We are a vibrant community of entrepreneurs, roboticists, and hardware electronics enthusiasts! We encourage open honest collaboration and communication. Here are some of our community guidelines and best practices.
We are the Center for Hardware Development, and home to an intelligent, caring, and sharing community.
Unless specified, this Community Code applies to both member and non-member users of Circuit Launch facilities and Services.
Circuit Launch is, first and foremost, a place to work. While we want our community to be: a) open, fun, and collaborative, we also want it to be: b) professional. You are responsible for properly balancing a) and b).
We absolutely encourage you to make connections, collaborate, share ideas, provide advice, and generally make cool stuff happen. We encourage Members to buy/sell goods and services from each other (except where prohibited under the Terms of Use). But, do not spend your days directly soliciting other members. It’s just annoying and may result in cancellation of your membership.
To be at Circuit Launch, you must be a Member, a Member’s guest, or an authorized attendee at a Circuit Launch approved event. Members are absolutely responsible for the conduct and supervision of their guests, and guests will be held to all member conduct standards. Members are encouraged to invite guests for lunch, a quick meeting, or just to say hello. However, if your guest is going to be here for more than a couple hours, they need to use one of your allotted guest passes. You should be with your guests when you are here, and your guests shouldn’t be here when you are not.
Every Guest MUST sign a Liability Release and be signed in by a Member or staff.
Use your indoor voice. We are all trying to get work done, so be mindful and respectful of others’ attention and time. If someone has their headphones on, don’t bother them. Please respect other members’ privacy (that’s the most important rule we have). For sure, Circuit Launch is not a library, and collaboration is encouraged, but this is a workplace, first and foremost.
We do not tolerate intoxication at Circuit Launch. If you appear intoxicated, any staff or Member has the right to ask you to leave. Repeated problems with any kind of intoxication is grounds for losing your membership.
Keep the shared labs and workspaces clean and organized. PUT YOUR TOOLS AWAY where they belong after using them. Nothing is more frustrating and ruins productivity than spending time looking for a tool that wasn’t put away. It is also your responsibility to sweep, dust, and vacuum up after yourself.
Report any malfunctioning or inoperable equipment to staff, so that we can get it working and available in a timely manner.
Keep the kitchen area clean. Do your dishes by either putting them in the dishwasher or hand-washing them and putting them in the dish rack. Please do your guests' dishes. The staff (and your fellow members) will get really, really grumpy if you leave your dirty dishes lying around.
The refrigerator is primarily for storing that day’s food, beverages, and some occasional leftovers from events. Containers or food left in the refrigerator may be thrown out at any time at the discretion of the facility manager (the longer it’s there, the more likely it will be tossed). Labeling your food will help us to at least give you a heads up.
Access to conference rooms is a membership benefit. . Here’s some stuff regarding conference rooms:
[a] If you want to use a conference room, you must reserve it. Please, no conference room squatting. Make sure you are out of the room at least 15 minutes before any reserved time block.
[b] Conference rooms are for meetings with customers, teammates, and clients ONLY. If you want to hold an event at Circuit Launch in one of our conference rooms or classrooms, please talk to the friendly Circuit Launch staff to discuss scheduling, guest policies, and fees.
[c] You may not re-sell or donate your conference room reservation.
[d] Clean up after using a conference room. If you rearrange the furniture in the conference room, return it to the original set-up when you’re done.
Common areas are shared workspaces. Here’s how we can all happily and productively share these spaces together:
[a] The kitchen, cafe, lounges, open tables, and team tables are for more open, collaborative work while the areas with desks are for quieter, more focused work.
[b] Please make phone calls in the lounge areas, away from members working at desks. Speaker phones are never allowed, except in a private office, conference room or classroom.
[c] Please occupy only one spot at a time in the common area. Taking up multiple spots limits the space available to your fellow Members. Don’t be that guy or gal.
[d] “The One Hour Rule”: Feel free to use open tables, workbenches, and other common areas to work on projects. If you are not actively working at, or leave, that area for longer than an hour, please pack your stuff up and put any tools away. If your belongings are left unattended in the common areas (anywhere outside your dedicated desk or office space, including outside your office door) for longer than an hour, your belongings may be moved by staff. Items left unattended for extended periods will be charged a storage fee of at least $45/day (depending on the amount of items). You will be given 24 hours notice before incurring storage fees.
Sorry, we do not allow dogs or other pets (except service animals) at Circuit Launch.
Circuit Launch is a 24/7 facility for Members. You are welcome to work long hours, but you can not sleep or live here.
[a] Don’t sleep here (including your car in the parking lot)! Seriously, if you are that tired, go home.
[b] Circuit Launch is not a personal storage facility, please do not store non-work related personal belongings here.
[c] Living here is defined by several factors that, when considered together, constitute a violation of the Community Code. These factors include but are not limited to: storing belongings that are normally are kept at home, not leaving the premises for longer than one can reasonably be expected to stay awake, performing personal hygiene routines in the bathrooms, storing more than several meals worth of food, and keeping several changes of clothes at the office. An isolated occurrence may be no problem; but, persistent and/or multiple occurrences are evidence that you are using Circuit Launch as a living space.
[d] Fatigue is a safety issue, and we need to take care of each other! If you are operating tools or equipment, where fatigue compromises your ability to keep the machine, yourself, or others safe, any Member or staff may ask you to take a break. If you observe someone compromised by fatigue please voice your concern to them and to Circuit Launch staff.Circuit Launch is a smoke-free office-lab environment, located in a Building on a smoke-free site. Please smoke outside at least 100 feet away from windows and doors. 15. Security matters! We are all responsible for being mindful of the security of our stuff, other members’ stuff and the Circuit Launch facility. The doors are automatically locked most of the time. Do not unlock or hold doors open for anyone you do not know. If someone you don’t know needs access, have them contact an on-site member or call (510) 306-1217. Do not do anything to cause the doors to be unlocked or stay propped open, unless you are actively monitoring that door and are taking responsibility for anyone and everyone who enters. . If you find any of the doors propped, or otherwise staying open, it is your responsibility to close them and notify Circuit Launch, so we can review the security footage of the time the door was open.