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<br/>> On April 13, 2013 at 7:46 PM Bryan Bishop <kanzure@gmail.com> wrote:
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<br/>> On Sat, Apr 13, 2013 at 7:37 PM, Randall G. Arnold
<br/>> <randall.arnold@texrat.net> wrote:
<br/>> > They seem to always be asking the question: "How do we get funding for such
<br/>> > and such?" The answer always seems to be member fees. Of course there's a
<br/>> > practical limit to such funding and you tend to implode quickly after
<br/>> > reaching it.
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<br/>> This is probably the wrong place to mention it, but I am a huge fan of
<br/>> non-membership-fee structures. I am glad to hear that you found an
<br/>> alternative that worked out in your situation. What is the exact
<br/>> nature of the arrangement with the library?
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I'll fork the thread again. ;)
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We've just begun dialog with the two libraries so no solid details yet, sorry, other than that *someone* in a position of authority in each city decided that makerspaces were a good fit for their purpose and unused space. That seems to be happening all over the US right now, I understand. Print is declining and many are realizing that libraries need a bigger, newer vision.
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One of our directors attended the right public presentation: a local library was showing off its new donated 3D printer and describing what they saw as their future. Representatives of other municipalities were there and thankfully so was our guy.
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In a nutshell, though, we're discussing as simple a quid pro quo arrangement as we can manage. We need to cover issues around liability, and produce educational resources, and the libraries will handle the rest. We're working on equipment donations as well, and in fact have one donated 3D printer and another coming.
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That said, we will still have member fees, but our goal is not to depend heavily on them nor allow them to get to some prohibitive point. $50 or so per month, as I've seen elsewhere, is prohibitive IMO.
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Randy
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