[hackerspaces] Hackerspace crisis plan

[Ricky Ng-Adam]

Hello David!

You already got a lots of good suggestions in this thread to help future
your Hackerspace.

I'd add that if you want to have members, you need a lot of people walking
in.

We (Shanghai XinCheJian Hackerspace) have a free open house with guest
talks every Wednesday and although we typically get 30 to 40 guests of
which maybe 10 are new...  At most one or two of those new visitors show
interest in membership.

We hit a homerun (meaning someone really active long term) maybe once a
month. So you have to find a way to play the numbers to get that one or two
percent...

The same numbers apply to the workshops. It actually takes a lot of work to
make someone see the value of a community; we spend a lots of time
explaining it one on one. And realistically, not everyone is in a situation
where they can commit to such a community. But I've seen people join after
months/years of the initial contact (!)

A positive: I'm still astounded at the numbers of visitors that have never
heard of Hackerspaces given the coverage we've got in the expat and Chinese
press. So that's always lots of headroom!

Another: people become more committed when something needs to get done and
they do it. Helpful for a nascent community.

good luck!

Ricky
On Jan 22, 2013 7:08 PM, "David Francos" <me at davidfrancos.net> wrote:

> Hi there.
> I'm from DegeneratedLabs, Zaragoza (Spain) Hackerspace.
> It's probably the first time I write here, tought I've been lurking for a
> while.
>
> We've got a 2-year old hackerspace here, with a nice-as-hell space, but
> we've recently lost almost all of our members (three remaining, not much
> money)
>
> We're thinking on alternative economic support stuff, we've got a few nice
> things (a 3d printer, two floors (one of them mostly used as a workshop and
> the other a a source for talks etc), lots of hardware, tools, fridges coffe
> machines, a huge library...)
>
> Aside from that, we've got very poor access to people (We are currently
> FOUR people!).
>
> We don't have a very good online image, but we're constantly moving it
> IRL, trought talks and so on.
>
> 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?
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
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