[dms-discuss] Summary From Last Week's Policy Roundtable

[jefftolentino]

Hi folks

I wanted to follow up a bit on last weeks meeting.  First off, thank 
you to everyone who attended the meeting and participated in the 
roundtable discussion on policy.  In general, I thought it was very 
productive.  There has been some continued uncertainty about the key 
policy this year, and much of the evening was spent talking about keys 
and how the group might better improve our key policy.  Here is a basic 
rundown of what we discussed.

We started by looking through what we had on the DMS wiki.  Braden 
pointed everyone to this page, which outlines the current key policy: 
http://wiki.davismakerspace.org/Initial%20Key%20Policy

This policy was actually voted on in April 2014, and contains a lot of 
good information on where the group was on the key policy last year. In 
general, that policy lists out a few guidelines on getting a key, (i.e. 
must be familiar with the group, must be contributing back to the space, 
and must be approved by the key committee).  Last week's group generally 
agreed that this policy should be maintained as a starting point for any 
more formalization of the policy.

There has been a bit of confusion about whether the key policy should 
accommodate new members who wish to make monetary donations to the 
space.  However, the April 2014 policy explicitly says that donating 
money to the space is a valid method of contributing back to the space 
in exchange for a key.  This idea was further discussed at last weeks 
meeting and everyone there was generally still on board with it.  It 
helps bring in donations, and keeps the space more sustainable.  Last 
week's group would by comfortable seeing it maintained, if we decide to 
update the policy in the future.

The key committee has also has some difficulty with handling key 
requests from new members who are not familiar with the space.  We 
talked about this last week as well, and the idea of using a sponsorship 
mechanism (basically, finding another member to sponsor new key 
applicants) was reintroduced.   It was suggested that we consider adding 
this to the April 2014 policy in a future update.

We also talked about ways to keep the space safe and secure, 
specifically, how we can help control potential theft or accidents in 
the space with new key holders.  The group discussed including a more 
formalized orientation for new key holders.  A couple suggestions were 
made on this front, namely having some sort of safety/orientation class, 
and having a test for new applicants.  In general, most people at last 
weeks meeting were on board with adding some sort of mechanism like this 
to the key policy.  An orientation, along with our security camera, and 
requiring people to contribute back to the space, would continue to 
serve as the basic groundwork for theft and accident deterrence.

We also talked briefly about whether we should continue with having the 
key committee handle the approval process.  We discussed having the 
board approve keys instead, but didn't settle on any conclusions.

For now the roundtable discussion was primarily intended to gauge 
peoples thoughts on the the key policy.  Its been a contentious issue in 
the past, and there has been some desire to refine the policy.  No hard 
decisions were made, but I'd like to incorporate the above ideas into a 
draft revision in the coming weeks and put it up for consideration at a 
future meeting.

If anyone has any additional input they would like to contribute to the 
draft revision, please send an email to me or the general discuss list.  
Thanks again to everyone who has helped out with the details of DMS 
policy, (no matter how tedious).  As much as this work can be hard 
sometimes, it ultimately makes for a stronger group and stronger space.

Jeff Tolentino