[hackerspaces] Question regarding member dispute

[riot]

Ahoi,

On 05.01.2016 00:56, sheila miguez wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 4, 2016 at 4:16 PM, Shirley Hicks
> <shirley at velochicdesign.com <mailto:shirley at velochicdesign.com>> wrote:
>
>     We are considering seeking legal or mediation advice locally as we
>     want be able to deal with this appropriately. Am wondering if other
>     spaces have dealt with similar disputes and what you learned in the
>     process.

If there's no lawyers / externals involved yet, i'd say it'd be better 
to (learn to) do it yourself than seek someone who's probably not even 
qualified to "handle nerds" (see also: cat herding)..

That is also a nice hackable discipline to add to your space, if you 
have members interested in that :)

> Try and handle things in a timely manner. If things aren't resolved
> quickly, try and give the people involved regular status reports.

Handling stuff timely, yes. But one thing that usually helps a lot (at 
c-base and elsewhere) is to give participants time "to steam off" - i.e. 
a temporary ban. (Be appropriate with the duration and discuss this first ;)

This also helps alleviate collateral damage on the community. Except in 
rare cases, where people then start bothering other members. If that 
happens, give them a final warning.

> There might be a non profit in your city that does conflict resolution.
> One of our members helped by contacting one for us
> <http://www.ccrchicago.org/>. We didn't end up using them, but it is
> nice to know they exist.

When followed by councelling, that does wonders - if not, you'll 
probably get rid of someone you never needed in the first place ,)

Cheers,
riot