[hackerspaces] A CRM for Hackerspaces?

Shirley Hicks shirley at velochicdesign.com
Wed Jul 20 17:45:34 CEST 2016 

Altin - if it helps, I’ve just finished modeling the work I’m doing to develop our makerspace membership management. It also allows for tracking donations - important for bookkeeping and building your email lists. Iniitally, I’m just going to be launching a web portal for the tables. 

Another thing that’s important is ways of sending automated reminders to some members - when PayPal stops working for what ever reason (usually when credit cards expire, or banking information changes).

As I have been learning keeping our books - this stuff is stinkin’ important! Hackerspaces and makerspaces can’t run without funds!

— Shirley

> On Jul 20, 2016, at 6:30 AM, Altin Ukshini <altin.ukshini at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hey everyone,
> 
> Thank you all very much for your feedback!
> 
> I didn't leave this behind, I've been working on the CRM on my spare time...
> 
> Yes, Seltzer has been very helpful so far, and I've even modified it couple of times for our needs at Prishtina Hackerspace.
> I've published some of that code on these two repos:
> - HACCSY: https://github.com/altinukshini/HACCSY <https://github.com/altinukshini/HACCSY>
> - Transactions (probably a bad naming, I ment "Fincances") module, it just keeps track of some income and expenses (despite membership payments): https://github.com/altinukshini/transaction_module <https://github.com/altinukshini/transaction_module>
> 
> As far as I can see, most of us struggle with charging/billing/payments. If that would be the main problem to solve, we might have to elaborate more on how each of our spaces processes these kind of tasks. Here's a description of how we deal with that at Prishtina Hackerspace: http://piratepad.be/p/MyATTA0ClZ <http://piratepad.be/p/MyATTA0ClZ>
> 
> I've opened the repo for the CRM and you can find the code on the following link: https://github.com/altinukshini/hackerspacecrm <https://github.com/altinukshini/hackerspacecrm>
> There's still some more work to be done for the core, including the currently opened issues. I plan to use Caffeinated <https://github.com/caffeinated/modules> modules package to enable others to write modules for this CRM, but before that, I was thinking to write a small module installer, so that people can use a gui interface to install those modules.
> 
> Please note again that this is my first project in Laravel, and I've been learning laravel while working on it, therefore you may find SOME crappy stuff in there. Feel free to let me know how it could be done better, and any suggestion is very much welcome! :)
> 
> Best,
> Altin
> 
> 
> 
> __
> 
> Altin Ukshini
> Prishtina Hackerspace
> Free Libre Open Source Software Kosova (FLOSSK)
> 
> +386 (0) 49 199 992 | altinukshini.wordpress.com <http://altinukshini.wordpress.com/>
> PRNHS: info at prishtinahackerspace.org <mailto:info at prishtinahackerspace.org> | www.prishtinahackerspace.org <http://www.prishtinahackerspace.org/> | Manifesto <http://wiki.prishtinahackerspace.org/wiki/The_Hackerspace_Manifesto>
> FLOSSK: info at flossk.org <mailto:info at flossk.org> | www.flossk.org <http://www.flossk.org/>
> 
> On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 11:59 PM, Silence Dogood <matt at nycresistor.com <mailto:matt at nycresistor.com>> wrote:
> My seltzer system is considering running for president... but I think his views will probably get him into trouble.
> 
> On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 5:57 PM, Bob Bownes <bownes at gmail.com <mailto:bownes at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> Yup. Our Seltzer system drives our RFID system as well. Very handy. Will be better when every machine has an RFID reader. :)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 4:38 PM, Joshua Pritt <ramgarden at gmail.com <mailto:ramgarden at gmail.com>> wrote:
> We also use Seltzer at Melbourne Makerspace (Florida/USA) and created a RFID lock for the front door that automatically denies access to those that have missed 3 months of payments.
> It has been working rock solid for well over a year now.
> https://wiki.melbournemakerspace.org/projects/RFIDDoorLock <https://wiki.melbournemakerspace.org/projects/RFIDDoorLock>
> 
> 
> On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 4:17 PM, Bob Bownes <bownes at gmail.com <mailto:bownes at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
