Huishoudelijk Reglement

The are the current huishoudelijkregelement (house rules) of techinc.

House Rules

Membership

In order to become a member, you need to do the following:

 - Fill out a membership form.
 - Setup a monthly bank transfer and send an email to admin@board.techinc.nl
   with the reference you used to pay - for example your name followed by 'techinc'. 

If in the future you change the amount you pay each month for membership Please can you email the treasurer (admin@board.techinc.nl) to let him know that you have changed it

Tech Inc propose to operate a 'pay what you can' scheme. There will be a suggested recommended amount which we hope all members can meet. The recommended amount will be set at a level that ensures we cover our costs.

If you intend to only use the space once in a while, if at all, then please feel free to pay a representative amount which is lower than the recommended amount. The more you use the space, the more we would expect you to pay to help cover the running costs.

Pricing Guideline

 - Minimum amount to become a member should be 5 EUR per month
 - Recommended amount is currently 20 EUR month
 - if you cannot afford to pay anything but would still like to be a member of the community, please approach the board. 

Rule added from the ALV on 27th October 2013

Exemption from minimum payment amount

A majority of the board needs to approve any exception to fees (ie. paying below the minimum membership amount - currently 5 euro). The exemption needs to be re-examined on an annual basis.

Rule added from the ALV on 27th October 2013

Possibility of paying per month + set date for checking membership fees

Members can choose to pay their membership fee yearly or per month. If they choose to pay per month they must pay before the 7th of the month they pay their membership fees for.

Rule added from the ALV on 26th January 2014

Notification of membership fee changes

Any member can request a change of his or her membership fee throughout the year, but will have to provide valid reason to the board. Valid reasons can be, but are not necessarily limited to: moving house/job relocation/getting fired/unforeseeable financial setbacks. Ultimately it is at the board's discretion. The board is expected not to accept trivial or fabricated reasons as valid justification.

Rule added from the ALV on 26th January 2014

Non-paying members and overdue fees

When a payment is missed, you will receive an email with a reminder.

• If after a month the payment is still due, a board member will try to personally contact the member.
• If after 2 months the payment is still due, your fob will be disabled and an other email will be sent by the board.
• If after 3 months the payment is still due, you will no longer be a member.

Rule added from the ALV on 26th January 2014

Warning system and revoking membership

When a member has been disruptive to the community (and the board have recevied a formal complaint) they will get a warning from the board.

When three warnings have been given to a member (for different types of disruption) their access privileges will be revoked.

When a member has repeated the same disruptive behaviour that warranted a warning, a second warning will be deemed enough to revoke access privileges.

Rule added from the ALV on 26th January 2014

Terms for board positions

Positions in the board have terms. Terms are per board member. Term starts when the board member is elected, and it lasts XX (A,B or C) years. Not in the exact months, but rounded up to the nearest ALV. At the expiration of the term, board member's position expires, and the board position is open for re-election. The treasurer steps down (and is allowed to be re-elected) in even numbered years, secretary and chair in odd numbered years (and are also allowed to be re-elected).

'X' has been set at 1 year (option A was voted for)

Rule added from the ALV on 9 May 2014

Committees

Dispute Committee

There is a dispute committee that adheres to procedure as set out in the Dispute Committee Process.

At the ALV, the term for dispute committee members was set to 1 year and no upper limit was set to records-keeping; making the legal-requirement/maximum the default limit.

The specific form chosen allows for co-opting of people into the dispute committee with help from Board in case there is a need due to too few people being available for the purpose of dealing with a dispute.

Specific information about the process and the members of the committee can be found below:

Subgroups -> Dispute

Rule added from 3.1.3 at ALV on 17th of May 2018

The board shall consider reports from the dispute committee and take any action they deem necessary based on that report and their own judgement. All remedies must have an expiry date, all remedies must be reviewed anually and all remedies must be appealable at an ALV.

