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Swindon Makerspace Membership Guide
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Swindon Makerspace

Membership Guide

About this Guide

This is a simple guide to your membership benefits, the associated rules and other useful information about the operation of the Swindon Makerspace (hereafter referred to as the Makerspace).

The Makerspace is run entirely by its members and as such, we really want to keep the number of rules to a minimum.  We can only do this if members and visitors observe the spirit, not just the letter, of the rules - they are here firstly, for your safety, and secondly to prevent annoyance to other users of the space.

This guide is split into several sections, covering your membership benefits, the rules of the space, the code of conduct and various policies.

This guide and our Makerspace community are constantly evolving - see the details of how to get involved in the “How your membership works” section.

Contents

  1. Overview of the Makerspace
  2. Rules and Benefits
  3. How your membership works
  4. Code of Conduct
  5. Policies

Overview of the Makerspace

Swindon Makerspace CIC is a not-for-profit shared workspace located at:

Unit 34, BSS House

Cheney Manor

Swindon

SN2 2PJ

Run by its members, for its members, with all proceeds reinvested - underpinned by a social enterprise model that aids continuous growth and expansion.

Community Interest Statement

Our objective is to provide a place for individuals who want to make, innovate or socialise with like minded “makers”, and support members from the community who are interested in exploring,   learning and innovating with a variety of techniques and materials by:

See our full CIC statement and associated annual reports on github.

The Space

The space is a 1200 sq ft industrial unit, arranged into a number of different zones:

Most furnishings/equipment are mobile to allow the space to be re-configured for different uses.

 

Directors

We have an annually elected board of directors, whose job it is to make sure that things happen in the Makerspace, that official practicalities are dealt with, that problems are resolved and that member’s voices are heard.  They have the same voting rights as any other member of the Makerspace.

At present the directors are:

They can be contacted via the online community, in person most Wednesday evenings or by email: info@swindon-makerspace.org.

It takes a lot of work to manage, expand and generally make the space a great place to be - please volunteer to help where you can, lead initiatives, etc.

If you’d like to become a director, or want to know more about the formal setup of the Swindon Makerspace CIC, please refer to our Articles of Association on github: https://github.com/snhack/documentation/tree/master/legal

Rules & Benefits

Accessing the Makerspace & Security

Etiquette

Health & Safety

Community

 

Regulated and unregulated equipment

Some of the equipment is valuable, sensitive and/or dangerous (e.g. 3D printer, lathe), and needs some measure of training to use safely and without causing damage.  These items are labelled as “Induction Required”, differentiating them from all the minor tools (e.g. pliers, soldering iron).

Donations of Money

Donations of money are always welcome (!), and can be via cash (use the donations tin in the space), bank transfer or Paypal:

Donations of Physical Items

Before donating physical items, please check:

If you have a particularly rare or unusual old piece of computing hardware, we refer you to the Swindon Museum of Computing in the town centre, or Project Reboot at the Scrapstore who may be interested. Project Reboot also accept donations of recent computer hardware.

Loaning items to the space

Selling Stuff to other Members

Mini-bar

The Mini-bar is a collection of consumables (electronics, raw materials, etc) that are currently owned by various members, but haven’t yet been used in a project.  Mostly made up of all those interesting things we buy and then never get around to using!  

Pledge Drives

Personal Items

Managing and maintaining the Makerspace

Teams

Consumables

Friends & Family

Clubs & Societies

Leveraging the Space for Commercial Use

Events and Regular Meetings

How your membership works

Fees

Fees for Individuals

Fees for Group Bookings

When your membership starts, renews and ends

General information

Making a complaint

Insurance

The Makerspace directly manages three types of insurance:

In addition, BSS House covers building’s insurance as part of our lease agreement.

Detailed insurance information can be found in our Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/open?id=175NOT_BiAbw_GO0XK3mvL2bEkpqgjNqXo7nEC6s88lg

Questions

Code of Conduct

Swindon Makerspace is an inclusive community where all our members and visitors should feel welcome. This code applies to everyone's conduct on all public communication channels (such as Telegram and forums), as well as at the Makerspace itself.

This code of conduct is in addition to the Rules which cover safety and the ethos of the space:

  1. It is unacceptable to harass or discriminate against others for any reason
  2. Keep all communication civil and keep swearing to a minimum; if you can't make a comment politely and persuasively, don't make it at all. Your conduct reflects on the image of the Makerspace as seen by outsiders
  3. Public trolling is never appropriate
  4. Personal attacks will not be tolerated

If you ignore these guidelines you will initially be warned or moderated. Subsequent offences may result in you being banned from our online communities.  Additionally, the directors may take further action under our Grievance procedure.

If you witness any persistent breaches of this code, or have any other concerns, please contact the directors. The directors are powerless to fix problems they aren't aware of.

Policies

Grievance Procedure

The directors have the authority to ban anyone from entering the space, and to strip anyone of their membership, but must only do so in circumstances where this is best for Swindon Makerspace as a whole.

We will only ban repeat offenders who persistently demonstrate unwillingness to cooperate. Throughout the process every effort will be made to keep clear and constructive communication between the directors, the offending party, and any other affected parties.

Introduction

  1. This policy applies to both members and non-members who use the Swindon Makerspace.
  2. A person may be banned from the space if they are in violation of the Rules or Code of Conduct, if they are causing persistent annoyance, or if they have the potential to harm other users of the space.
  3. Before the formal banning procedure is entered into, the directors must make every attempt to resolve the issue informally.
  4. However, in the case of direct physical violence towards any person in the space, any member has the authority to immediately ban the offender for one month and refer the case to the directors.

Process

  1. The offending party must be given at least two official warnings before being banned. At every stage, it must be made clear to the party where they are in this process.
  2. At every stage, the directors must be in agreement that allowing the user to continue to use the space would not be in the best interest of the organisation.
  3. At every stage, the directors must make their reasoning available to the offending party. They must also make as much details as is appropriate available to all members.
  4. By default, a ban will be for a year. At their discretion, the directors can issue a reduced ban period.
  5. Bans of more than one year may only be issued in extreme circumstances. The directors must review these bans yearly.
  6. If the offending party is a member, the ban will trigger the process to remove the member.
  7. When a person is banned, their right to access Swindon Makerspace is revoked. Any entry to the space without the prior, express permission of directors will be considered trespass.
  8. The directors must seek feedback from the community to ensure this process remains fair and balanced.

Health & Safety Policy

Statement of intent

It is the general policy of Swindon Makerspace CIC to provide adequate control of the health and safety risks arising from our activities:

This policy will be reviewed and revised as necessary, no less than annually as part of our AGM.  

Responsibility

  1. Overall and final responsibility for health and safety at all events and activities organised by the Swindon Makerspace CIC lies with the Directors. This responsibility may be delegated to a named volunteer for events or activities as deemed appropriate. This volunteer will be responsible for ensuring that this policy is upheld
  2. All members have a duty to:
  1. co-operate with the Directors on health and safety matters
  2. not interfere with anything provided to safeguard their health and safety
  3. take reasonable care of their own and others’ health and safety
  4. use equipment correctly in accordance with instructions
  5. report all health and safety concerns to an appropriate person.

Risk assessment

First aid and accidents

Electrical Safety

Fire

Reasonable level of risk

We will take steps to avoid unnecessary risk and very high levels of risk. However, some activities inherently involve some risk. Learning about, and employing, risk management is a necessary part of “making”.  We therefore aim to protect our members from unnecessary and high risk, and provide guidance and support to help members manage risk for themselves.