🌐 May Recap: Maps, Mutual Aid, and a Draft Charter
📅 Wednesday, May 6, 2026 📍 The Parlor @ Unitarian Universalist Church, Concord
Fifteen people joined us in The Parlor for one of our fuller evenings yet — three distinct sessions, plenty of socializing, and a lot of enthusiasm spilling out in every direction. Here’s what happened.
📡 LoRa Working Group Update
Alex opened the evening with a thorough look at where the LoRa Working Group stands. The presentation covered current router deployments, coverage maps, and the path toward a reference architecture and bill of materials for dual-node enclosures — a design CRM hopes to share with other groups building regional mesh infrastructure.
Alex introduced meshmapper.net and walked through how it works as a tool for visualizing coverage. The group talked through the need for additional high-elevation sites — particularly near Pat’s Peak and local fire towers — as the next frontier for extending reach.
There was good discussion about the complementary roles of MeshCore (reliable text messaging) and Meshtastic (tracking and telemetry). Alex made the case for nudging Meshtastic users toward the MediumFast channel setting for better network stability — something to keep an eye on as more nodes come online.
One idea that got traction: a dedicated mapping workgroup that could meet between monthly CRM gatherings, distinct from the volunteers who’ve been doing physical installs. If you’re interested in contributing to coverage mapping, watch for more on that soon.
🤝 Mutual Aid Part 2: Getting Things Done
Sam’s second installment in the Mutual Aid series focused on the practical mechanics of horizontal organizing — how groups make decisions, form working groups, and stay accountable without hierarchy or coercion.
Two moments stood out. Someone noted that the consensus decision-making process Sam described maps closely onto a standard engineering design cycle — which landed well in a room full of technically-minded folks. Another attendee pointed out the resemblance to how Quakers have long made group decisions. Both observations helped ground the theory in familiar frameworks.
The presentation introduced structural concepts that carried directly into the next session: the role of a general council, how proposals emerge from membership, and what working groups are and aren’t.
🧩 Charter Discussion: First Pass
Coming out of the break, the group walked through a draft organizational charter for CRM — a lightweight framework for how we make decisions and coordinate long-term work.
The conversation was lively. People asked good clarifying questions: how does a Strategic Working Group differ from the Stewards? Can Friends informally join a working group? What does week-to-week participation actually look like?
The group didn’t reach consensus on the charter — and that was expected. The draft is open for comments — email us if you’d like a copy — and it will be the first item on the Members’ Council agenda in June.
💬 In the Margins
Some of the best energy of the evening came out in the breaks and the closing circle:
- Reticulum came up organically and turned out to be a topic of wide interest — Adam will be presenting on it at the June meetup.
- People talked about using the mesh for community-facing applications like ICE alert notifications.
- Ideas floated included a hardware database, a short-term reference architecture working group, skill-sharing sessions, and deeper connections with other local organizations.
The enthusiasm for building something together — not just technically, but socially — was palpable.
The June meetup is Wednesday, June 3 — same time, Kent/Thomas Room at the UU Church. The charter discussion picks up where we left off, and Adam presents on Reticulum. June 2026 Meetup →