Meetings/Planning16-10-2012

Agenda (we only managed to get through the bits in bold!)

1. Welcome

2. Health and Safety rules and requirements discussion

- Fire risk assessments and responsible people

- First aid risk assessments and responsible people

- Electrical safety

- Overall risk assessments

- Health and safety policy drafting

- (workshop equipment specifically we'll probably come to in a later meeting)

3. Day 1 planning: what needs to get done once the access control+insurance are in place?

- Painting? Which areas? This is *much* easier with an empty space, especially if painting concrete floor.

- Building/buying/installing benches? Where, how many

- other important 'infrastructure' bits that should/need to happen early (additional lighting?, ventilation?)

4. Community rules discussion

5. Use case exploration and zone-planning

6. AOB

Meeting notes

We had about 14 people in total, a great turnout for health and safety!

Health and Safety rules and requirements discussion

• We talked through a description of H&S, fire and FA policies. Essentially we need a written Health and Safety policy, a written fire policy, and a written first aid policy. These will be formal documents approved by the board of Makespace Cambridge Ltd but can be public and created in a collaborative style :) The policies then need to be followed and there might be signs around the space, or things written in the Rules, which form part of the policies. The Health and Safety policy describes how we handle various risks, and alongside it we will have a set of Risk Assessments. A risk assessment isn't a big scary thing: it's just a way of setting out: (1) what's the worst that could happen, (2) how likely is it to happen, (3) What are we going to do about it. An example might be: (1) someone could trip and injure themselves on this uneven floor; (2) it's reasonably likely because the floor is uneven and it's a walkway; (3) we will use black and yellow tape to mark the uneven patch so people spot it. Each of the 3 policies will include named individuals who are responsible for certain things. These might be the directors of the Makespace company (on whose necks this all is) but they may at some point feel able to delegate some or all of the responsibility.

• Although we aren't an employer directly right now, our insurance covers employees and volunteers as the same thing, and as such we expect to follow workplace-style practices in Makespace.

• It may seem odd that things you can do at home without turning a hair aren't possible in the space. That's because the space isn't your home - this is significant - it's a public space and/or a workplace (effectively) and so extra guidance applies.

• We'll have first versions of the 3 policies for "now", and new versions for when we are open, as the risks change then.

• We'll be putting up the HSE (health and safety executive) poster about workplace safety. most of it won't really apply - because we aren't actually employees - but it's a requirement. Note that we're a limited company, not an informal group.

• Each new activity, or equipment item, or material, will need a risk assessment. most of these will be written down but some might be quite informal. For instance, laura bringing in her laptop and charger doesn't need a written risk assessment - a visual inspection shows they are very low risk and so we don't need to worry. The worst that could happen and the likelihood of that happening are not big worries. WE can start with fewer RAs in place and add more as we go.

• Working at height - going up a ladder - has an actual legal basis, and as such is different to other risks. We'll need to be extra careful (and we should look into what it entails)

• The policies need to be reasonable. We don't need a written document for every tiny risk. At the same time, we can't have a blanket "you are all adults and the risks are down to you as individuals to figure out" - that's not reasonable enough :) Risk assessments are an enabler. They help us all understand that if we follow some basic things, we are good to do what we want. It's guidelines and a checklist to help you feel confident and safe. If you can look at the risk assessment for the drilling you plan to do, and see it's fine as long as you wear safety goggles, and makespace is providing goggles for you, then you know you can go ahead :)

We then talked about some specifics...

• does everyone who comes in have to sign something? All Founders will be signing something before they get full access to the space, and all Members will too. It will be the membership agreement (linked from makespace.org, possibly with revisions) which also requires that they abide by the posted Rules. note Rules may get updated; the membership agreement generally won't. For escorted guests (Bob, a member, brings George along) they will sign in at the door, where there will be a poster or website displaying the Rules which apply to their visit. Bob is responsible for George whilst he's in the space and has to ensure George follows the rules, otherwise there will be consequences for Bob (maybe he gets banned). For public events, we might have a guest book or not - we don't know yet. But certainly such public visitors won't be using kit except under instruction, and probably at the start of an event someone will stand up and say "here are the fire exits, don't XYZ" as normal at such events. The signing goes alongside an induction for Members. If new kit comes along that needs new induction, an existing member can't use it until they have taken the extra new induction, but of course they can be in the space near it.

