Table of Contents

BOTLab Quarterly Members' meeting Q3 2024

Bristol Open Technology Lab C.I.C general meeting

Date/time: 19:00, 23rd July 2024.

Location: Bristol Hackspace, with online option.

Agenda

Trustees report

Committee report

Incidents and complaints review

Open proposals

Moving the craft bench

There is a proposal to move the craft bench to the area where the lab bench is currently. See the forum for more details https://bristolhackspace.discourse.group/t/proposal-moving-the-craft-bench/3077

AOB

Survey results

Discuss the survey results and see if there's anything we want to focus on

Open evenings

Change to the Open Evening schedule and can you help (Can no longer make the meeting so see forum Announcements for information.)

Hack Help threads

Regular forum threads to summarise what needs doing in the Hackspace and help members who want to volunteer find tasks they'll enjoy. The threads will also be a summary and thank you for what has been achieved.

Woodshop dust extraction

Our portable dust extractor is currently dead. We have a few options which could benefit from a discussion:

Meeting Record

Total 24 members present, including 8 proxies.

Trustee report

Committee report

Incidents and complaints

None to report

Open proposals

Move the craft bench

There was a vote for a maximum budget of £200 for any supplies needed for the above. Any extras will require a separate proposal. This vote passed unanimously.

AOB

Survey results

Sam P went through the survey results. For brevity they won't be repeated here. See the forum for details.

There was a discussion on whether to hire a cleaner, but no solid conclusions.

Lab/biohack

Stefan and Kat to work together to safely dispose of chemicals from the lab/biohack area. In the future COSHH and releated procedures should be followed for chemical storage and usage.

CNC room filament

Suggestion of a communal filament drier space beneath the 3D printers. Suggestion for hackspace projects thread.

Community engagement

Ways of engaging people more in the community of the space were considered. Along with is this even a problem? Out of ~480 members there are only a around 10% that are actively responding in the forum or to the survey etc. Is this a problem or just standard for any large group. It was eventually decided that this was reasonable and expected for a group this large.

Ways to monitor usage and people in the space may need to be considered due to issues with cleanliness and lack of people contributing to the space for the number of people.

Reminders to be put out about social evenings on Thursday that are not open evenings to encourage members to turn up.

Access control systems

Work is on going, some teething issues that Sam P is looking into. A further suggestion/ issue was that equipment was being left on i.e. people forgetting to log out and so untrained/uninducted people may inadvertently have access, suggestion to add a timeout timer when there is a low power draw (to avoid turning off the machine while in use).

Shutter door

Access for fob system on the shutter and make it motorised to increase accessibility of the space. This is to go on hackspace projects (see below) – main starting point was to get a quote for motorised security shutter as it has been attempted to be done manually before and this has not gone anywhere

Tidy up

Tidy up this Thursday 25th July to make the hackspace look presentable for insurance quotes and to just have a big tidy up after the survey responses

Table rearrangements

As a suggestion to may the space more communal, moving some of the desks together and some separate. There may be issues with people taking up too much space with large projects so this will need to be consider and may results in small desk spaces again.

Open evenings

Change to the Open Evening schedule and can you help (Can no longer make the meeting so see forum Announcements for information.) https://bristolhackspace.discourse.group/t/change-to-the-open-evenings-in-order-to-prevent-overcrowding/3138

Marsh stepping done from Committee

Hackspace projects

(note: at the meeting this was called hack help, but was renamed to hackspace projects to avoid confusion).

Woodshop dust extraction

Our portable dust extractor is currently dead. We have a few options which could benefit from a discussion:

After a discussion, agreed to connect our main extractor to the island. Felix gave verbal directors approval for H&S spend.

Insurance