Revision as of 18:11, 24 April 2017

About this policy

Any Makespace member can book the classroom for events, talks, workshops, etc that are broadly related to making. Events must conform to this Events Policy. If you are a member, and have read this policy, contact the administrator or management to be added to Makespace's Meetup group, which is used for booking the space (as well as for enabling signups, if needed).

Related document: What hosts should tell people at the start of an open meeting

Steps to run an event

0. Be a member

1. Follow the rules below

2. Check at http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/ that the classroom is free at the desired time, and book your event there so others know it's happening and won't book the space at the same time

You can use meetup to advertise the event, or just use the Meetup calendar function to book the time. If your event is advertised by another group then just use the calendar (http://www.meetup.com/Makespace/events/); it gets confusing when there are two meetup events for the same meeting, and makes it hard to limit numbers to the maximum capacity.

State clearly which bit of space you are booking: Main room, Classroom, Workshop or Upstairs.

• If you're booking a meetup event, select the correct location (Makespace main room, Makespace classroom, etc).
• If you're just using the calendar, please state the location information in the event name.
• The classroom absolute maximum capacity is 60 seated, or 30 if you want tables; the main room holds around 100 standing. It is a good idea to limit meetup signup slots to reflect that.

Note: you'll need to have organiser role for the Makespace meetup group to be able to edit the calendar. If you're not, either ask on the Google group to be made one, or find someone who is already an organiser.

General principles, or, how to host an event

• All members are welcome to organise an event at Makespace, and hosting an event is free of charge to members

• Booking of rooms is generally handled via the makespace Meetup group.

Say whether you are using the: main space; classroom; workshop; or cafe

• If you aren't a member and you want to organise an event in Makespace, you either need to persuade members to host your event (by asking on the google group), or become a member yourself!

• We strongly recommend that at least two members are happy to host an event, as this makes the event more likely to be a success.

• If you have questions on how to host an event, the place to ask them is the makespace mailing list.

Notes

• For any event open to non-members, the usual rules about guests in the space apply.

• Event organisers/hosts are always responsible for what happens at events. In other words, the members organising the event are responsible for the people attending and must be ready to handle emergencies, escort them out in case of fire, and if anything goes wrong (kit is broken or stolen, etc) the member(s) running the event will need to deal with the consequences as they will be held responsible.

If a member brings in a few guests to show them around, have a meeting, work on a project etc, that's not an event, because it's all people the member knows and is escorting in the space - that's normal Makespace stuff :)

Children attending the space should always be accompanied by a responsible adult; no more than 1 child per adult member or visitor (as it isn't always possible to supervise more than 1 child in a workshop situation).

If you are NOT the organiser of an event you should NOT let non-members into the space unless the organiser has requested it of you directly.

If you want to run an event in Makespace and you are NOT a member

Only Members can host events, so if you want to run an event you'll need one or more members to be willing to act as hosts. You could ask on our Google group to see if anyone is interested in helping you, but we can't guarantee that anyone will be.

Or, consider becoming a makespace member yourself!

Event types

Events are either:

• Members only
• Open to the public (which may optionally include the opportunity to Meet Makespace, ie have a tour and ask questions about membership)

Events listed on Meetup.com/makespace should clearly indicate whether they are Public, Members-only, or Meet-Makespace. Not all public events are ones where non-members can come and see the space and ask questions about membership and we need to clearly indicate those!

Members only events

These events are organised by one or more members.

• because everyone attending is a member, things are fairly straightforward
• event may be anywhere in the space
• if most of any one room in the space will be used and it won't be possible/nice/easy for other members to do stuff in that room whilst the event is happening, then the event should book the room(s) in advance on the calendar.
• the event can be free or subject to a charge (the funds could pay for materials and/or a trainer's time or travel expenses etc, or could be donated to Makespace). If the event has a charge, the member(s) organising it are responsible for collecting the money and making any payments.
• The event can be open to all members or restricted to just some members (for example, only members who have been trained on the 3D printer; only a fixed number of members; only specific members for some other reason).
• No event should allow more than 100 people into the space at once. It may be useful to count people in on the door so you know when to stop admitting people.

