[hackerspaces] Vetting new members

[David Powell]

We are a new hackerspace in Maryland, USA so we don't have a whole lot
of experience. We have discusses this issue and basically it came down
to all the existing keyholders must vote in private on weather to
allow or deny a member to right to have 24/7 access. With that said we
don't actually have a 24/7 facilility available to us yet so we have
not given out any keys. When the time comes that we do have 24/7
access the board members will have keys and the charter members will
also have keys. Currently there are 5 of us putting everything we have
into forming our hackerspace. Those 5 will be considered charter
members and will ultimately be who gets to decide who else has a key.

Not every member needs a key. You need to be careful who you hand them
out to. If you have a member who really needs 24/7 access I'm sure
they will let you know that they tried to access the building but
nobody was there. At that time you could offer to motion for a vote on
their behalf amoungst the other keyholders.

I would not hand out a key to a new member. We have discussed
requiring background checks before providing keys. This is easily done
in 5 minutes for free in Maryland using the courts website.

One thing you may also want to implement is a quarterly inventory of
the keys. Mark each members key with a number and possibly with a do
not duplicate message. Then every quarter ask to physically see their
key. If they don't have it then it may be time to change the locks.

Finally, I've toyed with the idea of not having a key at all. There
are plenty of inexpensive electronic locks. This will allow you to
keep a log of who accessed the building and when. It would also allow
you to setup a system where you can remotely allow a member to enter.
So they may not need full access but they may need to call someone and
request use of the building before entering.

Discuss this over with your members and see what they are comfortable with.

On 6/17/09, Eric Gerlach <eric+hackerspaces-discuss at gerlach.ca> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Some of you may have seen me asking this question on IRC over the last
> few days, so if you're one of those people, my apologies for the
> duplicate communication.  Feel free to respond anyways :-)
>
> I'm working with a group in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada to build
> a new hackerspace.  One of the debates we're having right now is about
> vetting new members.  I'm really interested in what other spaces are
> doing.
>
> Specifically, I'm interested in what a person has to do to become a
> member of your organization and get 24/7 access to the space (if you
> allow that), and what you feel the advantages and disadvantages to your
> approach are.
>
> Thanks in advance for your help.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Eric
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