DMS Tours : changing the day and/or frequency of tours

[Natasha_Cooks]

The PR Committee was having a discussion, and it was suggested we add this subject to the talk forum.

I would really like to hear from frequent tour guides like @StanSimmons and others who run tours on a regular basis.

The Digital Media Committee will edit a straight forward visual tour, with scripted voiceovers.

One member suggested changing the tours to a weekly Saturday, since we may get more volunteers to conduct tours.

Another member suggested that we scale back the tours to monthly or every other week. There was concern that tourists would get confused as to which day the tours occurred.

Another suggestion would be a “DMS First Saturdays” and/or “DMS First Thursdays” and possibly expand the hours, so the tourists don’t have a legitimate reason to get confused.

We could get more volunteers, and run the tours 1x per 30 minutes, possibly sign tour guides for 30 minute slots. That way, there is only a 30 minute commitment every couple of months.

Any other thoughts from forum members?

@AlexRhodes
@StanSimmons
@KrissyHeishman
@themitch22
@LisaSelk
@Haley_Moore

[Brandon_Green]

Sounds like something whoever is volunteering to give tours should decide. Previously tours coincided with Thursday member meetings, but member meetings are currently fairly useless and tourists don’t typically attend anyway. What is the current timeframe on thursdays tours are given for?

[StanSimmons]

Tours are currently on the calendar from 7-10pm every Thursday. I would not be opposed to moving them to a different day, or having them only once or twice a month.

I would love to see a video tour with several of our members highlighted, including spots from each of the committees about their areas, and a spot from one or more BoD members highlighting how we operate.

Currently Katie and I seem to be giving most of the scheduled tours, with several others giving tours when they are around.

I’ve proposed an Honorarium system to help get more of our members to give tours, as described here: https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Board_of_Directors_Meeting_20150621#Authorize_Honorariums_for_Tour_Guides_.28Stan_Simmons.29
It has a couple of problems, including driving Ben crazy with more paperwork, and the possibility of abuse… I welcome any suggestions and comments.

[Natasha_Cooks]

Great feedback, Stan! I wonder if this discussion is worth bringing up at the next member meeting. Also, what would the timeline be to implement monthly tours(perhaps the beginning August)?

Currently, Digital Media has the bandwidth to shoot a walk-through tour of the space with voiceovers (Adrian and I can get this done). We can get the tour completed by mid July if we get cooperation from the committees on writing and recording content about the space.

Once we get a camera, we could shoot the tour relatively quickly, and send the quick tour off to an editor. Once we gain members who are willing to produce more in-depth member highlights, we can certainly approach your idea then.

We will help where we can.

@StanSimmons

[LisaSelk]

Dallas Makerspace Monthly Meet & Greet (and Board Game Saturday) every nth Saturday at the 'Space!!!

smallprint: “Refreshments will be provided”

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Based on several conversations (various in the past, plus the PR disussion Natasha refers to, as well as suggestions in this thread), I would like to suggest the following:

