Meetings/Planning25-10-2012

Agenda

1. 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?)

2. Community rules discussion

3. Use case exploration and zone-planning

4. What shall we buy with the £1000 available for October from the Kit wishlist: basic infrastructure budget ? How do we decide who decides what we buy? (committee?)

Notes

Action Points:

• John - coordinate painting project on the mailing list (started).
• Chris, Roger and Robert - coordinate building one movable metalwork bench and one movable woodwork bench.
• Electrician (Sorry, I don't know your name) - provide cost estimates for RCD installation.

1. Day one planning.

• Likely that it's possible to schedule work for access control etc. from Monday, but exact dates will depend on availability of contractors.

a) Painting

• Painting will require reasonable prep work and 3-4 days to dry, so represents a reasonably large constraint in the overall schedule.
• We have at least two members who are qualified to erect scaffold towers, although it may be possible to use rollers with long handles.
• Walls and floor in main room are the priority.
• It's worth considering intended use for floor duct in middle of main room before painting the floor.
• AP: John to coordinate painting project on the mailing list.

b) Network infrastructure (added to agenda at meeting)

• We're happy to start with an ad-hoc setup (i.e. trailing cables and mini-switches rather than wall boxes etc.), but review as the system evolves.
• We think we can get by with salvaged / donated kit and borrowed tools.
• If people find useful stuff in good condition (e.g. a rack, rack mount patch panels etc.) it's worth grabbing it now though.

c) Benches

• The current desks aren't really suitable for the intended use cases.
• For metalworking we need either quite sturdy benches attached to the wall or very sturdy freestanding benches. We have permission to bolt things to the wall, but the general feeling was that it would be too inflexible.
• Woodwork and metalwork have different requirements so need different benches.
• Getting a proper shop vac will be desirable soon, but probably not right away.
• AP: (Chris?) Build one movable metalwork bench and one movable woodwork bench.

d) Other infrastructure work

• There is a small amount of electrical work to be done.
• Decision need to be made on circuit protection, particularly RCDs. Options are (i) one RCD overall, (ii) one per circuit (~10-15 circuits), (iii) one per bench. (ii) is most likely, but depends on cost.
• It was generally felt that there will be a need for an infrastructure review in ~6mo to discuss things such as lighting, ventilation, benches, electrics etc. Until then treat on a case-by-case basis as the use of the space evolves.
• We will not remove any compressed air infrastructure for now.
• AP: Electrician to provide cost estimates for RCD installation.

2. Community rules

• Not discussed.

3. Use cases and zone exploration.

• Zoning needs to be based on (a) risk / access control, (b) mess and (c) noise.
• Generally speaking there are various activities which need some separation, and as a result we may need partitions or curtains in the main space.
• However, consensus was that for now dangerous, noisy and (very) messy work could be constrained to the small workshop.
• After a tour of the space the following use of space was proposed:
  • Corridor: storage on wall opposite entrance to main room. There may be demand for secure storage as well as the boxes on shelves.
  • Classroom: available for cleanish work (electronics, textiles etc.), but needs to remain easily convertable back to the classroom configuration.
  • Small workshop: All dangerous, messy or noisy work, including most wood and metalwork (drilling holes with a hand drill is okay elsewhere).
  • Main room: Set up along a clean -> not-so-clean gradient. Corridor end is clean, including electronics bench / component racks etc. on classroom side and 'big table' opposite. Stairs end for large work-in-progress storage, light woodwork etc.
  • Mezzanine rooms: Kitchen and 'cafe' area, to include library facility. Suggestion that the existing stud wall could be truncated and converted to a bar rather than completely removed.
  • Former 'library': overspill for clean end of main room, to be reviewed depending on demand.

4. October expenditure:

• Decisions listed at end of Kit wishlist: basic infrastructure budget.
• General decision-making process wasn't discussed.