[hackerspaces] Discussing/Alleviating the Decline (was: Children in hackerspaces.)

[Stefan Arentz]

On 2010-01-29, at 3:09 PM, David Powell wrote:

> All that being said, I strongly believe in building for sustainability--hence, why I emphasized corporations, insurance, etc. when we started out with this several years ago.  What sorts of things are your hackerspaces doing to keep up enthusiasm or strive towards "being here tomorrow"?

So in Toronto we have a simple mantra: we (the board) are there to keep the lights on. We are concerned about just the basics: having a space, paying the rent, having the legal foundation in place.

Everything on top of that is, *should be*, organized by members.

This makes our mission to keep the space running simpler. The only unknown if member count. But I hve a good feeling about that, as it only goes up, not down.

There are some smaller things that we do: Like encouraging people to do/organize stuff. And this is happening. Even without us pushing them. Or we orgnize parties for example. But we really try to be in the background and just facilitate.

There is a lot of negativity on this list, but I can honestely tell you that I don't experience much of that. Maybe we are lucky, or maybe our formula works better. Don't know :-)

 S.