Fab Lab International is open for new members

The International Fab Lab Association is open now for new members. The membership fee for the rest of 2011 may be determined by each member herself and may be even zero. You can apply for membership by filling and submitting the form below.

From now, every individual person, interested in and/or active in the Fab Lab community, may become a member of the International Fab Lab Association. For 2011 the membership fee is free, i.e. members may decide themselves how much they want to pay. The general members meeting in Peru has to decide on the annual fee for 2012 (calendar year).

Typical membership benefits are

· Access to other members,

· Access and voting rights at the annual general members meeting,

· Right to candidate for the Board,

· Participation in (new) workgroups and/or support committees,

· and more to come.

To apply for membership, please fill the application form below.

Invitation to the first general members meeting of the International Fab Lab Association, Lima (Peru), 14-19 August 2011

Within about two weeks, the FAB7 annual conference will take place in Lima (Peru). There the first annual general members meeting of the International Fab Lab Association will take place. The meeting will be split into two sessions. Provisions will be made for e-voting and e-participating by the members who cannot be present in Lima.

General meeting

During the FAB7 conference, the first annual general meeting of members of the international Fab Lab Association will take place. With this letter we formally invite you to attend it.

On the 4th of July 2011, the International Fab Lab Association was established. It is an association with members, a Board and an Academic Council, etc. As it is a democratic organization ruled by its members, it organizes at least once a year a general members meeting. Our first annual general meeting is going to happen soon.

With this message, the Board of the International Fab Lab Association invites you to attend its first annual general members meeting:

Place: Fab7 Conference, Lima, Peru (exact locations to be announced), and online (URL to follow).

Dates and times:

· Session-1: Tuesday, 16th of August 2011, 3:30-5:00PM Lima time, physical session

· Voting process: Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th of August 2011, all day Lima time, voting process

· Session-2: Friday, 19th of August 2011, 1:30-2:00PM Lima time, physical session

The Board of the International Fab Lab Association also will contribute to the Fab Foo session on Wednesday, 17th of August 2011, from 1:30PM.

Agenda

The Board has prepared the following agenda:

· Session-1: Tuesday, 16th of August 2011, 3:30-5:00PM Lima time, physical session (all voting is postponed till session-2)

· Opening the meeting and welcome to the new association

· What do we want to accomplish during the coming year? (incl. policy plan, budget 2012, membership fee)

· Fab Charter and rite-de-passage ( adopting Bylaws; a draft text will be published five days in advance)

· Running the association (Election of Board members, Audit Committee, and start-up of Academic Advisory Council)

· Motions

· Reports and Queries

· Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th of August 2011, all day Lima time

· Voting process (also e-voting)

· Session-2: Friday, 19th of August 2011, 1:30-2:00PM Lima time, physical session

· Outcomes of the voting process

· Concluding of the meeting

More information

The members will decide on the intended activities of the association in 2012. This will be written down in a policy plan and related budget. The Board will have to orchestrate the implementation of this plan.

We want to give our Fab Charter and Rite-de-Passage the attention they deserve. In fact we will propose to adopt so called Bylaws where they have been written down explicitly. We will pub;ish a concrete proposal later.

The members further may decide on the number of Board members (beteen 3 and 9; we propose 6 by the way). Thes Board members will resign after 1, 2 or three years respectively.

Every member of the association may candidate him/her self before or during session-1. If you think you can contribute and have some time (about one day a month), please, consider to candidate yourself! And feel free to contact the board members for more information.

We also need an Audit Committee of two members or more. They will check our financial affairs and report directly to the next annual meeting.

The association may have a dedicated advisory council for academic affairs. We recommend to start it up right now. The members may vote the first Academic Council members. Later they may do that themselves.

Later, we will send more details on the various agenda issues to you. We hope to see you and hear you all, either personally in Lima or virtually via the means of communication provided.

Finally: Our brand new International Fab Lab Association

With proud and pleasure the Workgroup Fab Lab Association announces the birth of the International Fab Lab Association. On the 4th of July 2011 it all happened during a short ceremony in the notary's office in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

The first Board consists of:

· Pieter van der Hijden, chairperson,

· Peter Troxler, secretary,

· Harmen Zijp, treasurer,

· Klaas Hernamdt, board member,

· Sherry Lassiter, board member,

· Hiroya Tanaka, board member.

The Workgroup Fab Lab Association was formed during Fab6 in Amsterdam last year. The work group consisted of the members of the first board and also Phyllis Klein, who preferred to continue to be active without a formal board membership, and Lindi MPhuthi whose official papers could not reach the notary in time unfortunately.

At Fab6 a Fab Lab Global Structure was proposed. It was felt that with the growing community of people actively involved in establishing, running and developing Fab Labs, we needed new structures to give this community a voice and to improve mutual support and cooperation. The Workgroup worked hard and had Skype meetings allmost twice a month. For various reasons they decided to formally establish the association in The Netherlands with, as required by Dutch law, a constitution in Dutch. The official translation of the constitution will be published as soon as it is available.

Fab Lab International will become an association of individuals interested in and/or involved in the Fab Lab community. It is a democratic organization run by its members. For the moment, former workgroup members populate the Board. At Fab7 in Lima, the first general members meeting will take place. There a new Board will be elected by the members. Members who are not present in Lima, can vote electronically.

We will publish the constitution (articles) of the association once we've received the official translation with stamps, seals and all.

Welcome!

Welcome to the newly organized Fab Lab International, a world-wide association of Fab Lab users.


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