House Rules

Preamble

Our goal at Eugene Makerspace is to create an inclusive, safe environment for people to develop their skills and do their best work. Eugene Makerspace serves a wide community with people coming from a variety of socioeconomic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. Miscommunications and misunderstandings will occur within such a group. The goal of this document is to provide a framework for behavior to improve our community, and, if necessary, to de-escalate and resolve conflicts.

Our House Rules are divided into three sections:

• General Housekeeping
• Code of Conduct
• Social Behavior Expectations

Housekeeping guides who is allowed to use our space and how the space itself can be used. It also includes an overview of how equipment and funding is managed.

Our Code of Conduct governs major expectations and rules; breaking these have serious consequences which may include being banned from our space. Violations will be resolved using the Conflict Resolution process outlined at the end of this document.

We also have a small set of lightweight social rules that make more explicit certain social norms that are normally implicit. They are designed to curtail specific behavior that we’ve found to be destructive to a supportive, productive, and fun learning environment. This will, hopefully, avoid large blowups and hurt feelings. We expect people to unintentionally break the social rules from time to time; doing so doesn’t make you a bad Member of our Makerspace. When this happens, it’s not a big deal. Just apologize, learn, and move on.

Finally, we expect to make revisions from time to time to this and other member facing documents. The most recent version of this document will always be linked to from Link Here There is also a change log detailing changes as we make them to member facing documents at Link here

Thanks to the Snohomish County Makerspace, the Recurse Center, and HeatSync Labs for publishing their organizational documents, which we have incorporated here.

General Housekeeping

1. Be Awesome. For details, see the more explicit Code of Conduct.
2. Eugene Makerspace is a 501c3 nonprofit: This means that we, and you as a member in the space, are legally required to not make anything defined as a weapon, use the space’s resources to break any laws, or use the space for political campaign activities. This is a hard rule that will result in expulsion. .
3. Equipment use at Eugene Makerspace is for Members only. A Member is defined as an individual that has  an active paid-up membership and signed Membership Agreement.  Some equipment at Eugene Makerspace is dangerous, Members are expected to know the risks involved with using such equipment and agree not to use anything they haven’t been properly trained to use. Additionally, use of all such equipment is at the Member’s own risk, and they agree not to hold Eugene Makerspace or any other members, instructors, directors or officers liable for injury or damage caused by using such equipment.
4. Tools can frequently be expensive and/or fragile. . Members know this, and will make every effort to ensure that equipment is not damaged and will be left in the same or better condition when the Member is done. Members also understand that if they break something, they may be responsible for the cost of replacement or repair.
5. Eugene Makerspace owns much of its equipment, but borrows some of it. Please report equipment breakage to area leads or board members through Discord, or via email at board@eugenemakerspace.com. We may approve of you trying to fix the equipment, but we need to be aware of the equipment breakage and the decision for repairs must be made on an individual basis.
6. Eugene Makerspace relies on the monthly Membership dues paid by each Member to remain open. Members are required to set up a recurring payment via paypal during the Membership sign-up process. The renewal will occur on the 15th of each month. We ask that you give us a 10-day notice prior to cancellation of a month-to-month Membership and we will not cancel a renewal past the 5th of the month.
7. Membership dues are primarily used to cover rent and utilities. Our Makerspace budget does not cover machine consumables. If you regularly use consumables, please contribute to restocking.
8. Eugene Makerspace Membership is not an alternative to housing. We’re not registered or insured as a residence, so no one can sleep at the space.
9. Members understand that discussion takes place on public and private social media services, such as our Discord server, and decisions are made at board meetings and Mod Your Makerspace meetings. We rely on the participation of the Members for ideas, but more importantly to volunteer and help get things done. Members are expected and encouraged to participate.
10. Our Members are coming into the space for one reason: Making stuff. Leave political or divisive topics outside. Please also keep media displayed on any of Eugene Makerspace screens family friendly, and use headphones with your personal devices.
11. You are being recorded, but only for your safety and security. Eugene Makerspace reserves the right to use security video recordings for auditing access to areas of the shop as well as to determine who may be responsible for leaving a mess in the workshop. Our cameras record both video and audio, footage is securely stored so only board members can access.
12. Work stations must be cleared off every time you leave, so the next person has the area available to do work. Belongings, project parts, or any other items left out and not put in your member storage or taken home will be placed in lost + found.    
13. We prioritize skill sharing, and when a class is in session, the instructor and the students have priority access to the equipment in question. Please refrain from interrupting the class, or using equipment in an area where a class is being held.  
14. Members agree to abide by these and any other guidelines decided by the Membership. Everyone involved in EMS is a volunteer, not a paid employee, so if you would like to see something improved at the space, think of how you can volunteer to effect that change.

