[Noisebridge-discuss] Charging for Lockers

[Tom Lowenthal]

On 1 December 2013 13:32, Al Sweigart <asweigart at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'll bring this up at the next meeting. I propose Noisebridge uses its funds
> to buy lockers for members to store their projects and valuables in.
>
> Theft and things being moved around and lost has been a large problem at
> Noisebridge for years. It would be nice if members had a place to store
> their belongings in a secure manner at the space, and this would encourage
> people to work on long-term projects instead of having to constantly haul
> them from home to the space to avoid getting them stolen.
>
> I've been looking on Craigslist. I've seen one ad (and this is about the
> general price) that had a bank of 3x2 school-sized lockers for $250 each. If
> we charge $15 a month for locker storage, we can recoup the cost for
> Noisebridge within six months, and at that point the lockers start MAKING
> money for Noisebridge.
>
> They are also sized so that two or more people could share them if they want
> to split the costs and trust each other.
>
> I can come up with more protocols for the lockers (process if people don't
> pay, who gets priority for lockers, where to put them, what can and can't be
> stored in lockers (such as food/smelly stuff), etc.)
>
> I'd propose that Noisebridge spend up to a thousand dollars for new lockers.
> We have the funds now, so we are in a much better position to make an
> expenditure like this.

I know that we've discussed ideas like this before, but I am
completely in favor of this plan.

I think that it's definitely valuable to agree on some aspects of the
locker protocol just like you've suggested. Do you think you'll be
able to come up with a reasonable first draft by the time we meet on
Tuesday?

Another aspect worth considering is how to deal with the current items
on the shelves. We'll have a few weeks while we're agreeing what to
do, and then acquiring the new lockers. I suggest that we pick a date
to install the lockers: anything on the shelves on that date will be
carefully disposed of. Obviously, we'll have to send word out far and
wide so that folks can make sure to remove their projects over the
installation date.

Finally: money. I absolutely agree that this is the sort of
infrastructure initiative where it'd make sense to deploy some of our
scarce and valuable funds. However, I also strongly think that we
should make a collection first and see what shakes out. Just $35 from
each of the members and associate members on the wiki would more than
cover $1000. I'm in for $50.

See y'all Tuesday,
-Tom