View source for What is Pumping Station: One

== What Pumping Station One Is ==

=== In One Sentence ===

Pumping Station: One is a community of hackers and makers that work together to become greater than the sum of their parts.

=== Two Rules ===

We have 2 primary rules: [[Be excellent to each other]], and [[JFDI]], Just Fucking Do It. In a community of over 550 members where we are run entirely on other hackers choosing to sacrifice time and energy on the continued growth and awesomeness of the organization, we occasionally have to clarify what it means to be excellent through policies that are democratically voted on by the Full Membership. Once being excellent has been satisfied: [[JFDI]] remains. There is no need to ask permission to hack the space or change it some way, within reason.

=== Member Driven ===

* Pumping Station: One has no employees, only members.
* The majority of our large equipment is purchased via votes proposed by members who hold no title or position at PS:One
** The money for these purchases comes exclusively from membership dues. Our organization is fully self supporting.
** Policies, and member agreements on what [[Be excellent to each other]] means are voted on by the membership.
* There is a Board of Directors. Most of the Board's decision making power is not special, it is member decision making power being applied.
** Members become board members because they get things done in the organization, and not the other way around.
** We actively encourage all members to tackle problems - very few issues can be dealt with exclusively by members of the board.
* Any Full member may propose a vote.
* Anything may be voted on, given that it is legal.

=== Volunteer Driven ===

Pumping Station: One has no employees.  Well, we pay contractors about 250h/year: 200h for a cleaning service to keep the bathrooms from smelling, a CPA to make sure our government filings are done right, electricians and other 10h one offs. Compare that to the 13 area hosts and 8 board members that spend about 7000 hours a year because they support PS1.

No one has any obligations other than [[Be excellent to each other]]. Those who do things, do things because they want to, and are free to stop or change doing the things at any time. This does mean that some tasks fall by the wayside. It also means that any member is free to pick them up and carry them out.

We actively encourage people to stop volunteering once it is not longer fun or fulfilling. This is to prevent burnout. Excellent people have a tendency to stay excellent if given the freedom to choose his or her area of excellence.

== What Pumping Station: One Is not ==

There are a number of misconceptions people come into Pumping Station: One with. This section is intended to dispel as many of these myths as possible.

=== We are not defined by our equipment or our location. ===

We are very proud of our equipment. We are not defined by it. If everything we own was lost overnight, we would still be Pumping Station: One. We would meet in Coffee houses and bars until we figured out where to hack next.

=== Not Tool Rental ===

In general, tools don't leave the building. We are not interested in members who see the space as place to rent tools over the value of the community of hackers and makers that make this place great.

The is a large component of why we do not offer 'native' single-month payments, we intend to have long term members as much as possible.

=== Does not want to sell you anything ===

We, as a group, are not interested in selling you anything. If you want to join us, you are welcome to. If want us to sell you the idea of the space, or act as though we are a service organization, you are going to be disappointed.

Individual members occasionally work together to produce a product or form a startup. They often find that after the very initial stages that Pumping Station: One is a poor location to continue their efforts.

=== We are not fast to certify on Equipment ===

Frequently new member have an expectation that certification is on demand. We are more interested in respecting the time and talents of our valuable certifiers and community of collective expertise than on rapid certification. Most are area hosts coordinate Certifications on popular equipment to happen no more than twice a month.

The majority of our equipment requires certification, and preferential treatment is often given to those with more interesting projects than those with more urgent projects.

=== We are not consistent ===

The ebb and flow of the space's culture changes over time. Rules change, the needs of the space change. Even on the same day, different members see and describe the organization in different ways. Pumping Station: One is a lot of things to a lot people. This causes a collection of skills and abilities that we would not otherwise be able to collaborate with. It also makes a lot of public information about the organization stale.