Equipment loaning document
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Vincent Wolfe
May 10, 2016, 10:24:38 PM5/10/16
to Coalition of Canadian Creative Spaces
Hey guys, I am working on something right now and thought I would ask before I did too much time on it. Do any of you have an established document that you full out when members and non-members loan equipment to the space? Obviously I need to document the equipment itself, but I want to make sure the lender knows the deal, and doesn't have any unrealistic expectations.
TIA
Matt Freund
May 11, 2016, 7:23:44 AM5/11/16
to CanadianCre...@googlegroups.com
We have proposed documentation and a current policy. Each time has
been the result of a crisis that led to "how could we have stopped
this, without making too much extra work for anyone?". These are not
Protospace-unique issues, every space in the world has these issues
eventually, to the point of them being memes in the community.
We used to have only one rule: "Be Excellent To Eachother". But
different people define that differently, so we've started having to
define common sense stuff on how not to be a jerk.
We tackle it on two fronts currently:
1 - People who leave crap laying around all the time.
We have a "storage policy" by which anything left in a common area is
considered garbage, and it is specifically stated as being good for
someone to dispose of or claim it (to prevent awkward guilt trips). A
"common area" being anything not stored on the member's shelf, or,
that they made and membership did not oppose a pitch to keep there for
a specific time period. We have created large project "bays" of
various sizes, usually big enough to fit a few microwaves, largest one
maybe a fridge specifically for this purpose. Else, people will just
leave stuff on, under, around tables and then other people come in and
can't work.
Almost every makerspace member has a messy personal shop and are a bit
of a hoarder, we all get that, that's fine. But almost every space
will suffer from a few people who do not respect that a makerspace is
a *shared workspace* and you can't treat it the same way as your
basement/shed/garage/lawn/bedroom. This was our solution to that and
when enforced, works beautifully. So be strict about it because once
it happens then the blame game of who gets away with it more starts
happening and it balloons. People really need one thing of theirs
throw out before they get the message that you can't just dump your
crap here overnight or over a week until you next want to work on it.
New tools must also be pitched and accepted by the membership, same as
a project, else they were donated/garbage. You moved in a big, maybe
broken tool without asking anyone and now want to insist it has to
stay? Nope, you donated it and we can sell it or give it away or throw
it out.
It is very clear why a tool showed up, where it belongs, and who
definitively owns it. If there was never a pitch, you do not own it,
you donated it. So stop bringing stuff in without approval or
agreement. Funny thing, if people actually care about their stuff they
find the time to write the 1 paragraph pitch and have the conversation
of whether it belongs or not.
2 - Equipment ownership.
We track this on our Wiki, which we plagiarized and modified from ENTS'.
http://wiki.protospace.ca/Tools_We_Have
Part of a new equipment pitch is that once accepted (what project is,
who will fix it, who will commit to training on it, where it will go
[once you're full this becomes a tricky question to solve, as
something else would have to leave]) is to fill this out. Like all
documentation, it seems wasteful at first "everyone remembers who's
that is and if we can modify it, sell it, etc" until people don't
remember and then it's impossible. So do it. You'll probably ignore
this and not do it, so I'm banking this as a toldjaso when it becomes
a crisis.
A couple times some once-but-no-longer-useful stuff that no one
remembered who it belonged to got sold or disposed of, and said owners
later were a bit sad about it because they would have taken it back
had they known. This tracks and prevents that regrettable
circumstance.
The trick is keeping it up to date, especially when one person doesn't
bother to, it's hard for the next person to bother to. It's a nice
hope to say "everyone should edit the wiki" but it's a lot easier for
one person to always be on top of it. If you have discounted/student
memberships, make volunteering expected for those people and just get
one of them to be the wiki documentation person. It could be your
secretary, but doesn't need to be, it's a brainless job that can be
delegated.
One of the most common questions will be "What tools do you have" so,
it makes sense to have a list anyway. Also helps people self-study
from home on how to operate them.
...
The new proposed documentation deals with a fancy way of transferring ownership.
