4 ms·

In my experience $20-$70 an hour is too much. We were offered $50/hour meeting space at a local incubator, but the numbers never added up. It is hard enough to

In my experience $20-$70 an hour is too much. We were offered $50/hour meeting space at a local incubator, but the numbers never added up. It is hard enough to get people to show up if it is free, requiring people to pay to attend a casual meetup would not work in our situation. Who is going to foot the multi thousand dollar per year bill for meeting space? This is why municipalities need to provide this space for free. It is a very hard burden to get a single person to foot the bill for meeting space, whereas the municipality can charge everyone $50/year on their property taxes and build meeting spaces which everyone gets to use. People love to moan about taxes but I think this is one of those problems solved better in the collective.

diffxx 2y ago
Why should my tax dollars pay for your special interest group to have free meetups? How would we distribute access to this newly created resource equitably? I don't disagree with the concept, but it gets hairy in the particulars. The problem is that of course we rarely ever get to vote on issues such as "should we build a community meeting space?" so we never really get to understand how the electorate truly feels.
- rileymat2 2y ago
  As far as distribution, you could make these same objections about any shared space, from parks to roads. In this scenario, contention for the space is the best possible problem to have, as it means the community is using it. I'd suggest providing public space is a very important role of local government, to foster community interactions.
- giantrobot 2y ago
  > Why should my tax dollars pay for your special interest group to have free meetups? Because they'll also pay for your special interest group meetup. If you don't have a special interest group, a low friction meeting place available makes you more likely to start one. Public space allows for a municipality to build a community.
  - jpc0 2y ago
    Alternative take. I pay every month for a meeting space I cannot use because it has long term commitments when I need to have an annual meeting.
- alternatetwo 2y ago
  Because you unironically live in a society, and it's give and take. Special interest groups are part of a civilized society.
- rtpg 2y ago
  Because it's not just this but a bunch of random groups? My local library has events in meeting rooms for ESL speakers to practice English, baby book reading clubs, board game meetups, study sessions, sessions to help people with tech problems, immunisation, and of course .... book clubs. The rule is simple: you running a non-commercial event? You can use the space for free. Commercial component? Pay an hourly rate that comes out to ~$5 per person or so. There are some restrictions on events based on space but it's an obviously good thing in the same way a public park or water fountains are.
- ossobuco 2y ago
  > Why should my tax dollars pay for your special interest group to have free meetups? Why should your tax dollars pay education, healthcare, police, road repairs, etc? Because the society will be better off and you live in a society. The education of a child your taxes pay for will pay off exponentially when this kid becomes a professional. The meeting space your taxes pay could facilitate the creation of the next revolutionary software tech. Taxes should be considered an investment that pays off not financially but by improving your life overall. > How would we distribute access to this newly created resource equitably? A bookable calendar and a maximum amount of monthly bookable slots per organization. Nothing revolutionary really.
bradknowles 2y ago
The other solution is to get sponsors. In return for paying $50 a month (or whatever), they get to put a representative in front of a group of people for five minutes to pitch heir products. Or maybe they pay for the food at a place where you have a separate sponsor for the venue. This is much the same way that DevOpsDays and other similar conferences are operated, just on a smaller scale of a few hours instead of a couple of days.
- ossobuco 2y ago
  Just the thing meetups needed, corporate ads.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    A lot of software meetups have a corporate sponsor--even if it's just to pay for pizza.
  - bradknowles 2y ago
    The alternative may well be that the meetup in question simply ceases to exist. Which is better? No meetup at all, or a meetup with sponsors?
    - ossobuco 2y ago
      Yes, that's exactly my problem with it. It's in the hands of our corporate overlords to decide what we can do.
      - ghaff 2y ago
        You're certainly welcome to pay for it yourself if you feel that strongly.
        ossobuco 2y ago
        It doesn't work that way, as made clear on this thread it's hard enough to get meetups going when they're free. Asking people to pay for entry means that in most cases the meetup won't happen at all. If meetups don't happen we all have to lose from it, not just the meetup organizers. Isn't it a worthy goal for a society to facilitate the free exchange of ideas? Why should corporations or a patron be in charge of deciding whether that can be done or not?
theamk 2y ago
> why municipalities need to provide this space for free They actually do! The town waives the fee if event "primarily serves town's community". You only pay if there are many out-of-towners whose their taxes don't pay for community center. I didn't mention this in my original comment because it seems irrelevant in context of programming meetup - what are the chances most of the members would be all from the a single town?

