[hackerspaces] Hackerspace crisis plan

[Overflo]

hej

> Could you give us any guidance on how to proceed to avoid the
hackerspace's
> death? Is there any crisis plan developed that can be a little generic
to
> them?

four people is not much.
are you in a small town?

there is a new inititive in austria going on calles otelo ("offenes
technologie labor")..
in austria we have a problem called braindrain where a lot of the youth
moves from the rural areas into cities to go to university or find work and
about 50% don't come back to their small towns..

that results in serious problems for the infrastructure and the remeining
population.
otelo now makes deals with the small towns so that the town gives away
unused buildings free of rent for max. 3 years to otelo and they establish
all kinds of bottom up things there similar to hackerspaces.
they do cooking togther, sew up things, teach to solder, build 3d-printers
and establich kost-nix-laden infrastructures where people bring in there
unused stuff and others can simply walk in there and take what they need
without payment..

maybe something like this would be an option for you?
make a good deal so you get the place for free and write a report on what
you did till now..
maybe something else than a pure hackerspace might be a place to attract
more people?

if all fails: take the money and run. and remember there is copper in the
wires in the walls .. ;)



good luck! :*
-flo