So Talk is a great place to list problems and try to find solutions, but I figured it might be nice to take the time to tell people we appreciate them. DMS can be a thankless “job” for some, especially when people have conflicting visions or needs.
I want to thank all of the chairs and DMS members for their tireless advocacy. I’ve learned a ton about guns, machines, lasers, woodshop, filtering stuff, batteries, electronics, botany, and numerous other things just from hanging out with you guys! I could probably very easily individually go down the list of everyone at DMS and think of something you’ve taught me.
I hope you all have a lovely holiday! I will be celebrating Christmas, but if you’re into Festivus, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, or anything else or nothing else, I hope you also have a wonderful time!
I’d like to thank @John_Marlow (Chris) for her dedication to putting together simply excellent training classes. I’ve taken two from her (quilt piecing basics and Babylock Embroidery) and both classes were extremely well organized and presented.
Her classes are the Gold Standard (IMHO) of what a Maker class should be.
I love this thread!! The people who give their time and energy never get the thanks they really deserve, so this is a great avenue to show them how awesome they are and hopefully encourage others to do good/be excellent as well
Tonight I want to say how much I appreciate the awesome board members! @ESmith, @Lampy, @AlexRhodes, @Robert_Davidson, and @lukeiamyourfather, you guys are amazing and your commitment to the space is undeniable. Thank you for all you do everyday! Especially after a nearly 4 hour long board meeting! You guys rock.
Sorry I said damn/shit/fuck so much in the meeting. Also every other meeting.
Thanks @ESmith for taking the minutes every meeting, I know it’s a beating and makes the meetings way more stressful for you than the rest of us. Thanks @patrickpleez1 for stepping up for the laser committee and dealing with the growing pains of adding more equipment. Thanks @Brandon_Green for organizing things and putting in a significant amount of time and manual labor to make it happen. Thanks @SewingStuff for starting this thread and helping to keep the peace. Thanks Luis (is he on Talk?) for taking over public relations with vigor and help volunteers contribute in meaningful ways. Thanks @bscharff for keeping things going (including this forum). Thanks @AlexRhodes for continually working with the developer to improve the calendar system.
I’m sure there are others that will come into my mind so if you’re not mentioned and have been contributing don’t worry! In general a ton of people do a ton of things to make everything happen. All of it is greatly appreciated.
I am appreciative of everyone, to all of the volunteers. It’s a lot of work to keep this ship afloat. There are so many volunteers to even thank all of them would almost be impossible. The BOD, committee chairs, the folks that teach, & all the other people who put the time/ effort into DMS.
I would like to thank Lisa Selk for all of the things she does to promote DMS and to help new members (such as myself).
Lisa is always up there doing something productive for DMS every time I see her, plus she keeps Talk running smoothly.
Thank you Lisa!
I find it baffling that DMS works as well as it does. A community workshop open 24/7 with no visible administrators or employees which gives me access to tools that I otherwise would not have much chance of using and contact with people who know how to do a lot of maker things. I get a sense through the talk forum that there is stuff going on in the background that keeps DMS organized and smooths out the glitches, but I would not have predicted that this sort of organization would ever work. Thanks to all who make it work!
I just want to thank @mblatz@merissa and @NightRanger for helping out and washing the tables in the front area. They no longer have the nasty black edges.
I joined four years ago and there were 140 members at the time. Today we hit 1400 members! Thank you to everyone involved. All of this has been a big part of my life and a shaping factor in who I’ve become.
This thread is a great idea. Thanks @SewingStuff! I want to thank all of the teachers at DMS. We have some amazing talent and some excellent teachers/instructors. You would pay a great deal more money for their teaching elsewhere. The dedication it takes to teach is significant and many of our teachers give many hours to DMS. I appreciate all of you!
Thanks, too to our leadership. Whether it is the board, committee chairs of special project leadership, DMS has some of the best people in our leadership. They give an amazing amount of time and energy to DMS’ success.
Like @lukeiamyourfather says in this thread, DMS has become such an important part of who we have become for many of us. I am very proud to be a member and I talk fondly to my friends of what DMS represents. We are very fortunate to have such a great place to make things!
Cheers to the biggest and best makerspace in the country!
Great thread! I would like to thank @dryad2b for all of the work loading and unloading the kiln and for posting kiln updates. Also for giving me lots of help and tips. My family loved their Christmas gifts and I really appreciate that I was able to make things for them and get everything finished in time for Christmas. I’d also like to thank all of the teachers, volunteers and friendly, helpful people at the space.
I agree that this is a good thread and a good thing to do in general, and something I personally am usually remiss in doing, and certainly am no expert in doing so.
But I am appreciative to the membership of DMS for growing large and strong, and being generally excellent. If you took the excellence of the average American and compared it to the excellence of the average DMS member, you would see a marked positive step in excellence of DMS member over average American. I know this from simple things like the fact that I have left countless valuables laying around DMS unattended, but yet nothing of mine has ever been taken. I have heard other members revel in this unusual feature of this large crew of makers mixed often with non-members checking things out. I would never leave stuff sitting around like a new 4k laptop or new tablet anywhere else in the world, engineering jobsites included. Also, I have engaged in so very many constructive conversations with smart folks at DMS, and from conversations with folks from sample sets containing average Americans, I see far less commonality, and usually get no useful information. Its rare for a DMS member to be very far off the mark, while I notice advertisers blast messages to the general population preying upon the masses of the less advantaged. While this makes me sad, I recognize that these messages would get nowhere with DMS members.
Bottom line, the large number of members has resulted in funding for a very nice set of tools at DMS, and this space has become invaluable for me as I aspire to, and have funding for taking a shot at earning my financial independence. The atmosphere at DMS is perfect for cross pollination with others with similar yet differing skill sets. The comrade-re creates an environment where magic can and does occur. I am glad there is a place like this in the area, and consequently I am grateful to DMS and its members.
I am also grateful for our board. I have noticed that they have a very tough job that they have volunteered for. And although there is no place on Earth that is perfect, I would say that DMS is well run overall. It is quite nice to have the difficulties of running a place like DMS managed, so I can focus my energies on my challenges, which are currently less well managed. But in effect, the board helps me to catch up by doing what they were elected to do. So while I am sure that there may be board members who feel that I am critical and not in their court, I would like to point out that for all the board members, I admire your dedication to the cause, and realize that I would not have a resource like DMS without your sacrifices. So go ahead and chalk me down as appropriately supportive, because I have a lot I need to accomplish upcoming, and I need a place like DMS effectively managed on autopilot (from my perspective) to perform at a level that I need to reach my goals.
@TBJK Time Bene: This guys fixes a lot of things around the Space: Metal Shop worked on Torch Holder for Plasma Cutter, Machine Shop: Got Cold Cut Saw up and Running smoothly, AIr Compressor got it on line quickly with a temp fix while ordering a new fan motor.
I’m sure there are many other things he’s done I’m not aware of. That’s not to discount all the things anyone does to help make our Space run, lots of little acts add up. Thanks to all!
