[hackerspaces] Size question

[Mark Huson]

We had about 9 core members who were all commited to paying above our
proposed $50 a month member dues until we could get enough people to cover
expenses, 16 members covers all of our costs. Luckily in the first month we
had a radio interview and enough people interested in joining that August
was the only month people needed to pay any extra. All of our publicity has
been through twitter, that radio show, and word of mouth. We haven't been
evangelizing for the past month as everything gets settled but I think we
will start a member drive sometime in the next couple of months.

If anyone is looking for advice I'd suggest contacting any local media
outlets, they are always looking for a good feel story about a bunch of
people getting together to do cool things. Also talk about it at parties or
when you are out, I'm surprised at how many people love to tinker or are
interested in a place for geeky people. Third try selling the space as a
cheap coworking place for those who free lance. Our place is not as nice as
our local coworking space but its a hell of a lot cheaper.  And finally hold
frequent meetings, we are just cutting down from 2 a week but an openhack is
a great way to give people a defined time to come check out the space and
the people.

-Mark

On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 6:25 PM, tetsu yatsu <tetsuharu at gmail.com> wrote:

> I wonder, how did you grow? Was it one mass influx of members at an open
> house, after signing the lease? Did membership increase significantly after
> signing the lease? Was it word-of-mouth slow increase in membership?
>
> I've heard some labs who had close to hundred people interested before
> signing a lease, though maybe the barrier of entry for signing a lease was
> higher in a big city.
>
> On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 6:16 PM, Mark Huson <mehuman at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I think the Baltimore Node started meeting in April and i know we just
>> signed the lease in August. Strange how that worked out. We have about 17
>> paying members right now.
>>
>> -Mark
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 5:58 PM, Kive <kive at kive.me> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Freeside Atlanta: started with 51 or 52, now somewhere around 60. We're
>>> "large" for the region, but we're hardly at capacity, I think.
>>>
>>> -kive
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 5:50 PM, Robert Ward <robert.t.ward at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>> Arch Reactor just hopped over into double digits, and oddly enough the
>>>> following phrase applies to us exactly as well.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  We're relatively new tho.  Started meeting in April, 2009. Just got a
>>>>> space in August, 2009...
>>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
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