[Swansea Hackspace] What next

[Paul Harwood]

Hi Steven,

I wholeheartedly agree with your concerns. Which is exactly why any hackspace/hackerspace should look at the appetite for a hackspace in Swansea before considering any serious outlay. There are obviously too few members to justify even speaking about a generously sized leased or hired premises currently. 

A donated premises, one that is part of another setup is going to be hard to find and also nearly always comes with conditions. If they fit then fine, but I remember reading about hackspaces needing to exist pretty independently because if the charity stops or relationship breaks down (hopefully not because of fire) then it can create a huge issue for the hackspace.

Most of the issues you have raised are also genuine concerns for active hackspaces and need a vigilant committee to work through. I said 'plan for success' because, if the hackspace in Swansea does grow to 50 active members in two years (quite possible) and you have all those systems and processes in place, you don't really want to have to move premises as Bristol are now forced to do because of lack of space. Equally, you don't want the rent to go into arrears in the first 6 months. 

If this is going to be done properly then a simple business case should be drawn up by the group, the core of any business case is demand for the service or product. Without that figure (or a good estimate of that figure), it's all rearranging raindrops.

So, flyering the places most likely to turn up members will be one way to gauge the levels. Plus, no one will have to worry about COSHH if no one turns up :)

Some good tips here - 

http://hackspace.org.uk/view/Starting_a_Hackerspace

-- Paul

On 27 Mar 2013, at 09:07, Steven Whitehouse <steve at chygwyn.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Tue, 2013-03-26 at 22:35 +0000, Paul Harwood wrote:
>> I saw that reply, shame eh!
>> 
>> 
>> I was thinking more about flyering for members, rather than asking for
>> a space. The more initial membership is = the bigger space the
>> hackspace can afford.
> 
> That may be true, but the bigger questions are:
> 
> - What (aside from space) will the hackerspace provide?
> - Who is going to be responsible for health & safety?
> 
> When I'm figuring out what I'm prepared to pay each month, the thing I
> want to take into account is what I get in return. I'm already paying a
> subscription to various professional societies who put on talks
> regularly, and the biggest issue with these is getting anybody to attend
> them (in the case of the IET, they are all open and free to everybody,
> not just IET members)
> 
> If I want to meet up with a group of people, we can do that in a pub or
> something at very low (or no) cost.
> 
> So it seems to me that the only reason that the hackerspace would need
> (expensive) premises is to contain the kit which would help to encourage
> people to join by offering them access to things which they could not
> otherwise have access to.
> 
> One of the main reasons for trying to have the uni as a base is because
> there are various things which could be borrowed for little or no money
> (e.g. fancy 3d printer comes to mind) which would provide a real
> incentive for people to join.
> 
> If based elsewhere, then the budget looks like it would be so small that
> it would be difficult to purchase the kind of items which would
> encourage people to join - at least unless some initial set up grant was
> available.
> 
> As soon as there are premises, we'd need public liability insurance, and
> also someone has to be in charge of health and safety. That means making
> sure that only people who've had suitable instruction can use certain
> items of equipment, it means dealing with COSHH and checking mechanical
> and electrical equipment are safe to use on a regular basis. So there is
> a fair amount of responsibility for anybody taking this on,
> 
> Steve.
> 
> 
> 

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