[Vanhackspace] hacker dojo

[Jeff Davis]

On 2009-04-25 16:27, afsmith wrote:
> I chose not to participate at VHS largely because of membership dues.
> I don't mean to say that they are unreasonable, just that they are not
> so reasonable as to draw everyone interested in (maybe this is
> desired?)

As one of the people who has advocated for lower dues in the past, I
assure you that keeping interested people out of VHS is definitely NOT
desired. :)  

> With regards to diversifying income- VHS is full of people with
> specialized skills. From an armchair point of view VHS is a potential
> Etsy of cool stuff (pending compliance with certification law,
> liability policy, etc) Get class students to be your workers, or
> something.
> 
> Even if that would be a no-go, I think there are probably lots of
> other ways to diversify and make participation even cheaper or free.

Specific proposals are more than welcome.  We've talked about a laser
cutter as a way of raising money; if it happens and it's successful
enough, we could certainly lower membership rates.  (We've also talked
about having some people pay extra to get a separate office or storage
area within the space, but that depends on whether the space we get
permits it.)  To me, there are some big issues around the specific idea
of using students as workers, but as you say, a diverse membership means
a lot of potential for diversifying income.  It's just a question of
putting together a plan.

Personally, the more accessible VHS is, the happier I am.  I'd love to
have the space be completely open and free of charge, but I haven't yet
seen any business models (for lack of a better term) that would make
that feasible while still sticking to our principles[*].  We've been
implicitly using a simplified version of the structure Joe proposed for
a long time, and I think it makes sense.  As long as what you pay is
adjusted based on how much disposable income you have, having different
levels of access based on what you pay doesn't seem too unreasonable to
me.  And for people making a decent wage, $50 for 24/7 access to a
workshop (or $25 for moderate-to-heavy use without a key) seems like a
pretty good deal.

[*]: http://vancouver.hackspace.ca/doku.php?id=principles

Jeff