[hackerspaces] What should you sell or shouldn't you sell in a hackerspace?

[matt]

Hackerspaces are defined by your community.  If your community are greedy
and oily salesmen... that's what your hackerspace will be perceived as.  If
your community are mother theresas... that's what your hackerspace will be
perceived as.  Your community decides what your hackerspace is.  Everyone
else decides what it is perceived as.  And whether you care about the
consequences of that is up to you.  Whether you are effected by those
consequences is not.

-Matt

On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 6:19 PM, Matt Maier <blueback09 at gmail.com> wrote:

> There isn't AN answer, there is only a range of options from which you
> pick whatever you want based on what's important to you. For example, if
> you try to make things easy and clear-cut by talking about only registered
> charities, where what they do is obviously focused on a cause and not on
> profit, there is still a huge variety of approaches.
>
> http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=419
> "*Savvy donors know that the financial health of a charity is a strong
> indicator of the charity's programmatic performance. They know that in most
> cause areas, the most efficient charities spend 75% or more of their budget
> on their programs and services and less than 25% on fundraising and
> administrative fees. However, they also understand that mid-to-large sized
> charities do require a strong infrastructure therefore a claim of zero
> fundraising and/or administrative fees is unlikely at best. They understand
> that a charity's ability to sustain its programs over time is just as
> important as its short-term day-to-day spending practices. Therefore, savvy
> donors also seek out charities that are able to grow their revenue at least
> at the rate of inflation, that continue to invest in their programs and
> that have some money saved for a rainy day*"
>
> So, according to an organization devoted to ranking how well charities do
> their job, the benchmark is <=25% on overhead. So if your hackerspace
> operated at a proportion like that it should be beyond reproach, since your
> hackerspace probably isn't an actual charity. That implies a balance
> between the things you really want to give away, and other things you have
> to do to fund the things you want to give away. If you're a straight up
> charity you can start with donations and sell enough to make up any
> shortfall, and it wouldn't make sense for anyone to object to that. If
> you're not a charity, you kind of have to reverse those; start with selling
> things and then ask for donations to make up the shortfall. If you want to
> be self-sustaining you should probably start the balancing act with the
> amount of money you can bring in, and then decide how much stuff you can
> give away based on that. The actual thing you choose to give away or sell
> probably doesn't matter much. If you decide to sell something that somebody
> thinks you should give away, they can just go find (or found) a different
> organization that gives that thing away and sells something different.
> On Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Florencia Edwards <floev22 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hello everyone, today we were discussing what you can sell and what you
>> can't sell in a hackerspace. For example "how to make a hackerspace", is
>> something i believe everyone should be able to access, because the design
>> patterns are free and available for everyone since 2007: we want more
>> hackerspaces around and if the knowledge was shared with us why not keep
>> sharing it back. So what caught my attention is this "Makerspace operations
>> bootcamp" to learn how to make a makerspace,, that artisan's asylum offers.
>> Why is it so expensive? 2000 dollars for person... Maybe i'm being naive
>> and it's good, so the makerspace can sustain itself? :
>> http://maker-works.com/classes/makerspace-operations-bootcamp-2/
>>
>> Also checking their workshops i believe they are a little expensive, i
>> always think that  for education. it's better that it has the lowest cost
>> possible, because education is a right. But  again, maybe i'm wrong and if
>> you can't charge workshops, how can a hackerspace sustain itself
>>
>> My real question is, what is ethical to sell in a hackerspace so it can
>> sustain itself and what is not,  what should we give to the community for
>> free because it helps people and it makes a better world.Also, I know that
>> the fact that things have a cost, or the fact of winning money is not a bad
>> thing in itself. We need it to live and paying somone for their job is also
>> helping them.
>>
>> So where are the limits, how can you know what to sell, at what price,
>> and what never to sell.
>>
>> - Florencia
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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/20141014/1120c52f/attachment-0001.html>