Job Opportunity to Operate Makerspace near Fort Worth

Hi Makers!

I’m the HR Director for the developer of Walsh near Fort Worth. We are building a makerspace in the middle of our master-planned community, and we’re looking for someone to run all of the operations from developing curriculum, teaching and running the facilities, as well as community outreach…we even need help picking out the equipment. The salary is between $50-60K with benefits and paid time off. The link below talks about our makerspace. I look forward to sharing the detailed job description if anyone is interested in learning more about this opportunity. You can reach me at [email protected]. Have a great weekend!
https://walshtx.com/2017/01/23/maker-space-debut-walsh-development-april/

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Wow, that is going to be a tight fit. 2000 sq ft with a wood shop, Laser cutter, 3d printer, and robotics. A class room and a good wood shop will take up nearly all that space if you want to be able to serve 10 people in the facility at a time.

Good luck with the development.

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No, @Nick, it’s totally doable in this size of space. My home is about 2200 sq ft and I totally see how I would layout a few basic spaces in the areas available. You are assuming 1) they want/need to follow our exact model (which they don’t); and that 2) they need certain ancillary spaces like classroom, kitchen, entry/foyer (which they don’t). This MS will be more akin to a community/HOA pool: the member pool is already predetermined, as in homeowners in the master-planned community. Classes could be held at other satellite community spaces like main hall, people can go home and eat, as well as store their projects as it is assumed they are nearby, no entry-way (i.e. welcoming area) needed since marketing they way we think of it is needed.

The only thing I don’t see planned is growth of demand especially at peak usage times; this size of space can’t really support a community that large if most homes in the community wanted to actively use it when they are likely to be free, i.e. non-school, non-9-to-5 work hours. Their weekends and after-work time periods will be so crammed people will likely get disheartened over time.

I am confused, though, as to their need for help with stuff like planning the space layout and picking out tools and such as article indicated Mark Hatch was closely involved: “Mark Hatch partnered with Walsh developers to help with the design, construction, tools and programming that will be offered at The Makerspace at Walsh.” ???

I’d do this in a minute if I was moving into Walsh community, though…maybe they should be looking for people from there. As it is, I’d have to commute by plane or helicopter to WFTW :frowning:

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@mblatz

You are Awesome. You call me out and then point out the same concerns. I think the idea of a housing community Makerspace is awesome and I know they don’t have to fit our model. But 2k sq ft to serve how many people? If you through a party to just stand around and talk I bet your house would be crazy hectic with 20 to thirty people. Our wood shop is say 25 by 50, just a guess maybe way off. How many people can really work in there at once without being all over each other? 6 maybe 8? That is 1250 sq ft. They don’t need 2 table saws a giant jointer, a 5x10 router table, but removing all that you would need to bring in the hand tools we have in the ware house. It is really tight just talking wood shop. The other stuff is tiny and could be put in a class room as shared space.

Suspect that this is as much modular event space as it is a workshop and the employee will spend much of their time configuring it for classes or returning it to baseline configuration during open periods.

Or, since this looks to be an upper-end development, the assumption might be that their residents will have adequate space at home for some of the more common homeowner-type power tools and will come to the local makerspace for more exotic capabilities a bit less accessable to the novice such as CNC tools.

If this community amenity is like most others that I’ve seen at apartment complexes and in suburbia, availability will be reasonably high most hours.

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Then you weren’t clear. You specifically called out the concern of a classroom taking up half the space, implying you thought square footage was the main issue. You did not clearly indicate your concern was peak demand usage.

Except for when you said this.

And yes, I am AWESOME!

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Hi Heather (@hpauzer), Thanks for keeping us in mind for this job opportunity! :slight_smile:

Just a reminder y’all… Heather posted this as a job opportunity ~ not as a discussion. I’m sure if she and/or the company wants our opinions, they will ask for them. :wink:

Considering that we do actually have members who pay $50 a month and drive to Our 'Space from Fort Worth, I don’t think it’s a stretch to offer someone the potential to make $50,000 - $60,000/yr with benefits to have a paying job doing something they believe in and would probably enjoy!

If you aren’t interested in the job, do what most people would do with any job offer they aren’t interested in, and just ignore it.

If you are interested, please contact Heather as suggested.

Thanks y’all, and thanks again Heather!
:slight_smile:

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