[D-Space] Sponsorship

[Alex King]

I'm thinking about the scope for sponsorship... and wanting feedback 
from people about what they think.

Here is what I am thinking a sponsorship plan could look like:

A "sponsor" member could be the same cost level as a "supporting" member 
- i.e., $40 per month/ $480 per year.  This is pretty cheap IMO for 
sponsorship if we are successful.  I would only have a single level of 
sponsorship, and would go for as many sponsors as I could get.

The sponsor benefits:

    * 1 personal membership for a person on their staff, with the same
      rights other members.  I would be encouraging them to take this up
      and for us to gain another active member that way.
    * Sponsor events (at least one per year).  Wine and cheese, a
      speaker, highlight a couple of successful makerspace events and
      creations, and generally give thanks to the sponsors.
    * Acknowledgement in publicity - press releases, a sponsors board in
      the space, and on the website etc.
    * Opportunities for them to promote themselves to our members - not
      sure what form this would take, probably tailor to suit each sponsor

Why do we need sponsors?  Well, we don't _need_ sponsors, but it could 
help keep costs down for members, and also help to spread the word out 
there.  What do people think?

Who could we target for sponsorship?

    * High Schools (They may want to show off their existing robotics
      club, and or show they are up there with technology and give their
      students another activity they can partake in.  Schools compete
      for students and parents like schools with a greater number of
      options.  Possibly we could do a "deal" for students of sponsoring
      schools to participate more cheaply.  I would defiantly like to
      get at least one teacher from each school involved.)
          o Logan Park
          o OGHS
          o OBHS
          o Kavanah
    * Tertiary (they may want to give their students practical
      experience in another context/ mix and do exciting stuff with
      industry/cool people, and advertise to our high school members)
          o Otago Uni - COSC
          o Polytech - IT course
          o Polytech - engineering
    * Tech firms
          o Linuxworks (my own firm - I'm already going to be a
            supporter anyway and possibly makes it tax deductible :)
          o Other members consulting firms
          o Scott Technology (automation and robotics firm in Dunedin -
            they may want to get to know skilled technical people as
            potential workers)
          o Cadbury (they have a lot of engineering going on there,
            maybe we can get a who's who of Dunedin firms going...)
          o NHNZ
    * Business Development/ Misc (Paul has talked about us being a
      springboard for members with bright ideas to go off and start new
      businesses... a great thing to encourage others to support)
          o Distiller
          o DCC EDU
          o Accounting firms (many like to support business development,
            we might get our accounting done :)
    * Suppliers (they could pay their sponsorship in gear)
          o Dick Smith
          o Jaycar
          o WIC

There's 15+ off the top of my head.  I have no idea how easy or 
difficult a sell this proposition is, but if we could get something 
going we might get close to getting the rent paid.

Thoughts?

I know that it might sound a bit early to be thinking of sponsorship 
yet, but I think am thinking about our start-up phase as an 
opportunity.  How about using our official launch/grand opening as a 
first sponsors' event?

Talking of which, it's probably not too early to start planning for the 
opening event.  It would be nice to make something decent of it.

I'm thinking along the lines of February 25th, 6 weeks after we get into 
the space and around the time students are back in town.

Enough for now,
Alex