[hackerspaces] payed staff vs volunteers

[Florencia Edwards]

Please more answers!

2014-12-14 13:49 GMT-05:00 Joshua Pritt <ramgarden at gmail.com>:
>
> At makers local 256 it's more of a everyone is a volunteer kind of thing.
> If you put something in the garbage can that stacks above the rim then you
> just take it to the dumpster and put in a fresh bag. I think everyone had
> taken the trash out at least once. Then once a month or every two months
> when it gets really cluttered and dirty they have a clean up day where
> several members will volunteer (sometimes everyone pitches in a few bucks
> to order pizza or whatever) and get the place tidied up. This works really
> well as far as I can tell.
> At melbourne makerspace in Florida we decided to offer a free membership
> in exchange for extra help cleaning up. Several members also help mopping
> and cleaning up from time to time too so it doesn't become a crazy
> nightmare.
>
> The general idea is for everyone to clean up after themselves as a nice
> rule. We keep saying, "your momma doesn't work here" to keep the idea
> going.
> On Dec 14, 2014 1:37 PM, "Overflo" <flo at tekstix.com> wrote:
>
>> ohai
>>
>> we had this discussion before at metalab vienna.
>> there is a makerspace in vienna where they have paid staff. the whole
>> culture there is VERY different from ours.
>> we decided we dont want this for our space and that voluntary engagement
>> is a very important part of staying open and selfregulating.
>> this works so lala for metalab, could be better, could be much worse.
>> especially cleaning and maintaining all the hardware is a tedious
>> struggle, but i doubt it would be more efficient  if people would be paid
>> to take care of this tasks.
>> in fact it would make everyone else not contribute anymore.
>>
>>
>> we DO have a paid cleaning company coming in one day a week for 4 hours to
>> clean the toilets and mob the floors.
>> that was a very good decision.
>>
>>
>>
>> :*
>> -flo
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, 14 Dec 2014 15:20:32 -0300, Florencia Edwards <floev22 at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > What do you think, I believe it really changes how the whole space
>> works,
>> > and how members behave if you have payed staff or volunteers. Also it
>> > changes the commitment in tasks. If anyone has had experience with both,
>> > could you please give the pros and cons? Or if you just had experience
>> with
>> > one, it would be nice to know how it's worked for you and what was good
>> and
>> > bad about it.
>> >
>> > In our space, we had payed staff, but members behaved more like
>> costumers
>> > who wanted their services to be perfect, than  an active community that
>> > does things not only with their own projects,but also for the space.
>> Payed
>> > staff was with a low wage, but they where happy they could get enough to
>> > get by, and build a community, help around... But their was also the
>> > feeling that it would be good to engage in the possibility of giving
>> > rotation to the staff. For example: people that came in, wanted to help
>> > .needed the money, and really wanted to be staff. Why shouldn't they get
>> a
>> > chance? So we thought that maybe voting for a staff and rotating it
>> could
>> > be a good idea. But we are not sure.
>> >
>> > All thoughts, links and opinions more than welcome.
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>
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