Discipline Policy

Summary

Policies—including those regarding shop safety, tool bookings, and community conduct—are in place to ensure a productive and safe experience for all members. While many issues can, and should, be resolved through informal conversation, this policy defines the formal progression of disciplinary actions.

The people enforcing these policies may be volunteers or staff. Maintaining a cooperative community space is a shared responsibility. Ignoring redirection from an appointed leader or acting with disrespect toward those enforcing safety policies is considered a serious violation.

Reporting Issues

Members are encouraged to report issues as soon as is practical. Issues may be reported to any staff member, volunteer leader, board member, or via email to the Discipline Committee (DC) at people@asmbly.org. Ideally, reports should be made within 30 days so that relevant camera footage can be reviewed. While all issues will be addressed regardless of when they are reported, the absence of objective evidence (such as expired camera footage) for older incidents may limit the ability to take formal action beyond a warning.

Levels of Discipline

Warning

Warnings are used for initial or minor policy violations and should be viewed as opportunities for improvement.

Shop Leads, Staff, and the DC can issue warnings. Warnings should follow the tenets of Asmbly’s "How to be Excellent” community guidelines. Warnings carry no immediate consequences, or loss of access, and are therefore, not appealable.

Suspension

Suspensions are used for willful, serious, repeated violations, or any situation that could reasonably have caused harm to members, staff, the community, or equipment.

Suspension requires approval by staff in the designated internal channels or a majority vote of the DC. Once approval is acquired, suspensions are issued by Staff or the DC. Length of the suspension should be proportional to the offense.All suspensions must be forwarded to the DC for formal record retention.

Suspensions may be appealed to the DC via people@asmbly.org. While an appeal is unlikely to result in immediate restoration of access, a successful appeal may expunge the suspension from the member’s record or credit suspended time.

Termination

Termination is reserved for gross negligence, repeated willful violations, criminal activity, or any serious violation that exceeds the "reasonable person" standard. Termination should be rare.

Termination requires a majority vote of the Board of Directors. An interim suspension is likely to be in effect while discussion and evidence gathering is ongoing. The board may or may not, at its sole discretion, solicit feedback from the member(s) involved in the incident. Because termination is a Board-level decision, it is not appealable unless significant new facts come to light. Termination may be reversed by the majority vote of the Board of Directors.

Immediate Safety Measures

This policy does not limit the ability of Asmbly Staff to take immediate safety precautions.

Staff may immediately revoke facility access and/or contact law enforcement to eliminate direct threats to members, staff, the community, or equipment.

Such emergency actions do not require prior Board approval.

Definition

Definitions herein only apply to the discipline policy.

• Staff - A member of Asmbly’s leadership hierarchy that reports directly to the ED and is an employee of Asmbly Makerspace. The ED may designate, at their sole discretion, other leaders to act as “staff” for the purposes of this policy.

The Discipline Committee (DC)

The DC is responsible for handling complex disciplinary issues by gathering facts, making disciplinary recommendations, following up with interested parties, and maintaining the disciplinary archive. Serious violations, complex disputes, and issues requiring confidentiality shall be referred to the DC. The DC may also refer issues back to staff, as needed for resolution.

The DC is created as a committee of the board under bylaw section 2.9. The committee may consist of three board members and two non-board members appointed by the Board. The committee must contain at least one board member to take action.

All participants of the DC share information on a "need to know" basis only and are held to the highest degree of integrity and discretion. Members of the DC shall remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of their work.