Minutes of the SIPB Meeting of 2026-03-09 The meeting was called to order at 19:37 by turino14. In attendance were Student keyholders: turino14, psvenk, nmorgan, suufi, hng, anhad Associate keyholders: rgabriel, almonds, scj643, kenta Members: ilyag, ryanruiz, veracity Guests: madisutk, raleighb Administrivia: turino14: Over the last few weeks, we had transition meetings [for the EC officers]. One thing that came up was "SIPB Hack Hours" / "SIPB Buffet" / "SIPB Bytes and Bites". The idea is to have, every Monday from 17:00 to 19:30, the office open with people doing psets, eating food, socializing, etc. hng: One challenge we've had with recruiting new members is that new members would be thrown right into the bureaucracy of SIPB members rather than the camaraderie of hanging out in the office, so we'd like to address that. turino14: If we do this, then going forward we can recommend new members to come to the 17:00 meeting/buffet rather than telling them to come to the 19:30 general meeting. psvenk: I think this is a great idea. "SIPB Buffet" might be a bit too grandiose of a name, though... rgabriel: Bites and Bytes! psvenk: Yes, I like Bytes and Bites hng: Shall we make an allocation? psvenk: How much will this cost? [discussion about what the food will be] psvenk: Should this be a one-time or standing allocation? turino14: Ideally this should be every week, so that it's a regular thing where people can show up. rgabriel: We could allocate for a month and see how it goes. turino14: That's a good idea. turino14: How about we allocate $1000 for the next three "SIPB Bytes & Bites"? (March 16, March 30, and April 6) psvenk: How much budget do we have remaining? turino14: About $14k psvenk: If we're spending $1000 a month, then that's going to be a big chunk of our budget. turino14: Well, currently what we have in mind for the budget is renovations for the office, food, and possibly more hardware. psvenk: I guess we're only looking at $3k-4k in allocations for this semester, which could be alright. nmorgan: If it goes well. psvenk: Yes, of course. turino14: Yes, I think $3k-4k for the semester is a good number. psvenk: Sounds good. turino14: But let's allocate only $1000 today for the pilot period. turino14: Motion to allocate $1000 for the pilot of SIPB Bytes and Bites (through April 6) [discussion about whether "bytes" or "bites" should come first in the name] hng, suufi: Seconded [motion passes 12-0-0] turino14: Sounds good. Next week we might do Saloniki, but I'm open to suggestions. psvenk: I like Saloniki catering. Just one thing: I would recommend putting in the order tomorrow, in case they have questions about it. dsisson: This starts on the 16th? turino14: Yeah dsisson: Shit. Why do you always have food while I'm in Europe? turino14: Why are you always in Europe when we have food? scj643: Oh yeah, snacks. Someone should get with me and we can do a Target order. nmorgan: Also, can we throw away the broken staplers? dsisson: Are we sure they're broken and not just jammed or out of staples? nmorgan: Yeah, they're broken. turino14: Then we should probably replace them. [miscellaneous discussion, partially relating to staple(r)s] hng: Are there custom staplers that we can get engraved? /j scj643: We are Not doing this psvenk: We could get custom $1000 gold-plated staplers whose staples are all fuzzball-shaped. nmorgan: I found a 50-sheet heavy duty stapler for $15 on Amazon. ilyag: One thing I've seen is staplers with a bigger gap so that people can staple pages at the middle of a page. nmorgan: Why would you want to staple in the middle of a page? ilyag: To make booklets kenta [via chat]: the classic stapler is called "Swingline 747" kenta [via chat]: it comes with a lifetime warranty kenta [via chat]: SIPB has had a booklet stapler in the past. [more bikeshedding] turino14: Okay, guys. Let's allocate for $50 for two staplers. [discussion about how many staplers $50 can buy] dsisson: [holds up stapler] This stapler works; it is just loaded with the wrong type of staples! [stapler testing ensues] nmorgan: This stapler is indeed broken. kenta: Swingline 747 staplers come with a lifetime warranty! You should be able to use the warranty. turino14: Motion to allocate $50 for n staplers where n > 1. nmorgan: Seconded almonds: So long as we're chaining them to the door or something, because I've found our staplers in the Athena Lounge. suufi: Biometric-authenticated staplers. turino14: Motion to white ballot nmorgan: Seconded [white ballot fails with 2 opposed] [motion passes 5-1-3] nmorgan: This is the most controversial motion I've seen! I thought staplers were our whole identity. turino14: Ok, that's enough talk about staplers. nmorgan, do you want to buy them? nmorgan: Sure hng: With regard to