Agenda for Thursday 11/10/12

Here's the notes from our first Makespace Founder planning Meeting!

There are a range of things we could talk about this week as noted at Madespace. We should focus on the items needing most urgent decisions, or with long lead times. Perhaps some of:

• Priorities: what’s important first? chairs, internet, kit??
• Community engagement & Culture (this intersects with Rules - eg is alcohol allowed or not) It's important because it will start to crystallise quite quickly, and once a culture is set it will be tough to change
• Where are we on the shiny / less shiny spectrum? (this affects how potential sponsors might view the space, as well as people’s attitudes to the space, whether they feel involved/responsible and so on)
• Donations: what do we take? What do we not take?
• What have we forgotten? What else should we be talking about?
• Makespace Use Cases to inform the use of space
  • What uses can be made of Makespace that aren't represented by current founder community
  • How can the space be arranged to be useful/flexible for these groups
  • When to start reaching out to groups currently not represented
• What furniture should be placed where, what we are missing and could do with
• Timescale targets

Proposed agenda:

1. Introductions

2. Discussion of which topics (as above) should be priorities

3. Selection of 1-2 topics for the evening

4. Working...

5. Wrap up and sharing results

6. Planning next meeting

Notes from the meeting

1. Introductions

About 20 of us at the start and 25 by the end :)

2. Priorities. What are our fixed immovable priorities?

• Priority should be entrance system / fire detection / fire signage

• Internet is also popular

We don't have a timesacle for this stuff yet but we know it's the critical path

Related things:

• Tool safety policies: even if only brought in for personal use, needs to be safe (others nearby could be affected by a dangerous tool). This also means most electrical items need to be PAT tested even if they are for personal use. We can probably avoid this for laptop power supplies / phone chargers as long as they pass a visual safety inspection (no loose wires!) and aren't left on unattended (in case there is any fire risk).

• Rules for being in space - we need two sets, one for now; one for later. There are three lots of rules: community rules - safety rules - values

• access control - rules for last exit

• We should appoint a health and safety officer and a first aid officer

• WE'll need policies and procedures eg for firstaid

• note risks around flourescent lights and rotating machinery

• we expect a basic fablab-level of kit to be ready to go at the start but other types of kit (welding mentioned!) will require a bunch of H&S prep and will be tackled as and when, not day one.

• insurance is ok with kit as long as health and safety rules are followed (PAT testing, signage, safety kit, instructions posted, training or supervised use if required, no lone working if required)

• nice to have: RFID inventory! We need an asset database for insurance, and possibly also so we can monitor (remotely) what is working or broken. Note corner cases of asset register (eg kit on loan).

• what about visitors. need to work out rules for visitors (either "escorted guests" or "event attendees") at a future meeting. Children: allowed in space if escorted (no more than 1 child per adult), cannot be paying members, cannot use kit unless all rules followed (in some cases, not at all).

fab lab vs tech shop

described various options.

• do we want to have totally dependable kit / functions -- even commercial users might not depend upon kit being available.

• tidyness: we think it is fine to tidy up kit which is looking abadoned and isn't labelled.

• who do we moan at if we're a member of the community?

- committee formation (TBC) - if stuff breaks do we self-organise and try to fix it, or is there an official fixing person... - who is authorised to spend money? - maintenance committee - who at least identify who could repair it... - key thing is that members know what to do - clarity on how to tackle a problem - and sometimes we might not want someone overconfident to attempt a fix... - equipment database - broken stuff marked asap - may also mail a contact - makespace.org/ibrokeit or breakspace@makespace.org

• Intellectual property - your problem. Makespace doesn't care if you patent, release openly, or whatever. If you need to hide your stuff hide it (but you might be better off not working in a shared space if that's the case!)

• agreed we all want collaboration in the space

• remember founders aren't representative of everyone. There are many user groups who aren't here tonight, who aren't interested in hacking the space until there's kit here and so on. We need to consider those people too

• sleek vs random/rougher - perhaps appropriate spaces for different use cases?

• what spaces are what: classroom is for quiet meetings, not for hammering... also for external groups

• Shiny enough to be respected but not ludicrously so

• different behaviour standards in different areas

• balance of number of rules - not too many, not too few.

Use Cases

We did a shout out of use cases for the people in the room

• come with laptop, get coffee, work on laptop quietly , plug RPi into something, and work with someone else to fix the circuit and do whiteboard ideas

• space to come to, drink coffee, bounce ideas with others, then use kit I don't have at home (larger: mills, lathes, CNC router) x10 people

• part of space nice couches to discuss things, cosy, but also somewhere to come for soldering to play around with things. sewing machines, fixing broken things

• autocad inventor full system on a desktop machine

• autocad tuition / sessions - for surface design, for 3d things,

• lectures on things

• work harder metal than i can at home with more precision than i can at home (more than 1mm precision) - tool part tooling x3

• classes on workflows eg 3d printing (design, manufacture, etc)

• teaching - some interest but no specifics.

