skip the initially lab test because our gut feeling is that it's asbestos. Igor does the abatement and Testor Tech does the air monitoring. Never worry about it again after that.
  3. Spending $4000: We hire Athenica to sample the insulation material. If the lab analysis finds asbestos, we hire Igor and Testor Tech.
  4. Don't do anything… Just keep waiting… 

So we have to decide if we want to commit to spending $3300 off our intuition? Or take a risk to scientifically determine if abatement is needed, with the chance that it'll either save us $3300 or be a waste of $660. I think this decision should be made by the directors (or whoever is allocating us a budget).

June 3, 2025 (-DS)

Our fundraiser brought in $3160. We therefore decided to first schedule lab analysis from Athenica. We paid the deposit of $350 on May 30th and scheduled the inspection for June 04.

On June 03, we uncovered a lost document from March 2023 that confirms the presence of asbestos in pipe elbows. In 2023, Lippe hired Accredited Environmental Solutions (AES) to perform an asbestos survey. The full report is viewable on element in the #abatement channel.

June 11, 2025 (p cm)

We were about to call Igor to schedule an actual date for abatement. The same day we were about to pull the trigger, the announcement about the entire space's uncertain future was made, and we put abatement on hold.

August 19, 2025

Abatement occurred with Igor from KAC/Excellence Consulting, and air monitoring from Testor Tech. One test for the presence of small particles failed, so Testor Tech returned on Aug 21 to re-test. Testor sent an invoice for $1,212.10 which is unpaid as of Aug 22nd.

Asbestos

Progress

Ventilation Planning

The models screenshotted here exist as a sketchup file in my account. Can't attach bc too big, but can hand off to anyone directly. (~LP)

Overview

Shows basement below, and rough outline of gym space.
Weird curved thing up top is the manifold/cowl for the existing large fan above gym.LP-vent-basement-proposal-overview.jpeg

LP-vent-basement-proposal-focussed.jpeg

Basic idea is three channels.

  1. Toxic out via existing roof pipe (all rigid pipe, leak tested on regular basis, not "hot swappable", maybe lower CFM.
  2. Coffee & general air out via existing fan manifold, maybe draws from woodshop, higher CFM.
  3. Fresh air in from gym window, higher CFM, with exit in center of space

LP-vent-basement-proposal-detail.png

A) Optional add-on for gym, variable speed fresh air intake biscuit fan
B) Clean air intake via 4" hole in floor
C) Coffee+ high CFM output via another 4" hole in floor, and then through gym fan manifold, but probably just using it as a pathway, not relying on gym fan itself
D) Toxic out

We have exactly enough straight conduit to do this.
We don't have elbows, Ts, blast gates
Not sure how and what fans are used for different lines

Concerns have been expressed about 4" round being enough.
Maybe possible to bump to 6", maaaaaybe 8", but gets trickier re: finding cheap blowers, and becomes more obtrusive to gym space. Not my area of expertise, but I think 4" with proper blowers is workable.

Apparently "pulling" air is more efficient, so intake blower would be in basement, non-toxic outflow could be mounted in fan manifold, and toxic out we'd probably eat the inefficiency vs mounting fan on roof exposed to elements.

Basement Schedule Grid

  SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

8 AM

to

10 AM






10 AM
to

NOON






NOON
to
2 PM






2 PM
to
4 PM






4 PM
to
6 PM






6 PM
to
8 PM






8 PM
to
10 PM






10 PM
to

midnight






midnight
to
2 AM






Steps towards basement use scheduling.
Mark your desired weekly use.
This is a sheet of paper on a door, it may not be synchronized with the general RC programming/rental process.
Check the booking calendar:

RC-QR-booking-calendar.png

Basement Use Info Sheet

Basement Use Info

Tuesday & Thursday: "Quiet Hours" 8pm until close.

This time is dedicated for work that's not particularly noisy, smelly, or otherwise notable.

All other times

Space is open to use, with consideration of 1st floor use, both noise and coming/going.

Booking

Basement is available for booking, for smaller group discussions and activities.

