[hackerspaces] Dear hackerspaces, bad news

[Bill Shaw]

It sounds like instead of building a community, you built an structure with
employees and customers. If the people who wanted the community are no
longer welcome, take the community and go where you can be successful.

The advice you've received so far sounds like an excellent start.


Subject: [hackerspaces] Dear hackerspaces, bad news
> Hello everybody, this week without being expected, they told us that are
> going to fire half of our team. Our makerspace unfortunately, is a company.
> We were all working paid with a symbolic wage, so we were sort of
> volunteers also, but the space is really huge, an ex factory in a really
> expensive neighborhood so we weren't making enough from memberships to
> afford rent, less wages.  . The owner , who has been absent the last 7
> months or so, wants to make an inversion in the space, machines, materials
> for artists to make decorations. He prefers to invert in the space than in
> the people who've been working because they love the community, who've been
> underpaid working extra hours because they just love being there, which
> makes me really sad, but I understand the circumstances are hard.
>
> Now it's going to be sort of self administrated by the members, they are
> going to have keys like in other spaces. Here where we live people don't
> have the culture of doing stuff by themselves and respecting someone else's
> space. They need someone watching them, telling them what to do... Maybe
> this will be a good change, so members can lear how to take care of the
> space.
>
> Also they want to administrate projects,  in the makerspace for big
> companies and brands that want to have new ways of communication and are
> willing to pay big. And they will hire in this case experts to make the
> projects in the makerspace. Like a sort of incubator.
>
> We also use to have scholarships for people who were ex staff, who do
> stuff like taking care of the space, or workshops, but he said that if
> people are not working in a cool project "maker style", they won't be able
> to keep coming to the space. This means they haven't offered the staff that
> was fired memberships to work on their stuff or to keep being part of the
> community.
>
> This is our new reality, we don't know what to make of it, we are in
> shock, and I would love to hear your opinions.
>
>
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