Talk:Bylaws

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Restricting membership to northern Alabama is somewhat reasonable given the name of the group, but I can see people coming from tennessee especially if they commute anyway for work or uah. --Opticron 19:39, 27 March 2008 (CDT)

  • I think changing to "Northern Alabama area" would be sufficient.--JimShoe 13:08, 7 April 2008 (CDT)
  • 256 is all of North Alabama... --strages 03:08, 15 April 2008 (CDT)
  • That is true but we are close to Tennessee which wouldn't be 256, thus the key word "area".


5% seems like very few people to constitute a meeting since 5% right now is less than a person. maybe an additional limitation that it should be no less that 2 or 3 people --Opticron 19:42, 27 March 2008 (CDT)


$40 per month seems really steep for regular membership, especially if they aren't given a key immediately. I still think a "Junior Member" category would serve us here---designating those members not with us long enough to have unfettered access, possibly paying $20-$25/month.--Korc 19:27, 4 April 2008 (CDT)

  • I'm thinking similarly. For instance, when i was a college student, I couldn't have afforded $20/mo, much more $40+. What that would have meant for me would be only participating on open house weekends). If my 4 visits during non-open houses were used up, I simply wouldn't be able to afford the organization. For me, if I was paying $40 a month, I would expect a key. For $20 a month I would expect to be able use the lab during the week when someone else was there for my own personal project. That being said, as a college student, I would have been ok only coming on the weekends (for free). --Omegix 1:26, 6 April 2008 (CDT)
  • Lets run some numbers. If we have 5 new people paying $20/month = $100. Will is $100 cover the resources 5 people use in a month? I think it will, but Omegix might know better.--JimShoe 13:08, 7 April 2008 (CDT)
  • I tend to agree with Korc. I don't think resources are going to be an issue. "Junoir Members" wouldn't have 24/7 access to the shop, so there is a limit to how many resources can be used up by them. $40/mo is still steep, but for 24/7 access to a shop, I'd have to say it's worth it. That being said, we need a mechanism to tell when we are actually in the shop, checkable from a standard phone, SMS, web, and more if possible. Opticron 15:53, 7 April 2008 (CDT)
  • So far, it seems like members are paying for the privilege of working on our projects. What if we could give members discounts on magazines related to making- such as MAKE, CRAFT, other suggestions? I know Astronomy and Sky & Telescope have club memberships that allow club members a 20-25% discount on the magazine subscription. If the dues are 20-40 a mo, we could take one month's dues and put it towards that for a year. --Saratheneale 15:53, 7 April 2008 (CDT)
  • Saratheneale mentioned to me that we might get more money if we charged people $50/year for un-keyed membership, allowing them to use the shops on weekends only. Then if they wanted more than weekend access, $20/mo. Keyed access $40/mo. Omegix 12:54, 8 April 2008 (CDT)
  • Does the initial $100 also cover the first month's dues? Opticron 13:56, 14 April 2008 (CDT)


What happens if a paying member wants to use the shop during the week but can't because a keyed member is not available? Do we refund/not charge them for the month? How do we inform un-keyed members that there's someone in the shop until we get ibuttons/cameras/automata working? Maybe have members log time-in / time-out a shop computer table with an RSS feed that ACKIS can feed into #makerslocal ? or publish the time-in / time-out to a public webpage?--Omegix 1:26, 6 April 2008 (CDT)

  • Paying member know they only have access when Keyed member are there. Last week being our first whole week with the shop, someone was there everyday. Un-keyed members will have webcams to look at as well as irc and probably, a phone, they can use to verify someone is or will be there for said amount of time. --JimShoe 13:08, 7 April 2008 (CDT)


How about some amount of time free for non-paying members, and any more than x amount of time, they must do some sort of volunteer work. This could be teaching a kid's class, vacuuming the place, soldering components, etc. --Nykodemus 01:51, 6 April 2008 (CDT)

  • Wouldn't this be something the Charter/Board could vote on. I like the idea.--JimShoe 13:08, 7 April 2008 (CDT)
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