Stewards Guide

Stewards Guide

Introduction

Stewarding is a volunteer position where you give some of your time, on a regular basis, to keep Asmbly running smoothly. This involves organizing, facility projects, housekeeping, IT systems, etc.. If you are not available to provide a little bit of your time on an ongoing basis, then the Stewarding program may not be a good fit.

Asmbly is a volunteer-run organization. We cannot function without volunteers — volunteer-filled positions and volunteer leaders and volunteer efforts. Stewarding is part of that effort.

Stewards are included in the day to day conversations about Asmbly planning — new tooling ideas, space changes, project prioritization, etc.. Stewards take an active role in Asmbly’s ongoing operations as well as planning for the future. The Stewards program is a great way for individuals who are interested in more specialized organization positions or leadership roles to get involved.

Do I have the skills?

Everyone has different areas of expertise, competence, and confidence. The list below is not expected of each and every individual, but are simply examples of the many options to participate. Some people will have broad experience, others will have more narrow experience. Some of it is being aware of the operation and identifying what may be needed. Paper towels? New hand held router? Let us know! We need your energy and effort most of all.

In general, these activities are what the Stewards do for Asmbly: Help with daily operations Equipment and Building Maintenance and Repairs Recommend supplies and replenishment Propose, perform or run small projects Workshop recommendations and notifications Propose changes at Asmbly Track overdue storage and contact members Make sure members are signed in on Skedda Organizing Cleaning Assisting other members IT Infrastructure

Benefits:

Because of the time that Stewards contribute to keeping Asmbly daily operations going, Stewards are provided an additional 12 hours of Skedda time per week, for a total of 36 hours. These are hours for you to use as you wish.

How to be a Steward:

Step 1: Let Asmbly know that you want to be a steward. Ask another Steward or send us an email Step 2: Get appointed by someone in Leadership. For a list of current leaders, see Leadership. Step 3: Get onboarded. Join the Slack channel Skedda status changes Step 4: Congrats, you’re a Steward! Think about what you want to do to make a difference.

Requirements

You need to donate a minimum of 12 hours of your time, per quarter. This can be done according to your own schedule. Stay in touch. If you don’t log your volunteer hours and don’t stay in touch via Slack, then we will not know you are still volunteering. Don’t let that happen! Attend Stewards meetings. Not strictly required, but another helpful way to stay informed. These meetings are typically held <when where cadence etc>

Areas of responsibility:

Stewards can be area specific (e.g., metal shop, 3D printing), or can be more general (e.g. social media/content creation, IT infrastructure, administration). It depends on your skills and interests. Work with one of the directors or a board member if you have ideas that you want to work on to make Asmbly better.

Steward Run activities:

Workdays

Starting with 2023, we will be moving to 3 types of Workdays. The workdays are a great way to share some camaraderie with other stewards and to easily donate your required hours.

General Work Day

The traditional work day, where we close the building and invite anyone — members or community — to show up and get major and minor projects done at the space. These are typically scheduled from 9 until 5. The building will be unavailable for member’s personal projects at 8AM for setup. It will remain unavailable for member projects until 5 PM. Stewards will work on the planning for the workday, and will help organize the different project teams.

Maintenance Days

This will be a quarterly activity for the Stewards. The building will be unavailable for member’s projects for 4 hours, from 9AM to 1PM on a Saturday at the beginning of each quarter. Scheduled maintenance and any outstanding repairs will be performed during these hours. In quarters where we also need a work day, they will coincide and be held jointly. This is a great opportunity to cross train on equipment and expand your knowledge base.

Cleaning Days

This will be a monthly activity on a Sunday, from 9AM to 1PM. Only the CNC will be taken off the schedule to allow for that area to be better cleaned. Cleaning Day volunteers will work around the Woodshop Safety Class and any other members who have scheduled time at Asmbly.

Reporting Hours

Volunteer Hour QR codes will be located in the stewards closet that will take you to a Google Form to enter your volunteer hours for any particular day that you choose to do some work for Asmbly. When you perform maintenance on any equipment, make an entry in the Maintenance Form via the Yellow QR code on any machine. We need to keep better records of equipment maintenance. Note: Time is not reported on the Maintenance Form!