Basically, there will be no "loans" of equipment. Everything is
donated, or purchased for some small (10% of it's value) fee we can
afford. If the original owner wants it back, or we want to sell it,
they have the option to buy it back for the amount they paid for it.
So in the end it's the same result as a loan, with different guts in
the middle. That helps cover liability issues once people realize they
might be legally responsible for something they "own" at the
Makerspace, since the Makerspace doesn't. I.E. If someone hurts
themselves on John's lathe, who gets sued? John might not loan his
lathe if it might be him. The benefit of this is that it would be
covered by insurance and there's clear ownership and enforcement.
We had an issue with a few people suddenly, without warning or even
explanation afterwards, removing some fairly key tools. So one of the
parts of our new documentation is that a specific agreed amount of
warning be given when tools are to be removed. In our case, we had to
rush and replace the tools, probably at fairly larger expense in a
rush than if we took our time to wait for the best deal in the next
30-60 days. 1-2 month seems reasonable warning for big tools. This can
be rushed by a vote to be accommodating, if someone's leaving town
suddenly or whatnot, it just stops people from being dicks. Another
issue it addresses is, when tools are on loan, the Makerspace will
regularly turn down alternatives for cheap or free from other sources.
So it's not fair to suddenly pull the rug out from under the space
when those options were rejected.
It also stops power plays. Some people will start to take advantage of
the membership's leniency and people will be afraid of calling them on
their BS because they won't that person to suddenly take their ball
and go home. You will at first probably have a small number of people
donating a large number of tools, so it can be pretty significant if
someone up and leaves. This transfer of ownership and delays helps. It
farts the wind out of that threat balloon a bit by softening the blow
and making less of a scramble to need to replace things ASAP.
A complication of adopting this policy for a new space is that you, as
a space, might fail. In this case assets can be seized to pay debts.
For our first few years, basically everything was on loan so there was
nothing to seize if we went belly up. After 7 years, 200 members, 6500
square feet and $30k in the bank, it's not so big a concern for us
anymore.
...
There's actual paperwork for all this but it's longer and context is
more valuable than content. I'll forward you them if you'd like
though.
been the result of a crisis that led to "how could we have stopped
this, without making too much extra work for anyone?". These are not
Protospace-unique issues, every space in the world has these issues
eventually, to the point of them being memes in the community.
We used to have only one rule: "Be Excellent To Eachother". But
different people define that differently, so we've started having to
define common sense stuff on how not to be a jerk.
We tackle it on two fronts currently:
1 - People who leave crap laying around all the time.
We have a "storage policy" by which anything left in a common area is
considered garbage, and it is specifically stated as being good for
someone to dispose of or claim it (to prevent awkward guilt trips). A
"common area" being anything not stored on the member's shelf, or,
that they made and membership did not oppose a pitch to keep there for
a specific time period. We have created large project "bays" of
various sizes, usually big enough to fit a few microwaves, largest one
maybe a fridge specifically for this purpose. Else, people will just
leave stuff on, under, around tables and then other people come in and
can't work.
Almost every makerspace member has a messy personal shop and are a bit
of a hoarder, we all get that, that's fine. But almost every space
will suffer from a few people who do not respect that a makerspace is
a *shared workspace* and you can't treat it the same way as your
basement/shed/garage/lawn/bedroom. This was our solution to that and
when enforced, works beautifully. So be strict about it because once
it happens then the blame game of who gets away with it more starts
happening and it balloons. People really need one thing of theirs
throw out before they get the message that you can't just dump your
crap here overnight or over a week until you next want to work on it.
New tools must also be pitched and accepted by the membership, same as
a project, else they were donated/garbage. You moved in a big, maybe
broken tool without asking anyone and now want to insist it has to
stay? Nope, you donated it and we can sell it or give it away or throw
it out.
It is very clear why a tool showed up, where it belongs, and who
definitively owns it. If there was never a pitch, you do not own it,
you donated it. So stop bringing stuff in without approval or
agreement. Funny thing, if people actually care about their stuff they
find the time to write the 1 paragraph pitch and have the conversation
of whether it belongs or not.