What are the risks in Makespace today?

• slipping and falling; uneven floors in workshop

• standing on desks / chairs

• unwired 3 phase

• heavy lifting - poster on manual handling

• getting trapped in the corridor outside the toilet if out of hours (the soon-to-be fire door is locked at that time)

• (if you can think of anything else, please add it here!)

Then activities we might be doing quite soon:

• soldering

• sewing

• (anythign else? for these we'll aim to use template risk assessments from other makerspaces as a starting point)

Other things to think about:

• avoiding other people using tools - if you don't know how to use it or whether it's safe for you to be close, stand back

• people’s own projects - if there’s a risk to others, please label it. If it isn't what it looks like, label it. "Buttons are not toys!" "This is a hot air gun not a hairdryer"

• specific risks - e.g. unlit stairs out the back (no handrail?) -- need to talk to the university about getting this sorted

• Current signed fire exits which are not fire exits any more. Replace plastic sign on front of light boxes to say "not a fire exit"

Fire safety

• How many people can we have in the space? regulations are usually more informal for low numbers. In discussions with the univresity we've talked about up to 120 in the space. we do not have a formal maximum person limit imposed

• should we get fire authority to check space? (no one in the meeting knew)

• fire extinguishers. We have some - they are untested. We'll need to check how many we need and ensure they are regularly tested.

• Once the smoke detectors are installed, they will be connected to the building fire system. There are existing sounders in the space which are sufficient according to the university fire officer. (note if we have loud equipment, we might need to think about whether we need flashing alarms too!) We have break glass units to trigger the alarm. Can we cancel it if it goes off? Probably not. It might be nice to have the phone number for the fire office somewhere anyway.

• there was some interest in getting fire training from the "university fire in a van" people

• a landline phone might be useful for some of this H&S stuff

• do we need fire marshals? Two possibilities: (1) formal; (2) informal for big events to sweep space. The latter is not onerous. Perhaps public events

above N people where you need someone named to take responsibility, we'd want to have at least one

• audible only - special procedures for deaf people, for loud equipment, wheelchair users. This suggests an induction item - do you have any disabilities??

• great reference at sja.org - regulatory reform for fire safety - responsible person takes responsibility and appoints fire marshals. There's also a detailed guide to fire risk assessment [1]

• Lone working - we don't think we need any special rules, except for certain pieces of kit. It's ok to be alone in the space in general. we do not think there is any requirement for a lone worker to "call in" regularly or at all to announce that they are there.

• RichW, ChrisE - poss fire marshals

• storage of flammable materials - risk assessments of materials rather than activities - then you have suitable housing - COSHH regulations. Also think about plastics burning producing toxic gases….

• all FMs could be firemarshalls - easy - you want a good number

• Have a Checklist for kit and materials coming in - it’s a risk assessment - materials, fire, THIS IS A RISK ASSESSMENT. Even for personal use. How much needs to be written down and how much is a personal assessment where it’s ok? Guidelines for oK things? checklist: what’s ok to bring in; what’s not; what to do if you are unsure. can we just do risk assessments via a web form which logs… and a searchable DB so you can see if someone did it before and grab an understandable thing. Online is also useful, people can see what they need to think about, and offer updates if regs or tech changes

• updates about risk, rules etc -> will be sent to everyone via email. can people use makespace if they don’t have home/mobile internet?

There will be a kiosk computer on site for access to makespace stuff e.g. kit db, risk assessments,

First aid risk assessments and responsible people

• can we offer training?

• First aid qualifications time out - you have to redo every so often

• enough FMs with existing First aid? Not sure. - workplace first aid training is a specific grade of training - St Johns Ambulance offer voluntary (free) training.

• fairly sure that there’s no requirement for a FA on site (except for public events over a certain size, when we might need one - need to check) Having some number of random members/Founders trained would be sufficient for normal use as there would be reasonable odds that one or more of them would be in the space. Of course it's not essential that we have a FA on site at all times - think of offices, where often the FA might be away or already left or whatever.

