<div dir="ltr">At Makers Local 256 the open Tuesday nights are for the public to drop by and just see what the place is all about. So we ask that most members should try to come out that night specifically to work on their projects. This way when the public drops by they can see first hand what sorts of projects are done there. This will hopefully inspire them to work on a project of their own and make them want to join as a new member.</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 11:00 AM, Steven Sutton <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ssutton4455@gmail.com" target="_blank">ssutton4455@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><p dir="ltr">We're pretty much continuously experimenting with our open house.</p>
<p dir="ltr">When I started, we were doing open house meeting where people would talk about different projects and pitch classes and ideas. Those meetings eventually grew from 5-7 attendees to 20-30, and became painfully long and boring.</p>
<p dir="ltr">For a while, we tried just an open, undefined open house, but often people would just take a tour and then leave. If members didn't actively engage people, they would just leave confused and never come back.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We tried the happy hour thing too, where it was much more of a social hangout feel, where people would bring in a six pack and chat about tech. That works for some, is intimidating for others, and is a total turn-off for some.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We cycled back around to doing a quick meeting where everyone briefly introduces themselves and what they're into. Then it's a free hangout where those folks can chat with the people who are interested in interesting things or work on whatever. The night gradually devolves into "Freeside after dark" where after several hours, the music and media start to get weirder until we finally head out to a bar or something with the six or seven remaining weirdos. It's a pretty good balance that seems to be working for us.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We've just started another experiment where we do a public open house on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays and a member night on the alternates. The idea is to do cross-training and equipment maintenance etc... on those nights. We'll see how it works out.</p>
<p dir="ltr">We do a Board meeting monthly, a Member Meeting every other month and a build-out day on the alternate months.</p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<p dir="ltr">Steven Sutton<br>
President, Freeside Atlanta<br>
<a href="http://www.freesideatlanta.org" target="_blank">www.freesideatlanta.org</a></p>
</font></span><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="h5">On Jan 27, 2014 10:38 AM, "Florencia Edwards" <<a href="mailto:floev22@gmail.com" target="_blank">floev22@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution">
</div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div class="h5">
<p>What sort of activities do you do in open tuedays? Is it with members and.not members meeting and talking? We are having a open tuesday soon and people ( and i admit, me too) dont understand what it is about , its abstract. We just say our doors are open everyone is welcome. But what sort of activities do you usually do on open tuesdays? Like a meeting where people.introduce themselves and say what they hack?<br>
Id love some examples</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
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