December Members Meeting

[Joseph]

Hello,

We will be holding the monthly members meeting on Tuesday 10th December.

The agenda (and what will be the minutes document) is attached here.

As a specific note, we will be voting on the individual changes to the articles in this meeting, ahead of voting on adopting them by special resolution in January. We will also decide at this meeting whether or not to propose the change of name at the general meeting.

There have been a few changes made, specifically to the wording of directors remuneration and the specific objects since the last email on the amendments mailing list, after some feedback from that set of emails, and discussions.

The meeting will allow any final changes to the wording, as this is not the final special resolution yet.

The full document is attached, but the main changes are to:

19-(5) Directors are made accountable to the company for their remuneration

Part 3 in its entirety (Removal of members and rules on membership)

Article 41 - Adoption of objects of the company

Article 41-(5) - Specific objects of the company

Also, my apologies for forgetting the donations policy. 

It has been a busy month, but here is the first proposal. It is intended to be modified before we potentially adopt it.

Joseph

[Ed Chaney]

Appreciate the work you have put in on this. I am unlikely to be able to come to the meeting so will add comment here:

I feel that the donation and loans policy is very long and wordy. I think it's also in danger of being too prescriptive and quite a bit about storing things rather than the donations / loans.

To me the donation and loans policy needs to mainly address one thing: stop people dumping their rubbish in the space by explaining the process by which SMI accepts donations and loans.

There are some other bits in there that are good, such as defining that items donated are property of SMI and items that are loaned as being not owned by SMI. 

Can this policy be boiled to bullet points, and less than 1 side of paper? for example something like:

Donating items to SMI: 

1. To donate items to the space, do x, y and/or z... e.g.

 - small items - something that would fit into member's box: ask on slack or bring to open night, 2+ members approve. 

 - large items - things that wouldn't fit in the box: single trustee approval or members meeting

 - very large items - things that would require a large change to the space (see large change policy): quorum of trustees or members meeting.

2. Donated items become property of SMI once 1. has been done.

Loaning items to SMI: 

1. To loan items to SMI, do a, b and c. (similar idea to donating, except only biggish/valuable/working items can be loaned).

2. SMI may require that loaned items are removed from the space. This can be decided by the trustees or by members meeting.

3. SMI is not liable for repair or replacement costs in the case of loss or damage.

4. The owner is not required to inspect or maintain the items in safe working condition once they have been loaned.

5. Loaned items remain the property of the member, except when:

 - The owner of the loaned item has been asked to remove the item by the trustees and has not done so within 30 days, and

 - Reasonable steps have been taken to contact the owner of the item.

Non-compliance:

Items which have been left in the space and have not been approved for donation or loan will be subject to the Storage Policy and members may eventually dispose of them in accordance with the Storage Policy.

WRT the articles. I don't feel the directors remuneration has been properly addressed but I may be missing something, and I don't think we have addressed removing directors.

My suggestion at this point is to focus firstly on the membership issue, which does largely seem to be addressed and the only thing that functionally matters.

The objects then come next, this seems like a nice-to-have and I don't see any major issues, but not experienced enough to be sure. It's a lot of words.

Cheers

Ed

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[Ben Jacobs-Howe]

I agree with Ed. The bulleted or number list is easier to read.

I see that Ed added number 3 on the loaned item section, which I couldn't see in the draft that Joseph sent. This might just be an example, but if there is a rule that SMI is not liable for loss or damage of loaned equipment I will consider removing all my loaned items. I loaned them on the understanding that they would be repaired or replaced if damaged, not including reasonable wear and tear. After all, the space would do the same for owned equipment.

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[Ed Chaney]

Hi Ben, it was just an example. It could be elaborated on/removed. I guess there coild be a little consideration for the fact that someone could loan something that was really worn out, and then expect SMI to repair it for them for free. Maintenance in the same condition is probably best?

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[Ben Jacobs-Howe]

Of course. The terms should be standard for all loans, written, and fair.

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[Joseph]

Hello,

We can work on the content and wording of the policy. It is just something to get started with.

Section 168 of the Companies Act 2016 deals with removal of directors.

Joseph

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