Policies and Procedures

These policies and procedures apply to all members, guests, and visitors to the makerspace. Please review them carefully to ensure that you understand them.

Code of Conduct

Bellingham Makerspace is committed to maintaining a creative community in which all individuals are treated with fairness, respect, and dignity. This policy applies to all within the Makerspace: employees, volunteers, members, and guests alike -- within our walls, on Makerspace owned and managed communication forums and online spaces, and while representing the space at outside events.

By participating in the Makerspace community, you agree to abide by any such changes. It is your responsibility to stay up to date on the latest changes to our Code of Conduct.

Changes to the Code of Conduct may be made periodically, with or without notice.

What we expect:

What our community will not tolerate:

Harrassment

Behavior that will be considered harassment includes, but is not limited to:

Harassment does not include such things as:

Consequences

Failure to comply with this policy shall result in disciplinary action, up to and including cancellation of makerspace membership, dismissal from paid/volunteer positions, and/or barring from the makerspace premises. Should a federal, state, or local law be violated, the infraction will be reported to the authorities.

How to report

If you witness infractions listed above, immediately fill out an Incident Report form and report it to any staff members, board members, area leads, or tool champions present at the time in the space.

How to appeal

See the Reinstatement Appeal process.

Privacy Policy

It shall be the policy of the Bellingham Makerspace to comply with all laws, whether Federal, State, or Local, with respect to the display, discussion, or provision to any party, formation which identifies an individual or provides sensitive personal information, as a result of any otherwise legal request. In addition, the Bellingham Makerspace will not provide or display any information which may subject a member to fraud, identity theft, harassment, or provide a means for subjecting the member to increased risk of fraud, identity theft, or which may enable another person to engage in Internet fraud or attack, or may enable another to identify, contact, or distinguish any member, without the express written consent of the member(s) owning the data. Various systems and tools, including forums, are structured in such a way that certain types of communications, actions, or stored information are represented as private, or require enhanced access to see. This would include items such as private messages, user data, or user actions, and other functions where a user's actions are not routinely visible, and where a user may feel a reasonable expectation of privacy. It is the Policy of the Bellingham Makerspace that such items are not "books and records", and therefore such items will not be available for inspection or disclosure request under the terms of our by-laws and applicable law.

Various members of the Bellingham Makerspace, acting within their capacity as officers or assigns, may access such information only to the extent necessary to perform their job function, on a need to know basis, and subject to the absolute prohibition on the provision of any information covered by this policy, to any other person or entity, without the explicit written permission of the Board of Directors.

In compliance with law and our bylaws, BMS will provide Member's names and physical adress only, in response to a valid request for member information.

The Bellingham Makerspace will comply with requests lawfully made by a court of competent jurisdiction.

Weapons Policy


Bellingham Makerspace will proactively and voluntarily cooperate with law enforcement regarding any violations of our weapons policy and, in particular, violations of the law regarding weapons.

Donations

This page outlines the guidelines for accepting and managing donations at Bellingham Makerspace. We appreciate your support and contributions to our creative community. Please read the following carefully to ensure that your donation aligns with our needs and capabilities.

Please note: Donations can only be accepted in person by the operations manager or an area lead. Donations that are not delivered directly to the operations manager or an area lead will not be accepted (read: unceremoniously put in the dumpster), and the donor will not be issued a tax receipt.

Donations we will accept

We welcome donations of items that are in good working order and align with our objectives. Acceptable donations include:

  • Working Electronics: Functional and up-to-date electronic devices that have a use and room in the makerspace. 
  • Arts Supplies: Materials that can be used for creative projects within the makerspace.
  • Electronic Consumables: Components such as wires, resistors, capacitors, and other electronic consumables.
  • Dry Wood: Wood that is dimensional (not rough cut or with living edges), dry, and doesn't contain nails, metal, rocks or other contaminants.
  • Working Tools: Good-quality, functional tools that can be used for various projects.
  • Bulk Donations: Donations in bulk of any of the acceptable items mentioned above.

Donations we will not accept

We cannot accept the following items:

  • CRT TVs and Plasma TVs: Due to space constraints and disposal challenges.
  • Outdated Electronics: Electronic devices, computers, and servers that are over 7 years old. If it doesn't have a USB-C port, we can't use it.
  • Broken Appliances
  • Soiled Fabrics and Fiber Arts
  • Pallet Wood
  • "Green" Wood: Unseasoned or wet wood that may not be suitable for our projects.
  • Pressure-treated wood

3D printers

While we generally accept items in working order, we may make an exception for non-functional 3D printers. Donations of non-functional 3D printers are accepted as they can provide valuable learning opportunities and projects for our community.

Donation drop-off

Donations can be dropped off during our regular operating hours. Please check our website or contact our staff for the most up-to-date information on drop-off times.

Tax receipts

Tax receipts are available upon request. Please notify our staff if you require a tax receipt for your donation.

Right of refusal

Bellingham Makerspace reserves the right to refuse any donation for any reason. We appreciate your understanding and support in ensuring that our makerspace receives items that contribute positively to our community.

Photography

The Bellingham Makerspace reserves the right to take photographs of people and projects in community spaces for promotional purposes. However, we also respect the privacy of our members, and any members can opt out of photography of themselves or their projects. For members in the space, we request that permission be obtained from people before they are recorded or photographed, and if the pictures/video/audio/etc will be posted anyplace online, permission to do that should also be obtained.

Forms

Forms

Incident Report

Fill out an Incident Report for injuries, equipment damage, property damage, and Code of Conduct infractions. If completing a paper version, send a photograph of the filled form to board@bellinghammakerspace.org 

Once a report is submitted you will receive a claim number for your Incident Report via email within 5 days of submitting this form, then a fact finding will occur (each person listed on this report will be contacted and asked to share their narrative of the event), deliberations will be made, and actions may be taken.

This entire process should take 2 weeks.

All progress will be tracked here

Forms

Reinstatement Appeal

Fill out a Reinstatement Appeal form to request overturning decisions made regarding an Incident Report.

If completing a paper version, send a photograph of the filled form to board@bellinghammakerspace.org

Reinstatement Appeal process: Once an appeal is submitted, submittee could expect any of the following:

invitation to interview, request for additional documentation, and/or letter of reference.

This entire process should take 2 weeks.

Security Cameras

To ensure the safety of our members and the security of our shared space and equipment, we use a video camera system with audio recording capability. We want to be transparent about how this system is used, who has access, and how we protect our members' privacy. Your trust and safety are our top priorities.

Our Guiding Principles

How We Handle Camera Footage

To balance security with privacy, we follow these strict guidelines:

Data Retention

Camera footage is automatically deleted after 30 days. The only exception is if a specific clip is needed for an active Code of Conduct investigation or legal matter, in which case it will be securely retained only for as long as it is needed.

Sharing Footage with Outside Parties

Protecting our members' privacy is a responsibility we take very seriously. We will not share footage with outside parties except under specific legal circumstances:

Warrant Canary

A warrant canary is a regularly published statement that a service provider has not received a secret government subpoena. If we are ever served with such a subpoena, we will be legally prohibited from telling you. However, we can stop publishing this statement.

As of July 8, 2025, Bellingham Makerspace has:

If this section is ever removed from this policy, you should assume that we have received a secret warrant or subpoena.