[hackerspaces] June conference call

[Dave Null]

We've addressed these issues in our space recently. Similar to how
Makers Local 256 started, we had a core group of people that sat down
and figured out that we could pay X dollars a month, per person, for a
space then went and found one. Now, this meets your day to day
financial needs, but we became concerned that if one member dropped
out or couldn't pay on time we would be in rough shape. To remedy this
we asked that everyone pay 'rent and a half' for a bit to put some
extra funding into our account. The planning goal here was to keep
enough of a buffer in the account to pay for all of the space's bills
for 1 month if no one put any money in. Coming up with 'rent and a
half' can be a bit rough to suddenly appear on your radar so if you
are going to go that route then plan it in for the beginning of
things.

In regards to large purchases, we have been fortunate so far. Most of
the core members of our space have a ton of equipment, in fact its
this very issue that spawned our desire for a workshop. In the event
we need to make a large purchase (we are considering an air
conditioning unit right now to keep our server room cool) we discuss
it in a case by case basis at our monthly board meetings. In the case
of the air conditioning unit, we just accepted a new member into our
keyholding ranks and his first month's dues will help pay for it. Now
that we have more than the bare minimum of members (i.e. all original
costs were figured at 6 people @ 160 a month) any members beyond the
original six will put us into a surplus of cash.

At our shop, pop and beer remains free to everyone :) But we won't say
no if you offer to resupply either!

PGP Key ID: 0x0517358E
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they
are free" - Goethe
--



On Wed, Jun 17, 2009 at 5:34 AM, Bartosz Kostrzewa<zoombat at runbox.com> wrote:
> 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
>
>
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