Hackerspace Design Patterns

Shortened list of hackerspaces.org's list of Design Patterns. Would look better as a list of 'dos' and 'donts'.

Independence Patterns

choose a benevolent,but uninterested landlord and cool neighbours
Guest are ﬁne, but don’t let anyone live there
- that's for a housing co-op. some hackerspace members have been involved in housing coops and it is a valid idea. we are making a lab. if enough people get interested in a housing coop, it could happen.
smaller, separate rooms. Use curtains or door
Have a kitchen, and fridge. Nothing brings people together like cooking together.
couches, sofas, comfortable chairs, tables, ashtrays, ambient light, stereo equipment, a projector, and video game consoles. no plants.
bathroom with a shower
Collect fees regularly. Make no exceptions, ever. Discounts for students. Have at least three months of rent on your account, all the time, no exceptions. Elect a totalitarian treasurer.
Never ever depend your space on external sponsors.

Weekly meetings, have an agenda, set goals, keep minutes of the meeting
Meet on Tuesdays.
OpenChaos - Have a monthly, public, and open lecture, talk or workshop
Recruit young people through a challenge you set up for them, in form of a course that spans several weeks. Overwhelm them,
Peak enthusiasm at a hackerspace has the form of a sine curve with a cycle duration of four years. Don't give up.

Use the weekly plenum for discussion. Don’t take votes — discuss until everyone agrees.
Use the weekly plenum for discussion. Do take votes — the strongest minority wins over the weaker minorities.
Command - order people to do necessary tasks, like taking out trash and doing dishes. Participate yourself.
Do not have ranks. Use leadership temporarily, like for projects and when you really need it.
Responsibility - take pride in your volunteer work, if you can't handle it, hand it off to somebody.
Learn from people with real political work. Learn not to interrupt others.
Identify pointless discussion and just end them.
deal with dissenters amicably

Get rid of old hardware. Create a pile of old hardware. Announce the throwing away / sale of old hardware, three times, escalating.
Hand out keys. Track who owns a key. Have a good lock. Collect deposit for the key. Or build an electronic system. (mag strip readers are cheep)
Buy at least one pallet of Club-Mate and sell it in your hackerspace