I’m thinking if we continue to put stuff in a junk area for a month we should have it be a bit more organized and as the main hackerspace wiki (http://hackerspaces.org) recommends send out an email with the recently added stuff monthly.
Ideally we should clear out the whole junk area monthly and then move in any new stuff on that same day.
Today after the meeting Ed, Tyler, and I cleared out most of the junk on there except for two things.
Stuff that needs to be taken or it will be thrown out:
- A whole box of PS2 cuecats
- A mini cannon “bubble” printer. Not sure if this works, but I recall someone saying that it might.
On my second point; I realize that Saturday Junk Salvage days have died off. I really, really think they should be started back up again. I understand that the space isn’t nearly as bad as it once was, but it still isn’t good. At these monthly cleanup days we can make sure that benches and tables are cleared (such as the bench next to electronics which almost never stays clear and the kitchen bar, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen clear of stuff). We can actually junk things, instead of moving them to the junk area and leave them for months. It would also be a really good idea to sweep up and use the shop vac to vacuum up as much dust as possible to try and keep everything nicer. Also bleach and clean the bathroom, clean up dishes and the sink (bleaching the kitchen counters may not be a bad idea either), etc.
Obviously there is other stuff, but one of the problems is that this is a LOT of stuff. I know at the previous junk salvage days only a couple of members would regularly show up and occasionally a burst of extra people would come in to help. I believe the main people trying to clean up got burnt out and stopped after a while.
There are some members who use the space and while they make things messier rarely help clean up. I think this is a big problem. I would like to see people heavily encouraged to help cleanup the space since they are using it. Maybe if Saturdays aren’t good for a lot of people we should have maybe two cleanup days a month on different days (one on saturday and maybe one during the week. Really whenever works best for many people.) I just don’t think it’s fair that many people use the space yet very few people actually help clean the whole space. Sure they may clean up after their projects, but they don’t help any more than that. I know that the COO is supposed to keep things clean, but part of that is getting other people to actually help contribute to the Hive’s cleanliness.
All in all, organization and cleanliness has been a problem for the hive since the space started, and while it’s still relatively young this is something we should work on to improve as it keeps many people from using the space to it’s full potential which is the opposite of what we want.
Any comments, ideas, constructive criticism very appreciated.
Jon
