PROPOSAL: Cordless Hoover for clean room

#32

that is good news.
although i dont think we need to wait for the governace to end before making this happen

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the directors have done an excellent job and put in hours of work.
and this has worked very well with 100 members.

we need to come to terms with the fact that we know have 250 members and we need more flexable power balcnce. too few people have too much responsibiltiy and can bloack things too easily. not malcioulsy. but just practicaly.

these things wont change unless they are talked about.

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we need to be 100% clear about what the roles of directors are and are not. i dont think managing individual purchaeses should be in the remit. overseaing budgets is not the same as ok’ing individual purchases.

the only way around this is to remove this explicitly from their remit and put in place roles for people that can do this. this frees up directors time to work on work that is more appropriate and empower other people into doing other work that allows us as a space to make small scale day to day decisions much more easily.

possible solutions would be:
a) give techs more reponsibility / flexability
b) create a third role that has purchasing power (this would give a system of checks and balances)

#33

So I’ve re-read this thread top to bottom. I can’t see a single place where this had been blocked by anyone. There seems to be a board consensus that this is a thing that should probably happen. Is this something that can’t wait until Tuesday next week to be rubber-stamped by a members meeting?

What I can’t find however is an actual proposal that can be actioned by anyone beyond ‘let’s get a hoover’ which seems to have broad support. Which Hoover? From where? How much?

You are however correct, that exercising veto over whether to buy a hoover or not is not what the directors should be doing. I see no evidence that that has happened in this thread (other than a 3rd hand account that one or more directors doesnt see the point, atlhough please remember that the directors are also members and are entitled to a view…) but would argue as stated above, that there is nothing here yet that can actually be actioned.

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#34

For what it’s worth my experience of the Dyson cordless:
I absolutely hate Dyson. Pretty much all his products. Almost every one I have spoken to who owns them hates his products.
The cordless Dyson I have is one of the best things I ever bought. Top 3. I would recommend it for the clean area. Using a cordless is so much easier for quick jobs. My house is vacuumed daily in high traffic areas because it is so easy.
I had problems with it and if you speak to Dyson just right they will fix it or replace it quickly (I got a free upgrade) and their warranty is usually long.
Buy one for the clean room.
Can’t help you on a corded for the other rooms though.

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#35

consent or approval can be given by writing things or not writing things.
there are other examples on the forum where a director giving their approval ends in a purchase.
as members we rightly or wrongly wait for this nod of approval.

do you have any ideas on how this could be improved?

#36

I suppose the point is that all three of us agree with you that it’s not our place to be vetoing or even needing to provide our approval of every small thing that occurs in the space - personally, I lack the time and inclination to micromanage at that level. I suppose the reason why there is little engagement from the directors in this thread is that the point where we need to engage (actually ordering a thing) hasn’t occured. Sorry if that is what you were waiting for, but this never needed us to say yes or no, but did need a clear plan as to what which is missing.

From a legal and pragmatic point of view - passing purchasing responsibility downwards is problematic (and frankly a pain in the ass). It’s way easier if the (you’re calling it treasurer, which is defacto right now Tommen, and would almost certainly need to be a director going forwards for a whole collection of reasons) buys stuff on the company dime. Alternatively, buy and claim back is the less efficient way of doing it.

The easiest way to get this sort of thing moving is to have a discussion with broad appeal (Which you have), then someone take ownership over picking a thing, and then seeking approval (which you’d almost certainly have gotten if that had happened). I’d note that the quickest and most transparent way to do this (and almost certainly what we would have said) is though the members meeting (next tuesday is the first meeting since this proposal). I can understand that there is a time-locked frustration here and this feels pretty mundane, but to be honest, a lot of what we’re doing here is (or at least, dammit, should be) pretty mundane and a months turn around on a proposal isn’t THAT ridiculous.

The directors are here for a lot of things that are quite opaque (more often not because they’re unimportant, but because they’re reallyfreakingboring), but researching hoovers is not one of them, and personally, I was under the impression that this, like so many other things, should be solved by community consensus.

#37

totally agree with you.
hopefully a member will steep forward and take this on…

splitting hairs on one small detail, its the best part of ten months at best case.

#38

My feelings exactly! I’ve hated every other Dyson I’ve ever used but I love this one.

I’m adamant that we need a lightweight, easy to use Hoover, for the clean room. The floor is so dirty I find it depressing to be in the space as it currently is.

But yes it can absolutely wait till the next members meeting.

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#39

Im thinking of buying one on eBay for the home. There’s a few cordless dyson models …which ones the reccommeded one?

#40

If this is being discussed at the members meeting tomorrow we need a costed proposal.

My only issue with buying an expensive cordless Dyson would be that it might not be useful when we have new vinyl floor — which could happen within a few days of someone taking ownership of that project.

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#41

Cost: £300

#42

But for what? And from where?

#43

Where:

AMAZON

CURRYS

What for: @SarahJ’s original post.

#44

we need to get more industrial equipment, this is a household product.

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#45

The floor will still need to be hoovered.

#46

This is to quickly grab and deal with a small spillage, not vacuum the whole floor - for which I agree a mains powered industrial solutions is required.

#47

Problem: the clean room floor is so dirty that it’s an unpleasant place to spend time in and it’s embarrassing to show people around. It doesn’t need to be in this state.

Proposed solution: we buy a lightweight vacuum cleaner that lives in the clean room and is only used in the clean room. Having it visible, always stored in the same place, quick and easy to use will encourage people to use it spontaneously when they have a few minutes to spare.

Confession: I have never hoovered the floor at Makerspace. I’ve swept it, scrubbed it and done lots of other cleaning but I don’t want to go hunting for the hoover, I don’t want to drag it from room to room, its too big, too heavy, too bulky, I don’t trust it not to be broken in some random confusing way and I just can’t deal with it. Judging by the state of the floor last time I hosted an open evening, I am not alone in this.

Proposal: we buy this vacuum cleaner for the clean room https://www.clickcleaning.co.uk/products/sebo-dart-1-3511?ListingLink=%2Fcategories%2Fupright-vacuum-cleaners

Cost: £237.60

It has most of the advantages of the Dyson but is an industrial unit. It also has an optional additional polishing head which we could buy later on after replacing the floor with something smooth. Yes it’s expensive. But we’ve spent plenty of money on massive machines which nobody has even used, and this is a machine that would improve the space we have and help make it as great as it should be.

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#48

Agree, one qualification is I thought a key requirement was to be cordless to allow spontaneous use?

#49

That’s what I thought at first but I couldn’t find an industrial cordless one (apart for the big weird backpack ones) so this seemed like a good compromise. Cordless isn’t critical but lightweight, visible and easy to grab is.

#50

This is the polishing attachment. It allows you to hoover and polish smooth floors all in one go.

https://www.clickcleaning.co.uk/products/sebo_dart_uhs_polisher_head-3531

It would basically make Bentley the mop redundant. Which might sound a bit mean, but would make cleaning infinitely easier and more efficient.

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#51

If we’re back now considering corded upright vacuum cleaners would the one that @afshind offered be any good?