Do we want to charge for workshops?

[duffymeg]

Another thing we should consider is whether we want to charge for workshops. Right now, we're operating on the assumption that we will not charge. But the SWC folks say there is a much lower no show rate when people have to pay even just $5-10 dollars. We had a lot of no shows for the WiSE workshops in January, though part of that was probably the timing (being right after the holidays). Then again, there can be issues if we charge, since that might mean we have to pay for space. (I don't know if that's true here at UM, but Greg Wilson raised it as a possible issue.)

I don't have a strong opinion on the issue, but thought it could be worth discussing.

[pschloss]

I agree with Meg & Greg that people will take the workshop a bit more seriously if we charge. But... I think this might be a huge PITA to pull off. First, I'm pretty sure we'd have to set up some recharge system and then show where that $10 is going and that we aren't generating a profit. This could be a nice way to help pay for the workshops or at least make them more enjoyable (think coffee). Second, I think we would have to pay something for the rooms if we did charge. I know Palmer commons would charge us to hold things there and I'm pretty sure NCRC would have as well. Finally, I mentioned this to Scott and he indicated that the library would likely be happy to support our effort assuming that it was free to the participants. I wonder whether ADVANCE et al. would be in the same boat. As much as I think we really should charge, I also think it might be too much of a headache.

Perhaps we could think of a different incentive to get people to come once they've signed up?

[pschloss]

I just sent the following email to Lori Hogan at http://www.finance.umich.edu/analysis/financial/recharge-rates

Hi Lori,

I am a professor in Microbiology & Immunology and am part of an initiative on campus to offer a number of 2 day workshops on campus that would teach campus community members programming and data analysis skills. The plan is to offer ~10 of these each year on campus. We are part of a larger organization (Software Carpentry; http://software-carpentry.org) that we pay an annual fee to cover things like instructor training, administrative costs, etc ($15,000). In teaching the workshops we may also have costs associated with brining in off-campus instructors, office supplies, snacks, etc. I was wondering what would be involved in setting up a recharge program where we’d charge participants $40 to take a workshop. That charge wouldn’t fully cover the actual costs of the program, but would help to force the participants to put some of their own skin in the game. The balance of the costs would be covered from discretionary accounts and support from organizations on campus.

We’re still at the point of exploring wither we want to charge participants and set up a recharge rate, so I was wondering whether you might have time to talk to me about some of the issues involved in such a thing. My schedule is pretty flexible today and tomorrow.

Thanks, Pat Schloss 734.647.5801

I'll follow up on this thread when I hear back. My questions are:

• How to set a price ($5, 10, 20, 40, whatever)
• Will we have to pay for meeting space?
• Logistics of handling money and accounts

Regardless of where we go with charging, I think it would likely be a good idea to set up a separate short code to handle all of the SWC-related things.

[michberr]

Hi Pat,

Thanks for looking into these details. Have you gotten any response from Lori yet?

Just so we're all on the same page, does the fact that we pay an annual fee to SWC mean that individual departments don't have to pay for the workshops? Where is this money ($15,000) currently coming from?

The workshop for DHG that Marian and I are teaching is coming up soon. Our plan is to advertise and start enrollment in the next 1-2 weeks. It seems like at this point we can't deal with the logistics of setting up a payment, so we should offer this workshop for free?

[pschloss]

I think we're going to hold off on this for now. A number of the groups that are willing to support us would prefer that the workshops all be free.

[marschmi]

Great. This will make the logistics much easier and I'm glad to hear that there's enough support on campus for the UMSWC group.

[bsmith89]

I think we're going to hold off on this for now. A number of the groups that are willing to support us would prefer that the workshops all be free.

In that case I'll close this issue.