Enable first setup of MakerAdmin as just a member system for makerspaces to increase adoption

[kriffe]

User story 1: As a non profit makerspace with limited resources I want to quickly setup my first version of Makeradmin that can be used regularly for a small task in my organization (quick win).

User story 2: As a person responsible for the memberships in a non profit makerspace I want an easy to use tool to manually manage the makerspace member data and their expiration dates. (save time)

Problem to solve: Currently the entry level skill and effort requirements for a new Makerspace to get started with Makeradmin is very high.

Suggested solution

Try to optimize the first setup for new makerspaces by just focusing on whats needed in MakerAdmin for partial membership management that admin could use. See generalization suggestions https://github.com/makerspace/makeradmin/milestone/6

Good enough

• Manual handling of new members and their memberships so they are registered in the proper place (bot member details and payment manually registered by administrator in the makerspace)
• Send Automatic reminders before membership are expiring
• Provide the admin pages only without registration possibilities
• Export SIE file for book keeping

Even Stripe integration can be omitted if that is blocking the first setup for manual handling. Payments registered via Swisch or other ways can be manually registered to begin with.

This could start as a fork with mods to get new makerspace started and start saving time for the organisation (releaseing the full system with shopping, subscriptions, access can then step by step come later)

[BerglundDaniel]

One thing I don't follow is what the sie export would be for if members don't pay through the member page? Are you thinking that there could be support for adding completed payments manually? It might easiest to do an export through whatever payment system is used then instead. The main reason for the bookkeeping export is to get different paid products into the correct accounts. If only memberships are paid it likely doesn't serve much purpose since the sie file would be simple.

I think the other bullet points are met as it is today. The public frontend would be up and running though.

[kriffe]

Are you thinking that there could be support for adding completed payments manually?

I actually assumed that this was possible already today. My bad.

I think that having the possibility for the administrators to manually fill in that something has been paid would help bridge a lot of the hard parts with getting started with MakerAdmin for new organisations (start without full adoption of stripe).

[BerglundDaniel]

We need to add support for different ways of paying anyway for supporting giftcads and such so manual payment could be one of them. However, I'm not sure how the front end page would work without being annoying to use

[kriffe]

We need to add support for different ways of paying anyway for supporting giftcads and such so manual payment could be one of them. However, I'm not sure how the front end page would work without being annoying to use

If we start only with the case where admin can handle a manual payment and subscription period it might be easier? It could even be a separte subscription type (like lab membership, etc) if payment is hard to separate.

[BerglundDaniel]

It possible to add membership periods manually to a member as it is now. That is completely decoupled from payments. The member should get a reminder email when it runs out too

[kriffe]

So just adding a "comments" section on each member could be enough to solve User story 1 & 2 then?

[blole]

Would it also be interesting for the members to buy products other than memberships as well? Or access quizzes/courses? Do you have a bookkeeping system in mind to import the SIE files to?

Because for only taking manual payments, manually managing members, but sending automatic membership expiration reminders, it might be easiest to just get started with a google spreadsheet. At least according to chatgpt there's a way of setting up automatic email reminders from a spreadsheet: https://chatgpt.com/share/5e46555c-8f1a-4f29-abc1-d86510016601

Just thinking aloud :smile: I agree it would be nice if we could make the setup quicker and also handle manual payments