[hackerspaces] question about hackerspace hourly rate, what do you think

[Joshua Pritt]

The way Makers Local 256 in Huntsville, AL does it is instead of having a
set monthly fee to become a member they have a field on the application
form you fill out where you put how much money you can afford to donate
each month towards rent and utilities.  This allows those with less
resources to contribute and we all know every little bit helps.  We tell
them to put down however much you think it's worth to you, how much you can
swing, and how much you think you'll be using the resources there like
power and A/C, etc.  We say it can be as low as $1 a month but you'll need
to donate a lot more of your time to help on clean up day and spread your
skills to others by helping on other projects if needed.  We have monthly
meetings where the treasurer gives the report on donations received and
bills paid divided by the total number of members to get the per member
cost and per member donation average.  We sometimes use that number when
telling someone applying for membership that number to give them an idea of
how close to get with their donation.  The whole place operates on
donations and if you are a member that just means you have a set monthly
donation.  The other donations come from the public when they come by
including Public Night that happens every single Tuesday night.  There's a
donation bucket or box in almost every room.  So the treasurer can then
count on the set member donations to pay the bills with the extra donations
from the public and some local businesses to help buy new tools or other
resources.  Some companies like Lockheed and Boeing have a "company match"
kind of thing that will double your donation if you work for them and
donate to a hackerspace.
Hope this helps.


On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 4:01 PM, Florencia Edwards <floev22 at gmail.com>wrote:

> thanks matt, we are doing this with some members! OTher members are not
> intrested in doing classes, so it's just a few
>
>
> 2013/12/19 matt <matt at nycresistor.com>
>
>> one of the things nyc resistor tried is basically reducing membership
>> rates for members that taught x number of classes at the space.  this lead
>> to the space getting money from classes, the member getting money, and
>> there being more classes.
>>
>> wins all around.
>>
>> -matt
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Dec 19, 2013 at 3:43 PM, David Francos <me at davidfrancos.net>wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 2013/12/19 Florencia Edwards <floev22 at gmail.com>
>>>
>>>> Thanks dave for your answer . Alan, I agree on the community, but i'm
>>>> thinking this hour rates for a virtual community we have but don't have the
>>>> money to spend on a whole month in the makerspace, but for sure would do it
>>>> if it was for hours (less money and time).  to use some tools. So the
>>>> community exists, we have  a forum  and we are friends, but they just don't
>>>> have the money. I don't know what to do to include them
>>>>
>>>
>>> Why not simply doing a special price for people with less resources?
>>> If you've got a strong community, consult with them, most probable thing
>>> is they'll be ok paying more than people who couldn't affor the hackerspace
>>> otherwise.
>>> We at Dlabs Hackerspace (Spain) did that for a while, and those members
>>> ended up paying the full wage when they could. We've got even a
>>> free-comunity member that donates material and hours of his time to the
>>> hackerspace instead of money.
>>>
>>> Things are a bit different, we've got 450€ of full outcome (and 330 of
>>> regular income + donations + beer + paid talks / events, that are given /
>>> organished by volunteers). Remember that there are more ways to provide for
>>> a hackerspace than just memberships =)
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Discuss mailing list
>>> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
>>> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>>>
>>>
>>
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>
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