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.

• Charity process
• Financial update

• Financial update

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

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

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

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.

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

• Buy replacement parts and repair the extractor
• Get a new portable extractor
• Connect our main extractor to the island via a drop from the ceiling
• Some other option or combination of the above

Total 24 members present, including 8 proxies.

• Charity process. Felix: still not a charity, they’ve updated the base articles since we’ve applied so we may need to redo that, but not a no yet. No estimates on time. More updates when there’s an update.
• Financial update. Felix: Nick not present but Felix has looked through the banking and we are fine. A bit of surplus in the last quarter.

• Financial update. Nick not present. no complaints so all good.

None to report

• Hack wood storage to be moved to craft storage area to make it less of a junk storage space that are of no use – no opposition to this, generally thought of as a very good idea to move the hack wood storage area to nearer the woodshop and other wood storage areas. This would also keep the door area clear of large pieces of wood. Hopefully minimise junk wood/laser skeletons being kept, especially if the new hack wood storage rack is similar to the short term wood storage rack.
• Generally the members at the meeting were opposed to a sofa, some were for it being for socialising rather than working. But overall the need for cleaning or people sleeping overnight was a risk.
• Reuse of the lab bench top in the kitchen sink area.
• Consumables/craft storage area – similar to the consumables storage cabinet another would be useful for the craft storage items to prevent dust and light getting to them
• New tables layout – suggested to have it less like a hot desk area and more social working together area, meeting decide to trial different layouts. 4 tables together and 4 for hot desk type approach.
• Craft table may need more legs and a removeable board rather than permanent.
• May need more sockets or extension leads.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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).

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 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

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.

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

• Fraser not present Marsh summarising – changes to open evenings are super popular and many people are joining
• Reaching max number of users for the space. i.e. Too little space, cleanliness etc has been more of an issue
• See forum post for details
• Monthly open evenings – 18 tickets a night spread across two tours ~ 14 members a month should stay in equilibrium to match the number of people leaving
• May change in future if more or less people joining.

• Marsh is stepping down from Social Committee member
• Position is now open – no one stepped up during the meeting
• Marsh will be in the position for the interim before a new person is elected
• It was discussed that maybe the position could be filled better by two people rather than one?

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

• 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.
• Sam P to run maybe
• Mixture of big and smaller projects that need doing
• See if anybody wants to put their name towards anything
• Semi-regular check ins
• Dedicated hackspace projects category on discourse – sort by area and this months priorities
• Initially committee decides on what the priorities are
• Recognition for the people that work on things

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

• Buy replacement parts and repair the extractor
• Get a new portable extractor
• Connect our main extractor to the island via a drop from the ceiling
• Some other option or combination of the above

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

• Due for renewal 17th August
• Tidy up for this Thursday 25th July
• Other hackspace/makerspace has had incidents leading to increased insurance requirements and restrictions to what can be done when you are lone working
• One of the insurers is no longer supporting makerspace
• No unattended 3D printing – fit fancy fire suppression systems potentially
• Insurance is currently around £750 a year