Lately at makerspace

We’ve had a few recent “Arduinos for Absolute Beginners” classes on, two at the makerspace and one at Hive – all have been successful and a lot of fun! I’ve found it particularly interesting to observe the different programming approaches taken by older vs younger students, and how well the different notification methods influenced people to bring USB cables and computers to the class :).

Last Saturday, we adapted and installed a fixture from the old location at King Edward Court in the Valley Workspace – the bare copper wires for hanging LEDs!

Next up is Learn To Solder night, tomorrow 18 May 7:30pm at the Dunedin Makerspace. Bring yourself (in warm clothes), and a gold coin koha or better your membership!

As usual, if you miss one of our events, either post on the mailing list or come to the next open workshop and we can often get you caught up.

Board meeting notes

Notes from the recent board meeting, which is open to all members. Discussing financials, running of the makerspace, and how to help the makerspace succeed.

Apologies for posting this so late, this is the first time I’ve had any free time to type it up. This is a direct transcription from my notebook, so it’s a bit jumbled.

 

Financials: Bank account getting low – epxect to be able to get more promised pledges + some members putting in more, to get us through to March.

Paul is doing high-school afternoon classes next year, in contact with local high-schools. This wil help put the word out about the Makerspace.

Corporate sponsorship? Tools and/or money, grants.

Need ~$7000 per year.

Looks like some members will need to put in more to keep bank ok, rather than solely rely on memberships. [Some board members put their hands up for this]

Why haven’t we heard from some pledges?

Things we haven’t done:

  • Incorporate
  • Become charity
  • Try to get grants. eg from DCC, EDV (Economic Development Unit)

Need to have board elections.
Add more board members. Board voted to add: Chris Edwards, Reece Arnott, Brian Paavo – based on existing involvement.

Start next year with general meeting and elections. Also have 1st year anniversary / official opening celebration (to build profile).

Need to make the workshop more welcoming, feel like a play room.

  • Unfinished projects visible
  • Posters
  • Photos
  • Etc

We should use the mailing list more.

Idea: How does it work? / Dismantle workshop. Fun, get to learn how something works, and gets parts and consumables to use for later projects.

Thursday nights: Open every night, but do talkws less often. More social – sit around coffee tables and talk. More projects / normal workshop.

Need bigger/better project screen.