• Change from weekly ‘open house/public tours’ to once per month
• Being on the weekend would be easier for both members and vistors to have time to participate in most cases - since ‘most’ will not be having to stop by after a long day’s work.
  • Saturday or Sunday? I can see advantages/disadvantages to either; but, either would be better than trying to come in late in the day during the week…
  • Same weekend as the Board of Directors Meeting each month, or just every nth Saturday/Sunday of each month, or ?
• Change the name from weekly “Open House” to “Dallas Makerspace Monthly Meet & Greet (and Board Game Saturday)” (or something along those lines)
• “Open House” tends to mean something ‘larger than normal’ or ‘something special’, which could lead to disappointment of visitors if they expect more than “just a tour”…
• “Open House” also conflicts with having a special and large annual event that also happens to be called… “Open House”.
• “Meet & Greet” seems to describe what visitors are more likely to get out of these regular monthly events…
• "Tours" could be scheduled during the monthly "Meet & Greet"
• Member guided tours every x-minutes during the monthly “Meet & Greet”
• Sign at the front door near the waiver kiosks advising visitors to meet in the lobby at schedule tour times
• Printed handouts/pamphlets with a ‘map’ of the 'Space to allow visitors the ability to discover areas of interest in a more casual 'n true “meet 'n greet” type manner
• Workshop would still require a member escort.
• “Badges” (inexpensive tacky-backed name tags… Blue edge for Members, Green (or other) edge for Visitors) to allow both visitors and members know at a glance who may have questions, and who may be able to answer questions.
• Being on the weekend, more members would likely be available to help with the tours…
• Potential visitors will still be able to reach out to Admin or PR to schedule one-off tours during other hours, if needed, for special circumstances
• Combine with Board Game Saturday - to have an automaticly built in Low Cost / Low Effort “fun” aspect to benefit members and vistors
• Members would already be present, so more likely to have members available to help with tours.
• Serve koolaid/tea and cookies as simple and affordable snacks/refreshments (possibly have an occassional “cook out” on the same day, like Allan & Matt have done in the past…)
• In addition (or instead of?) having it on the same day as “Board Game Saturday”, we could also consider moving the “Monthly Members Meeting” to the same weekend as the “Meet & Greet”.
• The same logic as having it along with the “Board Game Saturday” - members will be around already, so would hopefully encourage more participation in the Monthly Member Meetings!
• Members who cannot make the Monthly Meetings at this time, due to work schedule, etc… would have a better chance of being able to attend - which should also help with the participation.
• Would it be better to have the monthly member meeting before the Meet & Greet / Board Games - or start the fun early, and break away for the meeting mid to late afternoon?
• Fun First? Might be able to get some of the stragglers who wouldn’t normally be around to actually attend the meetings!
• Meeting First? Get business out of the way, then enjoy the rest of the day with all the day’s fun!
• Encourage “sometimes members” (who pay ‘every now and then’; but, show up almost every Thursday to do things…) to become full time members

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tl;dr:

My thoughts are that by combining a monthly “Meet & Greet” (for tours and to let visitors meet members), “Board Game Saturday”, and “Monthly Member Meetings” into a casual but fun day once each month would greatly benefit current and prospective members, as well as encourage members to remain active in many ways!

[Natasha_Cooks]

I like it. We can direct potential members to the online tour, and add a blurb about the above mentioned Open House. Honestly, I do not know who would be responsible for making the final decision.

[LisaSelk]

*fixed

I like it. We can direct potential members to the online tour, and add a blurb about the above mentioned O̶p̶e̶n̶ ̶H̶o̶u̶s̶e̶ Meet & Greet (…and Board Game Saturday). Honestly, I do not know who would be responsible for making the final decision.

Seriously though… Thanks!

I imagine simply changing the date with none of the other changes mentioned above would be as easy as having PR make the change…

However, with all the changes I suggested specifically in my response (as well as many of the others) would probably be best brought up during a Board Meeting…

Let’s see what others in PR (@KrissyHeishman) and the Board (@AndrewLeCody, @Robert_Davidson, @BenjaminGroves, @Kentamanos, and @AlexRhodes) think ~ as well as members in general (and potential visitors who might see this post) might have to say…

[jast]

member meetings are currently fairly useless and tourists don’t typically attend anyway

*Ramble Mode: Full*
I don’t know if this has changed, but back when I attended an “Open House” in January explicitly to get my door badge, as per the instructions, it was made clear that member meetings were only for members and not guests.
I know we have improved the ability for any guest-come-member to get their door cards, it seems most members have no idea how to facilitate this.
Secondarily, as shown here, the “how to join” still says you must attend a “Thursday meeting” to get your key/card/fob/badge/thingy.

And, unless it has changed, the email welcoming newly paid members is equally confusing, stipulating that only board members (BTW, as a new member, it’s remarkably intimidating to go searching for “a board member”) can make the door card thingy:

And finally, the New Member 411, though fine in its scope, is not conducive to helping new members get their door cards and get started, in my opinion. The two most useful pieces of info on that are the “important contacts”.
Everything seems pointed toward making the Thursday meeting and Open House everything, and the night I attended (I only get about 4 Thursday evening free annually if all goes to plan) it was a zoo.
So, I guess I would vote for moving to a weekend for guests, but that makes it harder for members, who are also free-er on weekends, to get their stuff done around the looky-loos.

