- We want to cultivate a "Willkommenskultur" (culture of welcoming people). This means that all members are explicitly asked to be generally friendly to everyone, but especially to newcomers to the space. Be welcoming and say hello, and also try to actively involve them in current activities. We would like to have a space where even shy people can quickly make new friends, but please try not to be pushy.
- Feel free to always ask people in the space to introduce themselves. Please do not feel offended if someone asks you to introduce yourself, even if you have been an active member for many years. We want to encourage everyone to get to know each other and be aware of who is in the room.
- All members are requested to ensure that these rules are followed. If someone breaks a rule, please inform the person in a friendly manner. (If they regularly disobey, please contact anyone from the Enting.
- Please respect peoples privacy. Don't take or publish any pictures or information about them without their prior consent.
- We would like you to feel comfortable at our space. That's why xHain is smoke-free. If you’re an asshole, e.g. sexist, racist, or homophobic, please don’t bother coming.
- Please direct new members or people interested in xHain to the Getting started page.
- Healthy error culture: Making mistakes is allowed, you learn by making mistakes. What is bad is repeating mistakes, making mistakes on purpose, damaging things or making fun of ignorance or mistakes made by others.
Depending on the severity of the violation, failure to respect our space rules may result in the withdrawal of key authorisation, machine usage authorisation, termination of membership without notice and ban from entering any xHain spaces.
After some complaints, we agreed with the neighbours on the following points:
- No noise (laser cutting, drilling, sawing, loud music etc.) between 8pm and 9am as well as all day on Sundays and public holidays.
- No long-lasting noise. This applies especially to the laser cutter: after 2 hours of usage take a 42min break. (Have a look at the usage list who used the cutter and for how long before you!)
- Smoking is permitted in front of the space, but conversations must be kept at a low volume after 10pm.
This also applies to open Monday nights! Please ask noisy people to talk quietly after 10pm.
There is no cleanup service personell at xHain. The cleanup crew is YOU!
- Waste: If you find the rubbish bins are full, please empty them in the back yard.
- Dishes: There is no cleaning service for the kitchen. If you see unwashed dishes/glasses in the sink, even if they are not yours, please clean them anyway.
- Refrigerator/Drinks: If the box of bottles (Leergut/Pfandkasten) is full and/or the fridge is empty, then please carry the empty bottles down into the basement and bring full beverage boxes back to the kitchen. Please help to keep the fridge stacked. Drinks are organized and paid by members for members. Costs have to be covered by the members, so please remember to feed the drink donation piggy.
- Workplaces/workbenches: Please leave the work area cleaner than you found it. Clean up tools, throw away waste and clear the work area.
- Toilet: Sit down. No peeing standing up.
Always leave xHain/the work area cleaner than you found it! This means: clean up your own stuff as well as stuff left lying about from other people.
In case of an emergency/someone is in danger, please contact police/fire brigade (tel: 112) immediately. In case of a serious rule violation alert an active longtime member (e.g. xRoots) or the Matrix #general chat.
- There are machines that require instruction, such as laser cutters, CNC or welding equipment. They are marked with an "authorisation required" sticker. Make sure that these machines are not used by anyone without explicit permission and instruction. A complete and up-to-date list of machines can be found in our Branches.
- Strangers/unauthorised persons: When you are at xHain, always pay attention to your surroundings and who enters or leaves the room.
- During non-public events/activities:
- Consider locking the front door after you in order to not be disturbed by strangers.
- If someone you don't know enters the room, approach this person in a friendly way, ask for their name, current activity/status, and if they are a xHain member. If the person does not have key authorisation (i.e. cannot open the locked door from the outside), ask the person to leave xHain. Do not be deceived by a self-evident posture ("I belong here")!
- Do not allow strangers without key authorisation to take material, tools or equipment with them.
- If the stranger claims to have permission from an xHain member to stay/take away a device, please check this claim with this member or deny the request.
- For public events:
- If you are in charge of the event, please read the section on "Workshops & Events".
- If you are not in charge of the event, please stay alert and help out to ensure that our space rules are followed. For example, strangers should not take beverages from the the fridge without paying or registering in the tally sheet ("Strichliste"), the workshop leader(s) should always greet newcomers in a friendly manner, please make sure no one uses or takes equipment or material without authorization, etc.
- First Aid, Fire Extinguishers and Personal Protection: Fire extinguishers and first aid kits are available at several locations at xHain. Familiarise yourself with the locations and how to use them. After use, or if something is missing, please bring it to attention immediately in our #general chat. Gloves, ear protection, etc. can be found in the respective work areas. A more detailed overview with photos can be found on the safety page.
