Adding more of classes that fill?

[nicksilva]

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.

I agree with everything that Zach said. My classes so far have filled up, but I will reschedule the next one at my own pace. No only do I not want to burn out, I have a life.

[Bill]

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).

This can backfire as some people are unwilling or unable to pay for classes beyond what they consider absolutely necessary.

[Bill]

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.

The best way to do that is post your wish here on the forum. The calendar system currently has no support for that and it is such a complicated thing that it may never happen unless someone who really wants that feature codes it up.

[Bill]

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?

There is currently no official standby list. I suppose you could contact the instructor ahead of time and arrange to be the first one in if a registrant does not show.

I am partial to the original system of first come, first served. When all of the seats are full, the class is full.

Where the fee goes depends upon the class. Sometimes it goes to cover the cost of materials used in the class. Otherwise, I cannot answer.

[Bill]

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.

Technically, in this case, it would be the honorarium auditors.

The calendar admins is another group which filters non-honorarium events, though some people serve on both.

[jast]

Just throwing this out there, in case it works for someone for event planning (maybe for classes). It’s free, available, and might be helpful for something.
www.doodle.com is a schedule planning website. You put in your choices for the event, send your participants a link, and they fill in their chosen times/days (and/or accept one of the proposed days/times). I do not think any participants HAVE to register/login, but it probably makes repeated uses easier, and it does ask for an email address (you’ll want to use a real one if you want notifications; everyone has a SPAM account, though, right, if they don’t care about getting notifications)
I threw together this little gem so you can play, if you want. I have not ever received spammy stuff from them, but your mileage may vary…

https://doodle.com/poll/sxm6qmzbsivnuue7

[zmetzing]

This can backfire as some people are unwilling or unable to pay for classes beyond what they consider absolutely necessary.

While I can see how unable might play into this, unwilling is a personal choice and does not factor into my decision to charge the class fee. For example, the PlasmaCAM class is normally a 2.5-3 hour affair with hands-on instruction for each student. If someone doesn’t consider that, and access to essentially unlimited, free cutting on the machine, to be worth $5, then I don’t feel that we should cater to them.

(edit: I have never received an honorarium, and do not intend to do so in the foreseeable future.)

[zmetzing]

Semantics. " to 1) give <Insert group(s) here> time to approve the class,".

[Bill]

There is a need to make that clear because most do not appear to know that there are two panels involved and there is no indication to the general membership whether a class involves honorarium or does not in which case it is treated as an event.

[Bill]

This can backfire as some people are unwilling or unable to pay for classes beyond what they consider absolutely necessary.

While I can see how unable might play into this, unwilling is a personal choice and does not factor into my decision to charge the class fee. For example, the PlasmaCAM class is normally a 2.5-3 hour affair with hands-on instruction for each student. If someone doesn’t consider that, and access to essentially unlimited, free cutting on the machine, to be worth $5, then I don’t feel that we should cater to them.

(edit: I have never received an honorarium, and do not intend to do so in the foreseeable future.)

$5 for required training is reasonable.

But if everybody started to tack on $5 for enhanced or enrichment classes to try to cut down on no-shows so that they get their three for honorarium, they may see fewer students signing up for anything. $5 here and $5 there soon adds up to real money.

I have never taken honorarium either. $50 is much less than the value of the time I spend preparing and teaching a class, so it is best to treat it all as a donation and get on with it.

[WesW]

We could start a thread here called “I want to take a class about ______.”

Ask people in their replies to tell us 1) What goes in the blank and 2) What is their preferred day and time? Other people could then add a kind-of second-tier “sub-reply” if they are also interested in that subject

OR

add a different first-tier reply to suggest a different class topic.

[MrsMoose]

If there was a an option to get a membership credit by quantity of classes rather than people in them it’d be less pressure to make sure people are showing. If a teacher is holding classes with regularly poor attendance the committee can simply not approve them.

I usually charge a student $35-$80 an hour depending on medium and I’m cheap for my industry. I spend about $15 in tolls to come to the space so a class that is supposed to be helping cover my membership will end up costing me far more than $50 if it has to be repeated because people are not behaving excellently (ridiculously late and no shows) and it was made clear these behaviors are really common on free classes without a whole lot of consequences.

[wandrson]

If there was a an option to get a membership credit by quantity of classes rather than people in them it’d be less pressure to make sure people are showing. If a teacher is holding classes with regularly poor attendance the committee can simply not approve them.

Committees don’t approve classes. In fact no one does. We have a group of volunteers, honorarium auditors, who review the proposed classes and have the ability to reject a class. But that is all. The idea was to streamline the class process.

I usually charge a student $35-$80 an hour depending on medium and I’m cheap for my industry. I spend about $15 in tolls to come to the space so a class that is supposed to be helping cover my membership will end up costing me far more than $50 if it has to be repeated because people are not behaving excellently (ridiculously late and no shows) and it was made clear these behaviors are really common on free classes without a whole lot of consequences.

We don’t have people failing to show up for class (in significant quantities) all that often. The ones where this have occurred have mostly been required classes (for basic training) and such. Your biggest risk of this is if you have a tight limit on the number of students (say < 6). Since you need 3 people to attend to get honorarium, it is possible that you will not get enough. However, with the ability to add people to the class shortly before/after the start this is much less of a concern. I have rarely seen a class that hasn’t had enough people at DMS. Our members love taking classes.

[jswilson64]

Talk is way too active/disjointed/chaotic, in my opinion. The only way I see it working is if “Classes Wanted” is a new section on Talk so the threads are ONLY about classes people want to take.

[LisaSelk]

The #classrooms:interest-check category can be used.

For reference:

Instructors: Where would YOU like to look for Class Requests? [POLL posted]

Hey Lisa, Might I suggest that we add a category under issue/request for request a class. With all the wood shop class requests recently it would be very apparent the want if you clicked a category and notice 5 out of the 10 most recent threads were all requesting the same class. Just an idea, take it or leave it.

Edit to add a screenshot of the current results:

[MrsMoose]

We don’t have people failing to show up for class (in significant quantities) all that often

Admittedly I’m just doing the first class here at DMS but that’s not what I was told. At first I was going to make my classes free unless that committee said they needed to be charged because of supply costs. The grizzled veterans advised the $5. Having done free classes elsewhere and seen the same when there wasn’t any “skin in the game” it made sense. I thought the fees go back to the committee hosting anyway? In that case it’s free since the money you paid to take the class is just going right back into the things you use when you are in that room/shop outside of it.

[wandrson]

I have taught a fair number of classes, all but two were free, and never had a problem with attendance. Occasionally one or two people would fail to show, but I have also had folks come at the last minute and ask to be added.

My understanding is that we have a lot of people register for multiple required classes, say wood shop basics, when they were free and hard to get into on the basis that they knew they would be able to make it to one. I understand your concern, but in my experience I members love taking classes and getting three people hasn’t bee a problem.

[MrsMoose]

Fair enough. I’ll make the rest of them free then unless the committee tells me otherwise for that specific class. Explore 2D will be kind of a regular thing but hardly a required one

[wandrson]

Well, if you have a problem with a class, that would be the time to add the fee. Hope you don’t have a problem though. I doubt you will though! Good luck with the class.