I agree with most of the above: whomever is doing the tours should decide when they want to give them; having several people doing them, perhaps on different schedules, could be beneficial; without having read Stan’s suggestions on honorariums, some sort of compensation for the folks giving the tours sounds like a fine idea; after all, we get compensated for taking our time to teach a class, so why not for tours/member recruitment; and finally I like Lisa’s recommendations to combine events, but if you want non-member participation, we need a better way to make that clear to interested parties than the blurb on the events page that says “events open to the public unless stated otherwise”. Also it needs to be clear for members. For example, if members are to let non-members through the door on Saturdays for the “Game Day/Meet&Greet/Member Meeting”, both members and non-members should know EXACTLY to whom they should be referred and where. Nothing prevents you from wanting to help like not knowing who is responsible or where the guests are being welcomed… Signage could help, with, perhaps, something on the “tv” in the lobby: “Welcome guests, please proceed to the Fortress of Solitude for Game Day. Ask for Stan Simmons!”

I hope my ramblings are useful, and I would like to see more “new members” chime in here, as we have most recently navigated these waters and should have the most to offer to improve moving the public from non-member to member.
*Ramble Mode: Reduced*

tl;dnr:
From my experience, the most important thing would be to get the actual door card process completely removed from the “Open House/Tour/whatever” process so that people know they can drop by any time and make their own card request and/or ask any member on hand to make their card request anytime after they’ve paid their dues.

BTW, what is the “pickup” procedure after you’ve made the card request? This document states 24-48 hrs. but nothing about what to do after that to GET the card…

[Natasha_Cooks]

Andrew, When I joined, I attended the member meeting, and I had the same experience as far as the member meeting requirement.

As far as compensation/incentives, the honorarium appears to be a cumbersome process for Ben, and I do empathize with him. Sounds like there also needs to be a more streamlined process for honorariums, or a different compensation method. I wonder if gift cards or a tour guide donation jar would be a good incentive, where the committee in charge could delve them out. Make it part of a tour budget, and the guides submit a form to them.

Again, I do not know the history of the abuse, but is this feasible?

Also, Brooks established all of those laptops. I wonder if we can leverage his hard work, and have membership sign up stations established either in the lobby, the entrance hallway, or the conference room with a set of badges available.

Just my thoughts.

@bscharff
@BenjaminGroves
@jast

[StanSimmons]

I’ve put one of the laptops in the snack room, next to the phone, for the purpose of activating badges, and I usually put 2 or 3 laptops out in the common room for people to use for joining.

The big bottleneck right now on tour night is the 2 liability waiver kiosks. We really need a faster, more reliable solution for that. Perhaps more kiosks, or the ability to use the laptops for liability waivers.

[jast]

I’ve put one of the laptops in the snack room, next to the phone, for the purpose of activating badges, and I usually put 2 or 3 laptops out in the common room for people to use for joining.

The big bottleneck right now on tour night is the 2 liability waiver kiosks. We really need a faster, more reliable solution for that.

I’ll toss out the same idea I had on the night I was part of the tour herd…
Can we put the waiver online, and let folks fill it out BEFORE they are on site?
I’m not clear on the logistics, but I would happily have done so…
Or, instructions on how to access the form on their own device once they are on our (guest) network, so they can use their own tablet/smartphone/laptop/gamebox to fill it out while waiting.
Even, maybe, fillable, printable form to bring along?
(And publicize these options, so they know to bring their device if they want, or the printed form if we go that route, etc.)

As for “honorarium” or other compensation for tour leaders; I am unclear on how honorariums are actually paid, i.e. where that funding comes from.
However, it strikes me that nothing would stop us locally from, for example, giving away a free month’s membership for four half-hour tours of 12 or more possible members (or 50 unique visitors, not part of groups). (Yes, those are pulled from my…ahem…thin air and represent no real consideration other than “once a week, take a group of 12 or so people on a tour, and you can pay for your month’s membership” kind of thing. Certainly open to adjustments from folks with more experience.)
Gift cards seems doable, as well. I cannot recommend the donation jar for personal reasons you’ll understand if we ever have that conversation.
There may be (and probably are) good reasons for NOT doing things this way, but I think these ideas have merit.

