Frontyard Memorandum of Understanding

Residents, event organisers, librarians, gardeners, digital worker bees and anyone accessing Frontyard community assets, are required to read the following Memorandum of Understanding between Community and The Organisation (“Frontyard Projects Inc.”) and fill out an Emergency Contact Form (sent to individuals as they become involved).

What is a memorandum of understanding?

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) highlights the objectives and management arrangements of the organisation and the space. It also explains access, communication, information sharing, and caretaking processes. It is not a legal document, but it is considered an agreement between the organisation and its community.

We acknowledge that Frontyard meets on Aboriginal land: the Cadigal Wangal people of the Eora are the traditional custodians of the land. We pay our respects to elders past, present and future.

The Vibe

Frontyard Projects Inc. (hereafter referred to as “Frontyard”) is a network of people that provides a pro-active, flexible space for practical skills-sharing, futuring, and critical research. We aim to be community-led in terms of content and usefulness, open and questioning of current systems and structures, and respectful and trusting of our fellow Frontyarders.

The projects and research we’re interested in:

- contributing to our neighbourhoods

- agitating, facilitating, and nurturing collaborations between people

- working towards a more resilient, independent community

- creating, articulating and generating possible futures

By spending time at Frontyard or making use of its physical or digital assets, you are committing to maintain “The Vibe” and caretake the space in a respectful way that makes others sharing it with you feel safe. We want to create a community where people are free to be themselves without judgement or discrimination, regardless of sexuality, age, ethnicity or ability. Spaces are not safe simply because we designate them as such – it requires the combined efforts of us all. There are going to be times when each of us make mistakes. These mistakes are opportunities to learn from each other, and grow as individuals and as a community.

Some things to consider:

- Respect people’s opinions, beliefs, and differing points of view

- Respect the physical and emotional boundaries of others

- Respect everyone’s right to live without intimidation, harassment, or discrimination

- Respect people’s right to privacy and self-determination

- Respect the Space itself and the fact that it is shared with many

Frontyard’s monthly open house events are where conversation takes place with the community. These events are on between 1pm and 3pm on the last Sunday of each month. If you are a resident at Frontyard and one of the open house afternoons are on during your residency period, it would be appreciated if you could be there, or let us know if you can’t.

Access

Frontyard operates on a lock box system. There is only one set of keys, so keys must be put back in the box *immediately* after opening or closing the building. If you lose the keys, the cost of locksmith callouts and registered key cuttings must be reimbursed to Frontyard. It is your responsibility to close all windows, wash up, empty garbage and compost, and lock up before leaving. Frontyard may decide for security reasons to change the lockbox combination at any time. In this case, all current residents will be notified immediately and past residents will need to request the new code for continued access.

Access hours are round the clock, but sleeping/camping on premises is not permitted. If you are at Frontyard at night and alone, please keep doors locked and familiarise yourself with the emergency numbers posted next to the front door. If there are any incidents or things that make you feel unsafe, please record these in the logbook so they can be addressed.

General Housekeeping

General cleanliness is your responsibility. Bins should be put out in the back lane EVERY TUESDAY and brought in after emptying on Wednesday. All dishes should be washed up before leaving the premises each day, tables wiped down, kitchen compost emptied and rinsed out with no food scraps left to attract bugs and critters. If you have used the workshop, it should be returned to its initial condition at the conclusion of your event, SAME DAY. Vacuums, brooms, and dustpans are provided. All personal gear must be removed at the conclusion of your residency or event — Frontyard will not store materials on site without prior agreement.

Our kitchen garden reflects the health and vibrancy of our residencies and public programs, so please water if the soil is dry, top up irrigation pots, pull weeds and prune as needed. And please EAT from the garden as you wish.

Space Guidelines

Front yard / Garden / Hammocks: There is a blackboard near the back door that outlines work needed on the garden, please empty the mailbox and put any mail in the logbook folder, and junk mail in the recycling.

Workshop: This is a flexible shared space, please check the Frontyard website EVENTS page before setting up work in this room, as we have lots of people booking the space. When your residency is over, feel free to continue to use the workshop for meetings, events and work you want to do, bearing in mind to clean up after yourself!

Getaroom Residency A and B: Getaroom A is the little room with the bathroom, Getaroom B is the big room with the window. Residency rooms are booked out for one to two week periods for the pursuit of projects that might include a gift of time back to the community by way of a workshop, talk, walking tour… whatever! If you have an idea for an event, please send us an email with a date and description (and a pic too). We can help spread the word but social media and promotion is up to you! We also want more folks we don’t know to come do a residency, so please suggest a resident we can invite next! Or invite them to contact us directly.

