Hey all, we’ve made good progress on the safety side of things. @Big_Mak is going to see about getting our fire extinguishers re-certified, and I went through the first aid kits and divided them by area, so we have three in our major zones. (wood shop, metal shop and main area)
However, we need to talk about other basic infra things like the bathrooms and the bucket of soiled towels sitting next to it.
Our current (backlogged) system was to have the cotton towels as hand towels, but also use them for cleaning and spills. dirty towels would be collected in the bucket. Well, now that bucket is full and we’ve run out of clean towels. There are also a huge pile of gloves that are filthy with who knows what that need to be laundered.
If we’re going to continue using these towels we need to implement a system for doing laundry. Whether this is a Do-ocracy thing with reimbursed expenses, or it goes to someone who has a washer and dryer at home, I don’t know. But we can’t just have a bathroom with disgusting towels.
We could potentially forsake the whole idea of laundered towels in the bathroom and switch to a roll of brown paper towel, or somehow try to get an electric hand dryer going.
How to move forward?
Figure out a system for doing laundry - and do it!
Switch to rolls of brown paper towels - and empty garbage cans
Try to install electric hand dryers in our wiring mess
Thanks for looking at the bathroom stuff! I can see how we’ve blown through all that stuff what with the move/clean up/etc. So many gloves…
VHS traditionally hasn’t had a lot of cash for supplies like this…on an ongoing space-operational basis.
In the past things needed like paper towels/gloves would be bought and donated by individual members and the membership has been pretty great around that. Not saying you need to do that Laura, in fact, I’ll buy and donate a box of Nitrile gloves this round.
I guess I’d like to see ongoing consumables like this (and printer paper, other stuff) continue to come from the membership - as we’ve done in the past. I think it helps to keep us lean and that feels super important right now as we are still in needing-to-grow mode.
@Janet to be specific, I am referring to gloves that came from the bins of loose gloves in the safety overhaul. They are made of fabric and re-usable, but very dirty.
Well, that’s what you get for posting on, like, 3 hours of sleep. Sorry, I mean @SteveRoy not @Big_Mak
@Billiam Thank you so much for looking into the laundry. It is very much appreciated. I wonder how sturdy those gloves are, they might not survive a spin in the dryer…
Looks like we are moving forward with the plan to switch to brown paper towels in the bathroom. This will be an ongoing expense, but hopefully it will not hit too hard if we can crowdfund it through and not devour our supplies like little paper goblins.
@winegummo was looking into paper towel supplies this morning while @wander is looking for dispensers on craigslist. Great work from team I-don’t-want-to-spread-communicable-diseases!
The gloves survived the washing, but many of the towels are stained. Don’t worry, the stains are now clean. I did a faux pas and left them on the craft table, hoping someone would (please) sort out “rags” vs “hand towels”, and do something with the gloves.
I’m willing to bring them home on occasion, as my laundry is free, and are large coin-op units (still take coin, but the LL has left a bucket of loonies and quarters ). The only “compensation” I’d like (and by no means is this a condition of me doing them) is occasionally surprise me with a can (or 500ml bottle) of Coke in the fridge; no beer, no drink.
Thanks!
*now I need a Coke. Pavlov was on to something I think
I’ve folded the towels and put them away in the bathroom. The 20% or so with the worse stains I’ve put with the bucket of rags on the shelf in the utility room downstairs.