the renovations project, we're thinking of improving the hardware repair station. We're thinking that we should probably get tools, etc., to repair computers, cell phones, etc., since we have a sort of repair station, which is something that doesn't really exist elsewhere on campus. ilyag: Metropolis hng: They don't have e.g. a tool to remove a cell phone screen. dsisson: When you say "repair station", do you mean something in the SMR? hng: No, I mean for public use in the office. scj643: Do we need a "use at your own risk" disclaimer? turino14: Potentially. dsisson: We have a printer and paper. [discussion] anhad [in chat]: I think this is a good idea to drive more traffic to the office hng: Do people think we need more tools? scj643: I would be in favor. We should get a thermal camera. suufi: Did we not talk about thermal cameras two years ago? scj643: It was returned, since it didn't work. anhad [in chat]: I have helped multiple people repair their devices using personal tools or miters, if sipb gets good equipment i could definitely see myself coming there for it anhad [in chat]: We could request an ifixit sponsorship or something hng: I like iFixit tools. turino14: Should this be part of Bytes and Bites? hng: If it is, then that would probably be more effective since people would see us doing it. psvenk: This could also help broadening the demographics of people who are drawn to SIPB to include more hardware people, since currently we're more software-skewed and it would be nice to tap into the people who hang out in makerspaces etc. turino14: How much would this cost? hng: For an extremely comprehensive set of tools (from iFixit), it would cost $300. But that's extremely comprehensive. rgabriel: This is a reasonable buy for SIPB. hng: This is the "Ultimate iFixit Toolkit"; it has all of the things. nmorgan: Who is going to use this kit? hng: It's going to be public; anyone can use it. suufi: What's the risk of stuff going missing? hng: That's something to think about. psvenk: Also worth considering is that we already have an iFixit kit, albeit a smaller one. hng: Then I think it's a good idea to focus on organizing and promoting the tools we currently have rather than buying new tools at this time. psvenk: CPW is sooner than you think. We should probably figure out some --I'm not sure what the deadline is-- events we are doing. It's innaavo doing it again, right? I don't want to volunteer her. turino14: I think so, but people should help. psvenk: Please help, and contribute ideas in the CPW channel on Mattermatrix. Midway signup is coming. A younger person should do it for institutional knowledge; it's a very short form. almonds [in chat]: MatterMatriZeph psvenk: Midway is on Sat Apr 18 1:00-3:00 pm, so block off your calendars for that time and hopefully we can have a few people at Midway. And hopefully, it would be nice to keep the SIPB office for the entirety of CPW. psvenk: Also merch. innaavo sent something about merch, that we should do another merch order before CPW, with fresh designs. turino14: Also, I heard from bzelnick that the incoming class knows a lot about SIPB thanks to the Discord and the Minecraft server, and he suggested that we incorporate this in our boothing. psvenk: Yeah, that's a great idea. hng: Do we know what's going on with the EECS Resource Guide person? turino14: I emailed inviting her to come here, but she hasn't replied. Project Reports: nmorgan: Ark continues. We have a survey out right now for the chance to win one of four $50 Visa gift cards. We're figuring out what people use AI for and what pain points they have, so that people can scj643: Is it even possible for people in SIPB to be eligible? It sounds like a conflict of interest. nmorgan: I don't adjudicate conflicts of interest. If you have an issue with it, take it up with SIPB. scj643: This is SIPB! scj643: Who's funding this? nmorgan: I am! I have a job! suufi: You need to censor that word. psvenk: "j*b" scj643: Exactly, j*b. suufi: OpenGrades continues. I revamped the authentication system so that it supports mobile completely. The question is Apple developer account. We have a D-U-N-S number, but can we get an Apple developer account under the name "MIT Student Information Processing Board" and publish under it, given that we are not a legal entity in our own right? I can also just try to do it. scj643: I can also contribute my personal Apple developer account. psvenk: I think we should try to get SIPB apps published under the SIPB name if at all possible. suufi: I agree; hopefully we can publish as SIPB. rgabriel: Wasn't FireRoad under "Base26 Apps" or some random name? I think Google Play allows you to put whatever name you want. suufi: Yeah, they don't allow that anymore. suufi: I'll go