Steward Activities

Helping with Daily Operations

Put some paper towels out, notify if we are out of paper towels. Empty a trash can that was left full. Sweep an area. A quick tool repair.

Equipment and building maintenance and repairs

Asmbly needs a lot of upkeep. If you can do electrical work, plumbing, AC repair, all of that is helpful. Equipment maintenance experience is helpful. You can also learn via on the job training (OJT), if you pitch in to help another member who may be taking on a repair / maintenance project.

Maintenance Days are a great way to start getting involved. Show up on a Maintenance Day and you will get some experience. When you do perform maintenance of any kind, please report it in the Maintenance Form, the Yellow QR codes all around the shop. They are all the same code.

Recommend supplies and replenishment

There is too much going on for any one person to see everything that might be running low or has run out. If you see that we need paper towels, trash bags, or soon will need them, post it on Slack, in Stewards, or Purchase-Requests channels! Or send an email to workshop@asmbly.org. If we run out of things like this, it’s always a couple of days before we get more. If you’re not sure, mention it anyway.

Propose, perform or run small projects

Do you have ideas of changes you would like to see? Mention those ideas. You may get asked to write up a proposal. The more people we have taking on projects, the more great improvements we get done to Asmbly. Provide a budget with your proposal, and if approved, Asmbly will cover the materials.

Workshop recommendations and notifications

If you see a tool out of order, is it posted on Skedda? Is it posted on Discourse? You can post it on Slack also, and others with Skedda access can make sure that it is marked offline, and can notify members who may be scheduled to come in and use the equipment. Also, if you think that Asmbly can benefit from a piece of equipment that we do not already have, what is it? Let us know.

Track overdue storage and contact members

Is the storage area getting overfilled? If you see this, and want to take that on, look through the tags. While the storage policy is 7 days, it’s not practical to start chasing people down on the 8th day. Two weeks is a good place to start. Take a photo of the project, with its tag. Send the photo to the member on the tag, with a polite note saying that their project has exceeded the 7 day storage policy, and can they please remove it. Put your initials on the tag, along with “Text”, if you send a text, and the date you sent the message. You can also put a red WARNING tag on these items. WARNING tags are in the Stewards cabinet. If projects do not have storage tags, you can put a Warning tag on those as well. If the member responds with a request for an extension or exception, forward that to workshop@asmbly.org.

Make sure members are signed in on Skedda

This is not something that you need to check every time you are in the shop. But if the shop seems unusually crowded, you might check Skedda and make sure that people who are there are scheduled to be there. Sometimes someone will overstay by 30 minutes to an hour. No big deal, if the shop isn’t crowded. People showing up to use the equipment with no reservation is not okay. They need to sign in on Skedda to use the equipment. Be sure to refresh your Skedda view before approaching anyone. Some people reserve once they arrive, and the Skedda app doesn’t automatically update. Always be polite when you approach someone. If you are not comfortable approaching someone, post on Slack, or send a message to workshop@asmbly.org.

Organizing

Organizing is ALWAYS needed, kind of like cleaning. Put away stray tools that were not put away. Sort some of the tools in the storage area. Cleaning - deeper cleaning or cleaning items that need it only occasionally. If you want to do a large reorganization, check on the Steward channel on Slack first, so that you don’t unintentionally create a conflict situation.

Cleaning

Anything helps here. Taking a couple of extra trash cans out to the dumpster. Sweep up an area that looks ignored. Do a deep clean on a tool. You can also help remind other members to clean up the tools that they used, and the area that they worked in.

Assisting other members with equipment or systems

If you have “Steward” on your Skedda ID (please do), members may come looking for you for help. If you see someone who might need help, ask them.

IT Infrastructure

Assisting with other core operational tasks like maintaining computers on site There are a lot of back office systems, and technical systems that need to be dealt with. PC maintenance, lasers, electronics equipment, printers, etc., etc.. If you are more software oriented and would like to help out that way, let us know. We always have a to-do list for software and system optimization. Planning and execution.