Proposals for next members meeting

[Ed Chaney]

Hi, I have two things I'd like to put on the agenda for the next member's meeting:

1. Induction fees

At the last meeting there was a brief discussion about induction fees (e.g. lathe, mill, laser). As a long term member and former trustee, I understand why some of the induction fees exist - the laser because we knew that the tube would need regassing/replacing, the lathe because we knew we needed to buy more tooling and the space's income was not covering costs at the time.

The lathe induction was also considered to be valuable - it can take quite a bit of time for a novice to get to a point where they can safely use the lathe. It was a potential way of raising funds in exchange for a member's time and knowledge.

I'm concerned that if induction fees are applied wholesale without consideration, they will become an unnecessary barrier to members that may be on low incomes, and who are already paying membership fees that should entitle them to use the space. For example, if the laser, lathe and the mill are £20 each, plus if a few other things are £10 or £5 we could easily be requiring people to pay £100 or more, upfront and on top of their membership fee.

As the space has reasonable funds at present, I suggest that mandatory fees should be changed to suggested donations in most cases. The main justification for charging a mandatory fee should be if there is a consumable or wear and tear cost associated with that induction.

Suggested donations can still be intended to make the equipment better, purchase upgrades and consumables etc and to raise money towards its maintenance or eventual replacement. However, keeping track of this hasn't worked in the past and puts an unnecessary responsibility and overhead onto members and trustees. 

I suggest the donations go into general funds but can be used to help justify spending. There might be a way of tracking them in the accounts if we want to have reporting but to me this is nice to have rather than required.

My proposal is:

To make induction fees non-mandatory in general and instead have a suggested donation towards consumables, upgrades and maintenance. If there is a clear cost to the induction, then there should be a minimum required donation to cover that cost.

The funds from inductions should not be ring fenced, but donations could be used to inform spending associated with that equipment.

2. Facebook advertising budget

At the last meeting it was mentioned that previous facebook advertising had been very successful. I believe something like £30 was spent and several members signed up as a result. Assuming each member stayed subscribed for at least a couple of months, this seems like a fantastic return on investment and I feel it's a no-brainer to do more of it.

My proposal is:

To allocate funds to regular targeted Facebook adverts. I propose £20 per month, to be reviewed after 6 months.