Hi Andrew There is one other topic that has come up repeatedly which is the “style” issue. There are several builders who don’t like the particular style of schematic and/or PCB layout, where labels are placed, use of notation – especially of jumpers, decomposition of schematic into subsheets, etc. I have received many detailed and lengthy emails on how to improve and correct these style issues over the years. I agree there is a *lot* of maintenance and sustainment of the N8VEM boards that could be done but hasn’t due to higher priority tasks (making new boards, fixing existing ones). This is another large effort that really could be done in a distributed fashion. There is just too much to do to fix it all in the limited time available. In addition, these style issues are somewhat subjective so “good enough” for one builder is completely unacceptable to another. Often just getting the board to work is an enormous task and once that happens I am out of energy/enthusiasm to spend more hours in clean up. This is another complicated topic we need to address as part of the board distribution effort. I suggest we should tackle some of these basic technical and managerial issues along with any sort of non-profit or storefront. Thanks and have a nice day! From: n8vem...@googlegroups.com [mailto:n8vem...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Bingham Andrew, I would think the first step would be to have an up-to-date list of all the boards and their design status (ready to make, new revision in work - hold fab for new revision, etc) with spots for contact information for new people helping to make the boards. Or if a board is about to be superseded by another (John M mentioned on the VCF forum that there is a 16MB RAM card coming soon that might supersede the 4MB card, for instance). A way to gauge the interest in a board would be useful as well so people who are interested in making a board could see which ones might be most needed. I did look into Amazon Payments and Google Wallet and it looks like they may be more transparent about when they decide you are a business. For example, Amazon states up front that it is something like above 190 transaction/year that requires an account upgrade to a business account. PayPal is always super opaque about what their policies are so maybe one of the other two would be a better option. I respect your opinion on the 501c3 thing, but I would say that - the original Homebrew Computer Club no longer exists. While I know of many local clubs and community organizations that are, and date back 50 years or more and are still going strong - some of which own their own buildings and property to perpetuate the group. We promote anarchy at Mojave Makers, no one is directed to do anything and all of our members are free to work on their projects as they please (I hope to generate some new N8VEM builders by showing off my hardware to people who come through the space) - but having the tax status allows the few of us on the board to provide that environment for everyone else in the group without them having to worry about it. So personally, I don't think the two ideas (by hobbyists, for hobbyists, and having a 501c3) would be mutually exclusive. Andrew -- |