Protospace Culture | Protospace Guide Book

The culture of Protospace is unique and not immediately apparent to new members since there aren't many comparable organizations. Even among makerspaces, we are rare in our policies and administration.

This article attempts to summarize what you should know about our culture, but is only one member's opinion. Nothing on this page is official and you should consult other Sources of Information.

No Staff

This is the most important section.

Protospace has no staff, employees, or contractors. That means everything gets done by the members (now including you). Please aim to continually make Protospace a better place. If you don't clean up after yourself then another member will have to.

Things you can do to help out:

clean up after yourself, plus a little bit more
put tools away, vacuum up any sawdust
tidy the space up
don't do things that require other members to volunteer time unnecessarily
actually attend classes you sign up for
pay your member dues so someone else doesn't have to bother you about it
host new members so they can visit the space
attend Monthly Cleans
keep the bathrooms clean (we clean them ourselves)
wash dishes you use so someone else doesn't have to
restock supplies if you use something up
welcome guests during the Tuesday Open House
teach courses you are familiar with
use up expired sheet material
become a director
help answer communications from the public

No Owners

Protospace also has no owners or shareholders. The membership is who "owns" Protospace and we make decisions collectively. Each member has equal say and one vote.

We do have Directors (as legally required) who are elected annually, but they don't own Protospace. They have legal signing authority, access to the bank account, and sometimes settle issues affecting members.

Since there are no owners, it's up to us members to build and maintain Protospace. You are encouraged to make changes to Protospace using do-ocracy, pitches, and motions.

Members are also encouraged to "take ownership" of various aspects of Protospace by simply doing things related to it. If you want to manage our Instagram, build a plant wall, teach sewing, hang French cleats, develop a new piece of infrastructure, or write content for our public website, then you should simply start doing it.

You should start with small changes that don't require buy-in from other members. Get a feel for how the place operates and then work your way up to more ambitious projects.

Screwing Up

Mistakes happen all the time in a shop full of tools meant to be used.

The most important thing to do when you break or damage something is to report it on the forums. If a machine has broken in some way, also tape a note to it explaining what's wrong since not everyone reads the forums.

No one has ever gotten in trouble for breaking something and then reporting it. People will appreciate your honesty and trust you more. Breaking something and not reporting it is a cardinal sin and is a worse action than the actual breakage. It may disrupt someone else's work if they need to use the tool and find that it's broken. There's also a chance that unreported damage could cause a tool to injure the next user.

If you come across a tool that was broken by someone else, report it as well and simply mention it was already broken.

Safety

At Protospace we value safety of people, above safety of our tools, above safety of projects.

Safety is covered in the mandatory New Member Orientation class so it won't be repeated here.

I'll just say that Protospace won't tolerate unsafe people. Of the few people kicked out or denied vetting, all but one has been for safety-related issues. Unsafe people create a risk that Protospace gets shut down permanently, so we don't tolerate unsafe people.

If you see someone doing something unsafe (even using a saw without safety glasses), feel free to speak up to them about it. If you don't want the confrontation, take note of the date and time and report it to the Directors.

Shower Before Protospace

Since we have to share the space with 400 different kinds of people, here are some baseline behaviours that make the space pleasant for everyone:

shower before coming to Protospace
wear deodorant if necessary
wear clean clothes
greet people when they arrive (even if it's just a head nod)
if someone is in the shop alone at night and you arrive, it's polite to introduce yourself
on social nights, scan the room and see if anyone is not being included
pay attention to people's body language
if you have trouble reading body language, learn on YouTube
people aren't going to tell you if you are bothering them because it's taboo to talk about
if you are talking at someone and their responses are short and they are focused on something, leave them be
observe body language to know when it's time to end a conversation
observe body language to know if a person doesn't want to be followed around
don't monopolize a conversation
regulate the volume of your voice

Work in Progress

Almost everything at Protospace is a work in progress, including this document. I'll add to it as time goes on.