Re: [Hampshire] [Surrey] Aldershot Hackspace?

Hi Dominic,

On Fri, May 11, 2012 at 04:36:11PM +0100, Dominic Rodriguez wrote:
> I prefer Andy's idea - Yeah I understand of the costs but even so I think
> we should be able to pay what we want to a minimum.

Just to clarify, that is not my idea, just the way that most
established hackspaces I am aware of work.. :)

When London Hackspace first proposed offering their full facilities
to those paying only £5/month, I was initially quite vocally opposed
as Hackspace Foundation Ltd at the time was running at a deficit and
would have been bankrupt in ~5 months. I felt they should be only
offering the most basic things at £5, and demanding the full £20 at
least for everything.

However, I was very pleased to be proven totally wrong - the
increased buzz about the new space brought in new members and they
were very soon able to expand into the neighbouring unit. The £5
minimum proved to be a good move to bring in new members.

On the other hand, you have to appreciate that getting something
like this off the ground is really hard - LH had been going a few
years before they got their existing decent premises. They used to
meet in a pub basement, and then got free access to a drafty loft
elsewhere. For all that time they weren't taking subscriptions, only
donations.

At the start they relied on a few members paying well over the
average, in order to get things kickstarted. And (a lot like a LUG I
suppose) it will always need a few people putting in way more effort
than everyone else to keep it going.

So at the start it probably is going to need a few very dedicated
people willing to "subscribe" to something that doesn't really yet
exist and put in a lot of time, in order to bring it into existence.

Cheers,
Andy

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