How to work as a part of HATCH
This procedure lays out the general rules for how people in HATCH will work together.
There are three types of people involved in HATCH:
- Volunteers working in HATCH collective
- Officers of the company HATCH collective Ltd. (who may also be volunteers)
- Members of the steering committee
Volunteers
Volunteers run the day-to-day business of HATCH, such as:
- Handling test requests and other enquiries
- Running awareness and fundraising campaigns
- Communicating with the steering committee
- Doing any necessary admin
Volunteers will act according to any relevant procedure, where it exists.
If there is no procedure for something that needs to be done, and time allows, one or more volunteers should draft a procedure and consult with the steering committee before then putting that procedure into practice.
Volunteers can act without following adopted procedure: * If time is short, and procedure will be drafted after the fact * If the steering committee is unavailable, and the relevant procedure has been drafted but not adopted * If the thing that needs to be done is likely to be a one-off
Procedure is meant to be read as a guideline, rather than a hard-and-fast protocol. We use procedure to ensure that knowledge of how to do things is shared amongst volunteers, and to avoid replicating oppression in our work.
How volunteers communicate
Volunteers will communicate with one another via a secure text chat that all volunteers can see. The secure text chat can be split into several channels, but all volunteers must be able to see all channels.
Any conversations between HATCH volunteers about general HATCH business that happen outside of the volunteer chat should be summarised in the volunteer chat.
Personal information collected by HATCH must not be shared in the volunteer chat. If volunteers in HATCH need to share personal information with one another, they must message each other directly using secure, “self-deleting” messages that last no longer than a week.
Decision-making
There is no formal decision-making procedure.
- Individual volunteers can make minor decisions on their own, so long as those decisions are communicated promptly and clearly to other volunteers.
- Medium-scale decisions should not be made without some discussion among the volunteers.
- Any major decisions should be run by the steering committee.
Urgent decisions might sometimes be made by a smaller group than normal.
There is no formal definition of “minor”, “medium” or “major”, except that “minor” decisions should generally be those with few long-term consequences. Be reasonable.
Organisational norms
The following are guidelines on how we can work together sustainably. They are not hard-and-fast rules.
You should avoid routinely working more than 8 hours a week on HATCH business. Doing this occasionally (say, in the run up to big fundraisers) is fine, but you should aim to have a life outside of this work.
Similarly, try not to work on HATCH business late into the night, unless staying up late is already a normal part of how your sleep cycle works.
Working in an organisation with a significant number of neurodivergent people can be difficult. Try to be understanding that people might have difficulties with executive function.
If you think someone has missed a message or forgotten to do something they have committed to do:
- If it’s urgent and it’s been over 24 hours, you can remind them
- If it’s not urgent and it’s been over a week, you can remind them
- If they’ve told you that you can remind them more frequently than these guidelines state, you can remind them
Otherwise, try to let people deal with things in their own time.
Try to be as explicit as you can in your communications, even if it’s awkward. People might not always pick up on implicit requests.
Conversely, feel free to ask for clarifications if you don’t understand something someone has said.
If you think there is a problem with how we’re doing something, say so. Even if you change your mind later on, the observation might still be useful.
Try to avoid excessive personal/social discussions in the organisational chat. You can always message someone directly if you want to ask how they’re doing. (The occasional joke or comment in the chat is fine, and a good thing; just don’t let it drown out or distract from important information.)
Officers
Officers are members of HATCH collective Ltd., a company limited by guarantee that exists to support the activities of HATCH collective. It is the duty of officers to notify the government of any changes to how HATCH collective Ltd. functions, and to file regular accounts with Companies House and/or HMRC.
Officers will follow legal procedures, which are procedures that strictly relate to the legal obligations of HATCH collective Ltd. and do not have to be approved by steering.
Steering Committee
The steering committee is consulted on new procedure, and can also be consulted on any other business relating to HATCH.