[Noisebridge-discuss] consensus proposal - associate members and 24/7 hours

Mario Landau Holdsworth mario at evercharge.net
Wed Oct 30 07:58:59 UTC 2013


It happened to me also. I was working late at noisebridge, i.e. the best
time to hack. And someone I'd never met before told me that unless there
were two members to sign for me I had to leave at 11pm. This made me feel
incredibly uncomfortable and really killed my creative buzz. This had never
happened to me in the 4 years I'd been sporadically working at noisebridge.

I wasn't yet familiar with the new policy. My experience had always been
that Noisebridge was a place that was always open and free. It is a safe
place where I can come to focus on my work and meet other great, bright,
creative individuals who are also working on cool projects. I tried being a
member, but decided I'd rather use the space and donate than hold an
official membership because my use is sporadic.

More to the point: closing off the space to everyone new or old but not yet
anointed into the new system is collective punishment of everyone new or
sympathetic, or supportive, just because there have been problems with some
individuals. This is just wrong. Hackers who are working should never be
told to stop working because some random person wants to enforce some
pointless arbitrary rules. I am not aware of all the arguments for and
against this 11pm policy, but I think this policy sends the wrong message
to many who love Noisebridge for its open and inclusive nature.

 I had support from at least three members (none present) and politely
declined the suggestion I leave. And then I kept working on my project.

I understand that sometimes people do things that are unacceptable and need
to be escorted out, etc. Still, I think that as a community we should
assume the best, not the worst of people. By maintaining this policy
Noisebridge risks alienating individuals who are not in the loop / read the
discuss list, potential new members, and people who like to work late at
night.


On Tue, Oct 29, 2013 at 2:17 PM, Jake <jake at spaz.org> wrote:

> This is a repost of my consensus items from last week.  Please discuss it
> at the meeting and consense on it.
>
>  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.
>
> This may look like two proposals but they work together and should be kept
> together.  The idea is that we need to remove the mistakenly applied "after
> hours" component from the Members and their Guests policy, and make it 24/7
> so it works properly...
>
> but in order to do that, we need to encourage more people to become
> "Members" so the flow works properly.  Since there was a lot of opposition
> and complexity to loosening Capital-M Membership requirements (mostly
> because of fears that the power to Block will be abused) I invented
> "Associate Members" which can be thought of as "Associates of Members" so
> that people can "join" noisebridge as a "member" without having to meet the
> strict requirements associated with Regular Membership.
>
> Please pass these proposals so noisebridge can start working its way back
> to 24/7 excellence.
>
> -jake
>
> On October 21st Jake wrote:
>
> 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
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>



-- 
Mario Landau-Holdsworth
EverCharge
www.evercharge.net
(510) 394-4582
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