Code of Conduct

What it means to be awesome:

• We treat others as they would like to be treated, acting from an assumption of mutual respect and good will.
• We clarify misunderstandings, apologize for harm caused, and assume ignorance before malice. We are open to growth.
• We offer our sincere help and support to those who request it. We remember what it’s like to be a beginner, and therefore offer the kind of help that benefits the learner, not our egos.
• We allow others to speak without interruption, and resist the urge to “Well, actually…”
• We encourage a diverse technical community where each person is welcome to choose their own tools, programming languages, and techniques without fear of insult or judgement.
• We welcome and encourage diversity, and work diligently to keep subtle -isms out of our communication with each other.
• We work to create an environment free of the exchanges which make Members feel unwelcome (aka microagressions), which can be detrimental to the growth of diversity in our space.
• We ask permission from others. We accept “no”s without arguing, and say “yes” when we mean yes.
• We stand up and watch out for each other. Maintaining a respectful and safe community is everybody’s responsibility.
• We will not tolerate harassment. This includes but is not limited to:
  • Verbal and written comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion
  • Sexual images in public spaces
  • Deliberate intimidation
  • Stalking, following, and unwelcome attention
  • Harassing photography or recording of people at the space
  • Inappropriate physical contact and unwelcome sexual or romantic attention
  • Threats to harm others,
  • Maliciousness or clearly anti-social behavior towards other Members, or being especially unpleasant.
  • Blatant-isms (hyperlink to definition here)

Social Behavior Expectations

Eugene Makerspace has 4 social behavior expectations. They help create a friendly, intellectual environment where you can spend as much of your energy as possible towards bettering your skills. These social behavior expectations are normally implicit, but we’ve made them explicit here to foster shared understanding. We expect people to break these social behavior expectations from time to time; doing so doesn’t make you a bad member of our maker space - if someone calls you out for breaking one of these social expectations, please learn from it, apologize and move on.  

We communicate respectfully: so that everyone is on the same page about how different sorts of communication can foster or dampen engagement we follow Recurse Center’s Social Rules and try not to:

• try to not “well actually”
• try to not feign surprise
• try to not backseat drive
• try to not engage in subtle -isms

Well-actually’s

Alice: I just installed Linux on my computer!

Bob: It’s actually called GNU/Linux.

A well-actually is when you correct someone about something that’s not relevant to the conversation or tangential to what they’re trying to say. They’re bad because they aren’t helpful, break the flow of conversation, and focus attention on the person making the well actually.

This expectation can be a bit tricky because there isn’t a clear line between relevant to the conversation and not. Sometimes your correction might actually be necessary, and it could still come off as annoying when you make it. The best rule of thumb is, if you’re not sure whether something needs to be said right now, hold off and see what happens. You can always say it later if it turns out there’s no way for the conversation to move forward without your correction.

Feigning surprise

Dan: What’s the command line?

Carol: Wait, you’ve never used the command line?

Feigned surprise is when you act surprised when someone doesn’t know something. Responding with surprise in this situation makes people feel bad for not knowing things and less likely to ask questions in the future, which makes it harder for them to learn.

No feigning surprise isn’t a great name. When someone acts surprised when you don’t know something, it doesn’t matter whether they’re pretending to be surprised or actually surprised. The effect is the same: the next time you have a question, you’re more likely to keep your mouth shut. An accurate name for this rule would be no acting surprised when someone doesn’t know something, but it’s a mouthful, and at this point, the current name has stuck.

