Adding more of classes that fill?

Education
#1

Whenever a class fills to capacity, does DMS have a policy of scheduling another session of that same class as soon as possible?

It might be worth considering, especially with so many groups worrying about maintaining or increasing participation. If a the class like “Widgets 101” fills up, then obviously there’s interest, and it would be a good idea to schedule another session of Widgets 101 in the near future.

Or maybe DMS already does that, and I just haven’t noticed.

Thanks for your time here, either way.

#2

That’d be up to the instructor, not DMS. On the flip side, if you become an instructor and teach a class, that’s one more class for people to take!

Speaking for myself: I limit the # of hours I do training so that I can actually work on some of my own projects.

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#3

Hi Wes :slight_smile:

We do not have a “policy”; but, we do our best to keep up with demand. We are all volunteers and all have other obligations outside of the 'Space, so when “life happens” there are times when there are gaps. When that happens we do our best to get caught up as quickly as we can. We do encourage members to help teach as well as learn to help keep things rolling.

I’m sure others will elaborate further.


Thanks!

:smiley:

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#4

I’d like to add some clarification to this: DMS has no paid staff, and we all volunteer to keep the place running, teach classes, etc. So, any class you see is someone giving it of their own volition, not scheduled by DMS.

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#5

Zack forgot that we’ll even pay you!

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#6

David is correct (except for the spelling of my name)! :wink:

https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Rules_and_Policies#Honorarium

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#7

I know this is volunteerism at its finest. But I had let myself forget that there is no central authority that schedules the classes. It’s probably best if we just remember ourselves and remind each other to think “Hey, that class of mine filled up. I should do it again soon.”

We need to capitalize on interest before it wains or people get busy with other interests.

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#8

Sorry, Anglicized it. I can write it Hebrew if you like?

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#9

I prefer Arabic. :slight_smile:

#10

One issue I had when I was teaching with the 3 days to get a class approved, and that the class had to be scheduled for 10 days out. So by the time it filled after it was available, the soonest the next class could be scheduled would be about another 10 days from that.

That also assumed everyone showed up. I had a couple classes that “filled” but not everyone showed up.

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#11

This is only if you desire to get the honorarium (for yourself or for the committee), and the limit is 240 hours before the event. This is designed on purpose to 1) give the calendar admins time to approve the class, and 2) allow enough advance notice of the event on the calendar to give as many people as possible a shot.

As for no-shows: I attach a $5/person “fee”, which puts a little skin in the game, with a no-refund window of 24 hours before the class. If someone doesn’t show, I open that spot up to the standby members, who pay no fee (since someone already did that for them).

(Edit: I guess I didn’t address your actual point – yes, unless you anticipate classes filling up, there is somewhat of a time quanta between honorarium classes).

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#12

How does “standby” work? Is that something you can add to the calendar entry? Or does someone have to contact you if the class is full and request it?

Like this class:
https://calendar.dallasmakerspace.org/events/view/2163
It’s full but I don’t see a “standby” option.

#13

This is non-optimal right now; I just record which person showed up on paper and then have one of the IT team add them to the appropriate AD group after the fact. I’ve never had enough no-shows to jeopardize the honorarium.

I’d really like the option to mark someone as a no-show and type in the person who actually attended.

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#14

I wish there were a way to keep a “I want to take _____ class” list, maybe with some kind of grid to indicate days and times that work. Instructors could see, hey, there’s 5 people that want to take ____ class on Thursday nights, I could do that on Thursday nights, I’ll create a class.

#15

Perfect solution. Are the standby members on a special list or do they just lurk? TBH I’m glad you said this. I agree entirely about the skin in the game thing. Something about $0 just makes people sign up for crap just in case they’ll happen to be at the space but I also didn’t wanna be the jerkface who has classes with fees if the goal is to make it all free and easy. Assuming that the fees go to the committee?

#16

This would be a great thing to track. Feels like no-showing is unexcellent and should fall under a possible sanction/timeout from being able to register for classes if someone is a chronic offender

:heart_eyes: If only I had the tech knowledge to make this happen. I have so many class ideas but little idea of interest short of a ridiculous amount of Talk Polls and if everyone needs it done on a certain evening then obviously I can’t have them all at once

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#17

From the classes I’ve taken (way too many really) standbys are usually just literally standing by waiting. Sometimes they may get contacted through email but the majority just show up hoping for a free spot to have opened.

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#18

I mean, we kind of already have that… when you’re taking attendance, and you don’t check the box for someone’s who’s attended, that’s a no-show, isn’t it?

#19

Tracking the no-shows isn’t as important to me as noting that someone filled the spot (and filled the class). Ostensibly, this would also add the standby student’s name to the AD tab so that I could then go check “Add to AD group” once they’ve been trained.

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#20

True. Especially if ya’lls rumors are true and the good stuff is going to be locked out based on our fobs