[hackerspaces] June conference call

[Bartosz Kostrzewa]

Til, Raymond,

thanks a lot for your replies. It would be great if you could share some
more wisdoms  :)

* How did you manage to pay for the deposits (if any) for your spaces?

* Do you keep an emergency account? If so, how was that financed and how
much money do you keep in it in relation to your running costs?

* How do you finance procurement of more expensive equipment? Case by
case financing or do you take it from the budget you get from pledges?

Thanks a lot.

-Bartek


Tilman Frosch wrote:
> 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.
> Til

strages wrote:
> Hi, I believe you're referring to Makers Local 256.  We started out by
> the original ten members pledging what they think they could afford a
> month, added all of it up, and found a place that fit within that
> budget.  Our first place was small but we made due and after a year we
> now have a place three times the size and have more than doubled
> membership.  We decided to take this original idea for funding and
> extend it to new members.   It's been working out pretty well for us so
> far.  We get our bills paid.  We're in a college town with a lot of
> students from out of state and so this way we don't exclude anyone and
> we have a pretty wide degree of skillsets because of it.  People for the
> most part are good, and so they'll pay what they feel is reasonable.
> We've actually had several members increase the amount they're
> contributing due to getting a better job.  Really shows the dedication
> of our members for keeping the place and the idea alive.
>
> Raymond (strages)
> Makers Local 256