It’s Tour Night at the maker-space. We get most of our members from tours. The problem is not a lot of members want to do tours, not even most of the 33 persons on our Tour Volunteers Slack channel. There are a couple that I understand have occasional Friday night conflicts, but we hold tours every month on a regular schedule. From my point of view, some of the others could step up once in a while.

I get excuses like “I don’t know what to say.” “What if I forget something?” I know they went on an orientation tour which means they walked through the entire space at least once. We have a script that gives the high points and membership information such as how to sign up and what membership costs – stuff they should know from joining.

I mean, not everyone can talk off the top of their head, and I get that. I never had a tour when I first started. I never even got an orientation. That was due to the fact that I showed up every open shop night for two years before I joined. They accepted me as one of them before I paid for membership. The guy who issued my key-fob just typed the number into the database and said, “here you go.” But I can talk up the space without a script and so long as I remember the fees and contact information, I don’t worry about it. I’ve walked through and pointed out equipment saying, “I don’t what it does because I don’t use it, but we have it for those who need to use it.”

We were a lot smaller in numbers then, and our space was a quarter of the size of the space we occupy now. We moved into our new space in 2019. When I joined we had about 75 members in 3400 square feet. By the end of 2019, we had 300 members in 13800 sq. ft.

Covid cost us some members and even though the space was technically closed for part of the pandemic and we lost a few paying members, we managed to pay the rent. Now we have well over 600 members and add a few more every other week. Since we don’t have to sign membership contracts, many of our members join to work on a specific project for a month or more and then drop out.

In 2021, we added an additional 7,800 sq ft. to add some craft areas we hadn’t had room for, such as Ceramics, a CNC router capable of handling full sheets of plywood, screen printing, and a bike repair area. We were able to triple the number of studio spaces we offer, plus maintain a large open area for events such as member art shows, large scale assembly projects, and the occasional Craft sale. We also added a woodworking classroom and project assembly areas.

We’re currently in the planning stages for buying our own space. We have regular planning meetings and have looked at a number of places that are vacant or soon to be vacant. We’re also looking at funding opportunities. We have a bit less than two years left on our lease. The building is for sale, but the upkeep and maintenance of the entire building might be more that we want to pay, plus we would be responsible for finding renters for the vacant half of the building and the problems that would bring.

We’re are volunteer-run and classed as a non-profit education facility since we do teach the use of our equipment and provide opportunities for the members of the community come in to use the facility and take classes. We also have partnerships with a couple of schools to teach students how to make things. We also started a summer makers camp for 6th through 8th grade students who live in the area.

If you’re interested in joining a space like this, search makerspace, maker-space, or even cooperative workshop. You may find one in your area that you can join. There are at least 4 in my area, some of which are specialized for one thing like photography or a group of related interests such as an art workshop for various art forms, or an incubator for the technical minded.