Annual General Meeting 2022 (AGM) - Minutes below
Date: Wednesday 21st September 2022 19:00
Location: Hackspace Manchester, Wellington House, M40 7FS
Web link: TBA on Google Hangouts - The meeting will be hybrid, please come to the space if you are able.
Edit: This was a memberās meeting, but has now been upgraded to an AGM and the post has been edited.
Hello All,
Please come and join us for our AGM. It will be a good chance to meet the new board, discuss any matters and learn about the happenings in the space, both in the past 12 months, and as we look forward to the next. It will be hosted physically in the space, but with the option to join via Google Hangouts.
Board Elections
There will be 2 spots on the board of directors up for grabs. You will be able to stand for nomination on the night, giving a speech if you so wish, and should you receive the support of at least one other member you will be able to stand for the election which will take place over the following 2 months.
The board do not currently have defined roles, but meet approximately once a month to discuss the running of the space and any issues arising. We ensure the space fulfils itās legal requirements. If you have any further questions, want to discuss it online, or in person email board@hacman.org.uk.
Agenda
To add your own points, please reply to this thread. Items posted immediately before the meeting may not be included. Please leave at least 24h when adding an item. We expect there might be a fair amount to cover in this meeting. If it comes to it, we may need to prioritise the agenda to keep the meeting a reasonable length.
Voting by proxy
All members are welcome to attend the general meeting and if unable to do so may appoint a proxy please follow the process as outlined in the constitution available at Constitution - Hackspace Manchester Documentation
Team Year Summaries
- Board
- Finances
- Outreach
- Metalwork
- Woodwork
- Visual Arts
Board Nominations
Member submitted items
Items raised in this thread can be considered for AOB.
- Incident reporting
- Data Protection
- Storage Auditing
- Member inductions/Open Evenings
- Communication with members
- Purchase proposal/procurement system
- Cleanliness of the space
- Building Tenancy
- AOB
Rules
- When raising a point, try to include a solution rather than (re)stating a problem.
- Solutions often require individual commitment, are you prepared to own it and make it happen?
- Team updates should be 2 mins each max.
Minutes
Attendees:
In person: Michael Hindley, Joe Christian, Ray Boruch, Bart Kantorowski, Alex Bennett, Paula Mesa, Dominique Carroll, Frank Hall, Yigit Tatlipinar, Stephen Aylwin, Ellis Ley, Patrick Good
Online: Richard Westwell, Ben Dooks, Ellan Pearce, Guy Powell, Chris Murray
Team Year Summaries
-
Board
- The board now has 3 members (Joe Christian, Frank Hall, Ellan Pearce).
- It has taken longer than expected for the new board to take ownership of all the systems and get access to various IT/accounts.
- The board has started to look at health and safety processes and communication with members.
-
Finances
- Frank is gradually gaining access to bank accounts from the previous board.
- Current balance (Sep 2022 is c. Ā£21k.
- Annual income is c. 37k, outgoings c. Ā£32k. Ā£25k of that goes towards our main costs of rent/service charges/utilities. We also had a Ā£750 fine for late filing of accounts and Ā£700 on insurance. Apart from the fine, there were no other standout expenses.
- Majority of income is from subs, which is a potentially volatile situation given the cost of living, etc.
- Suggest current membership level is about right or subscription rates could be increased slightly.
- It would be a good idea to look at recent sign-up data to see what people are choosing.
- Our cash balance is only healthy because of previous COVID grants. These have created an artificial sense of financial security.
- Takeaway: weāre manging with costs, but we are vulnerable if costs go up or membership goes down.
-
Outreach
- Newsletter is now in production with a rough 6-weekly schedule. There is a desire to make this opt-out rather than opt-in.
- It has been brought to our attention that some of our comms channels are inactive: the website contact form appears offline and Insta looks inactive.
ACTION: Outreach team to investigate dead channels.
-
Metalwork
- There have been some recent issues with tools being misused or damaged, and the team has taken steps to prevent this happening again.
- The team is also developing a metal workshop induction which will live online and gate access to the angle grinder and bandsaw.
- Construction of the welding room is temporarily on hold due to costs, although we may have found a solution, but it requires liaising with a supplier of fans.
-
Woodwork
- The team has continued to make progress developing training programmes for tools. This now represents the āgold standardā for training in the space in terms of documentation and audit trails.
- Dust extraction and physical infrastructure of woodwork continues to improve, which in turn will help tidiness and cleanliness.
-
Visual Arts
- We need more 3D print inductors. Setup is a struggle. Alex is constrained for time.
- The laser works fine, but there is a big gap between training requests and ability to fulfil.
- Joe asks: can we get more inductors?
- At the moment there is no āvisual arts teamā in the same sense that these exist for wood and metal. Richard Westwell and Steven Aylwin are interested.
ACTION: Interested members should form a team. Mike to post forum post.
-
Lab
- The lab needs more gloves (ACTION: Alex to request from board).