> I can second that. We are using Seltzer at the Center of Gravity and are mostly happy with it. 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Apr 25, 2016 at 4:05 PM, Shirley Hicks <shirley at velochicdesign.com <mailto:shirley at velochicdesign.com>> wrote:
> One more thing - take a look at Edward Platt’s work on Selzer CRM, which he developed for i3 Detroit. 
> https://github.com/elplatt/seltzer <https://github.com/elplatt/seltzer>
> 
> — Shirley
> 
>> On Apr 24, 2016, at 11:25 PM, Shirley Hicks <shirley at velochicdesign.com <mailto:shirley at velochicdesign.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> This was the project description I put together for our group. Note that we currently use WildApricot for membership management and will be switching over to a Wordpress WooCommerce based system this spring, which will also integrate with Bob Baddersley’s equiment lockout and RFID access card system, and Mediawiki’s WMWP extension for wiki editing access. 
>> 
>> http://wiki.redmountainmakers.org/wiki/RMM_Information_System/Operations_Description <http://wiki.redmountainmakers.org/wiki/RMM_Information_System/Operations_Description>
>> http://wiki.redmountainmakers.org/wiki/RMM_Information_System <http://wiki.redmountainmakers.org/wiki/RMM_Information_System>
>> http://wiki.redmountainmakers.org/wiki/Project:RMM_Information_System <http://wiki.redmountainmakers.org/wiki/Project:RMM_Information_System>
>> 
>> — Shirley Hicks
>> Red ountain Makers
>> 
>>> On Apr 24, 2016, at 6:37 AM, Altin Ukshini <altin.ukshini at gmail.com <mailto:altin.ukshini at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Everyone,
>>> 
>>> I've started working on a class assignment where for the following couple of months I'll be developing a CRM for managing Hackerspaces - that's what I chose to do to complete that assignment.
>>> 
>>> My friends and I run Prishtina Hackerspace (a hackerspace in Kosovo), and since the beginning of it we always struggled finding the best solution to manage members, payments, keys, etc. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, we tried many different software but I think we need a better solutions for this. I think that many hackerspaces face the same problem when dealing with 30+ members. I know we all have different structures, but we could maybe boil down to something common and useful for all of us.
>>> 
>>> In order for this CRM to be better than the existing solutions, I need your help to let me know what do you struggle with, and what would you need to have in such application?
>>> 
>>> So far this is what I came up with (call them modules or simply functionalities):
>>> - Membership
>>> -- Members
>>> -- Membership Plans
>>> -- Mentors
>>> 
>>> - Reports
>>> -- Membership reports
>>> -- Expenses reports
>>> -- Space Frequentation (part of door access control and checkin system)
>>> 
>>> - Finances
>>> -- Transactions (income and expenses)
>>> -- Billing (charge members / run billing)
>>> -- Online Payment (Pay membership dues with Stripe/Paypal)
>>> 
>>> - Access Control
>>> -- Keys
>>> -- RFID Cards
>>> -- Alarm Pins
>>> -- Door access Control and Checkin System (API for Raspberry pi/Arduino based solution)
>>> 
>>> One of the most important features of this CRM will be localization, themes, easily manageable settings, and of course modularity (so that anyone could write their own modules for it), 
>>> 
>>> Btw, I plan to use Laravel 5.2.
>>> 
>>> Let's hope this will be helpful for your hackerspaces, just as it'll be for our needs at Prishtina Hackerspace. 
>>> I plan to maintain it for some couple of years maybe, and as well try to document it well so that anyone can understand how it works (but first I'll have to build it).
>>> 
>>> ...afterall it's just my class assignment! :D
>>> 
>>> ​Thanks in advance for your help!
>>> 
>>> Best,
>>> Altin
>>> ​
>>> __
>>> 
>>> Altin Ukshini
>>> Prishtina Hackerspace
>>> Free Libre Open Source Software Kosova (FLOSSK)
>>> 
>>> +386 (0) 49 199 992 <tel:%2B386%20%280%29%2049%20199%20992> | altinukshini.wordpress.com <http://altinukshini.wordpress.com/>
>>> PRNHS: info at prishtinahackerspace.org <mailto:info at prishtinahackerspace.org> | www.prishtinahackerspace.org <http://www.prishtinahackerspace.org/> | Manifesto <http://wiki.prishtinahackerspace.org/wiki/The_Hackerspace_Manifesto>
>>> FLOSSK: info at flossk.org <mailto:info at flossk.org> | www.flossk.org <http://www.flossk.org/>
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>> 
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