BOTLab Quarterly Members' meeting Q4 2025

Bristol Open Technology Lab C.I.C general meeting

Date/time: 19:00, 14/10/2025.

Location: Bristol Hackspace, with online option.

• Directors report
• Incidents and complaints review
• Major project updates
• Open proposals

Proposals have been stopped for a while because of the upstairs move. This is a proposal to re-open them.

Proposal to:

1. Introduce a minimum membership payment of £5pcm (we currently have no hard minimum, but £5 is our suggested low-income ‘Supported’ membership payment)
2. Require all membership payments to be made via Direct Debit (over 75% of members do this already, as we stopped offering standing orders to new members a few years ago)
3. Update the wording of our policies to reflect these changes

The threshold for VAT registration is currently £90,000 taxable turnover in any rolling 12 month period. As we expand into upstairs and (hopefully) take on some new members to cover the cost of this improvement, we anticipate we may cross this. Should we be forced to register we would take on a significant admin burden and either have to take a 20% reduction in income (which we cannot afford), or pass this along and increase membership costs (which we don't want to do). Should we cross this threshold accidentally without registering there are substantial financial penalties - as happened to Nottinghack.

VAT is only chargeable on certain transactions - including goods and services which our membership payments currently count towards in their entirety.

By making these changes, we would instead be able to internally account for payments into the following categories:

1. A defined membership payment at a ‘reasonable market rate’ – in this case £5pcm (more on this later). VAT rated.
2. Any additional amount paid as part of a direct debit, or any one off, variable, or unsolicited payments as a ‘donation incurring no benefit’. Not VAT rated.

This essentially limits VAT liability from membership to £60 per member per year, theoretically allowing for up to 1,500 members before we have to revisit this.

The actual limit is lower, as income from the £5 access card / fob fee, and from other sources such as paid, ticketed events are also VAT rated. Nor can we fit 1,500 members in the space!

This accounting practice is widely used, and entirely permissible provided that the ‘reasonable market rate’ is actually reasonable for the goods or services provided.

As previously mentioned Nottinghack have already encountered this issue, and hired a VAT specialist who recommended the £5 minimum. This was then clearly accepted by HMRC, as they stopped fining them! Conveniently for us, we are now able to point to that precedent.

Proposing deadline of Feb 1st 2026 (3 full calendar months time) to allow for several email reminders.

If you:

• Currently pay £5 or more by Direct Debit – Nothing! But consider reviewing the amount of your Direct Debit if your financial circumstances have changed.
• Currently pay less than £5 by any method – Move to one of our Direct Debit options by the deadline to retain membership.
• Currently pay any amount by standing order – Move to one of our Direct Debit options by the deadline to retain membership OR continue to pay a standing order as a donation to the space, but be aware this will no longer count towards membership.

For clarity, the current options presented to new incoming members are below:

• Supporter - £25pcm. If you’re able to give more, this level helps strengthen the whole community – it not only supports the space but also makes it possible for others to join at the supported rate.
• Standard - £15pcm. This is the level most people choose, and it helps cover the real cost of keeping the space alive and thriving for everyone.
• Supported - £5pcm. This option is here for anyone who might find the standard rate difficult. You’re just as much a part of the community, and your membership is made possible thanks to others giving a little extra.

Contact the committee to switch to, or between, Direct Debits. Custom amounts (>£5) are also possible.

I think it would be good to discuss which tools we need to buy to go on the individual shadow boards (possibly already all thought about by @SamP20), review tools which we think need replacing and any additions we haven’t thought of.

Windows 10 will be approaching it’s EOL in about a month (15th Oct). This means that there will be no more security patches after this date. regularly, this isn’t too big of an issue short term, but with how many members regularly use the Hackspace pc, it could be exploited by a third party fairly soon after Windows 10 EOL.

also, even more people use the WiFi. which could enable so much more chaos, if the PC gets hacked or a virus appears.

the PC has also been having some recent driver issues (now fixed), but nevertheless, it’s still a relatively old machine.

Data preservation:

An in-place upgrade from windows 10 to 11 is the easiest way to preserve almost all the data. I don’t think the current pc meets the hardware specs to upgrade to windows 11. A fresh windows 11 install on a new pc would lose all the data though unfortunately :sob:

there is another way though :tada: !

first, all proprietary drivers will have to be uninstalled (the PC works fine with the default drivers don’t worry).

then, a full copy of the system drive can be made onto the new pc’s storage (would have to be larger than the old one to accommodate extra drivers and windows 11).

the new pc should see this as a boot drive, and with all the drivers uninstalled, it should be able to boot up into an almost identical copy of the old pc.

after this, it’s just the upgrade from Windows 10 to 11, which is very nicely done by the windows upgrade assistant!

that’s it really😁, since the old pc did not have any modifications on it, it’s a very low risk operation.