- Alex will soon be doing some classes in the lab.
- The lab thanks everyone for their recent support.
- Alex would like a lab section in forum (ACTION: Alex to speak to Conor about this)
Board Nominations
- The board can have up to 5 members. Though there are currently 3.
- As the current board are stretched, nominations are sought.
- The more work people are willing to put in, the easier the job gets for each board member. It could be as little as 4h per month.
- Dominique Carroll and Patrick Good were nominated and seconded.
ACTION: Board will independently elect nominated members to board as per constitution. These newly elected members will stand down and must be re-elected at the next AGM to continue.
Member submitted items
Items raised in this thread can be considered for AOB.
-
Incident reporting
- Members have reported not knowing how to report incidents (accidents, breakages, problems) leading to problems going unreported (and therefore unfixed). Problems not being reported also means that those who come to fix them donāt know why or when the breakage occurred, adding further difficulty.
- We now have an accident reporting book, which lives in the filing cabinet at the rear of the space. This has not been communicated wit hthe membership.
- Joe has suggested a system whereby a QR code is posted around the space. Users can scan it to go to a Google form where they can anonymously report inicidents.
- ACTION: Joe to initiate setting up a system whereby people report an accident or a problem with a tool.
-
Data protection
- We do not have a data protection officer, nor do we pay the ICO an annual fee. We may be in breach of our obligations under GDPR.
ACTION: Mike to reach out via forum to seek help from membership
- We do not have a data protection officer, nor do we pay the ICO an annual fee. We may be in breach of our obligations under GDPR.
-
Storage Auditing
- Several issues were raised:
- Members misusing large membersā storage
- A lack of (small) membersā storage slots (may be a future issue)
ACTIONS: - More frequent Hack the Space days where storage will be policed (Mike to organise)
- Joe to make a rule sheet for large membersā storage explaining how it works (label printing, etc.)
- Board to consider purchase of more racking for future capacity
- Several issues were raised:
-
Member inductions/Open Evenings
- It was raised that anyone can join the space and get in without physically having met any other member or even communicating with other members (due to access codes).
- This can lead to several things:
- New members donāt understand the general rules of the space (although it was pointed out that they must accept the space rules online when signing up)
- They can use some tools with no induction or gates (some wood saws, for example)
- People donāt understand the ethos of the space where participation is encouraged, leading to mixed expectations of what the space is (i.e. a community rather than a service)
- Joe suggested disabling the provision of access codes to new members. New members must come in person to activate a fob (as before), and after that they can request a code.
- When activating a fob, the member meeting them should go through some ground rules
- Open evenings will remain a good option for new members to come and activate fobs/get a feel for the space
ACTIONS:- Joe to liaise with Conor (and others?) to make changes to access system
- Joe to produce crib sheet for inducting new members/guiding people at open evenings
-
Communication with members
- Comms has been sporadic from board in the past.
- Joe has been using forum quite a bit, though unsure how much engagement this gets.
- The newsletter is designed to mitigate this somewhat, but moving this to opt-out rather than opt-in would reach all members. Currently only 30 or so receive it.
ACTION: Mike to look at making the newsletter opt-out.
-
Purchase proposal/procurement system
- Members have commented that they have wanted to help the space by buying supplies but did not know what the system was to reclaim spend from the board.
- Overall, the sentiment was that targeted spend on broken or damaged items would have a positive knock-on effect by increasing engagement in the space, member acquisition and retention, and overall morale.
- Joe has made a proposal:
- Allocate budgets to each team
- Formalise the procurement process with large, medium, small and micro purchases each having a different value and requiring a different level of board scrutiny.
- Formalised consumables lists. It was pointed out that these exist. Mike to liaise with Joe here.
-
Cleanliness of the space
- The usual discussion was had regarding cleanliness (people do not adequately clean the space).
ACTION: Joe intends to buy dustpans, brushes, brooms, etc. for cleaning stations per workshop.
- The usual discussion was had regarding cleanliness (people do not adequately clean the space).
-
Building Tenancy
- Our current tenancy at Wellington House expires in 18 months.
- The board have been reviewing available options for either extending the contract or moving to a new site.
- In the interests of protecting our commercial interests, a separate post will be made on the forum.
-
āGigā work
- Alex remarked that a member (Cameron) helps members at Leeds Hackspace to secure āgigā work making props and other items for street events in Leeds.
- The fees paid can be split between the maker-member and the hackspace at an agreed rate for each job.
- Alex believes that someone in Manchester will be responsible for organising similar events, but that this is not the responsibility of the council
ACTION: Alex/Cameron to investigate whether such a scheme would be feasible in Manchester and submit information to the board.
-
AOB
- Alex believes that the space should have higher-speed internet.
- He believes this would cost Ā£20 pcm.
- Right now, it is believed that we pay Ā£0 for our internet access.
ACTION: Alex to submit in writing a costed proposal to the board, including a quote from the provider of fibre internet mentioned.
