A former member of Pumping Station One (https://wiki.pumpingstationone.org) mentioned to me that they had a good space policy, the “Tidy Space Policy.” A little searching shows that other hackspaces make use of it as well:
The TidySpace policy is designed to make the “space” in “hackerspace” easier for everyone to use. It introduces a visual system of marking and tagging to indicate when something is out of place, and gives people tools to help keep things orderly. It relies on participation from every member, but is administered by area hosts and officers. It is, of course, to be executed alongside the Pumping Station: One Membership Agreement and the overarching rule: “be excellent to each other.”
Basic points:
A hackspace is divided into Areas (soldering stations, metal shop, wood shop, laser cutter, etc)
Worktables in Areas must always be kept clear
Hosts monitor a specific Area with the assistance of Deputies
Members request Parking Permits for items from hosts
Items found in areas can be issued Parking Tickets by Hosts or Deputies
Members can issue Parking Requests if Hosts are not available
Items in violation of Passes or Tickets go to “Limbo”
Limbo is storage in which anything is fair game, and is periodically cleaned out
Items can not be brought to the hackspace to be placed directly in Limbo
What interests me about this is that it delegates decision making to folks who are active in their respective areas, and reduces the bystander effect where folks aren’t sure where things should go.
I’d love to hear feedback from the VHS community if this is a viable approach to making the space more usable.
I see where you are coming from, but I don’t think as hosts as cops in the space.
I think it would be the same process we have now, where people familiar with a specialization of VHS would know what was in it. Policy would be clearer for new folks as well.
What we have now essentially is project and supply “squatting.” Things are left “temporarily” with a name and date sticker. Often the name is unclear, and there is no contact information. This is basically “people writing their own parking tickets.” One example of this is the area right by the boiler room door, which is yet again being blocked with wood offcuts.
This results in people getting frustrated, and either following the ornerous process of trying to contact people to determine what to do with it, or the more common “vigilante justice” where things just “go missing.”
For parking tickets what do you think of using a template that says who’s it is, when the item was placed there and when it’s planned to be moved? So if someone is leaving something in the space, people can know who to contact?