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.
