Policies and Procedures

Signing out Research Equipment

Rationale

Almost every asset within SIAT Research has a barcode-label. These allow us to:

• manage the entire life-cycle of an asset (purchase date, vendor, price, repair-history, notes, end-of-life, etc)
• track the comings and goings of research assets, when they're required off-site

Examples of appropriate offsite usage may include:

• Conducting research
• Installations
• Conferences (conference-hosting resources particularly, then presentation-resources, lastly attending-resources)

In the event that an asset is stolen while off-site, we can support the user filing a police-report by providing serial-numbers, and possibly other details as required. If an asset is stolen, there may be recourse through SFU's internal insurance. "Own-damage" has not been covered, historically.
There is an expectation that the user who signs out the asset(s) treat it (them) as their own. Every reasonable step must be taken to ensure that the asset(s) come back in the same condition it (they) left in. This can be especially challenging for publicly-accessible circumstances, such as installations. Securing the assets may require substantial creative planning by the user.

Policy

• Assets to be taken off-site require their barcodes to be recorded, by Research staff
• Users taking assets off-site require their ID-barcodes to be recorded, by Research staff
• Assets to be taken off-site require an accompanying "Conveyance Form", which communicates to Security and Facilities that the asset shifting has been approved and recorded by Research staff

Procedure

• have a member of the Research staff scan your ID-barcode, and the barcodes of the assets to be taken off-site
• have a member of the Research staff provide a copy of the "Conveyance Form". Present this to Security or Facilities, as necessary. When returning from off-site, this same document my assist you in proving ownership and successfully removing the assets from the off-site venue.