COVID-19 Response Information

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Current Covid Rules & Information

Forms

Work Schedule

History

  • The board closed the space in March
  • The board passed the limited use policy for the purpose of producing medical equipment while the space was otherwise closed
  • The board formed the Limited Use Committee to approve individual projects
  • Jamie & Mel met with a non-profit lawyer to assess under what rules we might be able to open, and in what capacity
  • Individual members drafted a more general use policy based on classification of i3 as a manufacturing facility, which was the only type of organization that i3 could be classified as that was open at the time
  • The members and the board worked closely together to open the space using 2 separate votes
    • The board voted to officially open the space since they had voted to close it in the first place.

Their decision was based on liability & safety considerations. They voted to open based on how well the rules that the membership were proposing protected both the organization and also the safety of the members.

    • The members voted on what the standing rules would actually be to operate safely
    • A couple of initial revisions were needed to satisfy the board
    • There was a lot of work needed to redo the door access keypad & manually re-enter keys so that the board would feel confident that only people who had actually read the new rules were coming in
  • Subsequent revisions to the rules were discussed at member meetings, but the level of detail meant that member meetings got long and occasionally contentious
  • Thus, the Covid Policy Committee was formed to sequester all the details

Covid Policy Committee

  • Committee meeting minutes are in the list of all meeting minutes, under C

Rationale of moving from manufacturing-only to other activities

(edited from Mel's info dump in #covid-19-policy on slack)

How we should approach interpreting these EOs: They basically divides everyone entering facilities as either staff/employees or guests/public. Technically, we have no employees, but most of the rules for guests/public assume that any facility open to guests has staff to enforce the rules and make sure sanitation is done and things like that. So, because we don't have anyone in those roles, we have to treat our members as though they are in those roles in order to be open, so that the minimum safety regulations are followed. This is what we did when we opened as a "Manufacturing Facility"

The details are important, but the way we approached things is to try to figure out the ultimate goal of the regulations and try to figure out how we can best meet those goals withing our unique context. We're writing this here so that in the future, whenever we are asked why we are making members comply with rules written for employees we can point to this sort of analysis to help explain things.

Now, from a detailed perspective, in EO 175 (or whatever the latest EO that describes details of workplace/business re-openings), we should still be following all the regulations under 1. Workplace safeguards for all businesses to the best of our abilities. In addition, we should be following the rules for 4. Manufacturing, which is the basis for the original set of rules voted in in May/June 2020. However, we can also bring in some of the rules in 12. Public accommodations, and 13. Sports and Exercise Facilities. Most of these are rules that we are already following, or are unnecessary in our context (we hosting events for a preset time with a large number of people that might all attempt to leave the building at the same time and clump up at the doors), but do match up with the way that the space is used for different types of activities. Finally, we should continue to comply with 18. Recordkeeping, which is what we are using to track our training and health screenings.

Now, I don't believe we are required to comply with the rules for 13. Sport & exercise facilities, but they have some useful rules that I think would help us comply with the spirit of the regulations. One interesting part is that they explicitly call out that gyms can require their customers to sanitize their own equipment under i. This requires posting signs to inform patrons of this, which is something I think we should adopt. In addition, these rules explicitly require documenting visitors for contact tracing, specifically they require tracking names and phone numbers in addition to times and dates. I think we might consider adding a phone number field to the health screening form for this. They also encourage improved ventilation and opening doors and such as much as possible, so I definitely want to explore this further. I would like to look into ways to allow the bay doors to be opened while people are in the building without encouraging people off the street to just wander in.

Finally, there is EO 176, which is geared toward the general public, vs businesses. I believe the only part that applies to us is 6. Gatherings, events, and large venues. Gatherings are not defined anywhere in these EOs, but common sense seems to indicate that they mean any group meeting together for a single purpose in a restricted area or space. Those are forbidden for groups over 10 indoors or 100 outdoors. Thus, even if we do start allowing small meetings, trainings, and such, we should limit the attendance to those numbers. The EO does explicitly say that it applies to workplace gatherings such as meetings and trainings.