You can call this the AHA Board DEBATE of 2012!

[Dana Nelson]

So out of curiousity, because this is a MAJOR issue right now, and you can treat it as a debate style question if you wish:

If you are elected to the AHA board, what will you do to help your favorite hackerspace MAKE IT'S DECEMBER RENT as we are still in the hole. Your hackerspace needs you!

I think this is just as important as the national deficit in our little community, and if you wish to help guide the hackerspace forward, you should be helping with it being able to pay it's bills.

As for me asking this in an open forum, I think all of the AHA members would be interested to know your amazing plans or intentions before they vote tomorrow during Build Night!

So, get to it candidates, I'll share mine when I know I won't be the only one fretting over such circumstances.

--
Dana Nelson

All Hands Active

AHAkids Class Coordinator

[Michael Grube]

This is a pretty awesome idea. Good thinking Dana.

With that, I'd like to share my plans for increasing the income for All Hands Active by December.

As I shared in my bio on the AHA election page, one of my ideas is to hold sponsored Hackathons at AHA. The election isn't over but I've already begun working with Khevna and will be meeting with Michigan Hackers(who already hold such events) on Friday.

While I do realize it will take a non-trivial amount of time and effort to stage a success event like this, I see it potentially contributing not only rent money but also new members to our beloved hackerspace.

Another thing AHA needs to do is hone its outreach to communities that would potentially be interested in an org like AHA but are perhaps not aware of the spirit and activities that occur at AHA. This requires old fashioned legwork, as Nate Yost mentioned in his bio. I'd gladly be willing to participate in reaching out to groups such as bicycle co-ops(does AA have any?), radio/software user groups(I'm sure this has been done, but regular reminders of our existence can't hurt) and whoever else might be interested in being part of our community.

tl;dr I will organize sponsored Hackathons and do community outreach,

[Dana Nelson]

In case you're like "what bios?":

http://www.allhandsactive.com/board-nominees/

[N Y]

Good question! We have a very small window here, so I wanted to focus on
something getting us some funds quickly, then when we are solid, working
toward future alliances. My idea is to take a few days to canvas the
downtown area (and perhaps beyond) with some nice business cards and a
convincing pitch. I would like to meet with organizations in the area
who might be sympathetic to our cause, and who could donate a bit of
money to our cause. Another short-term idea is to run a Kickstarter to
help supplement any donations we might get from the first idea. The
only "drawback" there is that we will need a small, dedicated team to
work on spreading the word and making gifts. If it comes down to it, I
will personally invest the money needed to help make these gifts.

More in the big picture (but we can start now), I would like to
stimulate our own membership by investigating what it will take to
become self-sufficient through dues alone. Being self-sufficient is the
ultimate goal, since donors can eventually burn out. We need to offer
people a great reason to give us $20-$50 every month. We have record
membership, so what can we do to ensure we hold that trend, and make it
pay the bills? To that end, I would like to organize quarterly feedback
surveys. We have not polled the membership as a whole in a very long
time! How do we make AHA better?

There are a few other ideas I can bring to the table, but I would also
like to see what other people have in mind (and I'd like to hear more
from everyone who can read this, not just nominees/directors!). I think
that the joy of having a group of committed people working on a problem
is that we can bounce around all these ideas and polish them up into
something that will help us out.

As an aside: another thing I really would want to focus on this term is
encouraging all directors (and that certainly would include me!) to
develop their ability to follow through. It is imperative for AHA's
leaders to not only come up with ideas, but also to execute those ideas
in a timely fashion -- even if it means coordinating a larger team to
make things happen. I am ready!

-- Nate Y.

On 10/24/2012 07:46 PM, Dana Nelson wrote:
> So out of curiousity, because this is a MAJOR issue right now, and you can
> treat it as a debate style question if you wish:
>
> If you are elected to the AHA board, what will you do to help your favorite

> hackerspace *MAKE IT'S DECEMBER RENT* as we are still in the hole. Your

[Alexander Honkala]

Accountability.

Neonate brings up a great point regarding director follow through. To this end, I have 2 solutions:

1) A new mandatory item on every board meeting agenda to the effect of compiling action items for each director and publishing them to the entire ahashop_members list. At each subsequent board meeting the progress on those action items will also be tracked and published. This will put public eye from the AHA community on the efforts of the directors to ensure they follow through by means of positive social pressure and by way of the AHA community gently berating them when they fail to follow through.

2) Choose a damn project management software for AHA. I'll pay for it if need be. We need a better way to track this stuff.

More accountability: mofo newsletter. When AHA publishes its newsletter regularly, it is being more transparent to the community. When AHA does not publish a newsletter, it is a black box that no one can quite tell what is going on inside. Transparency to the wider community translates to a greater willingness to impart cash unto AHA because then there is regular documentation, both past and future expected, that AHA is a good thing and not a stanky neckbeard fetish club.

Promotion.

