> Many users are slobs, and are happy to leave the space worse than it already is.
Slobs will drive up costs and demoralize your volunteers. If you try to factor too much toxic behavior into your price, your rates will drive away your target market.
Instead, avoid toxic slobs by requiring newcomers to pay not just with money, but also with time before they get access to resources that could harm your property. In the trades, this is called apprenticeship: newcomers pay up front, but aren't allow unsupervised access to tools until they've completed several years of work under the watch of a senior practitioner. Your programs don't need to be as long, but you do need to train people about real dangers: anything from a soldering iron to a drill press can cause permanent physical injury, never-mind CNC mills and welding equipment. No one should be able to use a hot glue gun or X-Acto in your facility without first paying you and consistently physically showing up to hear you tell them how, when, why, and for how long they're allowed to use it. As part of the training, have them maintain tools -- replace 3D printer drive belts, calibrate stop switches, hit the E-STOP on your CNC, lubricate joints with the correct grease, change the blade in your jigsaw.
Once you have a trained user base, waive fees for masters who spend time mentoring apprentices.
Also, document and promote achievements in your makerspace. Did a group of three multi-skill certified masters build a working cellphone from scratch? Did your recent repair-a-thon save 100 broken appliances from the landfill with custom repairs? Did a junior apprentice fabricate a novel tool that made the news? This stuff should be on your walls! Incentivize members to make your facility and culture famous.
Gamify the credentials by celebrating member accomplishments, and advertising them on a leader board. Talk about your elite members with reverence. Talk to your new members with respect. And compliment new members who do well on things like keeping benches clean when they're finished.
Align your certifications with local trade programs. The industrial tech instructors will love it when their students come in with experience in your maker space. They will recommend your organization to students and prospective students.
Structure your org into a non profit that owns a for-profit. Solicit contributions from wealthy elites. I've heard Jeff Bezos will personally send you six figures if he thinks what you're doing is worthwhile, but 1000 other businesses will do the same if you put their name somewhere on the wall. This will provide rent-security, budget for high-end equipment. Why can't your makerspace have the world's only 12-nozzle 3D printer? Or a 10um lithography machine for making 555 timers from scratch?
With money, you can also host internships, paying undergrads to build meta functions, like setting up and hardening your IT, industrial automation, filming for your youtube channel, fundraising campaigns. With a good challenge and classy tools, your interns will make their fellow classmen jealous with incredible accomplishments to add to their resume.
Expand into a regional movement; mentor and support other makerspaces who are doing good things.
At each step you'll have to train people to carry on what you started. But you won't be worrying about slobs any more.
> No one should be able to use a hot glue gun or X-Acto in your facility without first paying you and consistently physically showing up to hear you tell them how, when, why, and for how long they're allowed to use it.
This is why I end up just buying my own tools. By the time I factor in a couple months of membership just so I can get trained up to use the machines, plus the gas & time sinks of driving to the place, I've blown the time and the money to get my own gear instead. A 3d printer, a variable power supply, a soldering iron, and all the X-Acto blades I can break cost me less than 4 months at Hacker Dojo, and they're here in my garage, and if they get ruined and set me back on my project it's my own fault.
Slobs will drive up costs and demoralize your volunteers. If you try to factor too much toxic behavior into your price, your rates will drive away your target market.
Instead, avoid toxic slobs by requiring newcomers to pay not just with money, but also with time before they get access to resources that could harm your property. In the trades, this is called apprenticeship: newcomers pay up front, but aren't allow unsupervised access to tools until they've completed several years of work under the watch of a senior practitioner. Your programs don't need to be as long, but you do need to train people about real dangers: anything from a soldering iron to a drill press can cause permanent physical injury, never-mind CNC mills and welding equipment. No one should be able to use a hot glue gun or X-Acto in your facility without first paying you and consistently physically showing up to hear you tell them how, when, why, and for how long they're allowed to use it. As part of the training, have them maintain tools -- replace 3D printer drive belts, calibrate stop switches, hit the E-STOP on your CNC, lubricate joints with the correct grease, change the blade in your jigsaw.
Once you have a trained user base, waive fees for masters who spend time mentoring apprentices.
Also, document and promote achievements in your makerspace. Did a group of three multi-skill certified masters build a working cellphone from scratch? Did your recent repair-a-thon save 100 broken appliances from the landfill with custom repairs? Did a junior apprentice fabricate a novel tool that made the news? This stuff should be on your walls! Incentivize members to make your facility and culture famous.
Gamify the credentials by celebrating member accomplishments, and advertising them on a leader board. Talk about your elite members with reverence. Talk to your new members with respect. And compliment new members who do well on things like keeping benches clean when they're finished.
Align your certifications with local trade programs. The industrial tech instructors will love it when their students come in with experience in your maker space. They will recommend your organization to students and prospective students.
Structure your org into a non profit that owns a for-profit. Solicit contributions from wealthy elites. I've heard Jeff Bezos will personally send you six figures if he thinks what you're doing is worthwhile, but 1000 other businesses will do the same if you put their name somewhere on the wall. This will provide rent-security, budget for high-end equipment. Why can't your makerspace have the world's only 12-nozzle 3D printer? Or a 10um lithography machine for making 555 timers from scratch?
With money, you can also host internships, paying undergrads to build meta functions, like setting up and hardening your IT, industrial automation, filming for your youtube channel, fundraising campaigns. With a good challenge and classy tools, your interns will make their fellow classmen jealous with incredible accomplishments to add to their resume.
Expand into a regional movement; mentor and support other makerspaces who are doing good things.
At each step you'll have to train people to carry on what you started. But you won't be worrying about slobs any more.