Another idea in use at Nottinghack -
Standard sized boxes…
https://guide.nottinghack.org.uk/storage.html
https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Members_Storage
https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Members_Storage_Downstairs
Now they likely have more space than us to devote to storage - but standard sized boxes you buy that fit into standard shelved makes a lot of sense…
BB is 80-120£/month for large project and they are a professional set up. Ieant that 20/month is a bargain that makes slms a prospective storage company eventually. But I can see pros and cons.
I think the only reason for charging is to limit uptake, and get people to release the storage instead of just keeping it.
However, I am fine with a user-pays principle for niche expensive consumables, but not for use of the space (including storage). I think it would seriously change the character of the space.
The other thing is that the storage fee would have to be quite high before it achieved the goals above. At that high level, we would probably exclude people who could usefully use storage.
I am in favour of a carefully calibrated response to the different kinds of storage (as described in my previous post).
Good points- it doesn’t have to be a cost, but we need a way to incentivise people to remove inactive projects. In the past we have tripped over and moved around the same projects year after year. So maybe just enforcing some agreed time limits? Not sure…
Also space does have a cost, if we have a storage locker for every member we won’t have any room for tools / making…
And I think the point was that there’s free storage for what we consider an active project that you need multiple days to work on. Using the SMLS as long term storage leaves less room for everyone else.
Just want to add in that I like your outlined approach here. “Storage” really does mean multiple things.
What I learned in the snug clean out is that we really do need some kind of process for chucking things that have been in there for years unclaimed.