Is it worth investigating a second bin, would we get a discount because the bin drivers are already doing a collection here?

I appreciate it’s a shared bin with Unit A, and this may not be a huge issue in reality.

Would this be the correct place to discuss the missing equipment? Talk about replacing but also future proofing it so there no more missing equipment?

Adding a welding warning light facing the shutter do that it’s visible from outside if someone approaches in the dark? Although I appreciate there’s a red curtain there

• Q3 approx £7k over budget at ~£14,500. Due to renting upstairs, surprise business rates etc.
• Increasing budget to £15,700 (TODO ask Nick for exact figures) for Q4.
• Still working on charity re-application

• Over budget by £600. Mainly due to Sewing Machine maintenance purchase.
• New budget £1,423.

We originally stopped proposals for the room move but there is a lot of demand now to re-open them.

M: Suggestion to only open proposals for rooms that have moved.

S: Move budget is already overspent. How would this affect rooms that haven't moved yet?

S: Can put together a list of essentials (ducting, benches, electrical).

New extractor is expensive however that can come from H&S budget.

N: Not all proposals cost money. We are currently break-even with our current membership and increasing.

F: 2 options? Capped budget or Committee approval process

N: Money must come out of savings

Is there a case for a directors vote? (probably not)

Can a proposal be paused? We have had them shelved before so this is not an issue.

Committee do tend to discuss proposals before they approve them.

There is a big jump from £60 to £600. Is there a reason for this? Is there a middle ground?

Considering we have no money, probably not the time to adjust this.

Too many variables already with the woodshop move too.

Vote to re-open proposals for completed rooms only: Unanimous. Proposals will come from our savings if approved.

Refer to the agenda for the details.

Will members need to sign a form for this?

We are not implementing gift aid yet. We could claim that in the future,

Is this affected by the charity process?

No. We wanted to bring it forward to help with the VAT issues.

Reasonable market rate. If we can't afford it, is is reasonable?

HMRC doesn't care if we make a profit/loss. The market is other Hackspaces who are also implementing similar minimum.

Most Hackspaces offer an affordable tier.

Payments will still be a single payment.

We just need to make the minimum tier clear alongside the others.

Paying the supporter tier does not get you priority or any other benefits over standard or supported.

Vote for payment changes: unanimous.

Over the past few weeks stuff has re-appeared and the list has now turned into a nice-to-have instead of essential.

It's worth re-reviewing the list to categorise into:

• Maintenance
• Consumable
• Proposal

This is a task for the committee too.

Our PCs are shit and likely not Windows 11 compatible.

There are several people offering free PCs.

There are many issues with Windows 11, but many workarounds too.

The bins outside are full most weeks making it difficult to take rubbish out.

A lot of the stuff has been move related. We should wait and see before looking at a second bin.

We should get some new indoor bins from the room move budget.

The random orbital sander went missing. Committee have bought a replacement.

It's really sad to see tools go missing just like that.

Some tools temporarily go missing in vehicles outside.

We don't get stuff going missing that often.

Shrink rate in retail is far larger than Hackspace. We are actually quite good in comparison.

Budget for replacements is maintenance. Roughly £100/month. Most of this is actually for broken stuff.

Signage is coming to the top of the committee/trustee list.

Does everything have a space?

This is part of the room move. We're not there yet but getting closer.

You don't need a light outside as (welding) light follows the inverse square law (you don't have to be that far away for it to be safe again).

The welding induction requires a curtain.

We should add signage to the curtain so random people aren't tempted to peek around it.

If you don't know the Hackspace you won't know what the warning light means.

Vote Aaron for the web role: unanimous.

Can we expand the hot works?

Theoretically yes as the wall was made to be movable.

Matt to put out a room usage survey for the next meeting as we may get new rooms at the beginning of next year.

How we expand the metal shop will be on there.

It's time to step up. For new members it's not obvious.

We could have some sort of orientation induction.

This is your space, look after it.

We could put up some posters too to remind people.

A lot of this comes under H&S. Kit is doing a great job getting the Wiki, risk assessments and inductions aligned.

Inductions are all computerised now. We have lost the personal aspect.

The forum is not accessible to everyone for reporting issues.

We could provide an option on the portal.

We can implement a tag system to mark out of service equipment.

Would it be possible/useful to post faces of helpful on the forum?

We could do, or pictures on the wall.

Committee have put plaques on rooms thanking people who have been instrumental in helping with the room moves. They aren't afraid to keep adding more <3