Events open to the public

These events are organised by one or more members but non-members are able to attend.

• It's useful to run some sort of RSVP system so you aren't overwhelmed with people turning up unexpectedly. Whether you do or don't get an idea of numbers in advance, if more people turn up than the organisers or space can handle, the organisers MUST close the doors and not permit more people in.

• remember, if you're the sole organiser, you have to be there or your event can't take place! You might want to make sure you can notify attendees if you are ill or unable to attend at the last minute.

• We encourage events to be open to members if at all possible, and that members who happen to be in the space can attend events if possible. However we understand that sometimes this isn't possible, as some events may be restricted to just some members (for example, only members who have been trained on the 3D printer) or other limits may apply (such as a training event where the trainer can only work with up to 8 pre-booked learners, or a meeting is only open to people who have paid to attend, or where preparatory work is required).

• Events may be free or subject to a charge (which may be either formal, eg "£5 per person", or informal, eg "please chip in a couple of quid if you can"). It is totally fine and even good to charge non-members more than members.

Numbers of guests

Depending on the number of people attending, there are requirements on how many members must be organising and attending the event.

• For up to 10 guests, one member can organise the event but we strongly recommend at least two members organise any public event because it's really hard to keep an eye on everything when hosting an event; for up to 20 guests, two members; for up to 30 guests, 3 members, etc.

• No event should allow more than 100 people into the space at once. It may be useful to count people in on the door so you know when to stop admitting people.

• If the space feels overcrowded, immediately close the front door and do not permit more people to come in.

Hosting a public event

• Non-members attending your event should be encouraged to read the Visitors rules (posted at the internal door of makespace (NB not posted quite yet)) and to sign in the Visitors Book (if we have one) and to sign in on any sign-in sheet (see below).

• Encourage non-members attending your event to take a Makespace card and consider becoming a member :)

• If there are more than 10 non-members present, the organiser should give a brief housekeeping intro at the start of the event, pointing out fire exits, and potentially also other useful info (toilet location, first aid or other safety information that may be needed). See HostingSpeech

• If your event is one where it's possible to Meet Makespace, please indicate that clearly. You'll need to either offer a tour before or after the main bit of your event (if it's something like a talk or demo), or have Members available to show people around throughout your event (if it's something like Maker Night). Note that this is time consuming and you should ensure you have plenty of Members involved in organising the event, so the event can happen as well as tours and questions!

Doors

• Beware - we often have non-members turning up FORTY minutes before an event is due to start! If you are NOT the organiser of an event, and you answer the doorbell, please DO NOT let people in unless the organiser has asked you to do so directly. Otherwise (and this has happened several times) an organiser who is still setting up ends up responsible for a bunch of non-members who have been let in far too early when the space isn't ready for them.

• The exterior front door should not be propped open unless you have a member waiting in the foyer at all times

• For larger events you may want to open the inner front door so that guests can let themselves out. DO NOT DO THIS if the exterior front door is propped open, or anyone could just walk into Makespace!

• there is an access token in the cafe which can be used to give access to the toilets. for big events you might want to relocate the token to the corridor just outside the cafe so anyone returning from the toilets can let themselves in. If you do that when your event ends YOU MUST BRING THE TOKEN BACK IN TO MAKESPACE.

Big events and regular events and tracking attendance

Knowing who attends our events is important for Makespace to demonstrate its reach, which both meets the criteria of our bootstrap grant funding and is likely to unlock future funding opportunities. In particular we have a target to get 500 people each doing 6 hours of Makespace stuff!

So, if your event is 6 hours or longer, please ensure you have a sign in sheet where everyone signs in with their full name and signs to confirm they are attending a 6+ hour event. Once you have this sheet completed please scan it or email an electronic copy to management@makespace.org, so we can report to our funders.

If your event is less than 6 hours long but forms part of a series, for example, a course of 6 or more 1-hour talks or workshops, where you expect many people to attend the whole series, you will want to have a sign in sheet where it's easy to see how many events each person attended. You could use a matrix where each person signs in once and then ticks or signs for subsequent events. Again, once the course is complete (or you have lots of people who have done 6 hours of stuff) please scan it or email an electronic copy to management@makespace.org, so we can report to our funders.

