We decided to start recognising spaces and “things” that do not meet the hackspace definition, but I think it might be worth talking about how far we want to take this, and perhaps coming up with a definition of what things belong on that list.
Are we limiting it to things that are “like hackspaces but not”, or are we talking about taking it further to things like Just Add Sharks, or perhaps events?
I’m guessing you mean Associated Organisations? https://github.com/UKHackspaceFoundation/resources/blob/master/ConstitutionChunks.md
I would suggest that we define it purely as “organisations that are aligned with the interests of the Foundation and wish to support and work with us towards a common goal”
These can be -
Suppliers
Charities
Home Education networks
University Hackspaces
Publishers
Community groups who are thinking of starting a hackspace
Local government
The fact of the matter is that many of these groups may want to get involved and have a significant amount to offer - since their access to the group is limited and controlled by the directors/board/committee, I’m not sure we need to pear it down more than that.
I think that’s reasonable, but do we want to explicitly call out things like University Hackspaces where they’re much closer to the Hackspace model than something like O’Reilly?
It might be worth it for people who don’t want a hackspace, but say do want a Fablab?
The problem with University Hackspaces is that they aren’t self determining in any way - they are fairly strictly tied to the university and their policies. Furthermore, they have significant funding streams, already agree discounts for their students, and don’t have a community orientated objective unlike many hackspaces. Never mind the simple fact that it’s almost impossible to access them without paying crazy fees and doing a degree.
Then there is the simple fact that there are a fair few universities that tend to control things in groups, and we don’t want them to be able to hijack this group by joining as full members and swamping us out. Thus the non-voting associate side seems sensible for university hackspaces.
Oh, I’m not saying they should be members or anything like that, I’m just saying listing things like Just Add Sharks next to a Fablab seems a bit awkward in terms of discoverability for people who are looking for alternatives.
Perhaps just break up the “associate” list into types of thing?
Ahh, classification of Associates seems wise - suppliers, services, etc. That would be relatively easy to do too.
But it might be best to do that when we have some associates, rather than off the bat.