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Member Handbook

Town Halls

Purpose

A Town Hall is a regular time for members of the hackerspace to get together and discuss any topics they feel are best raised in a somewhat official meeting, as well as providing a direct opportunity for wide visibility of the charities operations and engage on the management of the community for all.

Town Hall summaries intended for members (tl;dr where possible), and should be readable. They’ll be read more frequently than written.

  • Motions taken or rejected
  • Voting and the outcome of the vote
  • Actions taken or agreed to be taken

NOTES

  • Town Halls are Timeboxed to a maximum of 2 hours.
    • It is the responsibility of the meeting chair to ensure discussion moves appropriately within this constraint.
  • Town Halls are ‘Public’
    • Any individual from the wider Farset Labs community is welcome to contribute whether they are a current member or not, however, it is at the chairs’ discretion how much time is allocated to discussions that are not primarily the concern of the operation of the charity or of the membership
  • Town Halls are for discussion and decisions, not reading or teaching.
    • Agenda items and proposals should, where possible, be openly disseminated in advance of the meeting, so as to provide all attendees an opportunity to review/research any topics.

Pre-Event Timeline

When What Who
T-2Wks Update Google Calendar Link with link to collaborative Agenda document Secretary
T-2Wks Create signposting Twitter/Facebook/Slack/Instagram posts to point to collaborative Agenda document and Teleconference Link Secretary
Thursday Before Write/Update/Collate Finance report and submit to Board Treasurer
Thursday Before Write/Update/Collate Executive report and submit to Board Chair
Friday Before Review and Distribute Agenda including Reports Secretary

General Agenda

Administrata

These tasks should be performed at every Town Hall

  • “Volunteering” of Meeting Chair and Notetaker(s) (if not established in advance)
  • Review Minutes of Previous Town Hall
    • Particularly any actions that required follow up actions

Regular Reports

  • Report from the Chairperson (aka ‘Executive Update’)
    • Update on Events and Programmes
    • Update on Community news and notable impacts
    • Update on any significant strategic decisions from the board
  • Report from the Treasurer (aka ‘Finance Update’)
    • Update on Bank Balances and Revenue Breakdowns
    • Update on any exceptional spend from the last month / next month
    • Update on any live/draft funding opportunities (grant proposals etc)

Collaboratively Raised Agenda Items

These are usually raised as part of a Google Document shared in advance of the meeting, and then collated by the Secretary along with any relevant secondary sources (see Tracked Links below)

Any Other Business

Discussion Topics that either emerge naturally from the conversations in the agenda items, or were not on the agenda, should be shifted to the end of the timeframe

Post-Event Checklist

When What Who
T+1day Collate agenda minutes and distribute Secretary
T+1day Collate action items from minutes and attach to appropriate task management systems Secretary

Historical Notes

For the purposes of CCNI reporting, and since Town Halls operated in the same general capacity as classical AGMs, the Town Hall before the Charities Commission Reporting period date was generally selected to be the representative AGM - @bolster