[Finance] Psychological Aspect of the Finances

[Koen Martens]

Hi,

On Mon, Aug 30, 2010 at 09:53:00PM -0500, Dan Hess wrote:
> We've had a few other little things here and there, and I'm personally very
> much so interested in other psychological concepts of handling the group
> whether it be finance related or not, but I hope that the above helps to
> explain the kind of input that I'm curious to hear about.

We never experienced such problems. In the beginning, when revspace was merely
a crazy idea, we met in my office. At some point, we decided to start collecting
dues. Some of us became members (well, we have to call them participants actually)
and paid the monthly fees in the 3-4 months we've been collecting dues without
having a space. Not many, but i am not aware of people not attending the two-
weekly meetings during that time because of this.

Once we had a space, we saw the number of participants rise. Almost all of the
people from the founding group then became paying participants in a short time.

It is mandatory at revspace to pay the participants fee (EUR 25,- monthly). It
is part psychological (paying for it gives people a sense of ownership, 'hey
i'm partly making it possible to rent this place and buy all those nice tools'),
and part basic necessity: no money and we're homeless and can't invest in tools,
parts and other practical needs.

We do make an occasional exception for people who cannot really afford it, but
do make great contributions to the space. Plus, non-participants are always
welcome to come over but must always be accompanied by a participant. And if
someone is here very often (daily/weekly), we kindly ask them to become
participants (which also gives them a key to the space so they won't have
to depend on others being here).

Gr,

Koen