Thank you for bringing this back.
so the take away here is that storage slots is actually 21 days.
A better approach might have been to say 21 days, zero grace, go directly to dumpster.
As it is you might have to spend up to 7 days reminding people to pick up their stuff. Let them be
adults (as if) and either remember on their own or lose it.
That’s a great point actually, without some kind of consequence for using up the grace period, it’s implicitly allowing storage usage for longer than intended.
That was one of the things I tried to account for in my proof of concept for automating as much of the process as possible. The basic idea was slots last 7 days and when you sign out, you get timed out from using storage for 7 days, with any unused time refunded. So if you only used a spot for two days, you could use storage again in 2 days, if you used the whole 7 days, you have to wait a week.
The grace period was an additional 7 days, but signing out during the grace period starts a 14 timeout with no time refunded. Allowing items to get to the “right to the trash” phase, at the end of the 14 days total, would timeout your storage usage for something longer. In my prototype I just picked 90 days but it’s all configurable of course.
Here’s the rules I wrote up for it, could be useful if theres any tweaking team logistics wants to do: storage-kiosk/rules.txt at main · aceat64/storage-kiosk · GitHub
It seems 2 mi if there is for the 7-Day Grace… there are there are that might keep somebody from picking up their project right at the end of Storage. Cars can break down even on the way to Makerspace. Happened to us. People can get sick family members can are you going to ask for what. What’s the 7-Day Grace. You know you need to pick it up before the end of the time. So you can accommodate watch emergency.
Sounds like a great plan! Thank you!
Storage users will explicitly agree to these terms in writing before being granted space, right?
Members will be happy! The return of Storage has been asked for a lot. Thank you in advance to the volunteers that will make this possible.
I like that as the incentive is to vacate early. When not waiting until the last minute, the likelihood of running over if schiff happens is reduced.
The volunteer(s) running the system should have the largest say on the rules.
Time for do-ocracy to make a return you say?
If by “explicitly” you mean part of a physically signed document for each instance of storage and/or ticket generated, then I don’t think so.
But, yes, if I dismember correctly how the previous incarnation worked, there was a laminated set of storage rules right there at the keyboard/ticket printer, and some blub (with a checkbox or something?) where you scanned your RFID and typed in information, e.g. the storage space designation, saying “I have read and understood and agree blah blah blah…”.
I think we still do onboarding/orientation things for newly joined members (e.g. DMS 101)? If so, I’d expect project storage stuff, including the rules, would be covered there as well.
One of my kids has been working in the Unclaimed Property division of the Comptroller’s office for a little over a year. If an explicit acknowledgement of the DMS storage rules is in place (and can be linked back to a member) that helps a lot in protecting the 'space from someone whose dream project winds up in the dumpster.
Speaking as a former Logistics Chair that easily disposed of mid 5 figures worth of project storage contents during my ~2 year tenure, the lack of lawyer-approved boilerplate, 6-part forms with exacting chain-of-custody, nor notary-stamped documents has ever proven to be a problem with project storage.
Did anyone ever file a complaint with the Comptroller’s office? How was it resolved?
No.
As I understand things:
Meaning DMS can’t give it away or sell it, we can’t convey or “convert” good title to the property. That’s why it goes to dumpster. DMS gets no benefit from things it disposes of.
I remember helping Erik once when we were cleaning out storage off Luna and Valwood: Literally boxes of tools, several pickup loads went into the dumpster. It was painful.
All I’m saying is an explicit acknowledgement that “I understand my stuff will be in the dumpster in xx days” would be a good thing to protect DMS. Just like D&O insurance, anti-harassment policies, etc. If such an explicit acknowledgment is already in place, awesome.
Tools. New sheets of plywood. Veneers. Cans of specialty paint. High-end wood. Adhesives. Laptops. Electronic components. Steel. Aluminum. Lumber. Sheets of plastic. Antiques. Furniture. Glass. Stone. Semi-precious stones. Ceramics. Silver - possibly even gold - for making jewelry. Misc building materials. Welding rods. Spools of unopened filament. Fabric and textiles. New auto parts. Bicycles. And probably most baffling - money on occasion.
It was always astounding what members would simply abandon at the space for all the notification, prevarication as to what the plainly-stated rules meant, and ultimate consternation that ~monthly offsiting was actually happening with the commensurate removal of the prior months’ ~⅔ of projects that weren’t retrieved. That it was worth it to so many members to deliberately fail to understand the rules and ultimately not work on projects rendered me unsympathetic to those whose possessions I discarded month after month.
It’s been part of the rules forever, posted publicly by the storage cards / kiosk, printed on the cards themselves, part of the agreement process on the kiosk last I checked…
A bit of history on the Great Purge.
For people that have been around when we moved to our current location, these were the black storage tubs brought over from Ladybird and were initially stored in what is now the Galley (DMS also sold snacks back then, also a carryover from Ladybird.).
When the decision to get these cleared out, it was found a lot of the owners hadn’t been members for some time. We Call-A-Thons, a group of about 5 or 6 got together and tried several times calling the people to come get their property and told it would be pitched. I know that Erik, Pearce and I were there, can’t remember others calling but there were other, I think we may have tried email. But it was a serious effort a of a month or more. Some said go ahead pitch, some came and got theirs. But there were a lot filled with really good stuff as Erik described.
The tubs were transported to storage, held there while for "Last-Chances. The were finally dumped unannounced so there wouldn’t be a flock of Seagull dumpster divers.
Storage really has an infamous history storied history. Many attempts to control the beast.
One tub was full of a collection of hand planes - new and antique … now rusting away in a landfill.
Q: I realize it might call for a lawyer’s learned opinion, but as we understand the concept is it “charging for storage” to allow people to pay to waive the (7-day?) cooling-off period between the end of one project storage agreement and the next, a.k.a. buy an indulgence?
Not asking about or discussing if it’s actually a good policy…just wondering if it would embroil us in whatever legal mumbo-jumbo that current non-payment policy has been actively avoiding.
One could argue that should such a fee occur outside of the organization maintaining physical custody of the remitter’s property that would not otherwise alter the terms of project storage - and the organization’s obligation to participating members.
Ah, but sometimes Life Happens. When you throw in the numbers of neuro-diverse that we attract, it shouldn’t be too surprising that some folks don’t make it back in time.
Whether folks are too well off to value their supplies, or too broke to make it back to pick up stuff is another question.