It might be helpful if you had a cleaning chart with each person's name down the side and maybe tasks they could do across the top so that you could just check off what you did or maybe write the date in that you did it and we would wipe it once a month. It would be decently organized this way and then people would know what needs to be done as well.
--- On Tue, 2/10/12, Justin Lacko <jus...@takaji.ca> wrote: From: Justin Lacko <jus...@takaji.ca> Subject: Re: [SkullSpace-Discuss] optional community service, the Jenkins Plan To: discuss@lists.skullspace.ca Date: Tuesday, 2 October, 2012, 10:07 Respectfully, I think a lot of the points raised are good, but there's some tweaking/additional comments I'd like to add, namely: 1. Raise all memberships to $50, regardless of member. This would happen once we have resolved our lease issues and have a clear roadmap of where we're going. Therefore, the +$10 increase would come with "benefits" of a more useable space. I'm not in favour of changing what people pay based on what they do, partially because I don't feel that we can find 40-50 positions for members if everyone stepped up to the plate. 2. True that's it's been reno and cleaning days lately, but it's required. To the people who are complaining about this, my suggestion would be to step up and give us a hand... there's an endless amount of tasks to bring our space up to snuff and it's being done (it's always being done) by a core group of people. The last big push we made cleared away a LOT, a LOT of garbage and we're now on our way to being able to use our space as it was intended! 3. I think we're also improving on the events front; I've seen more people get involved lately in planning things which is great! :) 4. Cleaning of the bathrooms (not the rest of the space!) will be done by an external service for a nominal price - just waiting on someone to get us the quote. It'll be reduced by sharing the cost with AssentWorks. Finally, I can't stress enough that nobody should expect to be a member and not have to do a little bit of cleaning, which could vary from vacuuming an area to putting away tools to cleaning a window to sweeping a hallway! There is no dedicated cleaning team and while people like to come and work on their stuff and then leave, lately its been falling on a small core of people to do the cleaning. I've heard people tell me "they don't do vacuuming" or "cleaning is not my job." Obviously, this can be frustrating to hear. ***On a more radical note, I propose we add a condition to membership retroactively that conditions of being a member means you are required to do 30 mins of cleaning per month. I think this is a very reasonable amount to ask, and we wouldn't need to regulate it closely. If you come in and vacuum the carpet in the lounge and it takes you 15 minutes, consider your membership agreement fulfilled! We could keep a simple list on a door where people put their name and what they did and the date. And hey, if you don't come to the space in a month, that's fine too; we won't require you to "catch up." I'd be interested to hear what other members think of this... I've been assembling a list of perpetual to-dos for a case such as this. On 1 October 2012 22:22, Mark Jenkins <m...@parit.ca> wrote: > Allow me to present /The Jenkins Plan/ . > (originally inspired by our pending electrical costs, but with a rant > inspired by the maid thread tacked on) > ------------------------- > > In order to raise the inevitable revenues Skullspace is going to need to > cover: > * the cost of electricity at some point (landlord can use exit clause to > force it on us with 6 months notice) > * the heating costs we're about to start bearing for the first time > * the cost of paying back a electrical-renovation loan > > We should raise our membership cost to $60 a month, but make it easy for > folks to drop back to $40 a month if they achieve any of the following > community service requirements: > 1) Serve on the board > 2) Have shown and will continue to show exceptional commitment to our > infrastructure (the Colin Stanners exemption), by designation by the board > or > 3) Organize or co-organize an event/happening once per month or equivalent > (e.g. 12 week class has you covered for a year). Non-member attendees at > most of these events must pay an entrance fee. > > Most of the members who would opt for community service would have to > quality under #3. The board would need to limit the number of people it > grants an exception to under #2. > > My wild guess is this amount of community event organizing would allow us to > boost our long term dependable member numbers from the conservative 40 > number I threw out before to 80. I also guess that 65% of those 80 members > would opt for offering community service (so around 43 members each running > or co-running events) > > So, membership revenues go from: > 40*40 = $1,600 > to > 0.65*80*40+0.35*80*60 = $3760 > > A $2,160 monthly boost in membership $$. Plus rental/event access fees for > non-member event attendance. > > > Notice that I didn't include cleaning and garbage as allowable volunteer > exemptions. > > I don't think we should put cleaning and garbage as "volunteer" actions > because they really do just