2021-01-03
Hackspace Manchester Board Meeting Minutes
Present Members
Ross, Mark, Jason, Laura
Meeting Starts 10.18 - Chaired by Ross
AGENDA
- Action Points from Last Meeting
- Governance & Finance
- Membership / Teams / SubCommittees
- Member Items Raised
- Any Other Relevant Business
Action Points from last meeting
Nothing relevant which is not covered elsewhere.
Governance & Finance
Governance
- Annual board development & strategy session
- We are considering our options for meeting
- This should preferably be sooner than later so that we can plan major activities & timescales for the space (infrastructure / vision / goals).
- Depending on evolving guidelines this may need to be a virtual session but a final decision is yet to be taken.
Finance
- Bank mandate change
- Barclays require Rossy to prove his identity. He has undertaken to complete this task within a fortnight.
- Annual accounts are due by the end of March
- We need to find an accountant to assist with this responsibility. Possible options were discussed. Jason is looking after this.
- Insurance
- We are waiting for a renewal quote from our exisiting provider before deciding whether to continue or seek alternative arrangements. Laura is looking after this.
Membership Teams / SubCommittees
Membership & Outreach
Laura has been active communicating with the Hackspace Foundation and hackspaces in the USA and London with the aim of fostering relationships and communication. - Laura needs access to social media platforms for outreach - Twitter / Insta
Metal
- The board considered the Metal team proposal as submitted
- The board will not support the purchase of any item which is very difficult, or effectively immovable, in future.
- The board have approved £500 towards the purchase of a mill, however, the metal team have until Feb 19th 2021 to get funds for any pledge component of a purchase into the Hackspace bank account.
- The welding quote needs revising to fully include all costs (currently believed to be in the region of £370) and any remaining funds can be allocated to any item(s) of the team's choosing.
Electronics
- There has been minimal response from the electronics team.
- The board would really appreciate if someone can take ownership of the grant proposal and submit a plan
- If the board do not have written request for the funding available to be allocated by 16th Jan then they will feel compelled to allocate the funds as they see fit.
- NO complaints or moaning will be entertained should this be the case.
Health & Safety
- Mark requested an update regarding tool risk assessments. We are waiting on a template. This is Ellan's area of responsibility and as she was not able to be present at the meeting it has been agreed that we will email and ask for an update.
Members Meeting / Board Q&A
##### BOARD Q & A SESSION - Sat 30th Jan @ 16.00 - Platform details to be communicated closer to the time. - Your opportunity to engage with the board and ask anything you're curious about. Please participate if you're interested and able to! - There will be a Members meeting straight after on the same call
Member Submitted Items
- A member submitted a proposal to change the way the space operates it's booking policy when allowed.
- Ross provided a detailed response, which can be seen on the forum, on behalf of, and after discussion by, the board. This issue was carefully considered and the board welcome members to engage.
- A member requested that they be allowed to use the space for filming related to Manchester International Festival
- After carefully considering this request the board voted to allow this as it was deemed allowed within our then interpretation of the rules, however, it was advised that this was granted as an exceptional circumstance and that further requests would likely not be accomodated.
- A further alteration request was made. This request was declined.
The board would like to remind members that official requests for board consideration need to be emailed to the board@ email. We will not officialy consider requests made via other methods (forum posts, telegram, smoke signals, interpretive dance { that's more a next door thing }, other miscellaneous methods).
>This allows the whole board to be party to the request and to discuss it in an informed and timely manner.
Any Other Relevant Business
Grant
- £4k additional funding has been secured
- Board to consider priorities before discussing next at the board development session
- Some options suggested already;
- Saving as a reserve (will be taxed to some extent)
- Allocating to infrastructure
- Creating areas that don't exist yet
- Photocave
- Other
Reimbursement Policy
The board occasionally receive requests for expenditure they didn't specifically agree to or weren't expecting. Whilst generally these have been positive contributions, thank you, we must have a decent understanding, and right of refusal, of where space funds are going ahead of time. No surprises please even if well intentioned ✌️.
- The board would like to remind members that all expenditure on behalf of the space MUST be by prior agreement from the board in written form in order to be able to claim the expense back.
- The board has instructed the finance sub-committee to develop a policy and supporting process for this.
TLDR; If you don't get written permission for specific expenditure the board will not be obligated to reimburse this.
Emergency Stop Costing
- Mark is going to pursue emergency stop costing and implementation options.
- Jason instigated a discussion around whether this is a 'nice-to-have' vs 'must-have' given dangerous tools have individual emergency stops.
Postal Mail Arrangements
- Jason is going to look at mailbox providers as a potential alternative to the feat of fetching our mail from the very entropic area beyond the blue doors of the mill.
- Given that the board are personally liable for any legal notices served upon the space then they may want a more robust method of receiving mail
- The space has previously suffered financially by way of monetary fine and the board do not wish for a repeat of this situation so the board will consider the balance of cost against risks set out at the next official meeting of the board