Have we floated off topic?
I don’t’ think so, since all this addresses “move from Thursday and/or more often or less often” as well as “whom shall so do”…

[Opcode]

I’ve tried teaching classes on Thursday nights during Open House. The trouble is, that means that some people who might want a tour cannot attend my class, and I can’t give a tour and teach a class at the same time. I like doing both. However, I’m currently not doing either on Thursday nights, because Saturday is so much better for both the students and the teacher for teaching classes. Moving Open House to Saturday just recreates the problems of Thursday Open House, but on the best day for teaching classes. Admittedly, you probably would see more activity on Saturday, but that’s partly because members avoid going to the Space during Open House.

[paulstaf]

I think that the tours need to be scripted so that whichever person conducts the tour, the information is the same…I was in the electronics room one Thursday not too long ago and the person giving the tour brought people into the electronics room and said: “This is electronics…I don’t know much about it, they have like soldering irons and stuff…”

Another time I was walking past the arts and crafts room and the tour guide pretty much just said: “This is the arts and crafts room, where you can do arts and crafts…” I know from poking around in that room that there are some neat things in there; laminators, button makers, embroidery machines, plotters, vinyl cutters, and who knows what else that I haven’t discovered yet.

I don’t see paying an honorarium for such lackluster guidance.

I didn’t really say anything in the past because the people giving the tours were unpaid volunteers, but if DMS decides to compensate the people for doing tours, then we should have some sort of script full of detailed information so that areas of DMS that the tour guide “isn’t in to” don’t get short changed in their descriptions. I think it would be a good idea to have scripts either way, paid or not, but definitely if paid.

If you compensate the tour guides, what about other people that spend a lot of their own time doing things around DMS? The people that maintain the laser, the 3d printers, the server/network admins, the guys working in the woodshop today, the ones building the lasersaurus…

[StanSimmons]

The idea behind the honorarium is to get people that don’t ordinarily give tours to sit thru a required class, and show up on tour days to give a scripted tour. Those of us that give tours regularly do it without incentive… but the load we carry on those days is sometimes just too much.

I suspect that the poor tours that you have seen were when Katie or I grabbed someone out of the common room and begged them to help with a tour.

[Opcode]

I have to admit, I don’t know much about half the equipment at DMS. I can’t even say much about what’s in the Electronics Room, even though I would have some familiarity with the equipment, simply because I don’t keep up to date on their inventory. I know they just got a lot of neat toys, but this changes all the time. It’s too much to keep track of every department’s inventory. Also, I know next-to-nothing about woodworking, so I usually just point out the CNC lathe and point out the obvious sharp, cutty thingies everywhere. Most people just want to look at stuff, anyway. If someone has a question, I probably need to grab someone who regularly uses that room.

I enjoy giving tours, without an honorarium, but I’m limited in how often I can get to the Space because I’m exhausted after work, it takes me a half-hour each way and it costs me five or six dollars each time I make a trip (especially if I use a toll road). I really need to try to make my trips to the Space economical, and honorarium helps. I can’t say that giving tours necessarily deserves honorarium more than repairing the laser (or other equipment). DMS depends heavily on volunteer labor. I also can’t say that $10 by itself would encourage me to lead tours, though it would at least off-set my gas and tolls.

[Awesomer]

THIS

I think that the tours need to be scripted so that whichever person conducts the tour, the information is the same…

AND THIS

I don’t see paying an honorarium for such lackluster guidance.

AND NAIL IT!

