I’ve been thinking about the problem of people leaving large object around the space (like the giant red toolbox under the electronic benches) essentially using the space as a free storage unit .
My idea would involve Discourse and labels , something like this is been implemented in the London Hackspace and looks like is working :
Every long term storage need to be discussed on Discourse , a description and dimensions of the object with a date of removal must be provided
An object or a project who is left in the space for more than a week need to be labelled with a code (provided by the techs or admins ) , the owner and the date when this object is going to be removed .
In case of long term loan (like someone kind enough to leave useful tools in the space) the owner need authorization anyway and need to label the object as long term loan with name .
Every object left in the space without a label or with not renewed storage date must be removed asap otherwise destiny will be discussed (need legal advice for this)
This probably sound harsh but when good sense doesn’t work , is time for compromises.
That pretty much is what’s supposed to happen already, but with more labels!
There’s a growing number of loans and undocumented stored items – at least it seems that way. Probably time to get a bit hotter on this before it gets out of hand?
I think we should make sure members are aware of correct procedures first. Its likely some members are simply copying learnt behaviour from long standing members not realising they are doing anything wrong.
Maybe sone kind of intro to the space session could help this, an extension from open evening for new members to grasp do’s, don’ts and general SLMS etiquette.
You are completely right about it, as I said, the common sense say that one shouldn’t leave personal belongings in a common , already cluttered , space .
But people have different backgrounds , point of view and needs and the lack of clear instruction and rules is not helping.
Currently, #admin:storage-requests is the system we have. It would be great to have a “kiosk” with printable labels like Hackspace has, but this is probably some distance down the road.
This is pretty self-policing though. Stuff that is stored in the space that doesn’t have a request needs to be bought to the attention of the group, or if necessary directly to the directors by DM.
We’ve been lax on this in the past, and fairly tolerant of short term informal storage of projects in progress, but maybe this isn’t sustainable in the long term.
Edit: This includes stuff in the snug, which shouldn’t really be in play anyway…
That’s fair enough - I guess, less members means that worked fine. I think that we should be careful to come across hostile towards people online for not following procedure, especially if the procedure may not be exercised across the board. Maybe something to bring up at the next meeting.
Agreed. I think this is one of the sort of soft cultural things that we need to all get on board with though, a bit like writing up projects and cleaning
I’m happy to make a little wall mounted labelling station, with printed instructions on it that give people the run down. If it’s visible then it might be that be in peoples minds a bit more and hopefully tip it in to that special place of cultural self-perpetuation. Maybe. Worth a try for the price of a bit of wood and some labels. Doesn’t even have to be digital
