[hackerspaces] New Member Vetting

[Ben Brown]

We've got an interesting topic going on our own discuss list about
strengthening membership vetting, spawning from a member's experience in
another organization that's now considering police checks for applicants.

Traditionally, we've had applicants show up to a few open nights before
the board votes on their application. Members who have qualms about that
applicant have 5 days to speak up before the application is considered.
So far we've only rejected a single person (because they didn't attend
enough open nights) but now thinking about it, most hackerspaces
(including ours) entrust a significant amount of equipment to people who
we've only had very limited contact. As we're quickly growing past our
founding members, I'm wondering how other hackerspaces have adapted?

A couple ideas being thrown around are police checks (which most members
are against), and having a member sponsor a new applicant (who risks
their own membership to support them).

What process does your space use and is it working/failing horribly?

Cheers,
Ben



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