Rule added from 3.1.4 at the ALV on 17th of May 2018

Media Committee

Techinc has a Media Committee consisting of people who get voted in at the ALV to handle communication/outreach via our online presences; primarily social media netoworks.

The framework was laid out here and voted into the House-Rules.

Please refer to the page linked above for details.

Rule added at ALV of 17th of March 2018

Budget

Discretionary budget

There is a budget of 50 euro per month for 'necessities', this can not be carried over to the next month. Its intended only for small items that are necessary for the running/cleaning of the space. For items to be added the list of necessities, a group of 5 is required. This consists of 4 members and a board member.

For more information see Bureaucrats which includes a list of the current items on the list.

Rule added from the ALV on 27th October 2013

Budget For Repairs

Board is permitted and supposed to repair/replace essential tools and resources that are wholly owned by the space (or were wholly owned in case of items gone missing) when they become defective or unusable due to damage, misuse, random failure or when the item has gone missing.

What is meant by that: purely pre-existing resources that are substantial or indispensable to the well-being of the space, its functioning, or its appeal. Board decides at its discretion what resources/items/tools fall under that definition, and how to best replace them, when/if necessary on a case by case basis. Not included/affected are consumables. Note that there is possibly a grey area here: It's hard to say whether damage to a solder tip, barbecue, saw or leaky cask is due to misuse or normal wear and tear. Then again, if the item is essential to our space, the cause of its demise might be immaterial. In any case, the board, or whomever she delegated this task to, shall make the determination, having weighed all the pro and con aspects.

To set limits to the financial obligations ensuing from this, the following rules will govern this:

• Not depassing a grand total of 1000 euros per year
• Limited to a maximum of 100 euros per item/resource, but:
• with an (one) exception for one 500 euro max item purchase per year.
• no funds can be transferred to or from a preceding or following year.

If the board believes the financial situation does NOT warrant a purchase then it can be cancelled or postponed. However, in that case the board has to be able to show supporting evidence for that shortage.

To free the board from tasks it has no interest or time to cope with, board is permitted to delegate this task to a subcommittee. Such a committee bears full responsibility to the board about its activities and purchases. If the board feels funds have been misused or wrongly spent, the members of that committee are personally liable for the amounts disputed. If the committee has doubts about a certain potential purchase, board can be asked for advice, in which case the advice from the board will be binding.

Such a committee can be elected by the ALV, but it can also be appointed by the board. Board is under no obligation to delegate the task, so in principle board determines whether it gets delegated and if so to whom. Board bears final responsibility for the purchases and decisions, notwithstanding board's possibility to hold the committee members personally accountable for any money wrongfully spent.

Rule added from the ALV on 24 November 2018

Use of the space

Usage of photo/video equipment in the space

_ALL_ Video/Audio/Photo taking/recording is not allowed, unless everyone who would be on the recording has been asked explicit permission. Taking pictures of the space is allowed; use common sense.

Rule added from the ALV on the 6th of April 2013

Storage Bureaucrats

It was voted that some people become responsible for the storage space. For more information see Bureaucrats which includes a list of the current storage bureaucrats.

Rule added from the ALV on 27th October 2013

Dangerous, Heavy or fragile machinery

Some machines can be marked 'instruction needed' by the owner or board. This means instruction is required before a member can use the machine for the first time. Qualified instructors will be the owner/maintainer of the machine or members that previously received instructions for this machine.

Rule added from the ALV on 9 May 2014

Use Of Tools Outside The Space

For any and all tools that either:

• belong to the hackerspace,
• belong to a member, brought to the space for general use,

the following rules pertain:

1. Non-members can only use tools in the space upon agreement beforehand. No non-member shall take a tool outside of the confines of the space.
2. Use of tools outside of the space shall be limited to incidental short-term usage of at most a couple of hours, no longer than half a day and they are used no further away than the direct perimeter of the building/parking-lot.
3. Taking tools home or to other locations shall not be done by anyone unless agreed upon beforehand by the board or any body of people they choose to delegate these kinds of decisions to at a later time.
4. Mishandling of tools *can* have repercussions/consequences for the person(s) involved. This is to be judged by board, or delegated to a body of their choice to handle and be responsible for. Breakage of a tool does NOT automatically lead to repercussions.

