[Noisebridge-discuss] Charging for classes at Noisebridge

[Josh Myer]

In another thread, I'm seeing a lot of confusion about whether or not
Noisebridge bans for-pay classes.  It seems like they're frowned upon, but
nobody has come out and said so.  Personally, I think it's important that we
don't ban people from using money as a tool or instrument of exchange within
the space.  I love that most events are free, and believe they're very
important (I ran one for a long time).  But, there are many benefits to
having slightly more formal, for-pay sessions in the space.  These sessions
shouldn't be specially regulated, nor should we impose a formal set of
tariffs on them; they should be treated like every other class or event at
the space.

There are a few people who are opposed to having for-pay classes at
Noisebridge, and I'd love it if they'd chime in here.  I only know of one or
two people who have stated outright that they themselves are opposed to
having for-pay classes in the space, and their voices are conspicuously
absent from the discussion.  I also haven't heard anyone arguing against a
new policy which would disallow or restrict for-pay classes at the space, so
I wanted to articulate some reasons we shouldn't ban for-pay classes.

I believe that for-pay classes are a huge benefit to Noisebridge.  In fact,
Noisebridge benefited from one I ran last weekend.  Several people new to
the space came out to learn how to fix PCBs, and left really liking
Noisebridge and what it had to offer them.  After the workshop, I donated
$50 as a way of saying thank-you for making a space available, and to help
offset the solder and electricity we used.  There's no way we used more than
$5 in consumables, so $45 of that donation can go directly to pay
noisebridge's rent.   Adding a reasonable tuition to the session helped
ensure the above was possible.

Making the class for-pay helped filter for people who were serious about
being there.  That said, I wasn't a hardass about it, and had one person
RSVP paying less than the materials cost me.  The fees everyone else paid
let me offer a few below-cost seats, and I'm really happy to offer them to
anyone interested enough to email me off-list about it.

This "making sure people are serious" thing is a concern for me.  At one
point, I'd given more Noisebridge workshops than anyone besides Mitch, and
probably still hold that record.  I started the old Machine Learning
Wednesdays, which is still the longest-running weekly class at noisebridge
after Circuit Hacking Mondays, despite my stopping a year ago.  It brought
lots of people into the space, and was the first time a couple dozen people
came to the space.  From there, we got 5~10 new members, which was great,
and I was happy to do it for that.  That said, I could never do a series of
talks building up to a single goal.  Because people weren't really invested
in the workshop, they were very casual about attending every week. Even my
ever-awesome co-founders* would randomly skip out in the middle of a two- or
three-session project, because they only had "fun" invested in it.

I also found that people would jump into things we had clearly labelled as
over their heads, because all they had to lose was time.  Think of how many
times you grab a flyer without being really interested, or download a free
album only to listen to the first half of the first track.  I appreciate
people going out and sampling new things, and love leading introductory
sessions!  But, if people's first experience with Machine Learning was the
third stage in implementing neural networks, it's nearly impossible for me
to bring them up to speed while still helping everyone get to the next step.

My final reason to charge for seminars or classes is that they're hard work.
 I spent a day preparing for the green wire workshop, and, depending on how
you do the accounting, lost money on the day.  I had fun teaching eleven
folks an art, but it was hard work to plan, assemble kits, and actually
teach.  ML Wednesday often left me totally exhausted, but I had a good time
doing it (I also didn't allow myself to do a whole lot of prep, partly to
avoid burn-out).  Getting paid something for that time is a way to feel
appreciated, and motivate yourself to prepare better lessons/sessions.  More
to the point, saying that someone can't charge for teaching is like saying
someone can't charge for a haircut or cooking. Teaching is a very valuable
service, hard work, and not something that everyone can do.

Why do I care so much?  I've been contemplating teaching an applied
electronics class at noisebridge.  Once I find a textbook I like, I'm
willing to do it.  But, there will be limits on how many students I'll take,
along with some requirements of those students.  They need to actually read
the book, do their homework, pay for (or provide their own) materials, and
pay some tuition for my prep time.  People who can't afford some of the
above are welcome, but they have to demonstrate that they're serious.  True,
there's no way for me to stop people from listening at the space (and,
honestly, that part doesn't concern me), nor asking questions.  But, if
someone isn't participating in the class in a serious fashion, they're going
to inhibit everyone else from getting something out of the class, and I'll
have a talk with them.  If this means giving them back the rest of their
tuition, I'm happy to do that.

I think the space has a lot to gain from embracing the occasional for-pay
workshop or class, and we would be doing ourselves a great disservice by
adding a new rule to ban or regulate them preemptively.
-- 
Josh Myer 650.248.3796
josh at joshisanerd.com

* a shout out to Jean, h0mee and verbal for all their hope getting things
running and keeping them going, and to all the new folks making the
reincarnation a consistent event
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