Awesome! That is great to know.
So, a question on the membership app is just at good as a Policy?
It is my understanding that If we are the one sexually assaulting/harassing someone else that we will not be covered or if we allow it to happen we will not be covered.
Correct me if Iām wrong, as the board has no authority to revoke a key, by the bylaws, this was the best we could agree on with little time to review the lawyers notes and rule on this situation.
Then why did you revoke his key? On what grounds did you justify taking such a severe action? What new policies did you put in place so that next time it would violate our policies?
If the only choices you are giving me are āevery timeā and āneverā, then yes Iāll go with āevery timeā. Your statement seems to imply that the burden of notifying us āevery timeā would be too great, even though as far as I know there have only been 5 keys revoked in the last 3 years.
And again, this is not at all about violating an expelled memberās privacy. Iāve been very clear Iām not looking for specific details about the expelled member. What Iām asking is to get a general notice when a security event happen. Say someoneās car gets broken into while parked outside the maker space. You should send out a notice that gives general information about what happened and letās us know what actions have been or can be done to minimize future risk. This is in fact something weāve done in the past. Why is this security event less important than a car getting broken into?
For the life of me I canāt figure out why the board is being so secretive about this and why this seems so hard. Because of āsomethingā that happened involving a member on the RO list, you have permanently revoked his key and apparently instituted new policies so that āsomethingā isnāt likely to happen again. But yet you donāt feel itās significant enough to tell the membership anything about it at all?
One of the good things about this election cycle is that several topics that had only been discussed at board meetings and the Admin list have been brought out for more open discussion on this Forum. I think this has been a key factor in more people getting involved and more people interested in running for the board. So if in doubt, I would almost always lean towards over-communicating rather than under-communicating, if there is any doubt on what to do. And in this case I donāt see why there should be any doubt at all.
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To clarify again: No event happened. The guy joined the makerspace and was using tools to make stuff. He did not hurt anyone or even make anyone uncomfortable. We wouldnāt have known he was an offender if we hadnāt gotten that email. His crime happened ten years ago.
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Once we knew, we were concerned that it was risky to let registered offenders join the makerspace, so we are putting processes in place to not do that again. We are checking for this now.
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Security turned his key off because theyāre allowed to do that for just about any reason. They donāt have to get anybodyās approval. This is a good process because in the event of a security issue we donāt want anything in their way of dealing with it.
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Per our bylaws: Membership can only be terminated āby written petition signed by more than three quarters (3/4ths) of the voting members.ā - we asked him to terminate his membership and we did, but the board canāt terminate membership, this is something Iād like to change in the bylaws because itās kind of ridiculous.
I bring my kids to the makerspace too, all the time, and I still bring them, nothing has changed. I watch them and know whoās around them so nobody can hurt them. Iād watch them whether or not an offender registry even existed because I honestly donāt believe those registries do much to keep people safer - it takes a lot more than āno convictionsā for me to trust someone to be alone with my kid. I have had to track down members who were way back in the woodshop when their kids were out front and ask them wtf they were thinking, their kid could run out on douglas and they wouldnāt know it! I watch my kids at the makerspace just like I watch them at parks, churches, the mall, parties and family gatherings - there is no way to really know who is and isnāt safe in this world, I am sad to say.
Letās talk at Thursdayās board meeting about how/when to notify members when a key is turned off. I am open to feedback on this.
Malissa, our insurance policy specifically disavows any coverage whatsoever for any sexual action (from harassment to rape) from anyone to anyone. It does not matter if it is a board member, area lead, keyed member, unkeyed member, guest, visitor, or trespasser, and it does not matter if that person is the aggressor or victim.
And as it currently stands, the power to deactivate a key is explicitly granted to Security Officers, although the attorney opined that, while our bylaws do not grant us explicit authority to expel members, our inherent duty is to protect our membership, which does give them the inherent authority to do so. This could be a good argument for having bylaws prepared by a professional ā especially with the size of our membership these days.
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Thank you. Thatās much better. Now I feel like I have at least some of the info you did when you decided not to be concerned about this.
All Iām asking is that you give our membership this sort of information in a timely manner so that each of us can decide for ourselves how to respond and what feels safe and what doesnāt.
It does seem like there is yet another bylaws issue that needs addressingā¦add it to the pile. But shouldnāt it also be a written policy if weāve decided to deny membership to certain classes of people?
Heeeās Baaaack! Thank you David for clarifying those points.
Hope you are feeling at least a little better now. Iām just hoping the pain killers donāt start to feel TOO goodā¦ 
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I donāt think anyone here is meaning to be secretive about any of this stuff.
We need to collect all the things that are not right about the bylaws on a list. Then we can make sure we donāt leave any of the same things in or out. (Whether prepared by someone professional or us or whether done as a whole or piecemealā¦ it would be smart to have something to check against.)
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You may be right about whether it should be policy, but Iām pretty sure that the sitting Board was not unanimous on this. I have a feeling that this will be true of the upcoming Board, as well.
Area leads are not even notified when things happen at the space. From sexual offenders, to keys being revoked, to drunk people being in the space. All area leads should be in the loop.
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We do need more board/ area lead interaction. I sometimes sit in on the area lead meeting to see whatās going onā¦ but I sometimes say stuff in it and I donāt want to be overbearingā¦
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Feel free to speak up, We usually donāt have an hours worth of things to talk about.