[hackerspaces] Lockers in a hackerspace?

[Nate Bezanson]

At i3Detroit in Michigan, we have both shelves and lockers. Here are my 
thoughts:

The shelves are a catastrophe. We wanted to give people more flexibility 
than totes, but it turns out not everyone is clean and responsible, and 
there's detritus everywhere and organizational logjam about getting rid 
of what might be someone's precious piece of dusty scrap lumber. In 
retrospect, we should've required totes.

The lockers are either almost ignored or so nicely used they don't look 
used. I have one and it works great for my needs, and nobody puts locks 
on 'em. The nature of lockers means they can't get messy like shelves, 
and it's great.

We weren't initially super clear about the expectation that storage 
wasn't for long-term abandonment of stuff. It seemed obvious, hah! And 
we've had crap luck with the "If you're not here regularly, your stuff 
shouldn't be here either" mantra. I've been utterly fascinated to 
discover that Artisan's Asylum flips this statement: "As per our 
Policies & Procedures, presence is a requirement. Activity is what makes 
our space vibrant." So, if your stuff is here, you should be here. 
Interesting!

MakerWorks out in Ann Arbor has a really interesting model: They charge 
for storage, and the rate increases if you're not around using your 
stuff. A staff member comes by and clips a clothespin onto each storage 
space once per (week or month?), and counts the accumulated pins. 
Whenever you use your stuff, you remove the clothespins and reset your 
count to zero. So, an active space will have zero or one, and pays the 
lowest rate. If you're away for a while, your pins start building up, 
and your (weekly or monthly?) rate goes up. Accumulate 5 pins and you're 
paying insane rates and that makes it okay that you're abusing the 
storage. It's pretty neat, if you have staff who can implement something 
like that.

We at i3 don't charge for storage, although I've recently floated the 
idea that we should, but not in money: The only way to "buy" storage 
would be in volunteer hours. Maybe there'd be a maximum positive balance 
you could accrue, too. That would solve the presence problem and several 
others, maybe. If we try it I'll let you know how it goes!

-Nate B-

On 2018-10-04 03:21 PM, Joshua Pritt wrote:
> At Melbourne Makerspace in Florida we just have shelves with cardboard 
> banker's boxes from Staples that you write your name / handle on.  
> Like mentioned earlier it makes it easy for us to say "leave it in my 
> box" when sharing supplies or parts.  We haven't had any problems 
> yet!  Except myself who now has 3 boxes and is getting asked if I 
> should pay a little extra for my space.  Since I help a lot and donate 
> supplies like paper towels, post it notes, sharpies, etc. as needed I 
> use that as an excuse/payment for the extra space.  I also help teach 
> the coding classes like Coder Dojo and our Code Jam every Tuesday night.
>
> On Thu, Oct 4, 2018 at 2:43 PM Arclight <arclight at gmail.com 
> <mailto:arclight at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     They're expensive to buy, but often cheap or free used.  Check the
>     paper, Craigslist, etc. and you often find them.  Downside is they
>     don't hold that much, and larger projects don't fit.  Lots of folks
>     choose bins for this reason.
>     On Thu, Oct 4, 2018 at 11:18 AM Daniel F <buildtherobots at gmail.com
>     <mailto:buildtherobots at gmail.com>> wrote:
>     >
>     > Obvious downsides: if they're locked it could lead to a false
>     sense of security. It also makes it harder for people to say
>     "leave it in / take it from my box"
>     >
>     > When people leave you might have to cut locks off.
>     >
>     > They're also expensive to buy.
>     >
>     > Other than that, sounds ace :)
>     >
>     > On Thu, 4 Oct 2018, 19:13 Chad Elish, <chad at hackpittsburgh.org
>     <mailto:chad at hackpittsburgh.org>> wrote:
>     >>
>     >> We’re talking about putting lockers in our space. Currently we
>     have shelves that a member can store a tote on.
>     >>
>     >> Would like your input on pros/cons.
>     >>
>     >> -chad
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