probation time ?

[Thomas]

hello,

at Tau we have a little process going on to give "permanent" seat to people.

I remember reading Alex Hillman posts about how they (at Indyhall) had to setup a vetting process to have some basic trust around.

basic idea is : ok you want to have permanent access to the facility and we need to trust you to do that so you'll have to wait X weeks to get the keys or being told "nah we don't like you please go far away".

but, in the real world how do you usually phrase it ? have you ever had bad reactions to such a process ?

as we are translating the website, here is what we are planning to put there at the moment :

"Fulltime member: 24/7 access after a 2 weeks probatory time; as fulltime members are the pumping hearts of Tau's community we like to ensure that it's a mutual match. After your first two weeks, you'll get your own set of keys or we will refund you and direct you to other shared facilities we think might be better suited for you."

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Thomas Riboulet
+33 (0) 698 926 057

[Alex Hillman]

In 6 years of operation we've only ever asked 2 people to leave. One was a their, the other was mentally ill. Those conversations were sensitive and difficult, but that's not what you're asking about.

My questions are:

Who is doing the vetting, you, other members, or both? 

Is there criteria/expectations before they ask to join that they can have a chance to meet before being denied?

Do people know why they're not being admitted? 

It sounds like you priority is trust, so simply waiting 2 weeks isn't going to establish trust. There needs to be some sort of mechanism for checking that. We use 3 signatures from other key holding members that say THEY trust the member, and we get to make the final call if, for some reason, we disagree. To date, that has never happened.

-Alex

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/ah

indyhall.org

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[Thomas]

as we are gearing up to move pretty soon (December) into a bigger place and are accepting more people in the process is being clarified, especially how we can present how it works to new comers.

we try to be quite clear on some topics such as taking part in daily and weekly tasks such as coffee making, dishes, cleaning. those are probably the only expectations at the moment.

except those, as we are young in all this, the criteria and expectations are a bit blurry, so far we stick to "gut feeling" at founders' level.

simply saying "two weeks" is not enough I agree. but we are small so I think that in 2 weeks we will get a pretty decent idea of how a person behaves in most times. I suppose something more formal, similar to yours, will come in time.

as for "Do people know why they're not being admitted?"

so far we have not faced that situation, I guess we would try to, but depending on the person and situation it might be sensitive and difficult just like you've experienced.