Regular Meeting Minutes
June 2, 2007, 10:30AM
1. PDXBot07 In Review %G–%@ Loren McConnell
2. July Hack Fest Planning %G–%@ Steve Davee
3. News & Reports
a. Show-and-tell
1. PDXBot.07 T-shirts are still available for $12. Contact Mark Moore.
2. Our regular meeting venue (the PSU PCAT building) is being destroyed this month. This is our last meeting in this location.
A vote of the attending club members approved an expenditure of club revenues for PDXBot.07 expenses. The vote was 15 for, none against.
Thanks to all the organizers, sponsors, and volunteers, PDXBot.07 was a great success success!
Thanks to the leading event planners
Larry Geib
Monty Goodson
Pete Skeggs
Mark Medonis
Don Davis
Loren McConnell
Quentin Pierce
Summary:
2 stages
4 vendors
3 special demos
7 Display tables
Tech Demos
Competitions:
Line following
Line Maze
Sumo %G–%@ 5 classes
Walker
Dorkbots
Talent Show
Proceeds:
$932 -- day of show sales
$2080 -- Donations & sponsorships
Expenses: $2722.91
We still have items for sale:
32 PDXBot.07 t-shirts
8 PDXBot.05 t-shirt
3 PDXBot.04 t-shirts
Things to consider for next time:
Publicity: We need more help with advertising for the next show.
Venue: The DoubleTree Inn venue is nice because it gives us more space to work with and reservation is easier. Getting materials into the DoubleTree convention center was easier. Some people still favors PSU for reduced cost.
Multiple stages: It was sometimes confusing to manage between two stages, and direct the crowd between two stages.
Earlier Scheduling would help next time. Plan and announce the venue earlier.
Communications with schools: Mark Gross and Dominic Casey would like to assist with school and home schooling contacts for the next event. Dana Weesner has a list of school contacts. Thanks! We should also contact OMSI Saturday Academy instructors. Girl-scout and Boy-scout groups might also organize groups for participation.
Federal Non-Profit status: If PARTS had listing as a federal non-profit organization it would make fundraising easier. Dana Weesner has some experience with 501c3 applications.
Success criteria: We should develop a set of metrics that we can measure from year-to-year to track the success of the show.
Events: Some members would like to see a Micro Mouse competion at future shows.
Next month, Steve Davee will lead a HackFest session. This is a bring-your-own tools robot building session. Bring your own batteries too. This session will focus on mechanics and electromechanical assembly %G–%@ no microcontrollers will be incorporated in this session. Steve will bring a box of parts, but others can bring additional surplus items. We will break into teams and build robots together to see which team can construct the most creative and interesting robot within the allowed time. Steve will post further information to the PARTS list.
Mark Medonis is working on a DC-DC boost converter for 18V at 1.5A from a 12v supply. Mark also recommends www.all-battery.com as a supplier for batteries and chargers.
Touch screen displays %G–%@ www.simmetry.com.