Organisation/2012 Trustees Election/Candidates

Marc Barto (marc-htm)

Hi all. You might know me as a heavy Club Mate drinker or the organiser of bi-monthly group Not Just Arduino, but since I have joined a year and a half ago this amazing space, I have actively contributed to its every day improvements. I would like to make sure we engage with the issues linked to the rapid growth of our community.

• How to help promote the values of excellence and collaboration?
• How to resolve the conflicts and make sure the rules are respected?
• And we use to “Make” more stuff... (myself included...)

Let's meet!

We need regular meetings, where we can resolve conflicts, develop proposals and bring them to whole community online.

Training

I am already planning a series of workshops and hope it will bring a better collaborative culture in the space. It is obviously also good for safety and maintenance of machines if more people know what they're doing.

Rules

Let's make it easier for members to know the rules or to intervene when they observe un-excellent behaviour. We recently had great initiatives and proposals brought by members like “Adopt a spanner” or the “Audio tour”. I would also explore ideas, like having mentors and volunteers in the space and easy access to a visitor guide and clear display of the rules.

Digital tools

What if we could, through our mailing list, quickly vote, rank and evaluate proposals with simple voting tools? Let's explore the several collaborative tools are out there (Google Moderator, CPM...).

Aden Bos (aden)

It would be an honour and a privilege to serve our Glorious Leader Chairman Jonty. A vote for me is a vote for "The Party", and when it's time to party we will always party hard. Anyone voting against "The Party" will be punished appropriately. I'm never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you, never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye, never gonna tell a lie and hurt you.

Paddy Duncan (paddyd)

I have a very diverse range of experience from around the world, from technical manager of a nightclub in KL to tour manager in the Middle East, looking after robotic dinosaurs and an amusement arcade in Moscow, sound engineering at celebrity weddings, and a host of relatively boring things like pro audio repairs and sysadminning in the UK. What these experiences all have in common is solving problems in novel ways using my own expertise and including the ideas and concerns of many. I'm currently involved in various projects including Talkaoke the mobile chat show, producing a Crowley play, a remote control camera focus, and generally being up to mischief.

I have been a Hackspace member for about a year now, and somehow seem to have entrenched myself in helping with its upkeep, particularly with infrastructure such as wiring, plumbing, chisel sharpening etc.. This will no doubt continue regardless of any election results.

The way the Hackspace runs itself virtually without any rules but common sense never ceases to amaze me, and I very much look forward to being a part of the community as it grows and diversifies, hopefully keeping the tradition of minimal interference from a governing body. We have very exciting times ahead, with an imminent move to bigger premises and the possibility of the membership doubling in the near future. I believe in Hackspace as a new, more creative and non-hierarchical set up.

It can only grow and be a model for other communities. Of course along the way there will be controversies and difficulties, many of which I have experienced and helped to resolve. The way to do it is to take on board everybody's feelings and concerns in a calm and open way and try to find a way through that most people are happy with.

Clare Greenhalgh (Nokomis)

Mother Dragon of the Hackspace speaking...

I think we need to have more organisation in the Space. People need to understand the structures that are in place and have respect for them, rather than treating the Space as a dumping ground.

We also need to have a webpresence that makes sense to everyone and that you can actually find things on!

Communication in the Space is a problem as it is targeted in the wrong direction. People only tell friends, rather than perhaps the person who is causing a problem, or, if it is about an aspect of the Space itself, the trustees. We need to encourage members to suggest solutions to problems raised on the mailing list, rather than creating more as is currently the trend.

We need to have more regimentation on the use of machinery in the Space, as people often use it without proper training. I know the majority of people here are geeks, but it does NOT mean you know everything, whatever you may think!

There is a growing trend in members who are interested in knitting, sewing, beadwork and other crafts that need a clean area to work in. I think we need to make sure that the Space caters for this element and has an area that is dedicated to them. People will then be able to trade skills, or learn new ones.

Thomas Greer (tgreer)

Hi, I'm tgreer and I'm standing for election. My aims are pure and simple: Balconise the junk (including people), Stop non-members abusing the privileges that we the paying members pay for. I'm going to work with members to resolve their issues. I'm going to work to improve the space and stop people abusing the space as their office.

Morag Hickman (Errant)

I'd been making things for years (wood, stone, silver, copper, fabric, paper, pixels). When I came to London I started a 'making' club to combine socialising and creativity, but then I found the hackspace and felt like I'd come home.

It's not just the physical facilities that make me love the hackspace, or the way that the community continually improves and transforms them. I've found from the first that its environment and community embrace creativity and action as the norm and ideal.

Over the years (and since returning from a year abroad) I've seen the hack change a lot, and much drama pass over the mailing list and irc. As the organisation has grown in membership and floorspace it's become more complex, and there is often confusion around systems and processes. In my professional life I'm a science communicator, acting as a bridge between science and the public. I'm the kind of late-blooming techie who can bridge digital and craft mentalities, savvy and n00b. I'd like to contribute to the clarity, accessibility and consistency of documentation, especially for new members, and for established members who haven't been watching as things unfold.

Another hugely positive thing I love about the hackspace is skill-sharing, both formal and informal. I've run a few but I'd love to see more workshops, training and tutorials, outreach and inclusion. I believe the phrase is 'well volunteered'?

Dave Ingram (dmi)

Hi! I'm Dave Ingram (also known as DMI), and I've been a member of the Hackspace for two years or so. I joined because I felt it was a perfect model for how the world *should* work: many people with diverse talents working together, sharing information, and teaching their skills to others. You may have seen me at EMF or in the Hackspace itself. I'm generally there on Wednesday evenings with the Mindhacker hypnosis sub-group that I co-founded.