- Fire: If, for example, a machine has caught fire, please extinguish the flames with the fire extinguishers provided.
- If the fire is already out of control, leave the room immediately and call the fire brigade (Tel: 112).
- Laser cutter: Attention, please do not overreact! It is not uncommon for a workpiece in a laser cutter to catch flames. Open the glass flap to stop the laser from cutting, wait 2-3 seconds for the flames to be put out by the ventilation or try to put them out by hand. Please only use a fire extinguisher if the flames get out of control.
- NEVER return a used fire extinguisher to its storage place. Put it on the floor and inform the #general chat or an active longtime member (e.g. xRoots). We will then check whether the fire extinguisher needs to be replaced.
An empty fire extinguisher helps no one and endangers human lives in an emergency!
- It is strictly prohibited to sleep (spend the night sleeping) at xHain or turn it into a personal "living room"!
- Please throw away food/leftovers into a bin outside(!) of xHain. It attracts flies, rats and vermin.
- Do not make xHain unnecessarily dirty. Do not bring bicycles or similar into our space.
- Do not smoke indoors.
- Colour markings: We have color-marked our work areas and the corresponding tools. All tools may only(!) be used in the corresponding work areas of the same colour and for the intended purpose.
- Defects and damages: If a tool breaks or you notice damage, please inform us promptly in the chat or contact a person responsible for the work area. Don't worry, there will be no blame, we simply want to rectify the problem promptly.
- Machinery instructions: Some work areas, rooms ("Hobelhöhle"), machines and tools require prior instruction by an authorised person before you are allowed to use them. A detailed list of all these machines and tools and their instructors can be found on the Branches page.
- Machinery supervision: Some machines may not be operated unsupervised. You can find a detailed list of machines on the Branches page. The following also applies to persons who have not been instructed: If you find a machine that requires supervision during operation but there is no user within reach, switch off the machine.
- Laser cutters: Please do not disconnect directly from the power supply. Press the pause and return buttons on the control panel.
- CNCs or other machines: Switch off the machine or disconnect the power plug.
Instructions: The wiki documentation of individual machines acts only as a reminder and does NOT replace personal instruction and explicit permission to use!
Permits to use machines can be withdrawn if the rules are disregarded!
¶ §7 Materials and Storage Space
- Store your personal materials and tinkering projects in your member box.
- Please take home any larger projects that will not fit into your box. xHain is not a storage space.
- Upon request we have bigger boxes where you can store larger materials for up to one month. It must be labelled with your name, means of contact (e.g. Matrix chat name, email etc.) and storage date.
- Any materials found at xHain may be considered common materials and may be used by anyone. Personal name tags are invalid and may be ignored. (This does NOT apply to tools and machinery!)
- If you use any common material at xHain, please donate a small amount to our donation box (pink piggy or unicorn).
We reserve the right to dispose of old and unmarked items without warning.
The following applies to workshop leaders, even if they are not xHain members:
- Our "welcoming culture" is valid in the whole space also for non-members: It is your task to welcome new people to your workshop. Also say "Hello" to everyone else who enters the room.
- Make sure that your workshop participants follow our space rules.
We would like to keep the #general chatroom of our Matrix Chat (chat.x-hain.de) clean and tidy. Topic specific requests therefore belong in the corresponding chatrooms. Please create separate "channels" or "discussions" for chitchat and small talk. Here is an overview of the most important channels:
- #general: for general enquiries
- #maschinenraum: about equipment (especially the laser cutter) that can be found in the machine room.
- #3dlab: about 3D printing and printers, 3D-scanners etc.
- #electronics: about electronics and electronics hardware
- #avxhain: audio and video equipment, streaming software etc.
- #CNC: about the CNC milling machines in the basement and the corresponding meetups of @Martin1001
- #fleamarket: stuff to give away, or about our (maybe sometime in the future) hardware flea market event
- #hobelhoehle: wood workshop and processing, welding, general hardware inquiries
- #textiles: about textiles, sewing- or stitching machines etc.
- #xroots: newbies can post general inquiries or ask for mentoring
- #mouser-orders: enquiries to other members for collective orders
- #playground: spamchannel to try out functions of the Matrix Chat (e.g. text formatting etc.)
- #jobs: job offers or looking for jobs
- #gespraech_unter_baeumen: all chats on the event series of the same name