2 - Equipment ownership.
We track this on our Wiki, which we plagiarized and modified from ENTS'.
http://wiki.protospace.ca/Tools_We_Have
Part of a new equipment pitch is that once accepted (what project is,
who will fix it, who will commit to training on it, where it will go
[once you're full this becomes a tricky question to solve, as
something else would have to leave]) is to fill this out. Like all
documentation, it seems wasteful at first "everyone remembers who's
that is and if we can modify it, sell it, etc" until people don't
remember and then it's impossible. So do it. You'll probably ignore
this and not do it, so I'm banking this as a toldjaso when it becomes
a crisis.
A couple times some once-but-no-longer-useful stuff that no one
remembered who it belonged to got sold or disposed of, and said owners
later were a bit sad about it because they would have taken it back
had they known. This tracks and prevents that regrettable
circumstance.
The trick is keeping it up to date, especially when one person doesn't
bother to, it's hard for the next person to bother to. It's a nice
hope to say "everyone should edit the wiki" but it's a lot easier for
one person to always be on top of it. If you have discounted/student
memberships, make volunteering expected for those people and just get
one of them to be the wiki documentation person. It could be your
secretary, but doesn't need to be, it's a brainless job that can be
delegated.
One of the most common questions will be "What tools do you have" so,
it makes sense to have a list anyway. Also helps people self-study
from home on how to operate them.
...
The new proposed documentation deals with a fancy way of transferring ownership.
Basically, there will be no "loans" of equipment. Everything is
donated, or purchased for some small (10% of it's value) fee we can
afford. If the original owner wants it back, or we want to sell it,
they have the option to buy it back for the amount they paid for it.
So in the end it's the same result as a loan, with different guts in
the middle. That helps cover liability issues once people realize they
might be legally responsible for something they "own" at the
Makerspace, since the Makerspace doesn't. I.E. If someone hurts
themselves on John's lathe, who gets sued? John might not loan his
lathe if it might be him. The benefit of this is that it would be
covered by insurance and there's clear ownership and enforcement.
We had an issue with a few people suddenly, without warning or even
explanation afterwards, removing some fairly key tools. So one of the
parts of our new documentation is that a specific agreed amount of
warning be given when tools are to be removed. In our case, we had to
rush and replace the tools, probably at fairly larger expense in a
rush than if we took our time to wait for the best deal in the next
30-60 days. 1-2 month seems reasonable warning for big tools. This can
be rushed by a vote to be accommodating, if someone's leaving town
suddenly or whatnot, it just stops people from being dicks. Another
issue it addresses is, when tools are on loan, the Makerspace will
regularly turn down alternatives for cheap or free from other sources.
So it's not fair to suddenly pull the rug out from under the space
when those options were rejected.
It also stops power plays. Some people will start to take advantage of
the membership's leniency and people will be afraid of calling them on
their BS because they won't that person to suddenly take their ball
and go home. You will at first probably have a small number of people
donating a large number of tools, so it can be pretty significant if
someone up and leaves. This transfer of ownership and delays helps. It
farts the wind out of that threat balloon a bit by softening the blow
and making less of a scramble to need to replace things ASAP.
A complication of adopting this policy for a new space is that you, as
a space, might fail. In this case assets can be seized to pay debts.
For our first few years, basically everything was on loan so there was
nothing to seize if we went belly up. After 7 years, 200 members, 6500
square feet and $30k in the bank, it's not so big a concern for us
anymore.
...
There's actual paperwork for all this but it's longer and context is
more valuable than content. I'll forward you them if you'd like
though.
Vincent Wolfe
May 11, 2016, 10:46:39 AM5/11/16
to Coalition of Canadian Creative Spaces
I would love to see the paperwork. You have highlighted pretty much every concern I have so it is good to see that I am on the right track. I love the idea of buying it, but you are right, if we fold, all that equipment goes to debt repayment. Thankfully, at this very moment we have zero debt, but sadly zero income, for now.
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