The following notes apply:

• Members who are the owners of a space-loaned tool/item get to decide themselves about the usage of their tools/items and are thus exempted. They also get to decide if someone can loan/abuse/take these respective items.
• Board has a responsibility to negotiate with tool-owners before deciding to loan them out to anybody.
• Tools are understood to be used responsibly and brought back in proper state, properly clean and ready for re-use.
• Tools are to be brought back to their designated location, if any. Or at least in a suitable location, in any case.
• Breakage of tools is understood to be a natural consequence of usage. No fines/punishments are to automatically follow upon breakage; it is encouraged to report tool-breakage/shortcomings/malfunctions upon noticing by reporting to members@techinc.nl or a specific method, decided upon in the future.

Rule added from the ALV on 24 November 2018

Tool Guardians

1. The board may designate certain members of the space to function as 'tool guardians' for a particular region/subset of the space. The member in question must, of course, agree. If a person is no longer a member, the status consequently ceases to exist. Any member can ask to be considered for such a status.
2. The board also reserves the right to retract the above mentioned status upon their own discretion. Members can protest the functioning of any particular tool-guardian region/subset through an Official Techinc Poll or at an ALV.
3. There may be more than one such tool-guardian for any particular region/subset of the space who will have joint responsibility and are required to find agreement on matters amongst themselves in any manner they see fit.
4. A tool-guardian is to be seen as the authority on the usage/storage/maintenance of tools/provisions/etc of whatever section has been designated to be under his 'watch'. It is understood to be a privilege AND a responsibility, as well as a potential burden.
5. In principle, one is to make sure to understand and adhere to a tool-guardians provisions for usage of the region/subset they govern. The tool-guardians have a responsibility to have it be clear what, if any, these provisions might be and to maintain their documentation and evolution.
6. A tool-guardian does NOT get special provisions on the usage of whatever they govern over. They do not get exceptions or enjoy any particular benefits other than being seen as someone who 'should be someone who should know'.

Rule added from the ALV on 24 November 2018

Concerning General Member Meetings (ALV's)

Fixed ALV date

There will be an ALV in the first 3 months of a calendar year where the board will present the financial report over the previous year

Rule added from ALV on 10 May 2015 which replaces the older rule from 26th of January 2014

Each agenda point to have an owner / maintainer

All points proposed to the agenda of the ALV will have a designated maintainer. In principle this will be the originator of the point but the responsibility can be transferred or shared with mutual agreement of the current maintainer(s) and the prospective maintainers. The maintainer has a responsibility to appear during the ALV to present the point and provide clarification. Failure for the maintainer to appear on the ALV, will make the point eligible for transfer to the next ALV by the board.

Rule added from the ALV on 9 May 2014

Terms for board positions

See also: Huishoudelijk_Reglement#Terms_for_board_positions

Rule added from the ALV on 9 May 2014

Maximum Duration ALV

When the date and time of an ALV is announced, the maximum duration is announced as well. Ideally, the maximum duration is at most three hours. Any items that cannot be discussed are moved to a next ALV, to be organized as soon as realistically possible. The board decides in what order items are discussed but gives priority to items left over from a previous ALV.

Rule added from the ALV on 19 October 2014

Decision Making

Official Techinc Poll

To be able to make decisions on things in a coherent and clear manner, a mechanism was adopted that would foresee in conducting polls through email. The Huishoudelijk_Reglement/Proposed/Official_Techinc_Poll was proposed on the ALV of 2018-03-17 , point 3.1. The full mechanism is documented here, containing only the accepted segments.

Changing the House Rules

Items in House Rules can be added/tweaked or removed by a majority vote at the ALV.

For proposed additions to the huishoudelijkregelement see Huishoudelijk_Reglement/Proposed