[Noisebridge-discuss] Close noisebridge, to fix noisebridge

[Ian Sidle]

I know that in some ways this is a drastic re-thinking of how noise bridge works, but hear me out. 

Here is one idea - give everyone ID/time-cards and except for public events, require everyone to use it. 
We can start out with something as crude/simple as little laminated slips of paper with a printed barcode on it and when people forget it, they "login" at the kiosk. 

What will this help with?
1)This will help us identify people who are using NoiseBridge to sleep and other non-excellent things. 
2)Help us identify people who are spending a ton of time in the space without contributing
3)Allows us to acknowledge the people who are contributing with their time/labor to the space.
4)People who want to support the space as Financial members can continue to do so. 
5)People can pay X dollars/hour to use the space without becoming "full" members, if they only need it a little bit. 
6)People who are visiting the first time will register and they get X hours right off the back so they can jump right in.


For people that are "volunteer" members, then it records the time they spend using the space and the time they spend volunteering at the space.  
For example, One hour of helping out gives you Four hours of time in the space (Obviously, at the big meeting we will want to discuss what's a fair ratio- probably will become a long discussion).
Someone else signs off verifying that you did the actually did help out for the time claimed, so there is some accountability but it's peer based not some rigid bureaucratic structure.
If someone goes crazy and signs off on everything with them, then a discussion is had with them and/or their signing permission is revoked. 


If you are a full paying member, then you get "unlimited" hours and (optionally) your time spent isn't logged. 
This will provide an incentive for people to join who are privacy conscious. 
Once they have been vouched through the process, many will know them by name by then and it would become mostly peer level enforcement at that point. 

Ultimately, the purpose of this is to provide a fair way for new/visiting people to use the space and leaving people who are regulars alone. 
This is more about keeping people accountable and not about making a billing system. 
Short of having crazy interlocking doors, there is no way we can force everyone to sign in/out anyway.
However,  I think everyone should have the right to ask "Did you forget to sign in?" and verify that they did. 

People who know the regulars, this won't require much change their routine much and we can give them  brightly colored badges (or something) so it's obvious.

I think it would be best to set it up so people get notified when someone cross over what is communally decided as unfair limits and then someone has discussion with them (although obviously hard limits can also be set as well)

Could be as simple as a obnoxious/embarrassing noise that alerts everyone in the space that this person is a leecher (as well as a sensor to detect when someone walks in without signing in).

If someone is doing cool stuff but doesn't have time/money to contribute to the space, then there can be a community meeting and it will be decided if they deserve an "honorary membership" or what have you. 

I'm just throwing this idea out there and we will see if anyone likes it.   

I know It's a compromise but  as long as everyone views this from the perspective of "keeping people honest" then I think it can work.

Naturally, There would be a lot of little details that would need to be ironed out before moving forward. 


thanks,
Ian