[hackerspaces] how to deal with tired staff, with hackespaces blues

[Florencia Edwards]

thanks guys this is good advice!


2014/1/21 dosman <dosman at packetsniffers.org>

> If the space is not "owned" by the members then it's going to be treated
> like a pay-for workshop service since that is what you are providing.
> There's nothing wrong with that, but it sounds like you need to charge more
> and pay your staff more if they are getting burned out. If you want the
> users to start cleaning up more then have your staff start enforcing
> cleanup by users. You could also reduce your open hours to reduce the
> burden on your staff. Yea none of these things are pleasant for the users
> but again, they are really customers, not members in this scenario.
>
> On the other hand, if you want the members to take more ownership in the
> space then you need to include them more. Start by kicking out any
> jackasses breaking shit if that's what it takes to build trust. Your
> community is small, someone knows who is causing the problems. Then get the
> members back with keyed access. Also like others have said, have some
> meetings with your member base, communicate that the core group is getting
> tired and that some folks need to step up and help or possibly transition
> into leadership roles. There may be people interested who have held back
> because current leadership has been closely guarded or has been doing a
> good job on the surface.
>
>
> On Jan 21, 2014, at 9:06 AM, Florencia Edwards wrote:
>
> > It's a different culture here. We have people in charge of coordinating
> workshops, of putting in a spreadsheet who are attending, another preson in
> charge of buying workshop materials, a person a in charge of the community
> to make blogposts, and general posts informing workshops and memberships to
> people out there who aren't member  and coordinating the general forum. A
> person in charge of content layout. This is the staff. The members are just
> doing their own projects, they don't have time for doing stuff for the
> makerspece. Where I live, people are not even used to wash their own
> dishes, we wash a lot for them
> >
> > And since rent is not cheap, we can't make memberships free or just a
> "donate what you can"  thing
> >
> >
> > 2014/1/21 Joshua Pritt <ramgarden at gmail.com>
> > What kind of work are you doing?  I've always thought of a hackerspace
> as a bunch of volunteers anyway. If anyone sees the trash can overflowing
> just take it out. If you see a giant pile of dirt or something on the floor
> sweep it up.  Then once a month or every third month hold a clean up day on
> a Saturday and everyone pitches in on a pizza and soda. The other bit of
> work would be running the space which is usually handled by the treasurer
> and president and secretary and facilities committee. These positions are
> elected by the members every quarter or semi annually.  This way someone
> who doesn't want to our doesn't have the time to run the place can let
> someone else do it. Of course there has to be someone to nominate
> themselves for each position and they know they are doing it for free so
> they have to really want to see the space continue to grow and thrive. I'm
> not sure how that would work if everyone has this survivor attitude...
> >
> >
> >
> > On Jan 21, 2014 8:45 AM, "Florencia Edwards" <floev22 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Dear hackerspaces, how do you deal with a tired staff. I'm one of
> them, it seems like we work work work, and every day there are less
> members, less people willing to give something back to the space and  we
> get the feeling that the majority just wants to take and doesn't share ,
> wants discounts, and  to get  free materials but they never give anything
> to anyone. There are  people that think we are millionaires and want to
> take part of the cut any way they can.
> > >
> > > Here where we are from people don't trust each other, they are like
> survivors, try to get what they need and than they escape.
> > >
> > > And in fact, we are losing money every month. As staff we are badly
> paid, we are more sort of  volunteers, we can't get through the month with
> what we win. I work here at the space full time, than i get home and i keep
> working , I can't afford lunch anymore . We can sense that the whole staff
> is tired and in a bad mood, and the more time it passes it's worse. And I
> wish I could see more people happy with this, changing, wanting to share,
> wanting to make a community... But sometimes it feels like a illusion
> > >
> > > Any advice, or just share our pain hehe, we should make hackerspaces
> blues.
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Discuss mailing list
> > > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> > > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> > >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Discuss mailing list
> > Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> > http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> http://lists.hackerspaces.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.hackerspaces.org/pipermail/discuss/attachments/20140121/f6f32355/attachment-0001.html>