ahead and try with the Apple developer thing. We also can't use "JJ Sipbadmin" anymore since Apple now requires an Apple ID under the real name of a person in the organization. rgabriel: The only thing is the MIT name, since that's under OGC. psvenk, suufi: I think it should be fine as long as we say "MIT Student Information Processing Board", since that's our official name and we're allowed to call ourselves that. suufi: Motion to allocate $99 (one-time) for the yearly Apple developer fee. psvenk: Seconded. psvenk: Motion to white ballot rgabriel: Seconded [white ballot fails with 1 opposed] [motion passes 6-0-4] rgabriel: Motion to allocate $25 for the Google account. suufi: Seconded turino14: Motion to white ballot psvenk: Seconded [white ballot fails with 1 opposed] [motion passes 6-0-4] psvenk: We've had three white ballot fails today. That's three more than at the median SIPB meeting. suufi: Ok, so it turns out that the D-U-N-S number we got is filed under MIT, so we need MIT's permission to publish anything, which is unlikely. But it seems that Motorsports and Ballroom Dance have their own D-U-N-S numbers! rgabriel: We should get a human with the name Student Information Processing Board. psvenk: First name "Student", middle name "Information", last names "Processing" and "Board"! nmorgan: Who wants to change their name? scj643: I am not changing my name again! [discussion] scj643: Looks like MIT Technology Review is its own entity on the App Store, and Sloan is their own entity as well. suufi: I could publish as myself, but you can't move apps between different people. psvenk: Just going back to a basic question, if this is such a hassle, why not just a PWA? suufi: Since the app is already done. psvenk, rgabriel: That's sunk cost fallacy! psvenk: On a technical level, what's wrong with a PWA? suufi, scj643: I think there are some issues with it on Apple. suufi: I would be happy to publish under my own name, and of course I won't abandon my project. psvenk: The issue is that a project shouldn't be dependent on a particular alum long-term, even if that person is okay with it. What if you're 50 and have a life apart from MIT and live in the woods somewhere in California with no cell service? The Gen Sigma kids in SIPB at that time would be left wondering how to publish OpenGrades v1000 to the App Store to get it to run on their Meta contact lenses. turino14: HWOPS continues. Last Friday we did more inventory; this Friday we're going to do more inventory and next Friday we're going to W91 (depending on the status with the Matrix server). rgabriel: Petrock continues [discussion about Petrock] Other: scj643: Spring break is sooner than you think! psvenk: Spring is sooner than you think! The weather is so beautiful! And the sunsets so pretty. It's all so wonderful suufi: Don't say that! You'll jinx it scj643: Someone should talk to me about snacks after the meeting. Other Other: rgabriel: I have sweets from the Dominican Republic and from Mexico, now in the office; feel free to take almonds: Every time a daylight savings shift comes around, there is drama in the timezone fandom. Like, some government proposes legislation to have permanent DST or ST, very close to the switch, and so the IANA has to panic and figure out how best to implement that in the tzdb, and all the while people are arguing passionately about which permanent choice they feel is better. This year, British Columbia (i.e., America/Vancouver) decided to have permanent DST, calling it simply "Pacific Time", again, without consulting IANA. almonds: Reminds me of how California wants age verification on all operating systems, apparently they only consulted the for-profit consumer OS's and did not consider Linux/BSD which are on more than half of all data centers. The infeasibility isn't really important though, please teach others and remind your representatives that age/ID verification erodes privacy... there is a much more direct and pretty obvious way to "protect the children". scj643: It's never about protecting the children. They never care about the children. kenta: I wish you all the best of luck with SIPB Bytes and Bites. However, in my life experience, I have met a small number of people who avoid events with food because of eating disorders and severe food restrictions. So, there will be some people who will be turned away by events with food. scj643: I don't think that is the majority of people, and we should still have events without food. turino14: Yeah, the general meetings won't have food, and people can also show up to open office hours. scj643: What's the record for shortest meeting. turino14: It's not going to be this one! Meeting adjourned. The meeting was adjourned at 20:43. Minutes taken and submitted by psvenk.