I have long wanted AHA's website to be a clearinghouse for SE MI and A2 tech, craft, and nerd culture. When AHA promotes itself, it definitely benefits and we have largely sucked at tooting our own horn. But when AHA promotes another organization, we build good will and instill future cross-promotional possibilities so that our efforts can reach a larger audience. To this end I want to poke someone from this long distance to build a fancy mount for the Flipcam so that documenting your projects, ideas, or whatever is as easy as hitting a button. I'd also like to see the AHA site incorporate Posterous so that anyone who wants to post blog to it can do so from email at their leisure instead of having to deal with Wordpress.

Goals.

AHA needs more goals and needs to be louder about them. Goals are handles of communication that show the community that AHA ain't stagnant and has plans to go places. I want to see a Hackerology Plan on the AHA website as formulated by all its members at an AHA General Assembly once a year. This needs to include 6-month goals, 1-year goals, and 3-year goals.

My goals for AHA:

6-months - fiscally kickass, Dogfort vented completely, Cube rebuilt, stench defeated, more AHA teams going to more events (DUCF, Free Skool, a2gotech, a2newtech, Beer:30, ARBSEC, + more), 20 new members

1-year - seduce another hardware start-up into the space through working with TechArb and SPARK, more classes all the time, space straining hard against its current square footage, 60 new members

3-year - AHA has doubled or tripled space and tooling, hosts 4-7 startups, 15 classes/mo, regularly has 200 members, has done pop-up art galleries and pop-up restaurants

Why.

All of the above solidifies what AHA is and how it presents itself. Right now AHA is somewhat obtuse to an outsider, and that is damaging the ease with which new members can join or community members can support. By implementing the above, AHA will appear more solid, more professional, and more driven, which in turn will allow for easier psychological on-ramps to supporting the space. These are all fairly long-term solutions to avoid fiscal insolubility, but I do believe that proper implementation thereof can stave that off permanently.

Let me know if you'd like me to clarify any points.

With love,

Xander

[Lisa Thierbach]

I would very much like to help with ideas and actions for making money. I just joined AHA and don't want to see such an awesome group of people struggle with money. Maybe we could start a separate email topic and/or arrange a group meeting.

Lisa

[Dana Nelson]

Okay, here's my answer. I agree with a lot of what the other say regarding outreach, accountability, etc.

And before I start, I will warn that this may sound rant like. I am very passionate about this question, as I see it as an emergency that we need to be stepping up and doing something about NOW. Everyone that boasts to other people about how they are members, how they are part of the community, and yet only come down here on build nights to socialize, this question is for you. We are sinking, how are you helping to keep us afloat?

I am working on developing curriculum and schedules for local schools to be able to come down to AHA for field trips. Theoretically, this could make us $150 for 3-4 hours of work during hours in which the space isn't being utilized. We already have a teacher interested, which could lead to a whole school, which could lead to about 5 classrooms. Once ideas are settled and implemented though, we could send this to other schools.

Another plan, which I am working on a couple different options and will bring to the board as soon as we know who the new board is, if we are struggling to pay our bills, why do we still have so many free members working in exchange for a membership. While this is awesome that we do this, we can't really afford to. The members working behind the counter are an exception to this, I think, as it's extremely difficult to get people to work a shift. I work shift, and work a lot doing other things, and ya know what? I'm still paying my membership this month because I know that my community is suffering.

One thing people are forgetting, 1/3 of our income is made up from the gaming portion of All Hands Active!!! Even with this fact, I continually hear comments about how "They're just gamers." and so on. It's no secret that over the past few years, the gaming side has gone down a bit, but I've heard and know people that have flat out said, "I stopped coming back to Ops because of the AHA people." We all need to be more respectful as far as noise go and need to make an effort to think about what they want from the organization. 

[Dana Nelson]

M.S.-

Everyone can show up to board meetings. They are open to the public. Holding a seperate day never really panned out well in the past.

Also, the people working shift are supposed to be greeting people and showing them around, giving AHA a more friendly appearance. If they aren't doing their job, tell them. You pay membership, you are their boss.

[Zach Wick]

As others have said, I think that it is imperative that AHA talks about itself to the local businesses, people, and orgs. In order to rectify the budget shortage, I propose the following solution:
- Get proactive about membership dues
    This is a tricky subject since we want everybody to be able to use the space, but at the same time, we want dues paying members. I propose an electronic sign-in form that asks for basic information. Then when a particular name appears X number of times, we start talking to that person about becoming a member.
    The flip-side of this, is that having a new member is all well and good, but we need members to pay their dues (and pay on time). In order to achieve this, I think that we need to send out a reminder email before dues are due (much like a credit card company). In this email, there is  a list of every class/activity that that person attended in the month coming to a close and upcoming classes that may interest that person based on their history. This would reiterate the value of AHA to that person. (Grube, want to hack on this with me?)
- Beat the pavement for corporate sponsors
    I am not sure what the non-profit status is of AHA, but regardless, I propose coming up with a semi-standard pitch about what AHA is/does, and giving this pitch to local business (especially tech businesses). Ann Arbor is rife with tech companies that donate various things to orgs like ours, and I think that this is where AHA can really excel. We provide such a unique set of opportunities for the community, and we should capitalize on that uniqueness.

