Honestly my biggest wish for the space is the option to purchase more storage space when I need it so that I don’t have to move all my stuff back and forth while in the middle of a project. I’d easily pay another $50 month for a footprint that would fit my little wagon, 1.5x3ft I think.
I would also love to see improvements to the lounge to make it a little more inviting and comfortable.
I’d also love to see improvments to the bathrooms. The one near the biolab has a wobbly toilet that moves when you sit down.
As far as jewelry and other crafts, we could reach out the organizers of craft fairs around town and ask them to email their vendor lists and ask what kind of equipment people need/would want.
I agree on storage - the bankers box system is silly I think. The only reason we’re still doing it is that they’re in volume that we don’t have any immediate need for.
What I’d love love love to have, is self-service pay-per-use lockers. A variety of sizes with fob readers on them. Rent a locker on Neon, the locker locks and your keyfob is registered to it. Optionally allow auto-renewal for some period of time. When the rental expires, unlock the locker, so other people can put their stuff in it.
I would like to see our spaces rearranged so that 3D printing and sewing/crafts are behind walls where they would be less impacted by the sawdust.
I would also like the storage plan to be more versatile. Perhaps using the current craft loft for paid, monthly storage for members with larger projects. (Per @Mollie ‘s idea)
And i would love to have the storage space below the craft loft to make more sense, and feel less like the forgotten zone it seems to be now. Be that a workshop space or reconsidered storage.
I am not clear on demand for “office” space that may have abated with the pandemic. I had an opportunity to go into that space and much of it is unused. But I have no way of knowing.
I like to invite the board to explore space use and concurrent needs for cleanliness, freedom from dust and the like. It’s easy enoungh to construct shelving and cages for member uses to store their stuff with access either by key lock or tag. I’m not intimately involved with space use before Covid or now but creating an inviting environment and work areas would go a long way to increase membership.
As a non-profit (becoming) sort out mission priorities: business incubators? teaching labs? hobby workspace? I’m posing questions. I’m not qualified to propose answers.
As I’ve hinted at before, there’s a space re-plan cooking. We probably won’t make any changes until we’ve negotiated a lease extension.
I can’t make any specific commitments, but in general we’re looking to improve utilization of non-workshop (carpeted, not dusty) space. Half of co-working and all of the classroom is basically full of junk, and the lack of doors on the workshop makes the front lobby a lot dirtier than it should be.
Just spitballing, I’d like to improve our current space by:
putting doors on the workshop
turning half of coworking into a useable studio (maybe lasers?)
turning half or all of the classroom into a useable studio (maybe printers? crafts?)
making the lounge a pleasant, useable multi-purpose room (chairs, tables, projection screen)
This would probably also entail fixing or replacing the #4 HVAC so the newly undusted front rooms have reliable heat and A/C
I do kind of like the 3D printers where they are, if only it weren’t so dusty.
Ghost Pepper Glass is open to renting space to students. The last time I checked Katie is welcoming of anyone who wants to rent space. I don’t think they have preferential treatment for Hackerspace members.
When looking at amenities to add, we should prioritize things that members can’t already find elsewhere in town. I hadn’t even thought of that until we started this thread - thanks for all the recommendations so far! Keep them coming.
Even if we never have formal partnerships, I think it’d be helpful to refer members to other places they can take classes or use equipment.
Totally agree with @stepho on possibly reorganizing sewing loft and the underneath space into more usable storage. Sewing is another craft that really shouldn’t be in the woodshop because of dust. I recall the old serger up there being well caked in saw dust and had to be discarded.
Maybe we could have someone teach a project based class with the outcome being locker type cabinets for the shop. Could be a cool class utilizing lots of different aspects of the space.
Folks could pay to rent a locker and simply bring their own padlock. I think if we put tags of start/stop date and name/contact info it would be fairly easy to self monitor and if people are abusing the system look at other ways to manage the rentals, ie @Jon 's idea of keyfob access.
I’m going to ask a really stupid question given that “lease extension” got mentioned:
Should we be looking for a completely different space? We really don’t really have enough space for storage, we don’t have a good loading dock, we seem to have very weird restrictions (no vents, no open flames, etc.) in our lease given that we’re a makerspace, and we really need an “outdoor” spot for things like forges, toxic vapors, etc.
Now, part of this also boils down to “What do we want to be?”
I can point you to the example of “Urban Workshop” of which I am also a member. https://urbanworkshop.net/
One thing you will note is that their space is a lot bigger, and, do bear in mind, they’re in a particularly expensive real estate area even though it’s right under an airport. Of course, their membership fee is double ours.
However, they have a very different atmosphere. There are a lot of people running small businesses using the equipment in the space. If you’re there during business hours in the production areas the rule is more sort of “Don’t poke your nose in other people’s business and don’t bug someone unless you know them.”
It’s not unfriendly, but some people are on deadlines. That’s a vastly different vibe from ATXHS which is more … artisanal, would be a good adjective, I guess?
And, depending upon the answer of “What do we want to be?” probably then feeds into what kind of equipment we want which then feeds into what kind of space we need.
It’s a really smart question @buzmeg. We are keeping our eyes open for space alternatives, but given the current factors (tough year financially, COVID unknowns) making a move at the end of this year seems highly unrealistic. We’re hoping we can sign a short-ish lease – like maybe just a few years – and make a move in the coming years when we’ve got more funds. The most ideal situation would be us buying property since nonprofits don’t pay property taxes, but I imagine we’ll end up having one more space between now and then.
In my mind, we definitely want more space in the next venue we call home, but I wouldn’t want us to lose our culture in the process. An industrial space with a yard for the open flame stuff that also has an area we could put storage lockers or small studio spaces for rent sounds like an ideal to me. I see the mission of our space being centered on community focused sharing of skills in various crafts. Somewhere a person could go to become a Jordan of all Trades and Master of as many as desired (although I do really like the point made about looking for areas the creativity community doesn’t have covered in town).
And of course, I can’t help but advocate for some basic hand tools for wood – A lot of people have asked me for more info about planes and chisels and sharpening etc
It seems like a common short term theme, is storage. I think there is a lot of under, mis utilized space in the shop right now. I’m sure we could come up with a solution to re organize some of these spaces, while at the same time creating new, cleaner spaces for the expansion on non woodworking spaces.
The funny thing is, we have a ton of storage space. Storage is shop entropy - any horizontal surface not in active use becomes storage. What we’re storing right now, well, that’s a different conversation…
useful storage is more of a process problem than a geometry problem, but I agree lockers are necessary. I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving tools I cared about in a bankers box.
One other thing… a small 3D/360 3d scanner would be Amazing. For scanning old parts and claymation… I haven’t looked lately… a couple of years ago they were out of my hobby budget.
Hey everyone! We just talked about this in our board meeting tonight and we want to use next week’s member meeting as an opportunity to bring all these ideas to the table and discuss more as a group. If you’ve suggested something here and you seriously want to see it, please create a post in Proposal Considerations with details (link to equipment to buy and things needed). Please start your post title with “NPO Tools” so it’s super easy to find them all. We’ll go through all the proposals in our member meeting next week (1st Wednesday at 7:30p) and try to make some decisions about what we include in our fundraising goals.
Note: We hope you can make it to the meeting, but even if you can’t we’d still love to have your proposal! I’m especially excited for 3D scanner and woodbending as those seem like small easy additions!
Please post all proposals by midnight Tuesday 3/2/21!
Friendly reminder, to make some tool proposals for us to set up our fundraiser around! We’re hoping to get the GoFundMe set up by the end of the week and this will be an important part of developing it!
