[Swansea Hackspace] ( URGENT)Rule problems

[Neil Jones]

I have some concerns about the rule changes that are proposed at 
tonight's AGM and I thought it best in a spirit of comradely openness 
that I  should post to the list before hand. In this way we can deal 
with matters in a cool headed and sensible manner.

A bit of background I have been a trustee and/or director of several 
large charitable organisations. We are talking about organisations with 
lots of volunteers and members and large numbers of staff ( up to 100+) 
and annual turnovers in the millions.

Over the years I dealt with lots of policies relating to discipline and 
grievances in one way or another. I also dealt with dismissing staff for 
misconduct and expelling voluntary members.

It is important to realise is that fundamentally these rules are not 
just to stop people misbehaving, but they are to protect the Hackspace 
legally. If you deal with someone unfairly under the law then you can be 
sued.

Currently there  are all sorts of problems. There is no procedure for 
dealing for when a director is being complained about or is the person 
making the complaint or there is another conflict of interest. There is 
no proper system of ensuring that someone gets a hearing. As it stands a 
complaint can be made and considered without the person being complained 
about even knowing that there has been a complaint. These things are 
contrary to the principles of natural justice.

This wikipedia article gives a good outline.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_justice

There are also issues with definitions as currently it is going to be 
against the rules to advocate Linux over Windows ,for example. That may 
be a trivial example but the problem with having rules that don't work 
properly is when someone finds a non-trivial example of an overstated 
rule and uses it against you.

In one of the organisations I was involved in a member who believed he 
and friends had been badly treated, used his legal skills to force the 
organisation to commence High Court action against them. It was an 
absolute nightmare and the person who did it is also an activist known 
for his hacking abilities in that he has created systems for on-line 
activism that have attracted international attention. The sort of person 
who joins hackspaces.

The Hackspace would not be able to survive any kind of  lawsuit and I am 
unsure of the liabilities of directors either. Just as we need to follow 
proper Health and Safety procedures to protect the space and its 
directors. We need to have legally sound disciplinary and conduct rules 
to do the same thing.  As proposed the rules won't work.

I'm sorry that I haven't been able to send this earlier, I genuinely 
think I need to say this openly before the meeting and I didn't realise 
the problem's complexity early enough.

Neil