<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
Nice work! The Asylum had/has a similar program - we had 'craft
areas' and 'craft area leads' that were appointed to manage their
individual spaces. One person would be in charge of machining,
another welding, another woodworking, and so on. Usually we were
able to get people with professional experience in their area to
step up to the plate. This also helped start new spaces - our
jewelry area, silkscreening area, and glass area were all started by
enthusiastic members who wanted to be craft area leads and had
expertise in new types of craft.<br>
<br>
We ran into trouble when these people started burning out,
especially in our Big Three (machining, woodworking, and welding).
We have fairly large craft spaces with a significant number of
tools, and it might be the case that the lead would fix the same
bandsaw in 3 different ways on 3 consecutive days. At some point,
the craft area leads weren't getting to use the spaces they were
taking care of, were getting upset about it and we needed to create
a different system. We now have a staff facilities manager that
works with craft area leads for some spaces, and takes care of some
areas that don't have such volunteers on his own. We're hoping to
hit a point where we once again have volunteers in charge of each
space, aided by the facilities manager so that it isn't as
burdensome.<br>
<br>
-Gui<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 6/4/2013 2:15 PM, Alan Fay wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAFC4BBxxxxf-uOz9Ob4Xv9bf3E3oU5wLyCQtPKTew+-z6KaXyg@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">One of the things Freeside does is promote
ownership of an area (we call them zones and the people who run
them zone captains, or space commanders) in order to motivate
volunteers. For some individuals, being able to arrange,
modify, or improve an area is a rewarding experience. As a
direct result of creating the zone concept, a metal shop, CNC
area, woodshop, HAM radio station, biolab, media lab, 3DP area,
and electronics zone appeared. They don't all have consistent
zone captains, but they each serve as a good rally point for our
member interests.
<div>
<br>
</div>
<div>That is primarily what motivates me - unless you're
extremely lucky (and it is luck - talent, intelligence, or
political skills don't matter) working in a typical American
corporate setting means you don't have autonomy over the
products of your work or the conditions of your work. A
hackerspace, on the other hand, is a blank canvas to draw out
the collective sum expression of member interests with very
few restrictions. At least at Freeside, we try to encourage
space modification and we resoundingly say, "Yes!" whenever a
member wants to alter the surroundings. It's only "guided" in
the sense of having a concept of zones - ultimately all the
decisions about the space come from the membership.
<div>
<div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This fact of life in the US got me interested in
hackerspaces. Why would I put my creativity, talent,
and hard work for some other person's company that
ultimately doesn't reward the effort? In a hackerspace,
it's not monetary compensation, but at least your work
is valued by others, tangibly valuable to you
immediately, and you have something you can be proud of
making (and showing off).</div>
<div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div style="">One thing is the culture of your space.
Freeside switched from "Don't be a dick" to "Be
excellent to each other" a while ago, and it has
definitely helped improve things. This is NOT an easy
thing to scale. We're currently in a massive build
out of our wiki to include instructions, training
videos, permissions/restrictions, and troubleshooting
on each of our various machines and other equipment,
accessible via QR code sticker right on the machine.
We'll see how this goes for the next few months, but
even just by discussing it on our lists, we've already
elevated the set expectations of what the minimum
level of maintenance is.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style=""><br>
</div>
<div style="">We do rely heavily on our 15-25% most active
volunteers. I think this is true of all hackerspaces, and
perhaps all volunteer organizations. We're hoping that this
structure at least carries us through Dunbar's number of
members (150). Or perhaps the total number of membership
stabilizes based on our market and we get this permanent
subset of volunteers that can manage to run everything well.
Or perhaps the culture continues to grow in the positive
direction and everything just sorts itself out. Freeside has
been working on many fronts and looking to see what works and
what doesn't.</div>
<div style=""><br>
</div>
<div style="">I would say start with your culture; good
leadership, and good management.</div>
<div style=""><br>
</div>
<div style="">Alan Fay</div>
<div style="">Director/Treasurer, Freeside Atlanta</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra">
<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Jun 4, 2013 at 1:35 PM, Al
Billings <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:albill@openbuddha.com" target="_blank">albill@openbuddha.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div> What do you do when your volunteers burn out and the
machines are not all working right because it is no one's
job to maintain them? Wait for new members who want to
grease and align machines? </div>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>-- </div>
<div>Al Billings</div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.openbuddha.com" target="_blank">http://www.openbuddha.com</a></div>
<div><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://makehacklearn.org" target="_blank">http://makehacklearn.org</a></div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</font></span>
<div class="HOEnZb">
<div class="h5">
<p style="color:#a0a0a8">On Tuesday, June 4, 2013 at
10:32 AM, webmind wrote:</p>
<blockquote type="cite"
style="border-left-style:solid;border-width:1px;margin-left:0px;padding-left:10px">
<span>
<div
style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;font-size:13px;white-space:normal;font-family:Helvetica;word-spacing:0px">Is
it really worth it to be 'so big' if it requires
paid staff and no</div>
<div
style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;font-size:13px;white-space:normal;font-family:Helvetica;word-spacing:0px">longer
is free-to-access? wouldn't it be better to have
multiple smaller</div>
<div
style="text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-variant:normal;text-align:-webkit-auto;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:normal;text-transform:none;font-size:13px;white-space:normal;font-family:Helvetica;word-spacing:0px">spaces?</div>
</span> </blockquote>
<div> <br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
Discuss mailing list<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org">Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org</a><br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss"
target="_blank">http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss</a><br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<br>
<pre wrap="">_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org">Discuss@lists.hackerspaces.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss">http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Gui Cavalcanti, President
Artisan's Asylum, Inc.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.artisansasylum.com">http://www.artisansasylum.com</a>
Cell: (857) 389-7669</pre>
</body>
</html>