The interesting thing is that, as you read these words you're already starting to notice how relaxed you are becoming right now. You weren't aware of it to begin with, but as you let yourself settle and give your muscles permission to become relaxed, you start to get a good feeling about me as a trustee. You might consider how eager I am to drive the space forward and encourage it to grow. It may occur to you that I would work to mediate any conflicts that arise.

Then again, you might have already found yourself ready to vote for me before you reached the end of this manifesto because you've met me, talked to me, and know that I have the best interests of the Hackspace community at heart.

Whether I am elected or not, I will take a more active role in the Hackspace this year, and help it through the next stage of expansion.

Samuel Keating-Fry (datagramm)

I’m not really one for shameless self promotion and as trustees are not here to dictate policy I’m not certain what to write here. I’ll tell you a little about myself anyway...

I'm originally from Newcastle and have lived in London for around 7 years. For the past 4 years I've worked for Warp Records (http://warp.net) doing a combination of sysadmin and marketing.

I have no chip on my shoulder or battle to fight, I'm just keen to take on a bit more responsibility around the space and help foster an environment where awesome things can happen.

Nick Large (vetraskr)

I've been involved with the Hackspace for some time now, and I'm keen to see it continue to prosper. I may not be the nosiest person on the mailing list, or other online avenues, but I'm a regular user of the space and appreciate the community that it offers, and the friendships that have come about as a result.

In my time at the space I've seen it grow from a small group to the diverse community that it is today, and think that one of the toughest challenges we face is maintaining that sense of community. I'd like to see us have more opportunities to interact and meet in person - it's a lot harder to be rude to someones face than on-line, and it can be a lot easier to read the tone of emails when you've had a chat to the person writing them.

Aside from the responsibilities outlined on the Trustees page, I think one of the foremost roles of a director is to act as an approachable contact point, and if necessary a voice of reason. We have many enthusiastic and passionate members, and we want to keep focusing that enthusiasm for positive ends.

Matt Peperell (mattp)

I have been an actively involved with London Hackspace since before we even had a venue to call our own. I see the hackspace as more than a place to be - to me, it is more of a community - a place to belong.

One of my intentions, if elected, would be to help the founding of smaller, special-interest subgroups such as the music hackers, mind hackers, and micro- controller groups.

For the past couple of years I seem to have acquired a reputation for giving tours to visitors on Tuesdays and to date I have done approximately 400 - two of them not in English!

Tim Reynolds (CaptainTerrible)

I'm Tim and I've been a member of the Hackspace for just over a year. I've agonised over what to write here and taken too long, so I'm just going to bash out bullet points.

• I think we need more community groups for governance of tools and infrastructure. I'm a big fan of initiatives like adopt-a-spanner and would like to see that expanded to cover space infrastructure a little more formally - in a similar vein to the groups of volunteers at EMF.
• I'd like to see the return of the weekly newsletter and the blog of things-we-made. I think these help inform the community about what is going on instead of having to hear it from IRC, fractured mailing list posts or bumping into people in the workshop.
• As a trustee I'd like to speed dispute resolution between members. I feel that sometimes things are left to fester and unawesome behaviour develops. I'm willing to be a point of contact for complaints and mediation.
• I am the anti-bikeshed.

I don't have all the answers but I'll listen hard and do my best to represent the Hackspace that we love properly at trustee level by being involved, inclusive, patient and dedicated. A final parting note; A vote for Aden is a vote for Skub. I am the anti-Skub. Keep Skub off our streets and out of our Hackspace.

Jasper Wallace (jasperw)

Most of you know me, I'm a hackspace regular. I've been involved in raising money for the space via ebaying donated kit, and I've been active in maintaining the spaces internet & wifi kit.

As a trustee I'll try to improve the spaces services by sorting out integrating hackspace membership with external services (ops on irc, the membership box database, etc).

Kitty Wong (Maow)

Hello, if you don’t know me then I am the girl who has unnatural coloured hair, gigantic headphones and has a camera somewhere attached to my person.

I am currently in my final year of my BA doing Graphic Design New Media and I document everything in the Space, from talks, groups, social nights or anything else via video or photography. I also documented all of EMF (wearing a skeleton kigu) and made all those lovely red t-shirts. It’s not a chore; I genuinely enjoy this (stealing your souls) and its great to see what other people are doing. I’m not a massive fan of electronics and will swing more towards design, photography and crafts. I would like to see more arts and crafts occurring in the space; maybe this would be something to aim for in the New Year.

I can be normally found in the main room hunched over my laptop with some form of tea 3 days a week. Because I am there so often I’ve learnt the rules and regulation quite well. As well as keeping up-to-date with current issues in the mailing list and IRC. Hackspace isn’t just about making connections it’s also about getting to know people and looking out for the community.

Charles Yarnold (solexious)

Hello all, if you don't know me by name, I'm the long hair beardy bloke that is normally seen with my head stuck in the lasercutter fixing it.

I'm standing for reelection for a trustee. I feel that I'm qualified to continue in my role at the space for a few reasons.

Over my time as trustee I have mediated a number of disputes at the space, helping to resolve situations before they grow large enough to warrant a formal intervention. Not that I'm adverse to the use of formalities where needed.

I also think I'm well placed to be a trustee at this time as I was a large part of or original move to Cremer st all those years ago. And with a new move on the horizon I feel my skills and experience will fit well in our new move and the transition period we will have.

Being one of the first members of the space I have seen it grow, change and improve over the years and plan to stay a very active member for the foreseeable future.

Since joining the space I have benefited from it hugely, most notably by learning enough skills from other members to become a full time maker and hacker. I believe that the community is our biggest asset and will continue to fight to protect and nurture our amazing community of members at the backspace.

And remember, a vote for Charles is a vote for a working lasercutter ;)