Speaking as a private individual who is not on the re-open team — I view the steward role not as an enforcement role but a training role and a process improvement role. So rather than “ensure schedules are followed, and sanitization is taking place” I’d say “ensure the scheduling system works well, that the sanitization processes make sense and that the core volunteers are doing a good job of making it straightforward, and helping members understand and follow safe practices.” They’re monitoring the system, not the members.
For the training role, it’s to sign off that members can and will fully execute the sanitization protocols, so that we eventually let such members use the space with no steward present, or that there are enough stewards to be at full opening. (The pace of that, and the policies around it, will be set by the reopen team so that members feel safe coming to the space, and is currently limited by the pace that volunteers can implement the systems).
Hacker culture means questioning constraints — which, sometimes, means breaking the stupid rules, having gathered the deep experience to know the consequences. But even deeper in Hacker culture — so much that it’s our founding ethos — is to “Be Excellent”. We let people make dumb decisions about safety glasses; it’s only their eyes at risk. But we do not let people make “personal” decisions about recklessly using the table saw. There is nothing excellent about sending a harmful physical object across the shop to harm another member. whether it’s table saw kickback or a packet of COVID virus. In both cases the cause is almost always poor process documentation and/or education requirements; and of the remainder, well-meaning inattention, or being overtired or otherwise mentally depleted. We’re in a world where basically everyone has to re-take the wood shop safety class, except that nobody has ever taught any class like it and it can only be given to a half-dozen people at the same time, standing six feet apart. I know there’s a camp of people who see the board and core volunteers as a cadre of stick-up-their-butt wusses instituting a police state, where every member is suspect and we know best; the 10-40 unpaid hours a week we spend have the primary goal of keeping the space closed. (You should see the mail we get).
The suspect in the crime of “breaking the safety rules” is not the member — it is the clarity of our communications and the systems the reopen safety team is setting up. What parts of the instructions are unclear or incomplete? What things are too hard or time-consuming, and how do we simplify them? To the extent possible, it’s safer to have shifts start and end at the same time — which means they will be sanitizing at the same time. Do we need extra of some tools or supplies so that there’s enough to go around? We have a very powerful, very dangerous UV light that can help disinfect an area. What safety precautions do we need around it? How many people can work simultaneously and safely in the wood shop? What if we spread some tables into the auto bay? The loft areas have a much bigger potential for particle spread — should we put acrylic up to interdict this? What is the air flow through the space; would adding extra filters help mitigate spread?
Someone has to actually do the work to research and discuss these, document the answers, make the decisions, train the members, validate the processes, and most of all do the work to implement them — that’s the very long explanation of what the stewards are.
ATXHS Now Open to All Members” (if your email filters messages you should be able to find it by searching this subject) and contains screenshots stepping through to show members where to get access. If you can’t find the message in your email, I believe you can also view it directly with this link 