[hackerspaces] Paid Staff

[Chad Elish]

I agree with Pete… As soon as you add Paid Employees, it changes the business (and culture) significantly.

HackPGH has a policy that we charge $30/mo and require a minimum 3 hours of volunteer time per month… Wether that is working on a group shop project or cleaning the space, our members are required to help out.

Rather then actively track the time because that would be a logistical nightmare, we work on the honor system. The first rule of our shop is ‘Don’t be a Dick’ (Heres a great book <https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Be-Dick-Etiquette/dp/1936976021/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471620300&sr=8-1&keywords=how+not+to+be+a+dick>) or for the others, ‘Be excellent to each other’. If we see people not giving back to the community, we call them out. If it continues, we put them on probation, and in extreme cases ask them to leave.

Doing it this way, we see a stronger community develop, friendships made and the shop stays clean.

Cheers!
-Chad
President | HackPGH
Pittsburgh’s First Makerspace
http://www.hackpittsburgh.org

> On Aug 19, 2016, at 10:59 AM, webmind <webmind at puscii.nl> wrote:
> 
> On 19/08/16 12:41, Bill Shaw wrote:
>> As Tampa Hackerspace approaches 100 members, we're starting to look
>> forward for the best ways to handle growth and scaling without driving
>> ourselves crazy. One thing we're considering is whether it makes sense
>> to have someone on payroll to take care of some basic things.
>> 
>> For the more established and larger spaces out there, I'm curious how
>> many members you had when you added your first paid staff. What was your
>> overall budget at the time? Were they part time or full time? What
>> responsibilities did they have?
> 
> Technologia Incognita (one of the hackerspaces in Amsterdam) has about
> 100 members, never had paid staff. We have considered paying someone to
> clean, but a majority of people was against. I think we have paid
> someone once to clean the windows.
> 
> Personally, to me hackerspaces are community projects where you run a
> space as a community. Not some rich-kids playground who are afraid of a
> bit of dirty work once in a while. That's what I think about when I
> think of paid staff.
> 
> w.
> 
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