Corporation BPO Usage and Lock Down Methods

If you are a major industrialist, you retain a substantial repository of researched BPO's. Newer members or dabbling industrialists, not so much.  There is a way to allow people in your corp to utilize BPOs.  Well, actually there are two ways.

Shareholding members can initiate a vote to lock down BPOs in a corporation hanger. This gives the added safety of having to vote to unlock BPOs (unless there lock down timer expires).  Major shareholders can (as far as I am aware) unlock BPO's, but usually it takes a vote to unlock them.  Unfortunately, this is a onerous endeavor.  You have to vote to lock down EACH blueprint.  No mass lock/unlock votes.  I don't know if this will change, but it is a pain in the ass.  While this is the most secure method, it is not exempt from corruption and it is a daunting task if you have a large library of BPOs.  

There is another way, albeit, less secure.  You can put your BPOs in a corp hanger and give members 'query only' roles for that hanger (and you can even make it for one particular office).  Only the CEO, directors and anyone given 'take' roles can remove them.  If you have highly valuable BPOs like capital/mining barges/etc, you might not want to take the risk.  This might be the most efficient method.  It doesn't require hours of votes and it is 'reasonably' secure.  It is up to the owner of the BPOs on whether or not he will take the change.  If you are a tight knit group, you may not mind.  

On the positive, anyone with the remote research/manufacturing skills can use the BPO's personally.  This gives a large boost to new members or part-time industrialists.  They don't have to invest a ton of ISK into BPO's and then the time to research them. I think it is a good way to get members active, just remember that the corp's needs have to come first.  If something needs to be built by the corp, there should be no question as to who takes priority (unless of course you own the BPOs in question).

You can access the lock down process by putting a BPO in the corp hanger you wish to use and right click and  then using the contextual menu, select vote to lock BPO and then how long you wish it to be locked down.  The rest is pretty simple.  You can then vote on whether or not the BPO will be locked down.

Hopefully this helps you make the decision on whether or not to and which method to secure your BPOs for corporate use.  Be cognizant of your corporation and as always fly safe-ish.