Avoid backseat driving

Bob: What’s the name of the string copy function?

Alice: Strncpy.

Eve: (from across the room) You should use strlcpy. It’s safer.

Backseat driving is when you lob advice from across the room (or across the online chat) without really joining or engaging in a conversation. Because you haven’t been participating in the conversation, it’s easy to miss something important and give advice that’s not actually helpful. Even if your advice is correct, it’s rude to bust into a conversation without asking. If you overhear a conversation where you could be helpful, the best thing to do is to ask to join.

Avoid subtle -isms

Carol: Windows is hard to use.

Bob: No way. Windows is so easy to use that even my mom can use it.

Subtle -isms are subtle expressions of racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia and other kinds of bias and prejudice. They are small things that make others feel unwelcome, things that we all sometimes do by mistake. Subtle -isms make people feel like they don’t belong at Eugene Maker Space. We want to create an environment where everyone can focus all their energy on programming. It’s hard to do that if you’re regularly being made to wonder whether you belong.

Subtle -isms can also be things that you do instead of say. This includes things like boxing out the only woman at the whiteboard during a discussion or assuming someone isn’t a programmer because of their race or gender.

This fourth social behavior expectation is more complicated than the others. Not everyone agrees on what constitutes a subtle -ism. Subtle -isms are baked into society in ways that can make them hard to recognize. And not everyone experiences subtle -isms in the same way: subtle homophobia won’t hurt someone who’s straight in the same way it hurts someone who’s gay.

There’s another part of no subtle -isms: If you see racism, sexism, etc. outside of Eugene Makerspace, please don’t bring it in. For example, please don’t start a discussion about the latest offensive comment from Random Tech Person Y. Everyone who comes to Eugene Makerspace should have the same opportunity to focus on bettering their skills, and people from oppressed groups often find discussions of racism, sexism, etc. particularly hard to tune out. There are many places to discuss and debate these issues, but there are few where people can avoid them. Eugene Maker Space is one of those places.

Conflict Resolution

In the Event of Conflict

We believe that when both parties are attempting to act with respect and good will, many conflicts can be resolved without escalation.

If conflict arises with another Member, don’t assume malice, and first attempt to address it with them directly. Request that they stop the problematic behavior and see if you can resolve the situation with them via honest and open communication. If this is not possible, ask Eugene Makerspace Leadership to mediate.

Eugene Makerspace is run by a board of directors, and as such, complaints need to be presented to the entire board of directors. In the rare event that a complaint is against a Member on the board of directors, the complaint should be emailed to Members of the board, minus the person the complaint is directed at. You can find the email contacts of the Members of the current board of directors here. <link to our new web page>

Confidentiality

We will keep all reports confidential, except if we've discussed with you and agreed otherwise. When we discuss incidents with people who are reported, we will anonymize details as much as we can to protect reporter privacy.

However, some incidents happen in one-on-one interactions, and even if the details are anonymized, the reported person may be able to guess who made the report. If you have concerns about retaliation or your personal safety, and do not want us to share the details of your report with anyone (including the perpetrator) please let us know explicitly in your report, and we will discuss solutions.

Conflict resolution process

If you have been found in violation of our housekeeping rules or Code of Conduct, your Membership may be suspended, especially on repeat offenses. You will be asked to participate in a formal reconciliation (see below), as set forth by representatives from the board of directors. Completion of the terms of the restorative justice process is required before your Membership can be reinstated.

Reconciliation Process

The model used by Eugene Makerspace involves bringing together the person who was harmed (victim), the person who caused harm (defendant), and community members in a facilitated community group conference to discuss what happened, what harm was caused, and how the person who caused harm can take accountability and repair the harm. The process does not focus on punishment, but rather making things right and reintegrating the person back into the community with the skills and awareness to make better decisions in the future. It also provides assurances for those individuals who were harmed along with the space.

This process can take many forms ranging from direct mediation between individuals to a list of required actions created by the Board of Directors. Each situation is unique and Eugene Makerspace leadership will respond to the specific issue with the best interests of the community in mind.