<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div><div><div><div><div>To add to what Alan was saying about Freeside, we also offer members a 20% discount on classes that come out of Freeside's half.<br><br></div>So the breakdown looks like:<br>
</div>(50% of revenue to Teacher) | (20% member discounts) | (5ish% processing fees) | (the rest to Freeside)<br><br></div>So for a $30 per student class, the Teacher gets $15 and Freeside gets around $10 with the rest going to fees and discounts (only about 20% of our attendance is members but it can fluctuate).<br>
<br></div>We advertise, schedule, and take payments using Meetup. Our space has only about 50 members, but there are 879 members of our Meetup group that periodically take classes. <br><br></div>We also offer a roughly equal number of free meetups, like CryptoParty, the Neurology/BCI meetup, Analog Game Night, 3D Printing meetups, etc... People can go to the free meetups and hang around the space to learn. The classes just focus on basic skills to get people started with the different areas.<br>
<br></div>Like Alan said, we do a really soft sell for membership. We want people to join up as members because they want to grow the organization. If they just want to use services and be spectators (as the majority does), then that is fine too. We try to include them and create opportunity for them to contribute on their own terms.<br>
<br></div>So we fall along a pretty similar line as Will said of Parts and Crafts - we offer some diverse options based on what the community seems to want and the direction that we want to drive the space in. We've found it really useful to have a few options available so that you can be flexible, but still define the expectations and framework of those events so that you're not too confusing. It's a tough balance to walk.<br>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr">Steven Sutton<div>President, Freeside Atlanta</div><div><a href="http://www.freesideatlanta.org" target="_blank">www.freesideatlanta.org</a></div><div><a href="http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/" target="_blank">http://www.meetup.com/Freeside-Atlanta/</a><br>
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<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 1:58 PM, Alan Fay <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:emptyset@freesideatlanta.org" target="_blank">emptyset@freesideatlanta.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr"><div>Our class policy is documented on the Freeside wiki:</div><div><a href="https://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/Policy_Classes" target="_blank">https://wiki.freesideatlanta.org/fs/Policy_Classes</a><br></div>
<div><br></div>
1. It's a 50% split, but Freeside absorbs credit card fees, Meetup fees, etc.<div><br></div><div>2. Teachers not required to be members.</div><div><br></div><div>3. No members-only classes, but we haven't really experimented with that yet, not for any particular reason.</div>
<div><br></div><div>4. Community can be built up independently of the classes. One thing we encourage is members trading skills with one another. Just this week I traded setting up a basic wordpress website for an introduction to milling.</div>
<div><br></div><div>We've also had people come in for a class, and fall in love with the space, and then become members - so I think classes supplement cultivating community, rather than a means to that end.</div><div>
<br></div><div>5. It is difficult - it's one of the downsides of teaching classes. Remember, most people operate on the idea that they're paying for a service; so that's their singular focus. I would put the number of people interested in more than just the class at around 1-5% of students.</div>
<div><br></div><div>One thing you shouldn't do is treat the workshop or the class like a time share presentation. That <i>really </i>turns people off. If you're around before or after the class, offer to show people around if they want to check it out - if not, no hard feelings.</div>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Fri, Oct 11, 2013 at 11:53 AM, Florencia Edwards <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:floev22@gmail.com" target="_blank">floev22@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5"><div dir="ltr">Hi all, I wanted to ask you how do you do it with the workshops. <div>
<br></div><div>1. How do you divide the winnings between the makerspace and the teacher by percentage?</div>
<div><br></div><div>2. Are all the teachers members? Is it a requirement?</div>
<div><br></div><div>3. Are workshops for members only?</div><div><br></div><div>4. If teachers are not members and workshops are not members only, how do the people that go to the workshop relate to the makerspace. How can they make community if they only go for some classes. </div>
<div><br></div><div>5. Last question, how can one establish a relationship between workshops and memberships or members, so they are not two separate things. Sometimes people who come to our workshops think this is just a building the teacher is renting, they go to class and never come back to the makerspace. We give them tours and we even talk about the makerspace when there is a workshop but they don't have the need to become members, because they can just come to the workshop and never come back. It's difficult to create a community that way </div>
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