Like others have said, we need to be more proactive about getting the word out about AHA and what we are doing. Not only would this be enlightening to the greater community, but even to members.

-Zach

[Lisa Thierbach]

I realize I've only been a member for a couple of months, and probably don't understand much about AHA yet, but I've got some thoughts.

I have some ideas on what could make the "showing people around" thing work a bit better based on my observations. I don't think it helps that the sexist maker equipment is hidden in the back. I think the people working behind the counter need some more tools and guidance to get the excitement up.

BTW, no excuse for showing disrespect for anyone. Better not do that around me or I'll pull the mom card on you.

Lisa

[Dana Nelson]

Sexist maker equipment? Did something happen and I don't know about it?

[Lisa Thierbach]

LOL. I'm showing my age. When I was in school, the boys all took shop and the girls took home economics. I enjoyed learning to sew, but cooking was never really my thing (just ask my family). Of course, I might have made a word choice error and meant to say "sexier," but since I'm a part time writer, that just couldn't be the case.

Lisa

[Dana Nelson]

Ok, cool. Part of that is due to noise it produces and the disruptions it would cause to gamers and others trying to focus. They get loud :)

[Lisa Thierbach]

I agree the back room is the right place for them, I just think people who come down and express interest in making things should be herded into the back room (in a non-threatening way, of course) and shown the stuff. It might also be nice to have a small scale model of the equipment along with some examples of what can be made right on the front counter/display case. Also, during public hours, if the monitors aren't being used for gaming, have a video loop showing the games, and any videos/pictures you have of people making stuff, playing could create more interest. I'd also like to see anyone who comes down get a business card thing. I don't think actual business cards or pamphlets would work because they cost money, and it should be something that is made.

I was thinking of using scrape material to make something like:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:641

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:210

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1578

Or anything else with AHA website on it that people might actually be able to play with.

Lisa

[Thomas Hunter]

My big idea to make money is to go to local companies and ask for it. Sounds crazy, but that's how a lot of non profits do it. It sucks, it reminds me a lot of college when you'd try to get scholarships and stuff and it would turn out fruitless a lot of the time, but occasionally you hit gold. Attaining 501c3 status is very important for this, companies are more apt to donate to a non profit than a not for profit.

A local company was talking with the board members / myself about having us run a hackathon that they would sponsor monetarily but that we would run. We'd award a prize to the winner(s), and get a cut of the overall funding for ourselves, and the company would get exposure amongst the nerd community which could lead to them getting more employees (us hackers are so hard to find, who knew). This could be a lucrative business model, possibly holding one every quarter, perhaps making a grand or two a pop.

I also like the idea of us building little kits that we could sell, perhaps putting a sign on the door that we have stuff for sale downstairs. We'd want to clean up the door upstairs, and the stairwell is already getting a lot of improvement, which would help prevent us from scaring potential customers away.

Thomas Hunter

programmer

web: thomashunter.name

twitter: @tlhunter

phone: 989-513-5499

[Steamy Karen]

One area in which AHA tends to far outshine i3 is putting together and presenting classes. Maybe we could set up some classes where specifically i3 members could come out and learn from you wonderful people. I'm sure everyone would be willing to fork over some cash for the knowledge and experience. Just thought it might be an idea of how i3 could help get some cash into the AHA flow. If someone wants to work with me on this, let's talk about a list of classes you could offer and I'll see what interest there is over here.
~Karen aka Steamy
President, i3 Detroit

[nathan dotz]

Hi, I'm sleepynate. You may remember me from such films as teaching an assload of programming and skills classes at AHA.

I'm already halfway to i3 on my weeknights (my office is down by the stadium), and I'm already prepping some material for classes at AHA and user groups in Ann Arbor for the coming Winter and Spring (I even promised Josh I'd run python again once we move the stations). I'd be totally willing to come run classes at i3 to raise some cold hard cash for AHA.

I've even got this handy survey people can fill out about what people are interested in taking. I was going to make it for AHA people, but I've added a first question for which hackerspace you're at, because Steamy's email happened to be timely.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGF4Z3N6RTZ0RVRxdEQ0MXhRc3M1ZGc6MQ

--
nathan dotz

[N Y]

I think meeting for the explicit task of hashing out ideas for
fundraising would be nice (at least, it keeps me focused). If people
want to meet in person, can we do a short (hour or less?) fundraising
meeting prior to the next board meeting? The next board meeting will
happen on Nov. 14th at 8:00PM, and we have been meeting in the basement
of Elixir Vitae/Cafe Ambrosia. Let's put this one tentatively at 7:00,
if people think it's a good idea.

I do realize that this meeting is a bit delayed, so other in-person
meeting suggestions are welcome -- but keep in mind that AHA events
scheduled less than two weeks prior to the event usually yield few
people showing up.

For offline meeting purposes, I will throw my support behind using the
wiki ( http://wiki.allhandsactive.com/Board_Brainstorm ). We can use
the Discussion/Talk tab at the top.

What do you all think?

-- Nate Y.