[Noisebridge-discuss] amendments to membership proposal - associate members and 24/7 hours

[Jake]

tl;dr at the end of this post is the amended consensus item for this week

I just found out that an excellent hacker was working on stuff late at 
noisebridge last night, and was asked to leave at 11:00PM.  This is 
terribly sad and should not have happened.  I consider it to be a serious 
bug in the system.

I tracked down the cause of this crash to the horrible mutation of my last 
proposal, specifically, making the members-and-guests policy only take 
effect after 23:00 (11PM) until 10AM  (I had wanted it to be 24/7)

With this current borked policy, people continue to come into noisebridge 
without meeting anyone, without getting a sponsor, no tour and no 
introduction.  And regardless of whether they're hacking or abusing the 
space, they are asked to leave at 11PM by the same anonymous unfriendly 
mystery that let them in.  This is total shit.

So, I think we need to end the limited-hours policy and change it to a 
full-time policy, something that we can maintain at all hours.  If members 
of the space want to ask people to leave at 11PM (or 2PM or noon or 
anytime), they can still do so, if those non-members are without a live 
sponsor at that time.  Importantly, this means that Members and other 
people who understand the policy will explain it to people coming in the 
door, regardless of what time they came in.  That way, if someone is 
working on stuff and it starts getting late, they will be able to ask 
someone to sponsor their continued hacking rather than just be carelessly 
booted out.

In order for us to move to full-time Members rule, there need to be more 
Members.  I have a solution for that which should be less objectionable 
than the proposal i've put out there for this week.

I propose that we add a tier of membership, called Associate Member, which 
is a person who has been consensed upon to be an Associate Member.  Their 
duty to noisebridge does not include a mandatory cash donation but a 
general "regular contributions to Noisebridge".

Associate Members will not be able to block consensus items.  But they 
will be able to sponsor guests while they are present in the space, like 
full members can.

At the same time I propose that we remove the time restriction on the 
policy of Members and their Guests only.  This may sound like it will 
create a problem when there are not enough members around the space, but 
in practice it should encourage members and guests to get to know one 
another at all times, rather than only at 11PM when guests are being asked 
to leave (which is how it is now)

When it is normal for every guest to be introduced to a Member or 
Associate Member, when night falls and the membership wants to ask some 
people to leave who are without sponsors, there will be enough awareness 
of the guest sponsorship policy that guests who want to continue to stay 
will be aware that they can ask members to sponsor them so they can 
continue hacking.  This is the intended goal - to increase the connection 
between guests and members (not to just kick out non-members all the time)

the amended proposal should be worded as follows:

  A new Tier of Membership to Noisebridge shall exist, called Associate
  Member.  People can become Associate Members through the normal
  membership process.  Associate Members are not required to contribute to
  Noisebridge financially, only to "contribute regularly" to Noisebridge.

  Associate Members, while present, can host non-members in the space just
  like Full Members.  But Associate Members cannot block consensus like
  Members.

  Also the policy of Noisebridge as a space open only to Members and their
  guests shall be changed to 24 hours a day instead of 23:00 to 10:00.
  This means that at any time, a person who is without a live sponsor in
  the space can be told that if they cannot find a new live sponsor
  promptly they should pack up and come back another time, perhaps Tuesday
  night.

The spirit of the last paragraph is not to exclude people but rather to 
encourage a connection between each guest of the space and at least one 
Member of the space at all times.

-jake