An area or machine captain is a member who has volunteered to be the go-to person for a specific piece of equipment or section of the space. The role exists to make sure equipment stays safe, functional, and accessible.
The captain is an organizer, not a one-person crew. They're encouraged to delegate, recruit help, and pull in other trained members for tasks like running training sessions or handling repairs. The value they provide is making sure these things don't fall through the cracks — but this is a volunteer role, and everyone understands that life happens.
Training. The captain designs and administers the training required before members can use the equipment independently (training can be virtual/async). It's important to understand what training covers and what it doesn't: captain-led training focuses on safe operation — how to use the machine without injuring yourself, others, or the equipment, and how to avoid damaging the workspace (for example, understanding which materials are prohibited and why). It is not a general tutorial on craft, technique, or getting great results. Tips, tricks, and project-specific help are outside the scope of required training and are better sought from the community at large. Keeping that boundary clear is important for everyone's sanity.
Training also includes keeping the curriculum reasonably current as the machine or space-specific practices evolve, and making sure the wiki entry for their equipment reflects how things actually work at the space. The captain doesn't have to personally run every session — they can authorize other trained members to do so — but they're the person who makes sure new members have a path to getting trained.
Sign-off records are maintained for each piece of equipment to track who has completed training. The format for these records is standardized across the space — each machine wiki page has which members have been trained on it.
Discord support. When members post questions about the equipment in Discord, the captain is the natural point of contact — but there's no expectation of immediate response or being on-call. Do what you can when you can. If a question sits unanswered, anyone with relevant knowledge is welcome to jump in. The captain is simply the fallback when nobody else has an answer, and the person who gets tagged when something needs an actual decision or safety is involved.
Maintenance. The captain is the last line of defense when something breaks or needs attention. For routine upkeep — cleaning, lubrication, consumable replacement — they either handle it or find someone who will. When a breakdown is reported, they triage it: is it something a trained member can fix, or does it need outside help? They coordinate getting it resolved, communicate the machine's status to the space in the meantime, and flag when supplies need to be restocked. None of this has to be done solo — the expectation is just that it doesn't get ignored indefinitely.
Safety. The captain owns the rules in their equipment's wiki entry and can propose changes to them. After any significant incident — E-Stop event, fire, injury, or near-miss — it's helpful if the captain can write up a brief summary of what happened and whether anything needs to change. They also keep an eye on PPE and supplies for their area.
Being a captain doesn't mean you have to do everything yourself, be present every time the machine is used, or respond to Discord at all hours. It means you're the person who cares about that equipment and will eventually get to things when they need attention. The best captains build a small group of capable members around their equipment so the work gets shared naturally.
It also doesn't mean being the space's expert-on-demand for every project question that comes up. Training covers safe operation; everything beyond that is community knowledge, not a captain obligation.
If you're interested in becoming a captain for a piece of equipment you know well, reach out to Hardik in Discord. It's just a conversation about fit and what the role looks like for that specific machine.