On Wed, 2013-01-02 at 13:34 -0500, Jeff Nielson wrote: > These are just ramblings... > > > As you know I am not a member. I have to say though, that it seems > like we will have problems in a small group if we have folks who are > members but don't have access.. What we need are more geeks in the > space when they need it. Being a member without having access is > hardly a benefit at all. One vote is really not any greater than the > access one has to influence votes just by coming to meetings. > > > Being a member without reasonable access seems like no benefit and > would be of no interest to me and I presume others would feel the > same. Being a member who has to call somebody to get in and have them > babysit me seems pretty lame. The two 3 hr windows of usable time per > week is pretty low. Maybe you need to have regular hours. What if > we could depend on the place being open Saturdays 9-3 and M-Th 6-8? > You can't really expect a business to grow unless you put time into > it.
Thats what I'm planning on doing before the end of January. We absolutely need to have regular hours until the space is self sustaining. We haven't had them yet since we were still in the garage, but I totally agree with you on that and have been planning on it for a while. > > > > I get the sense that you are feeling the pinch of not having any $. Honestly, we aren't. We're very confident that we'll pick up more members in the next few weeks after opening day. > Raising fees to cover increased expenses is one way to help. The > other is just getting more members. This requires several things, but > really capturing interested folks and giving them access would be a > great way to do it. If you are open more for people to drop in and > use a tool they need, then they don't need to be vetted so heavily for > membership at the key access level. For instance, someone could have > been willing to take my money the first time I came in, with the > promise of access during, say 20 hrs per week. Then as you get to > know me, I could become an uber-super-epic member with access later. > Instead, I fall away, get busy with other things, and decide that $55 > for key access is too much and I buy my own tools, never really having > joined the community. This is the fear that keeps me up at night. > > > Think of a gym. They have high pressure dedicated sales folks, > dedicated to getting to members. We need to have an open hand and a > product (access) from the second someone comes in the door. Right now > we are discussing no new product and expecting more from existing > members (i.e. the group loses "customers" -our members) Good point. Its probably best to shelve discussion for a month or so until we start having regular hours. > > > I would say: see what happens over the next month with the increased > publicity and an actual space. The group will only grow as you get > outside money, not just squeezing money from each other. +1 > > > --Jeff > > > > On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 1:04 PM, Trever Fischer > <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, 2013-01-02 at 12:41 -0500, Vogl,Markus V wrote: > > >If we have any current members who have not applied for a > key but expect > > >24 hour access, I would like to meet them and figure out > where they > > >heard that. We have been very clear to everyone that a key > to the space > > >isn't handed out just because you're a member. > > > > I for one would be one of them. I have always been under the > impression > > full membership($35) will come with 24 > > hour access. I have also attached a screen shot of our > current website, > > that clearly shows eligibility for 24/7 access as > > a full member. And can you please change it to Full Member. > Why would a > > full member not have 24 hr access eligibility? > > > Just to be clear, are you under the impression that membership > automatically comes with a key, or that membership > automatically comes > with eligibility for a key? > > > My opinion stands on this, raising $20 for 24 hour access is > unacceptable > > to me. > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Discuss mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://synhak.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://synhak.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss > > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://synhak.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://synhak.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
