[Noisebridge-discuss] Fundraising and membership at NB

[Hephaestus]

I agree that we should simplify the membership process, and next week,
when i'm officially a member, i'll propose it. There's no reason to
make people wait 4 weeks before they can start giving us money to call
themselves a 'member' at noisebridge. Especially since there's no
functional difference between a paying 'member' and a nonpaying random
hacker who wants to use the space for free...

People don't /like/ 'donations'... Even if it's just for a membership
card and a sense of belonging, people will be much more willing to
drop $20 after a 5MoF to become an 'affiliate member' rather than drop
$20 in the donation box as they leave. Besides, it gives people a
financial obligation, err i mean excuse, to come back to the space and
contribute.

--
Hephaestus

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 3:50 PM, Rachel McConnell <rachel at xtreme.com> wrote:
> One of the issues we have is that nobody is officially in charge of
> anything, so there's no coordination or continuity on fundraising or
> anything else.  We do already have a couple PayPal links set up for
> recurring $10/month or $20/month 'Associate Member' donations:
>
> https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Donate_or_Pay_Dues
>
> It could be more obvious.  It could be on the front page.  I may get
> around to fixing that at some point...
>
> I have to admit I do kinda like your idea of a membership card.  I hope
> someone implements that.  (What I'm doing to help with the cash crunch
> is working on getting us an automated reminder system for existing
> members to pay their dues.)
>
> Also, anyone can convene a meeting of the membership process committee,
> which consists of anyone who cares about the membership process.  Also,
> Miah, https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Membership - it's not quite that
> arduous, you don't actually have to attend any meetings at all.
>
> Rachel
>
> Miah Johnson wrote:
>> The idea of "Affiliate Membership" has been brought up before. I think
>> somebody mentioned $20/mo to be an affiliate member, which didn't give
>> you consensus rights but you were for all intents and purpose a member.
>> I think the reason this hasnt happened is "well anybody can just donate
>> $20/mo". But I do agree, it might be nice for some people to say they
>> are a Noisebridge Affiliate Member, and pay their "dues".
>>
>> I also do agree with you that becoming an actual member is a silly
>> process. I cant remember why it was decided that waiting 3 weeks (and
>> requiring that person to be present a 3 member meetings) before getting
>> sign off to become a official member. It might be a good time for
>> Noisebridge to review membership approval process.
>>
>> -Miah
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 3:30 PM, Josh Berkus <josh at agliodbs.com
>> <mailto:josh at agliodbs.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     So last night someone mentioned that NB was functioning at a deficit,
>>     and that memberships were way down.
>>
>>     I think there's some reasons for that.  The threshold for becoming a
>>     member is very high; it's a months-long qualification process, then
>>     $80/month once you join.  This makes it a lot easier to lose members
>>     than to get them.
>>
>>     What if we added "lay members" for the Church of Noisebridge?  I'd be
>>     happy to cough up $50 a year or so to be a lay member and have a cute
>>     card I could carry around.  It would get a lot of us who irregularly
>>     visit NB and would never be full members ... like me ... paying.  I
>>     wouldn't expect any rights in return for that, and I don't think anyone
>>     else would either.
>>
>>     I think we could also be a LOT more aggressive in passing the hat at
>>     events.  I was looking for a hat to pass at 5MOF in fact, but it ended
>>     before I found one.  Someone at each large event should be in charge of
>>     bringing the hat/can around and rattling it for donations.
>>
>>     Heck, we could even take a $5 donation at events and offer beer as the
>>     premium.  That would net us $$$.
>>
>>     --
>>     -- Josh Berkus
>>       (former professional fundraiser)
>>
>>     P.S. I do intend for the cooking classes to be a fundraiser, but so far
>>     attendance has been too low to cover my cost of ingredients.
>>
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>>
>>
>>
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