So why is someone having a class on caving in the ELab???
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Current system has no method to require permission of Chair and it is listed as classroom available.
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Also, while categorized as a āclassā, from title and description this is more of an event
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It still qualifies to reserve the room under our criteria at this time.
The Catch-22, until such times as committee areas need chair approval, there are one of two choices:
- Leave as is so you can also schedule classes and bump people out since the room is reserved
- Take it off the classroom listing, but then you canāt bump people out because the room isnāt reserved.
The ability to require chair permission to reserve a committee space may be something we want to put in as a calendar feature.
Iāll also note that āFilm/Audio Makingā activities are using 15.5 hours of classroom time today blocking out major rooms, prime time. We seem
- Lecture Hall: 8-12, 4 hours
- Interactive: 10:30 - 12, 2.5 hours
- Conference room: 12-6, 6 hours
- Lecture Hall: 1-4, 3 hours
Tomorrow Lecture Hall is blocked off from 10-4, 6 hours. But 10-1, the first 3 hours, is not open for sign-up from so is private function.
We seem to be evolving into Dallasās cheap place to avoid renting studio space at the expense of prime time classroom space.
This was a problem in the past and was resolved but is back worse than ever.
@Team_Education and Honorarium Auditors. Do we need to address this? These groups also schedule way out so the classrooms are never available for regular classes because most instructors usually sign-up 10-14 days in advance.
Iām not against learning the skills involved but Iām beginning we are being looked at as just a cheap way to rent space for $50/month.
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Here is another example of events consuming an excess of our limited classroom space.
All of the following appear to be the space activity, consuming multiple classrooms
https://calendar.dallasmakerspace.org/events/view/4021
https://calendar.dallasmakerspace.org/events/view/3526
https://calendar.dallasmakerspace.org/events/view/3525
https://calendar.dallasmakerspace.org/events/view/3524
Three rooms for 8+ hours
I suggest that we modify the rule to require Classroom chair and/or board member preapproval to schedule an event more then 7 days out. That way events will no longer compete with valuable class room space, and generally only be available for events if no classes are using the resources.
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The Lecture Hall and Conf Room were both No Show/No Cancel today. I have blacklisted the teacher, deleted his two future events and sent notice to him, ccāing Classroom.
He can explain himself to the Classroom Chair to get his teaching privileges back.
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I would point out that almost all of these classes events are not in āprime timeā. The bulk of the time involved is after 10pm, where there is few if any things booked on the calendar.
It starts at 8pm on a Tuesday, which is prime time. In any case, it doesnāt seem appropriate to allow single events to consume multiple classrooms, regardless of times. We do have midnight makers.
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It looks like an act of desperation because all of the other rooms except for Digital Media are reserved.
Calendar admins can cancel or move it, but whether that is fair is another questionā¦
There needs to be a discussion about an equitable way to allocate resources between honorarium classes, non-honorarium classes and events.
That is why I floated the idea of limiting the amount of time any individual member can reserve each month for events. It is the only thing workable I could come up with.
Not allowing reservation beyond 7 days will make it much less useful for user groups and such. Allowing it with permission of the Classroom Chair puts a lot of work on that one person. A different approach of requiring approval of another group of volunteers, be it honorarium auditors, calendar admins or a new one presents a new problem - now you have a group which can grant a privilege and not just acting as a filter.
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I was Classroom chair at the time and let it fly because only the 8 to 10 slot was in prime-time. Plus it is Halloween night, which I think will be a slow time.
The cavers have been meeting once a mont here for over a year
I never remember any issues with them causing any problems other than their
using a room on a Wed night
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Well as Stan pointed out there were two no shows without cancellations and these covered a lot of hours.
That has nothing to do with time of the caving meeting in the Electronics Lab.
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Thanks for all the comments, inputs, etc.,etc.
Rant: ON
It has been suggested that the Chair remove the ELab from available classroom list. Can I do this? Comments please.
Looks like 20+ hours of classroom space is tied up just on this. Letās say an average class runs 2 hrs long. Thatās 10 classes and $1000.00 worth of honorariums missed out on. I donāt know what the DMS rental policy is, but I strongly doubt it comes even comes close to this. Also Iāll guess that whatever rental fee is collected goes to the general fund - not to committee areas or teachers. I donāt have simple answer for this, but appears DMS is being used/abused badly here.
All this requires some mods to the policy I stated in an earlier thread on classes in the ELab.
Ref: Basic intro classes coming up
Classes on electronics have priority in the ELab.
The teachers of these classes have the authority to request the ELab be vacated for the class.
It is the responsibility of members to check the Events Calendar and schedule accordingly.
If a member is asked to leave the ELab for these classes and refuses to do so, a complaint may be filed by the teacher w/ the Chair and/or BoD. This may result in said member losing their privileges in the ELab - i.e. being banned from the ELab.
Teachers/event holders of non-electronic classes/events do NOT have the authority to vacate the ELab. For Example: If there are 5 members working on their projects at the benches/table, you can politely ask them to leave. You donāt have the authority to force them to leave. You also do not have the authority to prevent someone from entering the ELab to work on a project. If you want the ELab vacated for your non-electronics class/event, you need to PM the Chair in advance - as in before you post your class/event to the Events Calendar. You will also need to state that ELab will be vacated for your class/event in your description. Any committee honorariums will go to the Electronics Committee. When in doubt, please PM the Chair
Another problem here is just by looking at the Events Calendar you canāt tell that someone has reserved the ELab for a non-electronics class/event. If the class/event is not of interest to me, I wonāt click on that event and see where itās being held. Currently there is not a way to filter by classroom whatās been reserved and when. If I want to be sure the ELab isnāt reserved for a class/event, I have to go to that day on the Event Calendar and click on all the entries in the time range I want come in on. Another āfeatureā to add to the Events Calendar?
Darn growing painsā¦
Rant: OFF
for now
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Well, it seems we wont be meeting at the space any more, even though at least 3 of us are DMS members. I guess bringing new people to the space, teaching about cave exploration, mapmaking and showing speleological documentaries, slideshows and presentations is not educational enough for the Makerspace anymore. 
and we never scheduled anything in the electronics lab.
Blockquote
Reason: The Dallas Makerspace is not a meeting spaceā¦
Actually there was a mtng scheduled by DFW Grotto for Wed. Nov. 8 in the ELab. It was brought to my attention by another member. Just checked the Events Calendar and it appears to have been changed/edited to be off site. Go back and read my rant. I did not say the ELab could not be used, I ask to be contacted first.
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Yall were never a problem groups but I beleive that some responded to y all as if your where
I know I would love to see yalll continuse, I have trying to ge my hubby
to come to more of your meetings, He was a caver in college back in St Louis
I would suggest that you talk to John Goman who is tht new head of the
classroom committe
Mind you I am just an active member, no one official