diffxx 2y ago

Why should my tax dollars pay for your special interest group to have free meetups? How would we distribute access to this newly created resource equitably? I don't disagree with the concept, but it gets hairy in the particulars. The problem is that of course we rarely ever get to vote on issues such as "should we build a community meeting space?" so we never really get to understand how the electorate truly feels.

rileymat2 2y ago
As far as distribution, you could make these same objections about any shared space, from parks to roads. In this scenario, contention for the space is the best possible problem to have, as it means the community is using it. I'd suggest providing public space is a very important role of local government, to foster community interactions.
giantrobot 2y ago
> Why should my tax dollars pay for your special interest group to have free meetups? Because they'll also pay for your special interest group meetup. If you don't have a special interest group, a low friction meeting place available makes you more likely to start one. Public space allows for a municipality to build a community.
- jpc0 2y ago
  Alternative take. I pay every month for a meeting space I cannot use because it has long term commitments when I need to have an annual meeting.
alternatetwo 2y ago
Because you unironically live in a society, and it's give and take. Special interest groups are part of a civilized society.
rtpg 2y ago
Because it's not just this but a bunch of random groups? My local library has events in meeting rooms for ESL speakers to practice English, baby book reading clubs, board game meetups, study sessions, sessions to help people with tech problems, immunisation, and of course .... book clubs. The rule is simple: you running a non-commercial event? You can use the space for free. Commercial component? Pay an hourly rate that comes out to ~$5 per person or so. There are some restrictions on events based on space but it's an obviously good thing in the same way a public park or water fountains are.
ossobuco 2y ago
> Why should my tax dollars pay for your special interest group to have free meetups? Why should your tax dollars pay education, healthcare, police, road repairs, etc? Because the society will be better off and you live in a society. The education of a child your taxes pay for will pay off exponentially when this kid becomes a professional. The meeting space your taxes pay could facilitate the creation of the next revolutionary software tech. Taxes should be considered an investment that pays off not financially but by improving your life overall. > How would we distribute access to this newly created resource equitably? A bookable calendar and a maximum amount of monthly bookable slots per organization. Nothing revolutionary really.

bradknowles 2y ago

The other solution is to get sponsors. In return for paying $50 a month (or whatever), they get to put a representative in front of a group of people for five minutes to pitch heir products. Or maybe they pay for the food at a place where you have a separate sponsor for the venue. This is much the same way that DevOpsDays and other similar conferences are operated, just on a smaller scale of a few hours instead of a couple of days.

ossobuco 2y ago
Just the thing meetups needed, corporate ads.
- ghaff 2y ago
  A lot of software meetups have a corporate sponsor--even if it's just to pay for pizza.
- bradknowles 2y ago
  The alternative may well be that the meetup in question simply ceases to exist. Which is better? No meetup at all, or a meetup with sponsors?
  - ossobuco 2y ago
    Yes, that's exactly my problem with it. It's in the hands of our corporate overlords to decide what we can do.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      You're certainly welcome to pay for it yourself if you feel that strongly.
      - ossobuco 2y ago
        It doesn't work that way, as made clear on this thread it's hard enough to get meetups going when they're free. Asking people to pay for entry means that in most cases the meetup won't happen at all. If meetups don't happen we all have to lose from it, not just the meetup organizers. Isn't it a worthy goal for a society to facilitate the free exchange of ideas? Why should corporations or a patron be in charge of deciding whether that can be done or not?

theamk 2y ago

> why municipalities need to provide this space for free They actually do! The town waives the fee if event "primarily serves town's community". You only pay if there are many out-of-towners whose their taxes don't pay for community center. I didn't mention this in my original comment because it seems irrelevant in context of programming meetup - what are the chances most of the members would be all from the a single town?