I realize my initial email was harsh, and I looked for different ways to phrase it, but the reality is: $13.37 a month is a pittance for free and open access to what the hive provides. $25 a month is still a bargain. I think it’s completely acceptable for members to quit and rejoin as their budget or time requirements warrant.
Also, this wasn’t meant as a personal attack at you: If there was a “sweat equity,” you’d have earned your $50 a month easily. But, the key is to be fair: It’s unfair that members who pay $13.37 a month get the same things as $50 a month members.
tif
I think giving a discount to students is a good idea because most students are broke but full of energy and enthusiasm and ideas. Keeping something of this nature would make me happy. This would be a full membership class that would be discounted as long as the member was a student.
I’m fine with having a cheap, limited membership category (E-LITE) as long as access to the space was limited to when other full members were present, there was no presumption or guarantee of project storage space and perhaps being charged for use of hive consumables for projects.(??) This would give an opportunity for people interested primarily in the social scene to be involved. This would also give an opportunity for people who didn’t see themselves wanting to be heavy users of the space to be a member without the cost of a full membership. We have to remember that retaining members is good for the hive. Giving people who might otherwise show up every now and then for free an opportunity to be contributors on a regular basis is great. Consistency is good. I think that offering something to those people who aren’t able/willing to justify $50/mo is a GREAT idea, as long as the limits of their membership are strong and clear.
I also think that having a “sweat equity” membership level (or option?) is an awesome idea. If you don’t have money, that’s fine. Work it off. The hive ALWAYS needs more sorting, organizing, cleaning, wiring ran/fixed, servers reconfigured, trash taken out, etc. than happens. I say let ANY full member work off up to 80% (i.e. work off up to $40 / $50) each month by documenting time spent doing work assigned to them by one of the Officers or by vote of the meeting at large at $5/hr. Giving our members that are in financial need a opportunity to contribute their time towards necessary tasks around the hive would give them an opportunity to contribute in a structured way. I don’t think this would be horrible to track at all. We would have RFID logs in part. We would have to rely largely on honesty system, but I like this idea more than just talking to those who claim financial hardship. Jon, Mike, Jim, Ian and myself always need help with things. The membership at meetings always have ideas for wouldn’t it be nice if _____. Having some people willing to work for their membership dues also makes it possible for hive projects to move along at a much more rapid pace if these became available for sweat equity projects. I realize that getting this off the ground would take some effort and organization, but I think the potential rewards in terms of getting stuff done would be huge.
Like I said, no worries and no harm done. I didn’t take it as an attack on me or anything.
And I definitely understand that the Elite membership could easily be abused to reap the same benefits as a full membership. I am a big fan of the honor system. If I was coming to the Hive a few times a week year-round, I would fully expect myself to upgrade my status to a $50/mo full member. Believe me, I wish I could! I have so many half-finished projects strewn around my basement.
I say let ANY full member work off up to 80% (i.e. work off up to $40 / $50) each month by documenting time spent doing work assigned to them by one of the Officers or by vote of the meeting at large at $5/hr. Giving our members that are in financial need a opportunity to contribute their time towards necessary tasks around the hive would give them an opportunity to contribute in a structured way. I don’t think this would be horrible to track at all. We would have RFID logs in part. We would have to rely largely on honesty system, but I like this idea more than just talking to those who claim financial hardship.
I’m 100% behind that idea, Dave. I think we should include the students in the sweat equity pile. Especially since they often have an excess of time but not money.
tif
Small insert: Students do not have an excess of time between going classes, having a job (or two), organizations, homework, research, etc. It takes more time to be a student than to have a 9-5 job. Time, like money, is one of the smallest commodity students have.
If a student is that pressed for time, they wouldn’t at the hive in the first place. If the problem is they need a facility to work on projects for school, they pay for the school facilities, paying for the hive shouldn’t be any different. If it’s because they need help with a project, they pay for tutors, shouldn’t they pay the hive? (And they could always come during free nights or ping the Google group for help with a project if they had no money.)
“It takes more time to be a student than to have a 9-5 job.” I’ve been a full-time student, and it can be infinitely easier than the “real world.” Family, mortgage, cars, job (or two), organizations, continuing education. These are the time sucks the post-college or even the post-high school person deals with. That’s why I’m saying BOTH groups should have sweat equity.
Fair points, even if I don’t agree with some of them.
The last thing, is that $5 an hour for volunteering for the hive (if we give it a price instead of an amount of hours) is sort of counterproductive for those who cannot afford it. A minimum wage job pays $7.50 (yes slight variance depending on where you live, but this is the natl wage I believe). So they could be earning more money by spending those hours working, to pay for the hive. Does that make sense? If we do put a price on the hours, I think it should be at least level with minimum wage for it to be worth people’s time and energy.
Would be nice to stimulate young people and students to join and start creating things. Maybe we (you) could find a corporate sponsor to underwrite some students to allow them to continue at a rate that is affordable