I agree with Logan on this 100%. To add onto this point… The more rules, fees, etc we put in the way the less likely new members will join. I’ve already had trouble getting people to join at 25 a month… Let alone 30+… The reason they don’t want to join is they will hardly use the place but once or twice a month… On that note…
If I had to guess the vast majority of our members shows up less than once a month and hardly cause any wear and tear… Thus we are sitting on a goldmine of people who pay but don’t show…why would we want to poke that bear? If we lost 60 members (from 350) we would be right back where we started if we charged 5 bucks more a month. Thus the negative feedback loop begins… Need more money less people join… get less money…
On the contrary we currently have a positive feedback loop… If a machine breaks because someone is using it all the time then either they will learn to fix it or stop using it cause it is down all the time… Yes it sucks it is down but makeict doesn’t stop functioning because only 5 volunteers don’t show. Their are plenty of people who are willing to help and will step up to the plate when needed. Maybe not to the standards of those core volunteers… But enough to get the job done. If your burning out volunteering then take a break… Post on the forums what needs done, I believe people will step up.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who does the… $300 a year will buy a lot of tools… Once it’s $400ish a year I see a lot of people leaving… That’s a k40 laser cutter, 3d printer, welder, etc per year.
For all the reasons already stated, I’m also against raising the dues.
We are doing fantastic things with what we have and it’s not like a lack of funds is holding is back. Our cost effective dues make our makerspace available to so many more people than if we had higher dues. In this case, I don’t support fixing something that isn’t broken.
If we can’t figure out how to say “thank you” to people who volunteer, without raising our dues to do it, I’d venture to say that we have bigger problems.
To answer the question about recording volunteer hours: we actually do have a form to record volunteer hours. It was requested and made in a timely manner. Then it was never blasted out. I’ll see if I can dig up the link later for ya.
Sorry I don’t have a cool little bitly for it (maybe @Kim Burton could do something about that…?).
Also, this is modeled after another local non-profit’s hours logger. If you have recommendations/requests for it to be different, please don’t hesitate to send me feedback to kez@makeict.org. It’s very welcome.
Saying “don’t raise the rates” doesn’t really do much to solve the problem that this thread is raising, which is:
“10% of our members are doing 90% of the work. That’s not sustainable. How can we solve that problem?”
I suggested raising the rates only because that would provide a fund to reward the people actually doing work and it would provide ANYBODY the opportunity to not only zero out their monthly dues but maybe even make a little extra beyond that. That way if someone wants to join but says they can’t afford even $25 per month, no problem, they can volunteer a few hours per month and end up paying nothing at all.
So if you don’t like the idea of raising rates, then suggest a reasonable alternative. For instance, you might feel we don’t need any more cool toys to play with and we don’t need a bigger building. If so, maybe you would prefer we compensate volunteers from the $100k+ we’ve been saving for long range capital projects. Or maybe you have other ideas for motivating significantly more people to volunteer without being rewarded. Great, let’s hear it. But I don’t believe we can continue to have a healthy growing organization with only 10% of the members doing most of the work. It’s a disease that will lead to the slow but continual decline of our organization and needs to be addressed with realistic solutions as soon as possible.
The form is good, thanks. It’s on my phone now and I’ll start using it. My only suggestion is link to it from the home page at makeict.org and from the “volunteer” tab under “contribute.”
I think area committees will help solve this problem. Let members take ownership. Getting volunteers involved is giving them a structure that imparts ownership and pride in what they are involved in.
If we actually tracked volunteer hours, if volunteers actually submitted their hours, we could easily incentivize volunteerism with makery things. No need to raise dues for all the members to say thank you to a few.
Ideas:
Plaques
Newsletter recognition
Featured volunteer on the home page
Volunteer of the month for the space
Volunteer of the month in each area
…
Really, if people are “volunteering” for money, they should be looking for a job, not volunteering.
I believe it Would solve a huge chunk of the problems make ict is experiencing with growth.
Free the board. Allow committees to make decisions and if they go against the board’s wishes then the board will at least have info into what they are doing rather than gut feelings.
Increase member engagement with the makerspace that they own. Allow members in on the decisions and actions that it will take to get what they want from the space.
