[hackerspaces] June conference call

[Tilman Frosch]

Hi,

Am Mittwoch, den 17.06.2009, 01:41 +0200 schrieb Bartosz Kostrzewa:

> I had one question: someone (can't find the spot in the recording
> now...) mentioned that instead of charging fixed membership fees,
> members "plegde" to pay a certain amount. How is that working out for
> you? 

This is working very well for us (das Labor). We have a quite low
minimum membership fee of 5 Euro/month but every member is free to
choose a higher one, which most people do. When we started, we all paid
sth. like 20 to 50 Euro per month, which was enough to get the whole
thing startet in a small location (with 19 initial members). The space
grew with its members, we moved to a location about three times the size
of the first one, which we can afford now thanks to our now ~50 members.
The membership fee policy did not change, but we have a wider range now
with people paying from 5 to >50 Euro per month. Most of us pay sth.
like 10 to 20 Euro, which is fine by now, as we reveice donations on a
regular basis (thanks guys!).

A "pledge" is just as good as anything. Every membership fee you
receive, you receive because people want to pay, not because people have
to. Most of our members are students at the one or the other university
in real life, which limits the amount of money available. The inhibition
threshold to become a member is much lower, when the
yet-to-become-member is free to decide what the hackerspace is worth to
him/her and what fee he/she can afford.

Our other source of income is selling highly caffeinated softdrinks
(Club Mate etc.) to the addicted :). Most members and visitors do not
bring their own drinks, but buy it from us. This behavior is strongly
encouraged but not mandatory. As most carbon based life forms rely on
H2O and most hackers/nerds/geeks run on caffein, this is a usage-based
membership fee. So far everyone is fine with this policy.



Til