[hackerspaces] Housing other organizations in the hackerspace

[Paul Boehm]

Hey David,

The guiding principle behind our policies at Metalab was always to be
supported by a broad paying membership base and avoiding concentration
of power (in individuals, groups, and sponsors).

If you give special privileges to one group, or receive bigger amounts
of money from one organization, you are bound to lose independence,
since that group will have interests of their own and a more
coordinated way to push that agenda.

We've unfortunately learned some lessons about with syndicated power
structures before, so when starting metalab we already knew we didn't
want any organizations to have that power over us. E.g. i'd suggest
not having organizations that pay metalab membership dues for their
members, instead of letting their members also be members of metalab.
hosting them for free, but requiring that they at least have some
(1-2) metalab members who play the ambassador was a better solution.

You won't be able to accomodate some groups in that fashion, but
that's not the end of the world. If there's not enough room for them
to hold their meetings without special privilege, I'd rather focus on
growing the community and getting a bigger space altogether.

Enki

On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 3:24 AM, David Raison <david at hackerspace.lu> wrote:
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> Hey folks!
>
> We were wondering how you handle "third party" organizations in your
> hackerspace. Especially the Metalab, since you seem to accommodate quite
> an important number of associations and clubs.
>
> We're having the local Chaos Computer Club over on Monday evenings and
> were discussing whether we'd grant them exclusive usage rights over the
> room they occupy during those meetings.
>
> Thing is, we only have 2 rooms and would either loose a workshop or
> chill-out & socializing room.
>
> So... how do you handle this? Any advice besides "get a space with more
> rooms?" ;)
>
> thanks,
> David
>
>
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