Assuming we keep experiencing growth, scheduling of resources may become a necessity since our infrastructure is fixed. Our present organizational structure doesn’t lend itself to such a paradigm shift, but could in the intermediate future. Committees like VECTOR, Jewelry, the proposed plastics fabrication committee/SIG or specific equipment like CA’s screen printer might deploy for set periods during which resources are available.
The paint booth we keep lusting over seems like a prime example. Odds are that regulatory limits on usage will make the construction of a permanent paint booth a waste of dollars, however a temporary paint booth that gets set up, used for a set period, then stowed might make sense. If it’s operating for, say, 48 hours a month, scheduling time during that period may be beneficial to the membership.
Kiln presently is what it is since the committee has no apparent interest in training more operators. The present Board may act on it if so inclined.
Blacksmithing only seems to be available during their scheduled events. I gather that the trailer with their equipment is now routinely going offsite. If someone really wants to hitch up the trailer, retrieve it, unload the gear they need, then reverse the process on a day not scheduled for open forge then I guess they could… with the committee’s consent.
Science is talking about doing things will almost certainly require scheduling since things need to be set up, run, and taken down in sequence by someone familiar with the experiment. Perhaps this would be a class or other organized activity, but scheduling resources for days on end seem possible.
This is the best argument I have seen for solving the problem by simply placing a cap on membership, and hence demand. Freeze current membership levels. Allow prospective members (and those who let their membership lapse) to enter a FIFO waiting list. Then as we have members leave, we offer the top of the queue the opportunity to join. If they decline they are removed from the list (or transferred to the bottom if they choose), and the next in the queue is offered the opportunity.
Until we can expand our infrastructure, we should stop increasing membership. Growing demand without corresponding growth in capacity is extremely poor management practice.
I wonder if there is any way we can somehow better organize or categorize the wealth of information that is on the wiki? I can help. Is anyone else willing to volunteer to help?
This! I would be willing to assist, but not sure how much help I would be because as a fairly new member I am still trying to figure out what is available, and what info out there is still relevant.
I’m willing to help, but I’m going to be Debby Downer here.
This is one place that many, many people have tried very hard to make better (including you, Chris. I know you’ve but a TON of work into it). Part of the problem is that you are trying to please a very wide audience. What makes it better for some, worsens it for others. So, although I am (have been) a fairly regular contributor to what IS out there, I’m a little recalcitrant to try to tow the line on “making it better” in a sweeping gesture like this. I’ll happily “make it better for me”, and if no one undoes it, there it stays, apparently better for my work. But honestly, I am flabbergasted that people choose to read so little before they start firing off questions on “social media” (in which I’m including forums, like TALK). Some folks are truly blatant “I’m not even going to look for this, even though I know it’s out there, I’ve been told it’s out there, and someone even provided a link, I’m still just going to ask”. Yeah. That. Ruins. My. Interest.
tl:dnr willing to help, not willing to even try to spearhead; I already have to help a bunch of lazy, functionally illiterate folks at my day job (along with lots of really good people, I’ll add, but you remember them less).
To try and stem the kiln related misinformation before it goes wild again:
I am a member of the FA committee and would be willing to teach a kiln class. Programming the kiln and understanding how to load it isn’t difficult. It’s understanding the material that takes a little finesse. I think the vast majority of people have no desire to fire the work of others but would like to just know more about the process and/or would like to be able to fire their own work/small group either in a kiln of their own or at DMS. This will be made much easier once the repair is finished on the other Paragon. We will have more than one operational, digitally controlled ceramics kiln, yay! Classes and one-off firings could be done with the other kiln without interfering with the community firings. If you would be interested in this, please send me a private message and I’ll see if Beth will allow it.
I realize that most on here are salty and already know about these things but from a new member’s perspective if you don’t even know it exists you wouldn’t know what to look for.
I don’t agree with this at all. I have been able to find a number of answers on the wiki through searching. I’m not saying it is great, but it does work.
Sorry to pick, Bill, but…
More information than “it doesn’t work” might prove beneficial. What, specifically, have you searched for, which did not return the results you [desired|hoped for|expected], and in what way was it not as [desired|hoped for|expected]? (oh, and I DO think “gosh, I wish this search worked better”, so I’ll try to take note the next time I have one of these moments)
We need to clearly define the problem if we hope to solve it, and “it doesn’t work” is not a very helpful way to define the problem. (On the other hand, maybe there’s no solution, regardless of how well we define this problem).
As far as I know, adding keywords only helps if you’re pointing to a page which did not already have that word included in the page (and hence, the index). For example, if you want to have the page for the “galley” pull up if people search for “kitchen”, but the word “kitchen” is not already on the page, adding it as a keyword will allow it to be indexed so it turns up on the search, without muddling the content.
To be fair, though, I know virtually NOTHING about SEO when it comes to mediawiki.
I DO know Stan will say “just use Google.com with site:dallasmakerspace.org/wiki” (or something like that)).
I hear ya. I had the same problem as a newbie. Still do, in fact.
OM: “I used blah blah to blah blah the blah on my blah blah blah.”
Me: “Cool”.
Me: (internal soliloquy) GEEBUS! I didn’t even know we HAVE a blah blah!! Why isn’t this POSTED somewhere?!?
Usually followed by one of two things:
Me: oh. it is. If only I could read.
or
Me: someone should add that to the tools list…