The target is 6 hours in total of engagement and this can be made up of one 6 hour block, several shorter blocks of time, whatever.

Publicity for events

• Events open to Members only can be advertised on the google group and/or on the Meetup group. It's essential that the event clearly indicates that it's members only.
• Events open to the public can be advertised on the Meetup group

You should only have one calling notice (i.e. Meetup event or similar) for each meeting:

If it's a Makespace event, the calendar entry will happen automatically when you create the event on the Makespace meetup group (you need to be a limited owner of the makespace group to be able to control the more subtle aspects of event registration).

If the event is being organised by another group, theirs should be the meetup group (or Eventbrite, or whatever else they use) publicising the event. The room in Makespace should be reserved by adding a calendar entry directly on the calendar tab of the Makespace events page. When you make the calendar entry, include the following information:

• The event name
• The start and end time
• Your name/contact details
• A link to the meeting's calling notice (if appropriate)

For more details see MeetupEvent

Signage

If you are using the classroom or main space and you don't want other members wandering through make sure there's a sign outside to say what the event is and apologising for the inconvenience! If you are using the main space it's almost impossible for people not to wander through.

Space

• Whichever room the event is held in should be returned to its usual layout after the event.
• Events are strongly preferred to take place in the classroom/meetspace, especially if there's more than 10 people attending. Obviously some events may need to be in the main space (eg a 3D printer demo) but remember that use of the main space is more likely to inconvenience other members. (the same applies to events which use specific kit!) As a rule only general interest events which are agreed on list should use the whole main space. If in doubt use the classroom.
• Make sure tables and chairs don't block the fire exits or the paths to them. If you are using the main space, ensure other members can still move between the workshop, cakespace etc.
• Organisers are responsible for cleaning up after events and this should be done immediately after the event, not later in the day or the next morning. If you get food supplies in (e.g. pizza delivery to a hackathon) please take the packaging out to the large external recycling bins (outside the back door of the main space, and up the steps to your right) immediately after the event.

The classroom has a set of folding tables and stacking chairs, and a projector mounted to the ceiling.

Optionally we could alter this policy for all events to be in the classroom unless the google group or the directors agreed otherwise.

Food and drink

• Makespace doesn't provide catering.
• Organisers can arrange food and drink, or use existing honesty box snacks and tea/coffee facilities.
• Alcohol can only be served at events with the prior permission of the Directors. This applies even if there happens to be beer in the kitchen.

The Events calendar

We generally divide each day into morning/afternoon/evening and book time against these slots but more specific times can be used if that helps. Please try to allow at least 30 minutes between two events to let one clear down and the next set up.

Recurring events can occur:

• every day at the same time
• every week at the same time
• every month at the same time defined by day of the week (eg 7pm on the second tuesday of each month)

One-off events are also fine of course :)

For now we will use the Meetup group to schedule events. (We also have a Google calendar but that's not currently in use for community run events)

Contention for space

In the first instance it's first come first served!

If you cannot find a good slot for your event, or there is already an event planned for the slot you want, contact the event organiser (this should be easy to do as they should be identified on the meetup.com listing for the event), and see if you can agree between yourselves who should have which slot.

if you cannot find a slot for your event (for instance, you need an evening slot every 2 weeks and they are all full), email the Google group, and we'll discuss what should happen. If the group doesn't quickly reach a decision, the Directors may arbitrate between groups and may make a final decision if needed.

Events are more likely to receive good slots if they:

• are for members OR are training/outreach for potential new makespace community members
• are makespace ish (see image at bottom of Guiding Principles)
• will pay money to makespace for the event

If contention becomes endemic we will look at ways to manage this but we won't tackle this unless it's a problem.

If events cause you problems...

If an event means you can't use the space or some kit you want to use, or otherwise is a notable inconvenience, or if people attending an event behave in a way which you feel is unsafe or abusive in any way, please let us know on the Google group or by emailing management@makespace so we can figure out if we need to alter this policy or take other action.