The board held a very successful board development morning today (13 November) in which we discussed the roles and responsibilities of the board, teams and the Member’s meeting and set some but not all of the objectives for the coming year (separate post)
**We welcome your feedback on this prior to approval at December’s Member’s Meeting of our plans ** Please either reply to this post or contact the board on board@hacman.org.uk
The Role of the Board
The board is there to
- Maintain the Vision and Mission of the Space
- Develop Strategy for ensuring continued success in the future
- Establishing and monitoring policies as required
- Ensuring compliance with the constitution, legislation and being accountable to members, HMRC, companies house etc.
- Maintaining Fiscal Oversight – ensuring resources and funding are effectively managed including payment of rent, electric and insurance.
- Respecting the role members have to play in the organisation (See teams)
- Promote the organisation
- Dealing with issues that cannot be dealt with by teams e.g. complaints
- Maintaining effective board performance – ensuring that the board is productive to meet the other requirements detailed above
TLDR: The board is there to ensure that the basic requirements to keep the space operational are met
The Role of Teams
Teams have been a bit hit and miss and some of that has been due to the lack of structure around them we propose to formalise the teams into Sub Committees of the board and Teams the distinction here being that membership to sub committees will be approved by the board and the sub committee will report to the board most (if not all) sub committees will have at least 1 board member on them . Teams can be joined by anyone (some might require certain level of skill or training but this will be decided upon by the teams individually).
The board & sub committees also reserve the option to create short term “tiger teams” to work on certain specific projects or areas.
Proposed Sub Committees
Procurement - This subcommittee will be responsible for buying all the necessary consumables that the space require to operate in line with the consumable list. Teams and other sub committees will be able to submit additional items to be purchased if required for approval by the Procurement team. The procurement team will be responsible for doing regular stock checks (at the very least once a month) of items from the consumable list to ensure that items are stocked and contacting the necessary teams to check if they require anything. The Procurement team will also have responsibility for Snackspace.
The procurement team will have 2 cards (one for consumables and one for snackspace expenditure) loaded with appropriate amounts.
Infrastructure – This sub committee will be responsible for the development, maintenance and installation of both physical and digital infrastructure for the Hackspace including the deployment of access control systems, member management system, public website, installation of cabling etc of the space. It is likely that this subcommittee will operate various “tiger teams” at times to deal with specific issues eg electrical installation. This subcommittee will also be responsible for documentation systems and ensuring teams know how and where to document stuff.
Membership – This sub committee will be responsible for all things membership wise including members storage, onboarding new members, tours, membership enquiries and membership engagement.
Health & Safety – This sub committee will take the lead on all H&S in regards to the space, this is the committee which teams Risk assessments for new (or existing) equipment will go to for approval (Some tools may require final approval from the board), they will be responsible for ensuring that the procurement team is informed when PPE is required to be bought.
Outreach – This sub committee will be responsible for the Hackspace Social media, dealing (in conjuction with the membership team) with hello@ emails, attending and organising events both within the hackspace and outwith (eg makerfaires etc) and looking at specific funding and sponsorship opportunities for new equipment, projects etc
Proposed Teams
The proposed teams will continute there current functions and may be asked to take on other roles as appropriate.
Metalwork – General responsibility for the metalworking area including maintaining and training users
Woodwork – General responsibility for the woodworking area including maintaining and training users
3D Print – General responsibility for the 3d Printers – including maintaining and training users
Laser – General responsibility for the laser cutter including maintaining and training users
Electronics - – General responsibility for the electronics area
Craft – General responsibility for the craft area including maintaining and training users on the sewing machines
**ALL TEAMS WILL BE GIVEN EMAIL ADDRESSES FOR FORMAL USE FOR PEOPLE TO CONTACT ETC **
TLDR: Teams are changing
The Role of the Member’s Meeting
The Member’s meeting will remain a forum for the board, sub committes, teams and members to feedback and to suggest ways to improve the space.
At least one board member will attempt to be present at these meetings.
There shouldn’t be any showstoppers eg if something major has happened people shouldn’t wait for this meeting to raise the issue.
The agenda and running of the meeting will be tweaked to ensure that it is more focused on members input and the levels of “tech speak” kept to a minimum
The board will also look at appointing a formal chair and secretary for these meetings who will be responsible for organising the meetings, ensuring the agenda is updated, taking minutes and reporting back to the board on what took place. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN EITHER OF THESE ROLES PLEASE CONTACT BOARD@HACMAN.ORG.UK
**TLDR: Not much is changing for the Members Meeting but will remain an important tool in Member engagement. **