What is AO policy?
Shutter Access - use it or lose it (a proposal)
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There are people there regularly that may or may not have shutter access, let’s do something very un-English and talk to these members, and if they are not let’s get them to become key holders, if they are there regularly then they are providing a service by keeping the space open.
If there are security worries, let’s get cameras outside on the doors. The bar next door has cover, maybe we should too!
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I am a new member of the space, having joined in January. As a newcomer I’d like to share my first-hand experience of how (the lack of) shutter access has affected my experience so far.
With a Mon-Fri 9-5 job I have time to use the space in the evenings at the weekends. I have never had any issues with gaining access to the space in the evening.
The weekends are more challenging. As an early riser I would be in the space bright & early at the weekend. However, it is rare for anyone to publish they are hosting before 11:00/12:00 at the weekend. When I get shutter access I look forward to being able to host from 07:00 on a Saturday.
Sunday mornings are also unavailable, due to the cleaning schedule. I am incredibly grateful for Brian cleaning the space, and in no way mean to criticise his efforts. Thanks to Brian getting started so early the space is available again from 11:00, which limits the impact for most members.
Not having shutter access makes it difficult to book popular equipment. The laser cutter being the best example, and to a lesser extent 3D printing. I find this to be a more significant problem than the weekend opening hours.
Whilst this has made access to the space and equipment difficult, I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’ve found this frustrating. I am incredibly grateful to be a member of the space and have access to the wonderful facilities it provides. The above feels like a perfectly reasonable trade-off for that!
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+1 to Mark’s point about addressing the root of the problem directly (increase the number of people with shutter access).
As a starting point why don’t we remind everyone how to request access (even in this thread we weren’t sure at times!) and encourage established members to be active on discourse and vouch for people they know? Send an email to everyone without access to remind them.
Then we keep an eye on the numbers in the next couple months, and if we don’t see improvements, we look at other solutions. At one point the vouching system worked well - let’s understand why it’s apparently stopped before trying to make massive changes so we can be sure we’re going to fix the issue.
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Not sure if anyone has noticed the math(s 
), but with 500 members and only 60 people able to vouch initially, it would take 6 months to get everyone shutter access (SA) with 100% vouching participation each month. At 50% participation this goes up to 10 months, at 25% participation it goes up to 19 months, and at 12.5% participation (1/8 SA holders) it would take nearly 3 years. That’s leaving aside issues like churn.
I think Daniel’s suggestion of rethinking restricted SA is worth exploring, and I can volunteer to organise a brainstorming discussion if we think it’s worthwhile, before potentially including the discussion at a members’ meeting. I’ll caveat my positivity about it by acknowledging that the space is much bigger and better equipped than it was when the policy was instated, and the estate is emptier, and times are harder, so perhaps our profile as a target has changed. I still think it’s worth exploring.
If we keep SA, I think we should optimise the solution for the problematic time frames: when are NSA members wanting to use the space but can’t because it’s not open?
Can we readily analyse the access logs to ID the non-SA members who are most frequently attending the space, particularly those near the hours that are least popular (IME, early mornings might be the key time)? Perhaps focusing on these members would have a bigger impact.
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+1
Yes, I did. I also looked at SA given - not many per month. That’s why set opening times seem a good way forward. We might get 6 or so members to cover those. Issue then largely sorted. Covering slots might be a contribution which gets SA.
I’d be against giving SA blindly. The vouch system means there is a form of RA.
@lewisss is dead right about talking with new members. That’s what should be happening- get to meet them and engage with them in a way which carries across the culture and values and helping them to get SA. It’s something that might be considered to be part of hosting. How else can one vouch?
As I said before, we should also raise the limit of one vouch per month, perhaps for techs or long standing members. That’s a bottleneck that drives the maths on this.
As a matter of interest: is there a difference between SA grants and SA requests? Have we got a large number of people asking for access and not receiving it?
I have been a member of workshops with set opening times; they felt very different to our current set up and struggled somewhat to keep themselves staffed.
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Were those places only open at those set times? We have over 500 members. Committing to hosting some set times could be a way to get SA. If no one without SA can make those times, no one is losing out. If they can make those times and don’t have SA, that’s a way to get it. If no one chooses to contribute that way, that’s their choice and it won’t affect those with SA. There’s nothing to be lost by trying it.
But it requires someone with SA to give up their day for it? Or are we just giving them SA to open up to get SA? I am not sure how thats meant to work. For many people opening during the day probably isn’t an option (I couldn’t without taking a day off for example), so getting a critical mass of people able to do it will be difficult and trying to force it on people with SA wont go well.
To be clear - you’re talking about members with shutter access, so in effect right now we have 60 with SA. They did have limited hours, but that was because of the lack of key holders, they had more members than we do!
We’re still not clear on the cause of the problem: are people without access asking and not getting it (if so why, and we should fix that), or are people not asking (and again why, lets help them get it, potentially speeding things up to a point where the system is more self-sustaining).
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A member without SA could contribute by committing to hosting a number of slots. They would still need 2 members with SA to vouch.
As I said, if members without SA can’t open during the day, then there isn’t a problem of members without SA not being able to use the space at those times - they aren’t available at those times. If they want to use the space on a Tuesday afternoon, then they can host it at that time.
We could maybe have slots of 9:00-13:00, 13:00-18:00, 18:00-23:00. A member might get SA by committing to hosting 6 slots. If all slots were available to host and not taken up, they could do that in 2 days, or host one slot e,g. Thursday afternoon for 6 weeks. If no one can host a slot, then no one is losing out - there aren’t members without SA available at that time.
That’s on top of the current system - members with SA could still use it when they like.
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Anti-oppression, in other terms having explicit policies and procedures that ensure and proove fair power sharing and processes are inclusive and free of discrimination.
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BTW this is on top of having an actual and enforceable CoC with all the ins and outs and what have yous of grievance et cetera separate from directors
The work has been done, now only waiting for directors to schedule a members meeting and prioritize it with members of the working group present.
Having over 500 members without proper safeguarding is a gamble imho (incomplete H&S)
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I like the idea of shifts, but you’d need to double (or triple up) so that when the “person that has the 12-16:00 Tuesday shift” has a GP appointment, the space would still be open. Otherwise, those hosts could alert everyone about a change in schedule using a booki… oh.
@directors I feel this post is getting out of hand! I think this is something that should be discussed in the members meeting as @unknowndomain stated way back!
I think the title of the post is provocative and does not give a good message to the membership.
A sensible calm discussion is the only way to sort this out, I don’t think there is a single solution, but maybe a combination of all or some of the above may work.
@moderators is there anyway we can close this post as it seems to be turning into a competition to see whos idea can be repeated the most.
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