If you're a regular participant in basement activities

For all other cases, use the programming request form on ridgewoodcommons.nyc, and the programming group will 
For the best info on basement availability, check the RC booking calendar:
 RC-QR-booking-calendar.png

Basement Comms Sheet

Basement Comms Channels

basement.rc
(Signal group)

QR-RC-signal-basement.rc.png
Sometimes noisy, conversations, discussions, casual banter.




Hello World
(Signal group)

QR-RC-signal-hello-world.png
Lower volume, quick questions and answers, announcements.

Conceived of as a way for people to stay connected to basement, but not have a noisy chat they end up muting.




basement logistics (Signal group)

QR-RC-signal-basement-logistics.png
Usually quiet, discussion of changes to basement arrangements and scheduling that affect many different groups of basement-users (woodshop, roasting, tech, general RC supply storage, etc)

Basement Bike Workspace Sketch Proposals

Intro

The front space of the basement tends to be a catch-all area.

With more intentional planning, it could provide a space for working on three bikes, as well as tool storage.

Project scope

We likely don't have storage capacity for anything beyond small standardized parts and components: tubes, wraps, small collection of levers and brakes. A staged project seems prudent, where it's first set up to do tuning and minor fixes, and as time goes on, consider the option of storing one or two bikes that are not in condition to be ridden away.

Regardless, project will benefit from some alignment on scope and purpose.

Front of space setup

Currently used for:

The location of most stuff is accidental, and has been planned out. Extremely likely that shuffling some stuff around would make sense, e.g. folding chair stack could be immediately by basement entrance, along with stuff like folding tables, extension cords, working group & project storage (letter writing, kids tutoring) - anything that's more often needed for 1st FL events.

RC-basement-bikework-00010.jpeg

Stands & Mounts

Workstands can be had for $60-400 depending on brand and quality.
We might have hookups for sourcing them.
We're connected to mechanics who can give recs based on experience.

We might be able to take advantage of the poles to mount one or two mounts.

RC-basement-bikework-00011.jpeg

RC-basement-bikework-00001.jpeg

RC-basement-bikework-00009.jpeg

Workspace and flow

RC-basement-bikework-00008.jpeg

^^ Using both poles as above is probably not workable, the space is too crowded, would conflict with anyone needing to pass by to rest of basement, even without them moving larger objects.

RC-basement-bikes-two-pole-spacing.jpeg

^^ Blue tape lines are frame center and edge of pedals, obviously not nearly enough space.

RC-basement-bikes-two-pole-plus-alt.jpeg.jpeg

RC-basement-bikes-two-pole-plus.jpeg

^^ It seems like using the poles is basically dumb, and that we should use stands.
It would be nice to have one clamp permanently set up, but: it's labor, it could hit people, it's not that hard to pull out a stand.

Tools

RC-basement-bikework-00006.jpeg

^^ pegboard attached to boiler room wall
+ easy to access, easy to see what's missing
- Replaces a lot of shelving space

RC-basement-bikework-00002.jpeg

^^ pegboard attached to boiler room wall with set of rolling shelves in front.
+ Easy to see what's missing
- Replaces a lot of shelving space
- Rolling shelf unit could be precarious

RC-basement-bikework-00005.jpeg

^^ shelves set to accommodate set of rolling toolboxes
+ easy to access
+ Can be rolled onto lift and taken upstairs or to the curb for sessions
+/- Can be easily locked (depending on model)

Locking would allow for a specific group like ridgewood rides or b4m crew to have a set of tools that they have more control over, or to keep fancy tools....

OR

Just toolboxes on steel shelving. Similar to above, just cheaper and more flexible.

Basement "Hallway" Organization Sketch Proposal

RC-basement-hallway-shelving-diagram-.jpeg

boxed tools

RC archive

 screen printing blanks

crates: shared solvents, etc.
silkscreens silkscreens

Shared paints




CSA boxes CSA boxes CSA boxes CSA boxes CSA boxes CSA boxes

Posts: https://www.webstaurantstore.com/regency-74-nsf-chrome-post/460ECP74.html