• be a mentor. Be mentored "electronics expert will be here on monday night"

• come after work, a couple of nights a week, microwave for ready meal. facilities for software, pcb etching, soldering, lathes, welding

• craft knife and scissors area for simple clean work eg textiles where the surface is nice and clean

• space where it's ok to leave some messy bits or sawdust!

• drying area for things to set or glue

• curtains for spatter areas

• MDF is carcinogenic - proper extractors

• welding (after-meeting discussion about whether we can in the first instance offer welding via peer to peer kit loan (not involving makespace cambridge ltd) or via partnership with others who have workshops in the region)

• surface mount assembly

• makespace goes beyond the wall - we can have partnerships with other workshops!!

• desktop power supplies, scope, multimeter, logic analyser

• components kitty - resistors etc

• want to bring some friends / students to show them round. bring students to show and tell quadcopters, and get ideas from whoever is around.

• bring kids to space at the weekend to come in, make some things, see what's going on

• engineering education in schools - mentoring school groups - potential access to show and tell school groups. and potentially to do some work

• goal: use lots of 3d printers. any would be useful. but a good one would be nice. at the same time low end one for try outs would be good. Multiple 3d printers!

• come from office, laser cut some bits, back to office

• extra monitors for laptop use

• good bit of space for test gear - not next to noisy/vibration stuff; good lighting environment

• equally quiet spaces are common, you can go anywhere for that

• space to talk which isn't super noisy - cafes close at 5pm, pubs are rowdy

• "library" - quiet space for research, coding,

What can we founders do next? and other questions

• people want to meet people as much as make things!

• elevenses in common room - enforced nattering at fixed time. at for day time people, for evening people, for weekend people

• Do we want a TV?
• Do we want a radio?

- both cultural questions and licencsing one. No decision. 

• people who want to do quiet work and have a break without necessarily being sociable.

• what about coworking?

- proposal that Full members could opt in to pay a topup if they were regular users
- ideaspace - £300/mth or £6o for no fixed desk
- don't want to be full of coworkers who don't care about making
- RFID logging - good for usage tracking. WE'll know more from real space usage patterns. But beware: data protection questions!  (can we do anonymised data? what about secure server?)
-  equally if people pay more, we get good money
- no guarantee of quiet or of desk

• bookshelf for 3d printing mags, old o'reilly cave at heffers

community rules

NOtes here, draft at Community Rules

• what is unacceptable behaviour

- if you use the kit in a way which is concerning to others (for whatever reason) - then that's banned
- unacceptable behaviour might involve kit or the space or other members or visitors. 
- if someone calls you out on unacceptable behaviour then stop

• no individuals to bring alcohol? is alcohol essential to culture? (DEFINITELY no individuals to use kit after drinking, anyway)

- tough one - "if you are done for the day, you can have a drink, but then NO kit" - question as to whether "one drink at the end of the day" is a slippery slope to lots of drinks - decision of committee is final. - This question was NOT RESOLVED.

• no overnight sleeping in the space

- it's a creeping thing.

- Achieve a culture where we can talk about it, without splitting hairs about definition of sleep...

- a known issue for other spaces.

• Rules are there for the people who have to enforce them.

• OPEN QUESTION about level of rules: do we have rules which are tough and turn the odd blind eye to minor infractions, or relaxed rules but if there's a problem then raise it.

• we can change the rules!

• resource allocation - eg for 2 day print jobs - a question for future discussion (or for tackling when we hit the problem)

Community values

Notes here, working document Community Values

• People using kit should be in a fit state to do so

• don't piss off others - do unto others - be respectful

• safety first

• be reasonable

• respect diversity of space users

• encourage and support beginners / anyone / all skill&knowledge levels

• feel able/entitled/required to stop unsafe happenings

• collaboration is good

• collectively improving space - everyone's responsibility to make it better

• respect the space

• collective ownership of makespace

• MORE than : leave this space as you'd like to find it

• the space is everyone's

• reporting accidents/mistakes/damage etc is encouraged - not a blame culture.

(do we want confidential/anonymous reporting? for reporter or for who is being reported about -- yes )

• makespace is always a work in progres???? (no agreement on that one)

• inclusivity -- welcoming to all

• fun (not compulsory though!)

• asking questions is encouraged "ask questions" - alwayas acceptable to ask (but don't feel bad if you can't answer right then)

• don't treat any question as stupid

• it's a shared space and shared kit - be conscious of others

• we're all here to learn&improve

• share and enjoy