Post Your Signup Forms (if you have them)

[mattfreund]

Hey everyone,

TL;DR - I'd appreciate you posting/describing/linking your documents. Future-to-join spaces will probably benefit from this as well in the archive sense.

Protospace (Calgary) has a series of forms new members sign when they arrive.

1 - Waiver.
2 - Signup forms with some safety stuff in it.

We are pretty good on those ones. As we've grown to about 200 members now, we've experienced (as expected) the need for a third form:

3 - Membership Agreement/Pledge.

"Be Excellent to Each Other" isn't cutting it, but the scale at which it's not cutting it now (with our growth, not suddenly worse members) has begun to strain our core group who deal with those issues. Members are doing things that are... hard to pinpoint but, generally annoying other members or being detrimental to the community in ways that usually aren't egregious enough for us to act on under any of our other policies. I figured that a membership agreement that each members initials each point of would, at worst, remove the excuses of "I didn't know that was expected of me".

I unwisely suggested "someone" should put together a pledge and so here I am, a someone.

Also, I recently watched Site3's (Toronto) video (at DIYode [Guelph]) on their first big accident (6 digits worth of fingers removed) and how it was a blessing for them to get their waivers in better shape than boilerplate. And that each space could benefit from a mock pantsshitting incident to spur them towards better practices. I figure there's no reason we should each be writing our own, surely one of us has the best waiver, so, post away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0nxZ3EIA4Y <-- Video in reference.

I'll post my brainstorming in a followup to keep this tidy.

[Matt Freund]

To me, the membership guidebook is "Here's how to best take advantage
of the space and answer all of your questions", the membership
agreement is (unexhaustively):
- I will clean up after myself, completely, every time.
- I will clean up a little bit of mess that isn't mine every time I
go to Protospace.
- I will be excellent to others.
- I will not use a tool that I have not been trained on.
- I will not use a tool without looking it up on the wiki first to
see any operating notes
- I will ensure if I am last to leave that I will lock the building
securely and arm the alarm.
- Before I leave I will ask if someone else in the building is a full
member in good standing, so that no guests or probationary members are
accidentally left with the facility.
- I will not speak on Protospace's behalf unless I have been authorized to.
- I will not bill Protospace for purchases unless authorized to.
- I will not take food or drink from the fridge without paying for it.
- I will read every announcement in full.
- I will report every broken tool I come into contact with, even if I
did not break it.
- I will empty any garbage that I see that is more than 2/3 full,
even if I did not fill it.
- I will get approval for any projects, tools, or materials that I
leave anywhere other than my personal shelf, according to out pitching
policy.
- I understood all of these items in detail and have no questions
regarding them.

And so on. Member expectations that they agree to. It'll probably fit
on a page. Obvious stuff, but the point being that there's hand
holding and them specifically agreeing to it. 50% so that the less
clued-in members might realize "Oh gee, I should clean up" and
actually do it, and 50% so that when someone doesn't clean up their
answer isn't "Well I didn't know I had to"... yes you did, you agreed
to it, and we can skip the "Please try harder" conversation and go
right to the "You're being a jerk" conversation.

We could make little pledges for the area training courses too, that
everyone checks off and signs at the end of the course. For example,
woodworking:
- If a tool is smoking, even a little bit, I will stop using it.
- If I blow a breaker, I will stop what I am doing.
- I will use dust extractors for every tool with a dust port.

It'll also make sure that the key points of the course are summarized at end.

What's my list missing?