I didn’t really say anything in the past because the people giving the tours were unpaid volunteers, but if DMS decides to compensate the people for doing tours, then we should have some sort of script full of detailed information so that areas of DMS that the tour guide “isn’t in to” don’t get short changed in their descriptions…

.
.
.
My two cents: Honorariums for tours should be payed based on the number of people that sign up that tour. $10 per person to the presenter. Before you blow a fuse, here is why this will work:

If DMS needs professional results, then the results MUST be incentivized. Not everyone can be a @StanSimmons with all the winning attributes required to conduct great tours. There are however, several people who will do an outstanding job conducting tours, but they are currently NOT willing/able to volunteer and give away time. With proposed pay will come Strict Requirements that must be adhere to - such as scripts, comprehensive knowledge of DMS, and a Salesmanship drive by those approved to conduct tours. This means that not everyone will be able to conduct tours initially, but more than likely will strive to which will improve their ability to present.

These things cannot be required from volunteers, because the only mode of enforcement is to not allow the volunteer to conduct tours anymore… however, as of late, DMS is practically begging members to conduct tours…

Just because I love to pull levers, push buttons and am willing to volunteer my time does that make me remotely qualified to run a nuclear power plant.

The current tours guides should get together and come up with the proper tour guide in the following: what spaces are covered and in what order. What is presented in each space. FAQ and complicated questions that might be asked.

And how to get the fence sitters to commit and sign up. Those that know they are going to sign up, will - without a tour. However, out of a tour group of 10 more than 5 should sign up every time… why else would they be there. This is “Sales 101: when the customer base comes to you.”

However, I had a feeling this would happen. It is a huge can of worms…

If you compensate the tour guides, what about other people that spend a lot of their own time doing things around DMS? The people that maintain the laser, the 3d printers, the server/network admins, the guys working in the woodshop today, the ones building the lasersaurus…

…X…

@paulstaf

[Nick]

The tour night has been held on Thursdays for so long that changing the night would be a Large change. A while back I went through the info on how members heard about DMS, and 42% of members came from a personal refferal. So having members that don’t know about the change sending people on Thursdays if the day is change, would up the chances of possible new members getting the locked out no one willing to help first impression of DMS which tends to happen to non-members coming to classes.

Also, Stan and Katie are the members that give tours consistently every week. They should be the decision makers on this subject as they do the work. Changing the job that some members already do is a Large change, because we are volunteers and can’t just assign the job to another member and expect them to take it on. They have to want to do the job and we have two members that want and / or just do the job.

I like Stan’s idea of honorarium for giving tours. It might not make me give tours more, but I’ve met many members that it would excite into giving tours. Stan’s point about the kiosks is also a important one. Once we get over about 6 people trying to take a tour, the kiosks drag everything to a halt. Kids tend to get through them in under 4 or 5 minutes, but middle aged to elderly adults can take upwards of 10 to 15 minutes to fill out one form. We need more Kiosks, probably at least 2.

PR helping to get more kiosks, would help more than changing the night of open house.

[jast]

We need more Kiosks, probably at least 2.

PR helping to get more kiosks, would help more than changing the night of open house.

Thank you for a solid return to earth.

I just want to re-iterate the thoughts running through my head as a freshly-paid-but-uncarded-waiting-for-a-tour person, and ask if these things have been considered and/or discarded as solutions or partial solutions to the kiosk problem:

I’ll toss out the same idea I had on the night I was part of the tour herd…Can we put the waiver online, and let folks fill it out BEFORE they are on site?I’m not clear on the logistics, but I would happily have done so…Or, instructions on how to access the form on their own device once they are on our (guest) network, so they can use their own tablet/smartphone/laptop/gamebox to fill it out while waiting.Even, maybe, fillable, printable form to bring along?(And publicize these options, so they know to bring their device if they want, or the printed form if we go that route, etc.)

[Opcode]

It seems like we used to have the liability waiver online, back around the time we first moved into this building. Then, we got this new system.

If I were better at navigating the wiki, I might find a copy of the waiver in there.

[StanSimmons]

The current waiver is an online only system. It ties the name and email on the waiver to the name and email on the member account, and an RFID card can not be activated without an electronic waiver. A paper or PDF waiver will not work for this.

I’m working with the BoD to test some lower cost Android Tablets for Waiver Kiosks.