new lab experiment: probable shift in the gapper program

For all people that have already paid the gapper fee, I will honor the old terms, if that is what they would like.

For new folks, I think the program will shift.

Under the new system:

there will be no 35 hour per week work requirement

there will be no food provided (however, folks are welcome to harvest what they find growing here)

there will be tasks that need to be done for which there will be payment.

You must store/cook your own food in your own space.

Access to the house will be very limited

There will probably be somebody here to help you build awesome experiences, but this is a period of transition so there are no guarantees

Wofati 0.7 will be the centerpiece of gapper village. Cooking gear and some utensils will be provided.

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I like the idea that there is much more focus on ant village. There could be a dozen people each making a go of being an ant. I am hopeful that what will happen is that when there are, say, 20 gappers, most of those gappers will end up spending nearly all of their time with their favorite ant. Maybe building a wofati or a hugelkultur or some really cool looking fence.

Can you provide a rough estimate of wages for tasks of varying skill/experience levels? It would be important for gappers coming in to have an idea of how much time they'll have to put in for various earning levels.

Incidentally, I like this approach much better than how the old gappers didn't really have a way of building up a means of purchasing a land-lease from their labors on-site.

I think I will probably start a new thread for that soon.

Naturally it will depend greatly on skills and the like. But right now my brain is leaning heavy toward "fence" and planting the living fence.

For people with very little skill, I would think that there would be stuff about building hugelkultur, building fence, planting seeds, mulching ....

For people with more skill, I would pay to see progress on the rocket mass heater front. There is some work to be done on some of the equipment here. The showers project needs a bit of work. I also want to see some improvements made to wofati 0.7. Then there is the whole "round door" thing.

At the moment, there is a fence started around the house. I would pay $800 to see that fence finished. About 700 feet of fence. I think a smart person would even turn it into a bit of a workshop and get paid twice.

We got the "pure simple fun" thing to put at the top of the volcano (a sort of bench swing with an awning). I would pay $30 to have it put together.

The pickup needs a mend. The flatbed golf cart needs a few things.

I would hire somebody to do cleaning. Jocelyn is still cleaning up after people. Yesterday she was washing the dirty towels and sheets from others.

I also would be glad to find a way for people to get into business for themselves. Right now I think an excellent photographer/videographer would do well. Plus, I think such a person could earn a great living doing their own kickstarter dvds.

This shift seems sensible, although I must admit I was looking forward to supplementing my food supply in the beginning by occasionally taking you up on the "7 hours gapper labor for 3 meals" deal you mentioned. But money for labor is just as nice and more versatile. And surely there will be opportunities to collaborate on meals with gappers or ants or whoever at 0.7. I don't know about every day, but a community meal a few times a week sounds really nice.

I also really like the idea of getting paid by the job, rather than by the hour. Different folks do different amounts of work in an hour. I think such a system is easier to quantify/qualify and can help to avoid built-in perverse incentives. In short, it seems more in tune with human nature.

How many folks are on the lab right now, anyway? How many gappers? How many do you expect will be there in a couple weeks when I arrive?

The gapper 2.0 stuff is now official and you can read all about it here:

https://permies.com/t/46350/labs/gapper-program



I'm going to lock this thread so folks can carry on with their comments and questions in the new thread.