Andrew: Other hackerspaces give companies meeting space and a certain amount of time on the machines. These are details we need to hammer out. I completely agree that the sponsorship level needs a lot of work before people will start using it.
We're having the discussion now because as I stated before, the decision process takes time. We need to hear everyone's input. We're not trying to change the space before Saturday. We are having a discussion that we told our membership we were going to have once we got a new space. Before we said we were going to discuss raising fees from $35 to $45 as a minimum. Now we are keeping the $35 level and giving a privilege to those who pay $55. Jeff: Budding nerds would get storage at the space and a vote. This is what most hackerspaces do for their minimum membership The lowest price I found in my research was $20 for this. I'd be willing to discuss the idea of lowering the budding nerd price with this new change. At our last meeting we decided to come up with a schedule where a key holder would be at the space far more often. We have been at 21 W. North for a month now and we have been busy masking the space usable to our members. Now that it's usable, we need to be there more often. We're definitely going to do that. All I can say is that I'm sorry it's taken us this long to get that schedule ready. I agree that someone could pay $55/month and dedicate that to getting their own tools. That thought has been brought up before and I'm going to address it the same way. We are basing this price on other successful hackerspaces. As I said, the average price of 24/7 access is $72.35 for hackerspaces in the US who care enough to put prices on their websites. When you pay for a hackerspace membership, you are not just buying the tools. You are buying to be part of a community full of knowledgeable and helpful people. Sure you could buy a welder, set it up in your garage and read about how to weld. I'd rather have a person who knows what they are doing guide me and help me learn. What makes a hackerspace valuable is not the materials we have but the community we make. Buying the materials won't educate you on how to use them. We are not a place for people to come in, keep their head down, and work alone. We are a collaborative community workshop to foster an environment for learning. Putting a price on that is difficult. I also have been fiercely supportive of low income options. Trever and I have made sure to not exclude anyone who simply cannot afford it. If someone needs a key and shows us they simply cannot afford it, the board can authorize them a key anyway. The $55 fee is for those who want a key and CAN afford it. I promise that as long as I am a board member of SYN/HAK, I will fight my hardest to make sure no one is turned away because they can't afford it. On Wed, Jan 2, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Trever Fischer <[email protected]>wrote: > 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 >
_______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://synhak.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
