Date/time and location: 7pm, Tuesday 26th April 2016 at the Hackspace

• Meeting frequency
• Monitoring hackspace usage/whosin. PIR sensor, or escalate to webcam?
• Identifying how problems are caused. Encourage membership contribution. Also, see above.
• Imposing penalties. Relates to formalising hackspace membership, and ability to impose some penalty.
• Kiln?
• The year ahead: EMF camp, Bristol MakerFaire (set a brief).
• Cash & Budget
• Petty cash system
• Electrical Supply and Distribution
  • G10 single phase sockets
  • G10 3 phase power
  • G11 Sockets
    • I feel that the underlying cause of things being left on is: hidden sockets, poor labelling, excessive use of extension leads and multi way adaptors, and poor compliance with safe working practice and Hackspace rules. Adding timers to this lot is a bodge not a solution to the underlying problem.
• Consumables Procedure: I ask the meeting to:
  • Approve the attached procedure
  • Request an initial budget of £1000 which is topped up by £80 per calendar month.
  • Plan to implement it at the next maintenance weekend.
  • Documents:
  • Significant Comments from email & other discussion:
    • Nic Marshall: We should also make these documents links on the laser computer. Perhaps there can be hackspace account for ebay, rs components etc when buying stuff online. This can take money from the hackspace funds directly. The person ordering could then send a receipt to the finance guy. Only a few agreed people would have this kind of access.
    • Committee meeting 2016/4/12: Consumables. Proposal for consumables paid for by the hackspace: Maintain a list on wiki of components that the hackspace will pay for without requiring formal proposal (John Willis has created a list already). Members buy components, and get refunded by hackspace. Items can be added to/removed from the list, at the quarterly members meeting. Upper limits on how much (price/quantity) to be considered. Action: take forward to members meeting for discussion/acceptance. Delegate sections of the list to specialists.

• People

• Meeting frequency: yes, switch to meetings every 2 months. Have committee meetings and members' meetings on alternate months.
• Monitoring hackspace usage and sensors:
  • General concern over privacy/intrusiveness. Could store only last image, to alleviate concerns? Why do we want it? Know how much the space is used, help members without a key to access space. This is useful, capturing e.g. motion sensors only. Segued onto:
• Identifying how problems are caused: DW: another application that has been mentioned could be to monitor . PD: could have a camera to monitor entry exit. MT: but that sort of evidence is not always possible to use even if available. JW: use swipe-card, also provides potential sanction by temporarily disabling card from usage. TG: swipe-cards have limited reliability due to tailgating, cameras have problems but might also have usefulness. DH: what are transgressions? H&S? Better answer is to instill a better culture in space. Theft? No occurrences so far. JW: tidying up after using workshop. MT: should encourage people to report faults not blame them for doing so. AA: Need better communication, many members aren't on mailing list. JD: Make it easier to report faults SV: Have a policy to clear up afterwards, DH: we already have this, and it's getting better! NM: in community workshops people need an incentive to tidy up, some untidyness is frequent. MT: members need to encourage other members to tidy up, NM but it builds up little-by-little and inevitably adds up to a big effort. TG: it is possible to ensure work is divided equally between all members from other examples, reaffirm to members what things ought to be like. PD: need to ensure new members understand how the space works and ought to work incl. clearing up afterwards. AA: one way of doing this is via better signage. MT: are there rewards we could give for good behaviour? TG: concerns over rare events where people are being irresponsible - this is something other members should and do help with. TS: possible for members to go via committee, publicise act but not specific persons. JW: concerns that processes are not being followed e.g. laser cutter materials. TS: Need a members' handbook for how to do things e.g. editing wiki, to improve communications. JW: *ask* for members to contribute time as well as money, just as a soft request? PD/MT: give time in exchange for money? DH: if we have the right culture, hopefully we shouldn't need to request this.
• Imposing penalties: AA: better to have incentives! TS: constitution doesn't specify sanctions, do we need a formally approved mechanism for committee to revoke membership of individuals in extreme circumstances? DH: potentially, hopefully shouldn't be needed if other systems working well. Action: TS check constitution, review next meeting.
• Kiln acquisition: still probably available, size unknown. Space is a concern. JW: need to define floorplan, where it could be put. DW/JW: concerns over infrastructure for kiln, esp. extraction. NM: don't believe that kilns require extraction from previous experience. MT: concerns over people using inappropriate materials in kiln. DH: concern over liability of committee from inappropriate activities. NM: rationally, we have reached capacity in our space and cannot accommodate without removing other things. Many would like a kiln in principle, PD has a small kiln at home. MT: perhaps needs to be a more considered approach, write up as a proposal with appropriate measures to set things up properly. TG: reqts for a kiln would be a useful input into discussions on future spaces. NM offers to find out more details and possibly write up a proposal, PD offers to bring in her kiln to look at
• The year ahead:
  • EMF camp: some people are going
  • Bristol MakerFaire (set a brief): sometime in August, we should go and we might have volunteers to staff it. Potentially collaborate on projects? Action: TS to talk to Ruth who is organising to pin down the dates.
  • PD: Festival of Nature in June, aimed at children. Present slime mould? JW: concerned over volunteers. JW: will talk to Ben about doing Biohack there.
  • SV: at Open Studios people commented they enjoyed meeting other BV Studios people. DH offers to look into
• Cash & Budget: details available on wiki. DH: other pending purchases including insurance, business rates, chemical cabinet, wiring in G10. JW: produce cashflow forecast? DH: concerns over effort required to produce it. Concerns over liability of committee over H&S and expense required to operate in a safe way. Directors need separate liability insurance, will be covered in policy. Potential to take on a new space in future, lead from Open Studios from a prospective councillor. Current cashflow would not support much additional space. Need to clarify who's a member and who isn't, concerns over nonmembers using space - NM not often, DH very frequently.
• Petty cash system
• Electrical Supply and Distribution
  • G10 single phase sockets
  • G10 3 phase power
  • G11 Sockets
    • I feel that the underlying cause of things being left on is: hidden sockets, poor labelling, excessive use of extension leads and multi way adaptors, and poor compliance with safe working practice and Hackspace rules. Adding timers to this lot is a bodge not a solution to the underlying problem.
• Consumables Procedure: I ask the meeting to:
  • Approve the attached procedure
  • Request an initial budget of £1000 which is topped up by £80 per calendar month.
  • Plan to implement it at the next maintenance weekend.