• landline might be useful for contacting emergency services

• most first aid incidents will be either "plaster" or "ambulance"

• quite a few people happy to be trained… we should look at whether we can offer this.

Electrical safety

We discussed and the notes are now over on the Electrical safety policy page.

• PAT testing -

• bit of kit to check earth insulation - can sticker the kit to say it was done. £400.

• but other kit might need approved person??

• pat-testing.info & wikipedia

• things you use every day at work need to be tested

• exemptions for random stuff

• suggestion that the community work up a PAT policy on the wiki

• experimental / home made kit - if it’s mains - whole bunch of law. own project, for you to look up

• maybe we have a list of approved people who can sign drawn from FM community

• might be good to have someone other than the person who se kit it is looking at it.

Health and safety policy drafting

• Templates and guidance from HSE

• note we can't just reuse existing ones! We do need to think and edit. Nice to add floor plans to our policy. Also want to look at existing ones from other makerspaces.

- (workshop equipment specifically we'll probably come to in a later meeting)

Personal storage policy : what can we store

Now a working draft on Personal Storage Policy

• No smouldering materials

• No hazardous materials (COSHH) - every material has a cosh thing saying whether it needs marking, can be put in cupboard, etc. if obviously hazardous, need to get sheet and read it and follow any storage procedure

• Things should be labelled and appropriately packaged

• no food not securely packed

• no explosives

• no radioactive, chemicals, bio hazards, fuming or odorous, illegal

• what about paint stripper? you buy consumer grade thing, but now it’s in a workplace, print the data sheet and store on file. If there’s a symbol on the

back or you don’t want to drink it … orange symbol - means worry about it.

• if you make a new chemical - you don’t know if it has an orange sq - so don’t store it without checking

• note that donations might be hazardous :) stuff at home is ok but it’s not ok at works premises

• Random inspections!

• if it looks hazardous, a metal flammable liz cupboard

safestorage.co.uk

• if you printed the MSDS sheet, the sheet goes in a folder.

• no noise emitting things (no beeps every hour)

• “no active things” but ok for silent digital watch

• nothing that affects people working around it or things in adjacent

• no hot / light / emissions

• lids secured or marked or packed, (e.g. knives) , marked if super heavy

• LI ion batteries - commercial off the shelf batteries in own covering OK, your own project, not.

• fire proof areas for battery charging

• no unattended charging of non-off-the-shelf Li Ions or using non-off-shelf chargers

• Nothing obviously dangerous or illegal :)

Visible summary rules - detailed page linked off (broad rules with lots of examples)

AOB - engagement plan

We need to write an engagement plan to receive the next tranch of funds (£10000). It would be great to include all the ideas from the community. We hope to have this plan written by early November.

The plan needs to show how, during 2013, we'll engage 500 people, each for a total of 6 hours, around Makespace stuff. The engagement doesn't have to be in the space (although we'd expect a lot of it would be). The 6 hours don't have to be at once - it could be a series of 6 1 hour talks. We don't have to be supercareful about tracking the attendees but we will be trying to do this, so having a way of showing who's turned up for what will be necessary.

It would be good to gather ideas here, estimate number of people / hours that could be achieved with each, and flesh each out into a nice description that makes it clear what the activity would look like, who it would attract, and so on.

Bear in mind we'll be executing this plan later :)

All the ideas are now on Ideaspace engagement plan - go add yours, and help us estimate how many people we can engage!

Rules discussion

• want to keep to few and concise

• do we want Rules and Guidelines? separated out?

• need to have an authority who adjudicates… ‘if you break a rule or a guideline, case refereed to X committee’

• the lots of people who will use makespace are an unknown, even if we have confidence in the FOunder Members. Later there will be many more...

• simple -> just Rules

• for some things, guidelines which are flexible might be more useful - don’t force people to split hairs. more willing to self-police on Guidelines than on Rules.

• guidelines - more value oriented or outcome oriented, less specific stuff.

• we agreed to wait and see how the Rules look, and then examine them to figure out whether we think some might be better as guidelines.

Also discussed:

• importance of mission statement - everyone knows it - do we want one?

(what would it be??) Let us know: Mission statement

• Creation of 'what's being discussed' wiki page Currently active and interesting