Meetings/Planning12-02-2013

1. What's the opening date

- What does it mean to be 'open' - should we open for new members *before* a press event?
- What should the opening event be?
- When is the next Makernight

Vetting discussion:

We vetted Founders (at least by ensuring LJ/SF/JA had met them) SCale of vetting options - from super formal to none Experience of spaces is varied Guest policy remains the same when we are open - so we must trust members to bring people Vetting is something volunteers must do, adds to burden

Sense that we don’t want a “existing member rec”

Probationary period - full access, review after 3m ? First period, you can only come when there’s people here, or for events?

Mentor for new members to support them

Induction event - where others around - show you around, chat etc - before we invest in training etc. “welcome/meeting/hacking” night.

“collect tokens to become a member”

The worst case scenario - someone signs up, steals all the kit, and torches the place. Or community bad egg

Take or check proof of identity

Take a photo

Conditions for membership - come to a Maker Night, and have a FM happy at the end of the event that you should be a member, and then go into induction process.

- make it not too scarily social?  Don’t want people to be scared off!  
 - need to support people who won’t hack on day one
- take their address, and mail them what they need to become a member (e.g. mail form, they bring it back with photo or passport photocopy, and then handover key)
- special Maker Nights when new members are welcome - including tour etc. that’s where we take the address
- then people come back to get the induction stuff

• JA etc to draft process

the kinds of opening

We have two lists - stuff that needs to get done before we can open at all (i.e. take on new non-founder members), and stuff that needs to be done before we can have a Grand Opening (with press, etc). The Grand Opening stuff looks fairly easy except the need for notice for VIPs etc!

4-6 weeks notice for openings

John Sturdy - invite international hackserspaces!

May need to RSVP - reserve spaces for VIPs

the main opening - taking on members

Who is going to DO what?

• induction programme & tracking & delivery plan

- what do they need to know
- how do we track what’s done (e.g. key fob get, laser cutter training, etc)
- which volunteers do induction when?

1) a minimum induction similar to what FMs had - write 2) a passport which is stamped/signed to show training has happened and a plan for each thing. Could be paper. Could be a protected wiki page (founders sign off only)…. - tick sheet system 3) volunteer delivery plan - rota 4) induction flow chart

1,2,3 need to be signed off by JA/LJ/SF

• first aid

- need a policy for how we risk assess

- needs a plan for how we delivery it (buying things, training people, having rotas)

• fire docs

question of fire marshals vs roll call - needs a plan

fire safety policy needs refreshing - and we can talk to fire brigade for advice

John Sturdy to check

• Safety goggles in workshop

Induction - there will always be kit which not everyone is trained on. (e.g. new kit) Have to trust people not to use stuff they aren’t trained on. New members - no workshop access to start with.

H&S policy - drawing from best practice elsewhere. Eg safety goggles in workshop. We have signs - we ask people to do it - we’ll have lots of goggles. We expect people to follow it.

• events framework

for recurring and one-off events - a framework that helps people organise events

• Kitchen

- will be done in time

• refreshed H&S policy

- LJ  / JA

• kit risk assessments & c

- each piece of kit needs an owner
- each kit to have

1) proper RA (for the file) 2) friendly description of risk for people who are using kit 3) instructions for kit 4) training programme for kit

plus the same for the general workshop! (workshop safety)

note it takes a lot of time to do a good training and risk assessment! e.g. laser cutter experience. An induction on the laser takes a chunk of time.

Note induction and training are different. Induction “this is a lathe, this is what you can do with it” - suitable for anyone!. Training = more intense, depends on skill level of member, what people want to do. (Laser is unusual because everyone has the same experience level). Lathe is an example of a very serious bit of kit needing proper education.

How often do volunteers run induction, and how often do they have appetite for it? Can we make life nicer for the people doing inductions if we have a rush on? (trainers are there for consistency and quality on training piece; then there’s a first task with oversight (takes time!). Could some of this be turned into video and/or a training manual with nice pictures?)

• there should be a meeting for all the people who “own” kit to talk this through.

• set expectations for new members - it may be a while before we can induct you, even a few months, because we’re getting set up.

Docs are hard to write - because people really do do stupid things, that’s why they are long. each item is because a FM has done something stupid. probably 50% members complained rules too long - people either read them, or don’t at all.

• LJ - write a good intro!

• partition rules down to pieces of kit

• comic photos for rules to liven it up. (JA)

• quiz checklist (LJ & JA)

if we don’t have basic induction including workshop, what’s the problem? might want some duplicate tools…

• revised membership guidelines (LJ/JA)

• FAQ on website (LJ)

the Grand opening needs…

• 4-6 weeks notice
• invite guests
• media
• answer to kid friendly question
• wall of founders and sponsors
• clear expectations of what we are

the membership level

We expect to offer just a £40 per month membership in the first instance.

Note student/unwaged may/should be able to get support e.g. corporate sponsorship so they don’t have to pay the full amount.

What about a minimum 3 month commitment? not great if we have waiting time for induction! equally it’s not a service space

what about people who are on a month, off a month? generally would want to discourage this !

Joining fee? Gyms offer more of a service than us?

Your induction takes a while, so a minimum term of 3 months, which is how long it will take to induct you - the lost cost is your ‘joining fee’

“you should expect to be a member for at least 3 months because it may take us that long to set you up” you only have to pay month by month - but expectation of minimum 3 months.

if people want to do one specific thing, you can do that at open maker night

the basic opening

target date - end Feb?

could do a lot of it in parallel !

4 bigger tasks

inductions - could be deferred until later than the opening if we don’t have everything in place - if 28 Feb was a sign up day, not an induction day (1-2 weeks later)

AIM to say we are open and publish on 28th Feb the date of the first ever Maker Night thing in 2 weeks from then (mid March).

OR

Can we be more aggressive and have the event on 28th?

We should try to be aggressive!

2. When we open, how should clubs and other groups use Makespace?

- Should they pay?
- Is there an appropriate ratio of members/guests?

3. What needs doing before we open?

This is about assigning responsibility for jobs

Other business

• CUER car support for electrics etc