BOTLab Quarterly Members' meeting Q2 2023

Bristol Open Technology Lab C.I.C AGM

Date/time: 19:00, 11th April 2023.

Location: Bristol Hackspace, with online option.

Directors report

Presenting of previous FY accounts - Nick

Business rates changes - Felix

Revaluation of the premises means the Hackspace will be liable for some business rates from April 1st! (amount still pending outcome of several relief applications)

Incoming work to standardise inductions - Matt

Will be rolling out more formal risk assessments across all major tools over the coming months, and producing an induction template referring back to the risk assessment to ensure the inductions are an adequate mitigation across all equipment.

Closure of old wiki - Felix

Most equipment information appears to have been copied across, last call to copy any pages before I pull the plug.

Incidents and complaints review

Open proposals

Hot works proposal / metal shop update - Alex

The total cost is £3823

This proposal seeks to build a welding bay in compliance with all relevant health and safety legislation such that we can safely use our donated MIG welder. This will also enable us to to introduce further hot-works capabilities relatively easily in the future.

Proposal below: welding_proposal.pdf

Wood shop extraction improvements - Sam P

This is a proposal for a higher powered dust extractor to replace our existing green machine. The proposed extractor is 2hp instead of 1hp, has a cartridge filter to catch dust as small as 1 micron, and uses a clear collection bag so it’s easy to know when to empty.

The total cost is £815.94 and consists of the following items:

The T joint in the corner will be removed as the replacement extractor has two 100mm outlets. The 45 degree angles are to provide a more gradual curve than the current 90 corner for the workbench wall.

3D printer mk3.9 upgrade proposal - Sam C

Discussed on forum

Should we put a deposit down for a Prusa XL - Felix

Deposit is £179 and is refundable should we wish to withdraw from the queue.

Metal shop precision machining discussion - Drew

Drew cannot attend and would like to propose this next members meeting.

Updates to Fair Use Guide + Terms and Conditions - Felix and Matt

Adopting the folding of expected behaviour and information into the ‘Hackspace Manual’ to keep distinct from formal BOTLab policies. (Action point from previous meeting) Includes clarity updates to scope of fair use, consumables, repairs, recent changes to proposals and donation policies.

Updates for clarity of wording to formal policies.

Draft wording can be found here.

(Proposed changes to membership policy part of separate charity proposal)

Proposed conversion of Bristol Open Technology Lab from CIC (company) to CIO (charity) - Felix

Special resolution - requires 75% majority to pass.

The proposal is to begin the process of converting the community interest company that administers the hackspace to a charitable incorporated organisation, and provisionally adopt a compatible constitution based upon the Charity Commission model articles as well as update the Hackspace terms to codify public benefit. This process is not instant and will take effect upon ratification by the Charity Commission.

This change offers the following benefits;

Formally codifies the Hackspace's not-for-profit status and public benefit aims
Opens eligibility to funding, grants and corporate donations only available to charities
Potential for 25% gift aid on a portion of membership donations from UK tax paying individuals
Reduction in tax and business rates exposure - see above point re rates

As the CIO structure is similar to a CIC, and intended to reduce the barrier to entry to charity status, these benefits can be realised with minimal additional admin overhead. Additionally the proposed constitution has minimal practical material changes. The proposed document follows the Charity Commission's guidance where it departs from our current constitution in the following areas and these should be discussed at the meeting as they are harder to change later;

Time for a member to submit a response to a hearing to terminate membership - changes from 14 to 21 days
Quorum at a general meeting - changes from 10% to 5% of membership

(See December 2023 meeting for documents)

Proposed membership policy

Proposed change to governance structure - Matt

This proposal is to create a Management Committee empowered with the day-to-day running of the space, which is separate from the directors/trustees of BOTLab, and with the aim of realising the following benefits:

Resolve current barriers to getting involved in running the space, by making it easier, quicker, and less daunting to do so.
Ensuring Hackspace's structure is more appropriate for it's current size and better able to adapt to future growth.
Improving stability and continuity on the board of directors/trustees.

Narrative:

Currently, the directors undertake a combined role - both the running of the Company BOTLab, and the day-to-day management of the space itself. The majority of the director's time goes to the latter.

These role were combined several years ago, at a time when hackspace suffered from a lack of membership engagement. By combining roles we ensured we made the most of the small number of highly-engaged people who wanted to put time and energy towards Hackspace.

Since then, Hackspace has gotten bigger, it's got a lot more members, and it's got much more ambitious, especially the quality and breadth of facilities we try to offer. All of this means we would benefit from the structured input of more people in order to run as smoothly as we all would like.

Happily, alongside this growth, there has been a substantial rise in the level of enthusiasm from members to help run the space. However our current setup now presents barriers to harnessing this enthusiasm, because getting involved typically involves the bureaucracy, vetting, time-commitment, and potential liability of directorship.

Additionally, the current setup also limits our flexibility to respond to growth or changing needs, because changing the number of directors in non-trivial and we already have an anomalously large number of directors.

Details:

A Managing Committee will be established, as a direct replacement for our current board of directors in ~90% of their present duties.

Election to the committee will be by vote at any General Meeting rather than only the AGM. Appointments last for a year by default, but committee-members can step down at any time, with the post being refilled at the next General Meeting.

As with the current directors, committee members will each have a named portfolio/role as an area of focus.

The initial committee portfolios will be based on held by the current directors, as follows: Finance, Safety, Infrastructure, Membership, Community, Web, and Supplies.

The committee can, by a majority committee vote establish, change, merge, or remove committee posts as they see fit.

The board of trustees will be slimmed down to 5, with no designated roles other than sectary and treasurer.

Trustee appointments will be by AGM vote, but with longer staggered appointments so that the entire board is not up for election at the same time.

Committee members can also be trustees, and it's a requirement that at least one person hold both roles.

The committee will look after:
1. Day-to-day running of the space
2. Day-to-day running of our online presence, social media, and forum
3. Membership admin / onboarding / offboarding / etc
4. Procurement via the proposals system, consumables system, and maintenance fund, within a quarterly operational budget
5. Handling complaints, unless or escalating them to the directors
6. Committee administration (creation of posts, appointments, etc)

The trustees will look after:
1. BOTLab's finances, and our core financial obligations (rent, rates, etc)
2. Arranging and chairing General Meetings
3. Setting and making available to the committee a quarterly operational budget
4. Vetting any spending beyond the operational budget
5. Handling any complaints escalated by the committee
6. Setting safety and compliance policy

(NB: this proposal assumes the passing of Felix's change to a charity. IF this does not pass, substitute trustee for director above)

Election of new governance team

The following assumes the passing of the above changes to company and governance structures:

Members standing for a trustee role must be aware they will be required to certify eligibility to hold the office of a charity trustee in England and Wales (See eligibility declaration here), and make themselves aware of the responsibilities of a trustee (See the Charity Commission guidance here).

It is not a requirement to announce you are running for a position in advance of the meeting, however people wishing to may do so by adding their name next to a role below.

Trustee roles (5)