Are you coming to this South meetup??? Shoulda be a great time, and perfect time to network with other makers.
If someone has time to run by Asmbly to grab the big vinyl Asmbly sign hanging on the 3D printing enclosure, that would be greatly appreciated!
Go left when you walk in and we’re at a long table under the tree right by the Pueblo Viejo food truck
I spent five minutes looking for parking and left when it became obvious I wasn’t going to find any within a half mile or more. Plus I couldn’t really imagine holding a useful business meeting in the chaos I saw inside when I circled the parking area.
Because that’s what the first Wednesday meetings are supposed to be, business meetings, right? Or were my expectations skewed by joining while pandemic precautions were still in place? We have many other social occasions on the calendar; I thought this was the chance for regular members to get involved in planning and running the organization.
If so, it should be accessible, and this was not. I’m sorry to be a spoiler, but it seems that a business meeting should either be over Zoom or at the space. The former saves driving time; the latter has the advantage of making it easy to discuss things about the space, because we can go look immediately.
Hi Ethan! I was not at the meeting tonight but I’m sorry to hear about the parking situation, I know that’s a big deterrent in Austin and sucks to get somewhere and have to turn around lest you park a mile away and Uber to your destination.
Addressing this to everyone, anything seriously business related should be submitted via email to leadership@asmbly
The consensus with the in-person community meetings have been a strong inclination towards it being more casual. It’s a good time for announcements, answering questions, and getting feedback on new ideas in a group setting, while meeting other members that might not overlap otherwise at the makerspace. This is why they’ve been hosted “off campus”
Anyone can feel free to submit additions to the agenda prior to the meeting if they’d like it to be specifically addressed by the facilitator to the overall group.
Otherwise the facilitator is available to hear and collect thoughts, comments, and suggestions in a one-to-one exchange which are communicated to the education/membership/outreach/leadership teams.
OK, so this is true, and these are not meant to be what I experienced in the past. Gotcha.
Fortunately I had to run by the Home Depot anyway, so I only lost 10 or so minutes trying to go.
The meeting tonight was great, and did infact include quite a bit of Asmbly specific talk. The informal nature is a great way to start the meeting, and as Ashley pointed out, a great way for members to connect.
5 mins of looking for parking seems slightly rushed as even HEB can take a while to park at, but we still need groceries. The inside atmosphere wasnt reflected well from a quick drive through, which I did as well while looking for parking.
Sorry you missed the meeting tonight. I think Ashley and Matt have done a great job in bringing back the in person meetups after a long term of Zoom only meetings.
Thanks to everyone who came out last night! Had a good time talking with both familiar faces as well as a few newer members. Cosmic can appear pretty hectic at first glance, but it’s so big we didn’t have any trouble finding space or having conversations.
Like Ashley and James said, we’re really trying to get away from the more formal nature of previous community meetings and give members a regular chance to hang out with other members outside of the shop environment. Can’t grab a beer with someone in the shop 
. That also gives members who wouldn’t normally feel comfortable speaking up in a more formal meeting a chance to give feedback. We’ve already heard and generated a number of good ideas at these off-campus meetings. Maybe counterintuitively, we’ve also seen much higher turnout.
This pic is missing a few members who were there either before or after the pic (@Caroline, @Jordanva2, Mike), but great to see/meet all of you! Stay tuned for next month’s location.
I attended the meeting yesterday evening. Although I’ll admit parking wasn’t the quickest, I found that parking a block or two away and walking about 5 minutes or circling the parking lot for a few minutes was well worth it.
This was the first of these meetings I’ve been able to attend, but I was impressed by the discussion between makers both about personal projects and accomplishments, and about Asmbly progress, news, + future goals.
I was able to meet other Asmbly members I hadn’t connected with before, discuss new ideas and projects with the Asmbly community + get feedback, and talk about Asmbly’s goals and how to achieve them.
I felt that this meeting spot was very accessible with a little bit of patience.
I also feel that Zoom meetings constrain conversation to an unnatural flow, especially for open-discussion, collaborative conversations of this nature. This rigid structure may also deter those that feel less able to speak up in these settings. I really liked the comfortable, casual nature of the meeting last night.
I don’t think that the meetings need to be held at the space so that we can physically look at things immediately because I don’t believe that is what is required of a community or business meeting like this. I think that simplifies everything that we do for Asmbly, and I would like to think that we challenge ourselves at these meetings to spark interesting and intellectual discussions about enhancing Asmbly in every way, not just what we can physically visualize on site. Additionally, Matt and Ashley are very capable of providing context about the physical space at these meetings if necessary.
Tonight we were able to have several different conversations about Asmbly outside of Asmbly walls - I think the meeting was very valuable, and I plan on continuing to attend! Thanks for a great meeting, Matt!