[hackerspaces] Cash flow?

[Arclight]

My issue isn't with cash, or with an unwillingness to adopt Serve,
bank transfers, etc. The issue as I see it, is that the people who
insist on doing a non-recurring "bill me and I will pay when I want
to" model are usually not the ones who line up with cash or check at
the first of the month, or offer to pre-pay a few months to make it
easier.

My experience is that those who are cranky and don't trust banks or
eCommerce often have financial issues and pay late, or require
chasing.  The same folks are usually not satisfied if you say "I'm 95%
sure you didn't pay the last 2 months" unless you have airtight
accounting to back it up.

I know as hackers we're generally privacy advocates and trend towards
libertarian, less big-brother-in-our-lives  values. The trouble is
that we also have to pay the same large bills every month and really
need predictable sources of income that can be managed by unpaid
volunteers.

So my suggestion is that anyone who wants to make a privacy or
anti-Paypal statement should really try to do it in a way that is easy
for the space, such as paying early every month or 3 months at a time.


Arclight

On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 9:41 AM, Far McKon <farmckon at gmail.com> wrote:
> IMHO, this seems to be a symptom problem, and I'm curious about some causes
> of this situation.
>
> 1) It sounds like you have more space than you can support on raw
> membership.  How did you get into this case?  Was this a case of 'build it
> and they will come' ? A case of  the space of the size you need was more
> expensive than you thought?
>
> 2) What is your space's primary focus?  'hackerspace as member-clubhouse' or
> 'hackerspace as education center' or 'hackerspace as
> shared-tools/equipment'?  Based on what your core focus is, that can help
> shape how to retain enough value to keep the lights on based on dues,
> class-fees, or even equipment use/rental.
>
> I would also like to ++ungood on charging more for paying in cash. It's kind
> of sad to see people in a hackerspaces mailing list advocating charging
> extra for not using the de-facto monopoly in an industry.   That's pretty
> much the antithesis to hacker ethics as I understand them.
>
> hack on,
> - Far McKon
>
>
> On 2/12/13 12:45 AM, Tamara wrote:
>> Hello there!
>>
>> I'm seeking ideas for how to consistently cover our rent each month and
>> still have some funds left over for consumables, necessities and perhaps a
>> small emergency fund. We currently have a scaled membership and teach a
>> number of classes each month, but there's often a gap between what we make
>> each month and what we need to cover it all without panic, begging, and
>> general freaking out. We've begun a series of fundraising meetings to
>> discuss additional ideas for what might work, but I'm wondering - what
>> works
>> best for your hackerspace?
>>
>> Tamara
>>
>>
>>
>> -----
>> Tamara Clammer
>> Doer: Maker Advocate
>> Brown Paper Tickets
>> www.BrownPaperTickets.com
>> Tamara at BrownPaperTickets.com
>> http://community.brownpapertickets.com/Doers/maker.html
>> --
>> View this message in context:
>> http://hackerspaces-general-discussion-list.899408.n3.nabble.com/Cash-flow-tp4026512.html
>> Sent from the Hackerspaces General Discussion List mailing list archive at
>> Nabble.com.
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>
>
>
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