Well first off, we did not make any proposal for any changes, so I don’t believe any clarification is necessary. But that being said, the first statement was a question. It was a decission that was made at the old space, and we were simply asking if it still needs to apply. Assuming that verbiage was stricken, however, the second statement can still be made, as all we would have to do is add a simple statement that the lounge is another exception.
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That’s interesting. I can’t see that the Wichita Public Library is ever open past city curfew. Maybe for special events? I think there is a difference between a city owned establishment with hired city employees that would most likely be considered sufficient supervision as per the somewhat murky wording in the city codes, and a nonprofit organization with no employees or supervising adults necessarily being in the building after hours.
The only reason I joined this committee is because I am concerned that it’s a liability for minors to be in the space unsupervised, especially after hours. I regularly bring my 3 minor teens to the space, so to clarity, I fully support minors in the space. And we are often here past curfew on weekends but I am with them supervising, even though I have a 14, 15 and 16 year old that could join and one be a keyed member.
I don’t agree with minors being keyed members with 24 hours access, and able to bring minor guests.
But at the end of the day, it’s clearly not up to me.
I just feel like it’s a valid concern for the safety of the space, for legal reasons. But it appears to me a lot of the powers that have been/be around here disagree and find it unnecessary.
And so it goes….
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Children under 16 have to be supervised by an adult. That’s already in the membership policy.
A 16 or 17 year old must have parent/guardian approval before becoming a member, and the parent signs a release of liability. If a parent allows an irresponsible teen to become a member, and that teen then causes problems at the space, it wouldn’t be any different than an irresponsible adult causing problems at the space.
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I don’t agree with that either, I think it needs to be stated different but not sure how.
An example situation I came across was a 14-year-old who had been approved to use the metal shop. His mother had a membership she only got the membership so that he could do what he needed to do to learn metal work. She had to work and he wanted to work on his metal work so his father came with him not understanding the rules. Since the mother was not with them, had I not been there to let them be my guest the son would have not been able to work on his metal work. And talking with the father I learned that neither parents have any interest in making but their son does. At that point I suggested they get their son of membership so that one of them could be his guest when he needed to work. That way he could do the making he wants and his parents could bring him back and forth to the space depending on who was available as his guest.
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As the policy stands right now, that still would not work. Anyone under the age of 16 that was to become a member, would still not be granted a key badge. They may have a picture badge, but it woudn’t unlock the door.
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This happened before that policy. At one point we were color coding badges, general membership was blue, area leads were green, board members were red and regular guest were yellow. It was never written into policy and I don’t know if it’s still being done.
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We do not currently color code the badges, though a number of the older board members and area leads still have their old badges, so you do see some with different colors. Area leads and Board members change enough, that it was not really logical to keep giving them different badges. Plus, since members no longer have to hunt people down for signatures, there really is no need for visual designation.
We haven’t really given out a guest badge in a while. It is logical that the badge would be visually distinguished if we did though. If someone comes enough to justify it, we still have the ability to do so.
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