Editing Meeting Notes 2023 03 14 (section)

== Discussion Item 5 ==
Donations. request 
- $500 / mo for sewing.

Corey: Put up signage, that every day/week NB costs so much. Same for class. $20/class. Need to put value on Noisebridge's time. Membership is one thing, use of space is taking advantage of cost
Tyler: Just pass this around at the beginning of class

JD: Exactly what I do. $20 suggested donation, $15 / hour for using the laser. QR codes, bc putting cash into coffee can isn't secure. Use QR code, don't care if issues. My issue is with charging for meetup signups. Double edged sword. On one hand, don't turn away people for lack of funds. Because it's on Meetup, we get a bunch of casuals. And then they don't put money down, so they don't show up. Every sunday at 2 PM, idk who I'll be teaching / serious about the class / signed up online. Even if they signed up on a whim. Sticky whicket. Remind people to donate
Tyler: Charging will just lower class attendance
JD: Do we charge full price, or $5 to reserve a slot
farley: I'm actually paying to make signs : Noisebridge has X months left (18-24) We need X more Members to break even. More actionable to get Membership, rather than charge for classes. Why are we debating charging for classes? Let's do it
Charlie: Couldn't hear last few minutes. something I was thinking,
Tying back to ceramics discussion, I am interested in ceramics. When it comes to cost of that, something tht came to mind is potentially doing fundraising using that, making things for sale or for suggested donation/ for the classes. Once ceramics is up and running, we can take a stab at that as well. I'd be happy to do an auction or sale, donate some of my own artwork. I'd to be involved in whatever going forward.

TJ: Biggest argument against doing required payment is: my meetup is driven via a collaborative show-and-tell. Doesnt mix well with any kind of payment setup. We wont ask ppl to pay anything. 
    
jvol: Seems like a fairly simple solutio might be: charge for class. Don't charge for meetup.

sam: I like the idea of getting more money in, its positive as a whole. We become open up to being liabile for fraud though should people pay for things, not show up and then we dont refund them. We just need to start thinking about process more.
    
emeline: Meetup allows reimbursement in the case that no one shows up. Charging for reducing attendance -- we've actually had a longer waitlist.

max: does meetup support sliding scale payments?

emeline: We set fee at lower end of donation scale. We had people show up despite having waitlist

farley: Laser itself is a resource, and requires cost. Don't worry about sliding scales for both

jvol: 3 things: 
    1. I like the idea just charging low-end upfront in order to register.
    2. Some of these classes, especially woodshop for instance, i see safety things that scare me. Maybe there should be a distinction between more advanced things. We need to be careful. Basic safety classes should be free or maybe very very low.
    3. 
    

Mark: What I am hearing is that a formal designation is a solution to the problem that could help us.

TJ:  The idea we are putting forward is that "some events at NB can be charged for"?

No one disagees

charlie: something that came to mind. when someone was talking about not wanting ppl to not have access to certain classes, it reminded me of something from my highschool - we had thing called "the angel fund" set aside to cover the cost of certain trips/uniforms, etc for students who couldn't afford them. Wondering if we could implement some such analogue.

money set aside to cover costs for people who can't afford it -- i.e. safety classes could be sponsored by a fund.

excellent idea.