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=== History ===
The Hackspace started as two guys sitting in a shed in 2010, Tom and Ryan had seen other hackspaces in London and other countries and were keen to start their own. They found some like-minded people, and initially the group met in a range of temporary venues, such as the Rising Sun arts centre, before taking a couple of rooms at a storage company in Woodley, ultimately that did not work out, and in 2015 the group took the bold step of moving here to Weldale Street. The building is owned by one of members – Tom – who is not just understanding about our needs, but positively incites us to ‘hack the space’. We do not receive any regular grants, we are not a charity, and therefore we are masters of our own destiny – we can do what we want
=== Management ===▼
We are light on governance and have a level structure. There are no committees, no officers, and fundamentally no member is any more important than any other. Four of our members are directors of a limited company - [https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07628386 Reading Makerspace Ltd] [[Media:Reading Maker Space Limited M&A.pdf|Articles of Association]] - that has been set up solely to provide us with sufficient legal identity to pay the rates, energy bills (which you can imagine are quite large), and buy things such as insurance. Our current directors are Andrew, Tony, Vance, [[User:Stever|Steve]] and Mark. Members often describe our governance arrangements as a ‘do-ocracy’ – things get done by people on the basis of consensus, those who put in the effort to get things done tend to form small groups and agree how they should be done.▼
=== How to find us ===
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*Facebook - We can be reached on Facebook [https://en-gb.facebook.com/readinghackspace/ here]
=== How to help ===▼
rLab survives almost entirely on the donations of people who share our ideals and goals, mostly this comes in the form of the regular monthly contributions from members so the most helpful thing you can do for rLab is to join up! From time to time we also get donations, of cash, equipment, materials etc. from rLab members, the public, businesses and organizations that support our activities. Our [[donations]] page will list items that we've recently received and anything that we're currently on the lookout for. ▼
If you do join rLab then the most helpful thing you can do is just to be there, to help out keeping the space clean and running smoothly, and to share your knowledge and experience. Members can also share information on [[projects]] they're working on to help inspire others, as well as running or taking part in [[workshops]] to help spread the skills we have so that we can all work together to make cool stuff. The projects page will also list internal projects that we're currently working on and which might be seeking help, anything from trained professionals to simple grunt-work moving and lifting, anything that you're able to do to move these projects forward will be much appreciated around the lab. If you have special skills or knowledge in a specific area that you think others will want to know then you could write a [[technique guides|technique guide]] that we'll keep here on the wiki to help and inspire others to take on more creative and interesting projects. rLab runs [[Events|events]] sometimes, most common of these are the repair cafe events that we host every 2 months but there's also a selection of others. Most events are only open to members but the repair cafe and selected others might be open to the public so long as numbers aren't too high. If you've got something to showcase that you feel might make a good event then please let us know as exciting and interesting events are an excellent way of encouraging participation, previous events have covered topics as wide-ranging as CAD and lock-picking.▼
=== How to sign up ===
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=== Information for new members ===
▲==== Management ====
▲We are light on governance and have a level structure. There are no committees, no officers, and fundamentally no member is any more important than any other. Four of our members are directors of a limited company - [https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07628386 Reading Makerspace Ltd] [[Media:Reading Maker Space Limited M&A.pdf|Articles of Association]] - that has been set up solely to provide us with sufficient legal identity to pay the rates, energy bills (which you can imagine are quite large), and buy things such as insurance. Our current directors are Andrew, Tony, Vance, [[User:Stever|Steve]] and Mark. Members often describe our governance arrangements as a ‘do-ocracy’ – things get done by people on the basis of consensus, those who put in the effort to get things done tend to form small groups and agree how they should be done.
==== Getting your Hackspace Induction ====
Before you can use the Hackspace un-accompanied and have your own access card you'll need to receive your [[hackspaceinduction|Hackspace induction]] which provides important information about how the hackspace is organised and run and how to work safely in the space. These inductions are normally run on a Wednesday open evening as part of the sign-up process and generally take around an hour to do. We require this because there's a few things you need to know in order to work safely and smoothly around the lab that aren't instantly obvious. Photo-ID, usually driving license but any official ID with a picture is OK, is required to sign up
▲==== How to help ====
▲rLab survives almost entirely on the donations of people who share our ideals and goals, mostly this comes in the form of the regular monthly contributions from members so the most helpful thing you can do for rLab is to join up! From time to time we also get donations, of cash, equipment, materials etc. from rLab members, the public, businesses and organizations that support our activities. Our [[donations]] page will list items that we've recently received and anything that we're currently on the lookout for.
▲If you do join rLab then the most helpful thing you can do is just to be there, to help out keeping the space clean and running smoothly, and to share your knowledge and experience. Members can also share information on [[projects]] they're working on to help inspire others, as well as running or taking part in [[workshops]] to help spread the skills we have so that we can all work together to make cool stuff. The projects page will also list internal projects that we're currently working on and which might be seeking help, anything from trained professionals to simple grunt-work moving and lifting, anything that you're able to do to move these projects forward will be much appreciated around the lab. If you have special skills or knowledge in a specific area that you think others will want to know then you could write a [[technique guides|technique guide]] that we'll keep here on the wiki to help and inspire others to take on more creative and interesting projects. rLab runs [[Events|events]] sometimes, most common of these are the repair cafe events that we host every 2 months but there's also a selection of others. Most events are only open to members but the repair cafe and selected others might be open to the public so long as numbers aren't too high. If you've got something to showcase that you feel might make a good event then please let us know as exciting and interesting events are an excellent way of encouraging participation, previous events have covered topics as wide-ranging as CAD and lock-picking.
==== rLab Rules ====
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