<div dir="ltr">The way Makers Local 256 in Huntsville, AL does it is instead of having a set monthly fee to become a member they have a field on the application form you fill out where you put how much money you can afford to donate each month towards rent and utilities. This allows those with less resources to contribute and we all know every little bit helps. We tell them to put down however much you think it's worth to you, how much you can swing, and how much you think you'll be using the resources there like power and A/C, etc. We say it can be as low as $1 a month but you'll need to donate a lot more of your time to help on clean up day and spread your skills to others by helping on other projects if needed. We have monthly meetings where the treasurer gives the report on donations received and bills paid divided by the total number of members to get the per member cost and per member donation average. We sometimes use that number when telling someone applying for membership that number to give them an idea of how close to get with their donation. The whole place operates on donations and if you are a member that just means you have a set monthly donation. The other donations come from the public when they come by including Public Night that happens every single Tuesday night. There's a donation bucket or box in almost every room. So the treasurer can then count on the set member donations to pay the bills with the extra donations from the public and some local businesses to help buy new tools or other resources. Some companies like Lockheed and Boeing have a "company match" kind of thing that will double your donation if you work for them and donate to a hackerspace. <div>
Hope this helps.</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 4:01 PM, Florencia Edwards <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:floev22@gmail.com" target="_blank">floev22@gmail.com</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">thanks matt, we are doing this with some members! OTher members are not intrested in doing classes, so it's just a few</div>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2013/12/19 matt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:matt@nycresistor.com" target="_blank">matt@nycresistor.com</a>></span><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div>one of the things nyc resistor tried is basically reducing membership rates for members that taught x number of classes at the space. this lead to the space getting money from classes, the member getting money, and there being more classes.<br>
<br></div>wins all around.<span><font color="#888888"><br><br></font></span></div><span><font color="#888888">-matt<br></font></span></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
<div><div>On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 3:43 PM, David Francos <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:me@davidfrancos.net" target="_blank">me@davidfrancos.net</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><div dir="ltr"><br><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div>2013/12/19 Florencia Edwards <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:floev22@gmail.com" target="_blank">floev22@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">Thanks dave for your answer . Alan, I agree on the community, but i'm thinking this hour rates for a virtual community we have but don't have the money to spend on a whole month in the makerspace, but for sure would do it if it was for hours (less money and time). to use some tools. So the community exists, we have a forum and we are friends, but they just don't have the money. I don't know what to do to include them</div>
</blockquote><div><br></div></div><div>Why not simply doing a special price for people with less resources?</div><div>If you've got a strong community, consult with them, most probable thing is they'll be ok paying more than people who couldn't affor the hackerspace otherwise.</div>
<div>We at Dlabs Hackerspace (Spain) did that for a while, and those members ended up paying the full wage when they could. We've got even a free-comunity member that donates material and hours of his time to the hackerspace instead of money. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Things are a bit different, we've got 450€ of full outcome (and 330 of regular income + donations + beer + paid talks / events, that are given / organished by volunteers). Remember that there are more ways to provide for a hackerspace than just memberships =)</div>
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