Members area update

[Ed Chaney]

Hi all,

I'm running a little behind here, apologies.

At our last trustee meeting 18/02/21 we agreed to go ahead with the proposed update to the members area. We will be adopting HMS2, the system developed and used by Nottinghack - a similar makerspace in Nottingham UK with ~800 members.

HMS2 is primarily developed by one of their founders - Matt Lloyd. It's written in common software languages and is easier to update and develop on than our current system. Matt will be spending some time working on adapting parts of the system to our specific needs and we don't expect him to work for free. Matt's estimate is around £500 to do the works, however there are some elements not fully scoped. In order to avoid a back and forth to approve for these extra bits, the Trustees decided to authorise a budget of up to £1000 for this project.

The reason why we decided we are happy to spend on this is that a functioning members area is critical to the running of So Make It. Our current member system is nearly impossible to update and may have security flaws as a result. HMS2 is much more readily updatable and as it is used by a much larger makerspace we have more confidence that it will be developed, kept up to date and secure. It is fully open source and we hope our members will contribute to its future development as well.

As an example of this, when COVID hit, Nottinghack added a feature to be able to limit the number of occupants and book time slots for access to the space. That meant they could open sooner and let members use the space even during partial lockdowns.

More information on using the new members area will come in due course. If you want to know more about HMS2 or how to help please head to slack #itweb. If you have any questions or comments about this decision to spend on this project, especially in relation to our current finances, please contact the trustees, either trus...@somakeit.org.uk or slack #trustees.

All the best,

Ed - Trustee