Saturday, around 2pm, I encountered a fellow who was wandering the space, asking for who’s in charge. I explained how Asmbly works and asked him a few questions. He hadn’t been to an orientation, he just walked in through the woodshop door. He thought he could use whatever he wanted without buying a membership. I told him the doors are usually locked and to sign up for an orientation to get access.
Does this happen often, and what do we need to do to prevent this?
This should not happen. It is part of the reason that we use Open Path, and have door ajar alarms installed. This is also why we have a policy to not let anyone in if they cannot get in on their own. Each month a reminder is included in the Things to Know about not letting people in. In this case, someone had put something outside of the Woodshop door at 2:03, and as the door was closing, this person came up and caught the door as it was closing, and let himself in.
It’s unfortunate that this happened. I frequently see people come to the door, but they are not usually able to just walk in. Someone getting in like this is pretty unusual.
If I’ve opened a sooner, I’m responsible for not letting someone else enter.
I think folks at Rockler and Woodcraft mention Asmbly to buyers who are looking to learn, but they leave out some critical details: nature of what we are, memberships, etc. I gave an impromptu explanation to one person recently – she rang the doorbell – but all she was told at Rockler was “You can take woodworking classes at Asmbly.” That is technically correct, I suppose, but also very much incomplete.
We might be a victim of our own good reputation. I don’t know what the solution would be though. I suppose we can always create bigger signs, or flashing ones… And it probably won’t help!
edit: I have no idea how Woodcraft/Rockler would react – we kinda compete with the concept of tool ownership – but since they’re already telling people about us maybe they’d let us leave flyers with detailed info in their stores?
Those postcards we have in the lobby were actually made for woodcraft and rockler to put on their counters. I don’t know the last time we re-stocked them.
It’s been a while since I asked how their postcard stash was doing. We’ll have new postcards in a few weeks, so that’ll be a good time to redistribute. I’ve been wondering also if we should put something more explicit on the windows. We could use the window space next to the door (what people see when walking up), to say something more obvious like “member only facility, visit asmbly.org for info”.
I think a “members only…” type of message on both doors is warranted
I was thinking something similar on or near the doors, but maybe more welcoming: “Hey, we’re glad you’re here and want you to be safe. Here’s what we can offer and here’s how you can get involved and learn more…” with a brief description and then, down at the bottom in bolder text “Members Only are Permitted Admission”
Dan
I don’t know if this was a factor here, but the main shop door has repeatedly been not quite closing enough to latch but hasn’t been triggering the door open alarm either. I did notice the magnet on the door was loose, which could be the issue.
Hi @prorok - welcome!
I agree that the message should be friendly, but brevity is likely to serve us better as a door sign.
There are replacement oilite bushings for the door hinges in a McMaster envelope with inbound packages. they’ll probably require a bit of finagling but the install process isn’t too terrible. I didn’t realize the bandaid had failed or I would have dug into it last week.
(Incidentally, by “main shop door” do you mean “main door” or “shop door”? The “main entrance” is the lobby side)
A members only sign (maybe limited additional text like "find out how to become a member: qr code) would be a fair addition. The guy I met seemed like someone who would gleefully ignore such signage anyway.