Library / Risograph: The library is non-lending, so don’t take books home! If you want to use the risograph, you need to be inducted (even if you've used another Risograph before), either at our monthly One Page Project event (last Sunday of each month 10am-1pm, RSVP required), or by appointment with us.

Kitchen: Keep it clean. Chuck out rotten things from the fridge, use the worm farm and empty compost daily, empty bins when full and only use the cooktop on the window side (with the window open). Help yourself to any food in the kitchen… we buy some of it for you! And if you use up a box of tea or some other consumable, pls write a shopping list on the tiles with whiteboard marker, so we can top things up as needed.

Promotion of events

Frontyard is organised by the community and promotion of residencies and events is a shared responsibility between the event organisers and the Frontyard janitors. Public events will be listed on the Frontyard website under EVENTS and where appropriate a Facebook event you make can be shared on our page upon request. The community is responsible for generating its own imagery and written content to promote the events they host. Frontyard is responsible for making sure those events are made accessible via its chosen channels. Your event is your responsibility, the Frontyard janitors do not automatically attend all/any events, but should you need a local on site for a particular reason, please let us know at least 1 week before the event so that we can organise help.

Internet

Frontyard has high speed ADSL internet, which you will be given access to upon registering your contact details with Frontyard. The local electronic library “A Library” is an open network and digital library which you can contribute to if you scan library holdings or wish to add any texts to the archive.

First Nations & Frontyard Acknowledgement

For when you are acknowledging country: we are on the land of the Cadigal Wangal people of the Eora Nation. If you are making use of the space for a residency, workshop, event or promoting a project that was developed at Frontyard, please acknowledge First Nations people first and Frontyard second. We’d like people to know about the projects we’ve supported with space, time, ideas or resources. We suggest the following text: This project/event has been developed on the lands of the Cadigal Wangal people of the Eora Nation, and supported by Frontyard.

Copyright

Any program or project developed at Frontyard remains the property of its creator(s). Frontyard users contribute directly to the Frontyard Flickr archives, which can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/139358427@N03/. You will be given access to Frontyard's Flickr archive, and we request that you upload a selection of images and text from the time you spend here, within a reasonable timeframe. If you can't access Flickr, you can email us your images and we'll upload them for you, but we prefer you do it yourself. Frontyard’s archive is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License, by providing us with documentation you accept that your content will be licensed as such. If you wish to discuss this, get in touch with us via email.

Governance

Frontyard is not-just-artist-run initiative that has been established as an incorporated association with a large management board (“The Janitors”), 4 office bearers (Chair, Deputy Chair, Treasurer, Secretary) and a Public Officer. We also have a large community (the people that use the physical space at 228 Illawarra Road Marrickville), who can direct what activities happen at Frontyard. We aim for radical transparency in all operations and dealings with the community, and all work is shared equally in return for an equal, open and honest voice in directing the organisation’s aims and activities.

The Janitors maintain the funding, operational systems, and reporting structures of the organisation and develop the strategies for long term financial/organisational sustainability and critical relevance in consultation with our community. Operational decisions are made by The Janitors through discussion during monthly Board meetings; decisions can also be made outside of these meetings through day-to-day interactions with our community on a “common sense” basis. This often happens on #Slack.

Frontyard does not apply for operational or program grants. There are no paid staff. All bills are covered by members of the community chipping in funds and time on a month-to-month basis. Our website home page has our financial history and current financial position, which is updated monthly.

Communication, Information Sharing, & Consultation

We primarily communicate face-to-face over a cuppa and digitally on Slack, and we try and keep all conversations and channels public and open to the Frontyard community. Generally the quickest way to find out about what's happening at Frontyard is via our website at http://www.frontyardprojects.org. The best way to get in touch with a Janitor or community of Frontyarders is via our Slack channels. Sign up here: https://frontyard-slackin.herokuapp.com/

All official communications are in writing, usually in email form. Please allow a few days for people to respond via email, as we are all volunteers and the Janitors share this responsibility.

All residency and event bookings must be added to our public calendar before they are considered “confirmed” and contacts and information added to our live archive. Any one of The Janitors can book events on the public calendar. Please do not promote any events until they are confirmed.

Conflict Resolution

In the event of a dispute between community members and/or The Janitors, an attempt at mediation will be made by a third party who all parties agree can act as mediator. If that dispute cannot be resolved through mediation, the Office Bearers will make a final decision.

Authorisation

The signing of the Emergency Contact Form (see first paragraph of this page) acts as an acknowledgment of the above MoU. It is not a formal undertaking, but it is made in the hope that the community will strive to reach the objectives stated in the MoU, to the best of their ability.