interesting question—I had never thought about them , but—
them seem to fit the other parameters
Is there anyone (Kyrithia?) on friendly enough connections with the Craft Guild to ask they how they did it, legally and safely?
(I just read the April Fool’s post about our status–dammit–and am having trouble erasing it from my brain!)
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Well, here’s my take. Given that the Craft Guild and most of the rock societies operate this same way, where they give classes and have sales where members can sell their wares, it strikes me that the Board’s resistance is not based in fact. Unfortunately, without a lawyer’s opinion, they won’t take what seems to be a risk to them. I think I saw a case (mentioned here) where a makerspace was bumped out of non-profit because of sales. My personal opinion was that they hadn’t stressed the class aspect enough. DMS has a strong, strong emphasis on classes, as do the Craft Guild and the rock societies.
Clearly we couldn’t make the sales a big part. Craft Guild does 2 a year, I think. Their classes clearly outweigh their sales events. OTOH, the Craft Guild also makes money from the sales. Artisans put out their items, marked with their name and price, and the CG handles all sales, and then takes a percentage.
Ya know – I should see if HRB offers a class on non-profits. It would probably be one of those weird-ass video conferencing things, but I might be willing to make the sacrifice for being able to sell stuff at DMS.
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Re how CG did it
I haven’t worked there in years now (5-10?) but I recall (ymmv) it was set up where the percentage of sales kept by CG was a fundraiser type thing. I do know from working in the office, we sometimes fielded questions from folks asking this kind of stuff and usually the calls were passed along to one or two folks that could speak more authoritatively (usually a couple of the board members or officers). I know from keeping in touch in an extremely peripheral awareness way that there has been the expected people churn over the years that one would expect.
My best suggestion remains the same, if someone is truly interested in picking their brain, start with calling the office. Depending on who answers, expect to be referred up the food chain one or two steps. When I used to work there, this type of question for me would fall into the category of “I probably know the answer, or close, but I don’t want to accidentally mislead or give wrong info, so let me have you talk to this person…”
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I will do that sometime this week and talk to them
I think that this is the first year they had a
Spring show recently,
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Any craft sale or swap would even be primarily educational in nature IMHO. I don’t see anyone getting rich selling things at a Makerspace where people tend to make things instead of buying them. I would set up at a sale but more for practice than anything, buy a few gifts and look at cool things other people made. In reality a sale at DMS probably wouldn’t be worth my time if I cared about making money. I’m more interested in the fun/social/educational aspect of it.
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My thought is that we find out what all folks have at small show
at the space, Then work on planning something off site
maybe for the holiday season in 2018. A show like that would
be great PR for the space, As it is now, I will hand out quite
a few cards and brochures at every show I do, I have a show
in Dento in May and I need to plan on offering classes
right after it, This year I will take enough material to hand out,
I ran out last year,
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Great idea, I would love to help with this.
Julie & @Cairenn_Day for PR items be sure to talk with @Adam_Oas and his crew. I’m sure they’d be happy to support.
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I will do that, I intend to start going to PR meeting,
since I have some other ideas for promoting the space
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I don’t know much about leagalize but here’s how the districts I’ve worked for have held fundraisers like this and not-raffles. But totally get not risking losing status!
It’s an exhibit/showcase. Senior Exhibit, Administration Exhibit, etc. On the show tags we put title, medium, artist name, and a FS or NFS. The programs have the contact information for the artists, websites, etc. If you see FS it’s for sale and people contact the artists (occasionally during the reception ;)) and buy directly after the exhibit closes. Donations to the host are always STRONGLY encouraged if a FS piece gets a S (sold) tag put on it. Some exhibits last a month. Others are 24 hour pop up “exhibits” cough cough
Based on Robert’s reading assignment, it can be a dicey situation depending on how it’s done.
In most of those cases, it seems that the organizations were more or less just there to serve as an organization to serve as an umbrella for economic activity.
In one case the nonprofit was renting retail space at a farmers’ market for the members. In another, the organization was serving as a pass-through, collecting all proceeds then re-distrubuting about 85% of the take to each member based on sales.
If DMS were to do something like this, (not that it ever will, since it’s still all kinda wishy washy) DMS should not serve any function of collecting money. Space could be provided, (IMO) as long as it’s open to member and non-member vendors, potentially for a donation in each case. And it would probably be best to organize it as a community-participation event rather than a sale event.
There are a lot of particulars that separate DMS from those cited cases, but it’s easy to fall into a trap too.
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I was chatting with the ladies from Etsy Dallas today
and that are also a 501 c3 non profit, just like us and the are
having a big show in a few weeks
I still intend to check on it,
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