[hackerspaces] Introduction from Birmingham, England

[Punkin3.14]

Antonio Roberts wrote:

> This is where I ask you guys for help. Not necessarily for ideas for
> activities (though they're always useful) but just your experiences of
> what type of session works best. Is it better to have sessions be
> free-for-alls or set a task?

Yes. :)

Your members' interests, plotted out, will look like a venn diagram, and 
the best you can aim for is sufficient variety over a number of events. 
No one is going to be interested in *everything* you do, but doing is 
what these spaces are about.

If you're meeting every two weeks, I would alternate between open 
sessions and themed ones. That way, if somebody is really not interested 
in a particular topic, you're not going to loose them. Pick a different 
theme for each themed session, and encourage your members to take turns 
organizing it. One month somebody can organize a workshop on 
circuit-bending. Another month, somebody else can organize an intro to 
micro-controller workshop. Another month, maybe you make bottle rockets. 
Or screen print group t-shirts. If you find a particular themes gets a 
lot of traction, you may want to revisit or expand on it.

We've found (at Kwartzlab) that our members just like to do *stuff* and 
hang out with other members. Making begets making, and it really doesn't 
matter *what* the session is about. What does matter is having somebody 
organize it.

Organizing means picking a project (something small, which can be 
completed in about 3 hours), sourcing the necessary materials, and 
deciding how many participants they can manage at once. While our social 
get-togethers (we try for one every 2 weeks) are open to any- and 
everyone, workshops always have a registration cap, to ensure that we 
have enough resources to make it a good session.

If folks are short on ideas, have everyone pick an instructable they're 
interested in making, and work through the list.

At Kwartzlab, we try to have an open social event every two weeks or so. 
Workshops happen as often as somebody gets around to organizing one. Its 
been a slow summer, since we've been focused on getting our space 
built-out, but we were averaging about one a month. (Actually, we prefer 
to think of this summer as one LOOOOOOOONG home reno workshop. =P)

Good luck!


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