…BUILD COMMUNITY… at the intersection of art, technology, science and culture.
I can’t help but think that past boards named the area leads “benevolent dictators” because they knew the concept should be destroyed at a later date when membership grew. Maybe they named it that because they didnt like the concept but didn’t have enough members at the time to implement any other system.
Kez,
Suppose you’re in a row boat with 9 other people and your are rowing hard, but the other 9 people are checking their email. You might put up with that for awhile, but wouldn’t you eventually expect the 9 non-rowers to be willing to chip in a little something to reward your efforts? Either that or expect them to start rowing with you? Maybe just a little?
And I struggle with the notion of asking the one rower if, in addition to rowing, they could fill out of form showing how many strokes they took, so that at the end of the year we could consider giving them a plaque or something?
Curt,
Sure. I would expect food, chocolate, water, granola bars, a t-shirt, a verbal thank you, a plaque at the end of the day, them to pitch in and row.
I would not expect money. Cuz I didn’t sign up to row the boat for money. I volunteered to do it. Not everything in the world, or space, needs to be monetized. And rewarding volunteerism with a paycheck at the end of the day is not something that I agree with.
Can i, at the risk of sounding repetitive, remind you that every meeting of a committee is volunteer hours that are easily tracked? Special projects done by said committees can task the project lead to track who/ what amount of time was involved.
Erik, I find the committee idea an interesting one. I just need to see more details of what that ends up being. I’m sure we’ve all seen good committees and bad committees, probably more bad than good. But I agree it’s worth trying to flesh out the idea, especially since we’ve gotten some indication that it is working for Dallas.
Kez, I’m in agreement with your ideas in theory, but I’m also willing to admit when something isn’t working. If you don’t like the idea of money, we could instead offer a couple different levels of membership: $50 per month if you don’t want to volunteer at all and just want to be a “using” member; or $25 per month if you are willing to volunteer at least 4 hours per month, or you aren’t planning to actively use the space and just want to feel a part of things by being a “supporting” member, or I guess we’re calling that a “non-keyed” member. So then we’re not “rewarding volunteerism with a paycheck”, but we would be making it explicit to everyone from the beginning that we really do run on money and/or volunteerism and we expect everyone who uses the space to help out one way or the other.
When I was more active, the things that motivated me were mostly internal: seeing the results of my work and a sense of accomplishment. I also liked when I got to share my skills with others. I remember one time Kathy, Dominic, and I built a recycling rack and I got to share with them my know how. I really did not want to get paid for that, instead I wanted to do something useful with friends that would benefit a community I enjoyed.
Later, when I became president, in addition to the internal feelings of accomplishment, which were much harder to come by in leadership than as a line level volunteer BTW, I got invited to various things like a preview of the new library and a Wichita Community Foundation event where I got feedback on my studio school idea and I also got a grant funded. I am not sure those invitations were transferable, but for example we get Tallgrass passes, Nation of Makers passes, among other things, that are prime rewards for people who help out.
Something else that occurred to me is that as we start maxing out machine hours/areas people who volunteer to maintain them get increased time on them. You want to use the laser cutter more often than everyone does, maintain it and you get extra blocks of time, for example. I read something a long time ago that some people who worked on an orbital satellite telescope got several hours of time on it after it launched. Another reward would be a storage locker or shelf, which is a reward that has real value. I would have been delighted to get a storage shelf as recognition for my work at the space, maybe even with an engraved nameplate.
I wish there was a way to hear from some of the folks who aren’t already part of the blessed 10% of active volunteers at MakeICT. The blessed 10% are already volunteering too much. I’m mainly concerned about these folks getting burned out, or demotivated, simply because the load isn’t being shared evenly across our membership.
So the question is: how do you motivate the folks to volunteer who didn’t join MakeICT with volunteering in mind. Instead, they joined because they wanted to use the equipment and make stuff or learn something. They will do or pay whatever is required, but they aren’t that easily motivated to do more. Some are even selling what they make for a nice profit. Yet everyone pays the same $25 per month. To me that scenario is not sustainable or good for the long term health of our organization.