When you made lists of what tools and physical resources your co-hackers will need and how that impacts your space, you were probably already figuring out where you could get these things, and who can make them happen. Now it’s time to actually assign who can – and will – do what, where you’ll find what you need, and who is going to be in charge of (and drop-dead responsible for) getting it done.

Before you go any further you need to make a solid decision about how things get decided by you and your Hackerspace co-founders from now on.

There are a couple of different ways you can organize your decision making structure in all of this. You can have a Primary (final decision maker), an openvote-style democratic structure (decisions are vote by majority, implemented by a manager), a Board of Directors (core members that make decisions, make policies), or you can take a look at other collective organizational structures online.

Formally decide who will be responsible for the space (lease, rental, owner); who will be responsible for your power, water, garbage and repairs; who will run membership and security (keys, alarms, opening and closing the space).

Get this stuff organized so you can get hacking: Make a check list of what needs to get done, like:

• •Making a floor plan
• Painting the walls
• •Making cleanup rules
• Internet/wifi
• •Moving in desks
• Implementing a safety program
• Setting up an alarm system
• •Setting up the website and social media (Twitter/FB/Flickr/YouTube/UStream)
• •Installing proper wiring, ventilation
• •Fixing stuff in the space (bathroom, windows, etc.)
• Etc, etc…

There is some great open source, free collaborative software available to help you get everything organized and in one place. check out Google Docs, Pirate Pad, make a Wiki, Teambox, Trello, Asana, and Mindjet  – or you can pay for something like Basecamp.

After you have the tasks organized between you and your co-hackers it’s time to figure out how to cover costs and leverage resources.

The next step explains how: read How To Start A Hackerspace: Part 5 – Money and Resources

Also check out the intro, part 1, part 2, and part 3!