[hackerspaces] Western Australia, Perth - the Artifactory

[Sven Guckes]

* David Cake <dave at difference.com.au> [2009-10-01 08:53]:
> http://theartifactory.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
> Currently, our biggest concern is finances - we
> have signed a lease, but currently only have a
> fairly small number of members, who currently
> are bearing a bigger financial burden than we
> would like, but it is difficult to manage the
> transition to having a larger number of members
> (at a lower individual rate) when we are only
> just able to pay our rent for the next couple
> of weeks, plus have a lot of startup costs.
>
> We'd love ideas from other hackerspaces,
> particularly for fundraising, membership
> drives, and good ideas for rules
> to run the actual physical space.

depending on the rooms available, you might be able
to separate a front area from a backstage area -
and thus allow people who simply want to use the
space to hang out with their laptops and use the
internet like a nice i-cafe.  this might get in
some more members to carry the overall cost.
and they could try out the space for a while.

however, real members with real memberships
get additional access to more bandwidth and
to tools for hardware hacking; and they get
access to the backstage where they can leave
some of their stuff in a personal closet and
from which they can also use the flat rate
phone to make some calls.

before you acquire too much hardware to make
the space attractive, better put aside some
money to have someone clean the kitchen and
toilets.  a clean space usually is much more
attractive than a dirty one.

you could also try to do a monthly open event
to attract more people, such as people from
the local companies, such as ISPs and telecom.
giving talks to the public about the internet
might attract even more people.  and dont forget
about students at schools and university -
they are usually quite fond of a space where
they can hang out and use the internet.

whoever might come, you should always be clear
about the house rules, such as access to rooms
opening times, and responsibility for using
the facilities and hardware.

whatever you do - *document* it.
write something into your wiki
and show pictures of events.
very much like wiki.metalab.at ..

and - have fun! :-)

greetings from berlin
Sven