suck. The #1 way to nuke your volunteers and > other supporters is to beg them to do crappy work that they're not > interested in just for the sake of keeping the organization afloat. People > hate sacrificing themselves for an abstract ideal. > > There should be an incentive for volunteering (such as reduction from $60 to > $40) and that volunteering experience should be rewarding and worthwhile. We > should be channeling our free time and talents into high level hacker > organizing and infrastructure that makes people who come by say "cool, sign > me up". > > If anyone out there is feeling pissed about the hours and hours they've put > into volunteer work that they hate doing, I would like to say *stop*. Just > fucking stop working yourself towards bitterness and don't try to convert > that feeling it into pushing other folks into volunteer work they're not > going to like doing or even start doing. > > Find ways to have fun and boost membership numbers/revenues at the same time > so you can look back and say "I'm glad I did all that work, that was an > awesome experience!". Don't waste a moment of time comparing your > contributions to others in a volunteer driven organization with member dues > -- contributions will *always* vary, and vary considerably, so we have to > focus on volunteer contributions where we don't end up carrying about it and > we should also charge folks who don't meet some minimal standard of > community organizing a higher member fee. (they'll keep paying that fee when > its matched by better service) > > Nobody should feel the weight of the organization personally on their own > shoulders as a personal burden. Let the organization adjust however it needs > to not having you bear such burdens -- fuck martyrdom. > > We can pay for shit that members aren't interested in doing by boosting > membership revenues with an increase in fees and a targeted community > service requirement where we ask folks who want to pay less to directly help > bring in and retain members. > > So "paying for shit" has got to continue with the cleaning and garbage job > where the evidence shows we lack a foolish martyr. Let's pay for it with > real cash and make structural adjustments if necessary to bring in the > revenue to pay for things like this. > > And I don't have a problem with us making an internal hire for things like > this. If volunteers are having fun with meaningful volunteering and not > comparing themselves to a member who happens to be paid for shit work it > shouldn't be a problem. (If volunteers are complaining then it means they're > volunteering on the wrong stuff that we ought to be paying cash for) > > I do have a big problem with folks embracing the $40 per month price point > for cleaning and garbage just because it makes for convenient bookkeeping. > > $40 per month is just waaay to little to pay anyone, outside or inside for > that job. > > I don't have an impression for how it went before, but I think we're just > begging for bad quality of service if we stick with slave pricing. > > There's a myth that when Henry Ford doubled the wages of his workers his > company became way more profitable because the workers could buy his own > product. > > In reality, Ford become more profitable because it was easier to get a lot > more productive work out those workers once they were paid more. (with a > higher wages each worker become more replaceable, crappy workers who didn't > improve could be terminated or replaced by attrition with better workers who > wouldn't have been available before because they worked for higher pay > elsewhere) > > (This is why the minimum wage increases in Manitoba, now $10.25/h [growth > well beyond inflation in the last 5 years] has not been a employment numbers > disaster -- employers with super cheap labour are simply given an incentive > to make better use of the labour they've got. Apparently they teach about > hidden potential every business is always sitting on right away in business > school. See the chapter on "fair pay" from /Filthy Lucre: Economics for > people who hate capitalism/ by Josheph Heath for more info on this subject) > > So, I would like to beg Dave Curry to summon a little more personal dignity > and withdraw the offer for $40/month. Don't debase yourself that badly Dave, > ask us for at least $80/month! > > At $40/month we're just setting ourselves up for sub-par regardless of who > we pay, inside or outside. Something like $80/month isn't very high either, > but it might be enough to get us more or less consistently at a minimal > standard we can live with. > > Dave, if it comes to pass that you keep offering that price, the members > approve of it, *AND* you do end up doing a great job for so little money, > you'll have become a foolish martyr for the wrong cause. Don't. Serriously, > stick to the Skullitron. > > > Mark > _______________________________________________ > SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List > Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss > Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/ _______________________________________________ SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/
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