[Noisebridge-discuss] policies and procedures (more things you don't want to hear)

[Patrick Keys]

If nothing else, they need to be called "policies and procedures" for 
legal reasons.

The first time somebody gets a serious injury and decides to file a 
lawsuit, the first question that will be asked is "did noisebridge have 
any policy or procedure intended to prevent this?"

Likewise, noisebridge legally needs a policy to prevent taking 
noisebridge property because noisebridge is a non-profit. taking 
noisebridge property is considered an illegal transfer of assets. 
legally, assets at a non-profit can only be transferred to another 
non-profit.  taking something from a non-profit for personal use can 
easily cause noisebridge to lose its tax-exempt status.


Patrick



On 1/2/2011 8:43 PM, Christie Dudley wrote:
> I admit that the OP was tl;dr.
>
> The biggest problem with any "rule" at Noisebridge is that it's
> ultimately unenforceable.
>
> Remember the time we tried to keep the dirty hippy out and he climbed
> the fire escape to get in?
> Think of all the sleeping people!
>
> Until we have a 24x7 hall monitor that we trust with real power and
> authority, it just makes people who try to make rules look dumb to have
> the rules flagrantly disregarded.  There are sometimes trolls amongst us
> who will deliberately flagrantly disregard rules for the purpose of
> making the rule-maker look stupid.
>
> While generally, it's a good idea to do or not do certain things, and
> often it may even be necessary to write those certain things down, we've
> kinda stuck with the "be excellent" as a catch-all for hopefully not
> having to tell people that being hurtful to the space or others who use
> it is bad.
>
> Christie
> _______
> "It is the time you have lost for your rose that makes your rose so
> important."
> Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
>
> "Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart."
> William Butler Yeats
>
>
>
> On Sun, Jan 2, 2011 at 9:19 AM, jim <jim at systemateka.com
> <mailto:jim at systemateka.com>> wrote:
>
>
>     these seem like reasonable tho'ts.
>
>
>     On Sat, 2011-01-01 at 21:25 -0800, Patrick Keys wrote:
>      > Since nobody wants to hear it from me, I'll try to keep this short:
>      >
>      > Going into this new year, Noisebridge should (needs!) do things
>     like the
>      > rest of the world and formally acknowledge some policies and
>     procedures.
>      >   You can read more about these types of things at:
>      > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policies_and_procedures
>      >
>      > There are both legal and practical requirements for policies and
>      > procedures.  While it sounds cool to claim there's no policies, I'm
>      > certain Noisebridge has at least some general policies. "Be
>     excellent to
>      > each other", wear shoes while in the space, don't use bittorrent
>     on the
>      > noisebridge network, clean up after yourself, don't sleep here
>     overnight
>      > are just a few policies that I know exist.
>      >
>      > As for procedures, Noisebridge has some of those as well.  Post
>      > something to the rack list if you modify a server, put money into the
>      > drink donations bin if you take a drink from the fridge, etc.  A few
>      > more that should seriously be considered are providing a real
>     receipt to
>      > the treasurer/bookkeeper if you spend noisebridge money, a
>     procedure to
>      > reserve certain resources for a specific date/time (a classroom,
>     use of
>      > a projector, etc.), and accepting packages delivered to
>     noisebridge and
>      > notifying the recipient.
>      >
>      > All policies and procedures should be kept in a location that
>     guests and
>      > members alike can easily locate.  I recommend:
>      > https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Policies_and_procedures
>      >
>      > Policies and procedures prevent petty disputes and allow people that
>      > don't know each other very well and don't particularly like each
>     other
>      > very much to at least sorta get along with each other.
>       Noisebridge has
>      > too many members and visitors at this point to not have any general
>      > policies and procedures.
>      >
>      > Hopefully this posting will not start a flame war.
>      >
>      >
>      > Happy New Year!
>      >
>      >
>      > Patrick
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