[hackerspaces] How to Make a Makerspace workshops in February

[Gui Cavalcanti]

Hi everyone!

My name is Gui Cavalcanti, and I'm the president and co-founder of 
Artisan's Asylum up here in Boston. We're the space that hosts Stompy 
the giant hexapod 
<http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/projecthexapod/stompy-the-giant-rideable-walking-robot-0> 
and a really awesome collection of other projects 
<http://www.engadget.com/tag/artisans+asylum/>.

I wanted to let you all know that we're collaborating with MAKE to put 
on an event called How to Make a Makerspace 
<http://makeamakerspace.eventbrite.com/> in early February. Our goal 
with this event is to give participants roadmaps and resources on how to 
put together successful, sustainable spaces, and connect participants to 
experts with makerspace experience in the legal, insurance, education, 
and real estate fields for an intense series of question-and-answer 
sessions. We'll be bringing in space founders from all over the country 
to offer comparisons between the styles of spaces that work for 
different environments. We'll also be bringing in vendors that are 
gearing up to specifically offer products and services to makers, who 
are specifically looking to connect to organizers and ask what they can 
do to support the movement.

If you've ever had any questions about how to find the right building 
for your space, how to approach insurance companies, what to do to get 
your building up to code, how to get a bank loan, who to talk to in 
local city government (who's on your side!), how to make sure your 
community is using tools safely - this event is for you. We'll introduce 
you to government officials, lawyers, real estate developers, and more 
who can all help get you on the right track in your community. All 
participants will get access to example membership agreements, insurance 
summaries, tool training syllabi, budgets (for both startup and 
long-term operation), non-profit Form 1023 applications, architectural 
documents and more, in order to help each participant develop their own 
without having to do it all from scratch.

In addition to all that, MAKE will be videotaping and taking notes on 
all panels, presentations, and discussions, and hosting it all on a new 
section of Makerspace.com. With any luck, future founders will be able 
to access the site and learn everything they need to know to be dangerous!

We're looking for spaces that are just getting started (or groups that 
want to start a space, but haven't pulled the trigger yet), and spaces 
that currently exist but could use some help stabilizing their 
operations. We're also specifically looking to broaden the pool of 
participants to include K-12 schools, universities, libraries, and real 
estate developers, among others.

I would encourage you all to participate if you and your space are in a 
position to take advantage of the opportunity, and would ask that you do 
me the favor of forwarding this to any groups that you think are looking 
for this kind of help (or motivation to get started). I would really 
appreciate help getting the word out!

Thanks all!

-- 
Gui Cavalcanti, President
Artisan's Asylum, Inc.
http://www.artisansasylum.com
Cell: (857) 389-7669

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