Largest Makerspace?

Are we the largest Makerspace by membership and by area?

That would depend on how you define makerspace. I believe we are the largest volunteer run makerspace in the world.

I think there are some for-profit makerspaces that are larger.

For physical space I believe Columbus, Ohio is biggest at 60,000 sf. Old factory in rust belt. But believe they rent out a lot of space commercially not all used as maker space. But they are physically the largest.

We are the largest member supported Makerspace in the US that I could find and in Europe. Where the definition is tricky, something like a university or public library can say all students enrollees are members or a city states all residents are “members” making numbers from 10’s of thousands (all students) to hundreds of thousands (all city residents).

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This is the answer I wanted. Thanks!

And in addition to what David says, there are allegedly some Makerspaces where you can pay a single day fee. We hear that they count each person who has ever paid for a single day fee in their numbers. This is not exactly comparable to the type of facility that we are.

Just curious - why do you ask?

I might be interviewed for my combat robot and I want to mention DMS.

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The Makerspace in Columbus is named the Idea Foundry, located in an old shoe factory. I visiting the place 2 months ago and have a lot of internal photos of the place. I was not impressed at all. Check out Columbus Idea Foundry.

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The cost of an equivalent membership is $65 - ours in January will be $60, so the same.
But Classes are a lot more, the uquivalent of Wood Shop basics is $55 https://app.getoccasion.com/p/n/7412814f0abd613737a898003f6d1326cdfb425e

Almost very class at looked at had a cost of $40+. Which is understandable, it looks like if you want to teach a class you rent the room and charge admission: Prices range from $200/hr + fees to $75/hr plus fees. So very different income model and if you look at their calendar you don’t see 5-10 classes/events every day. I saw the phrase tool rental in several places but not sure what that was in reference to exactly, i.e what tools are free to use. Events & Programming Pricing Sheet - Google Docs

Their model seems to be working for them, I see no reference to it being a non-profit. That means they have a number of owners and employees to pay. Profit isn’t a dirty word - they are providing a service that people want. But it changes greatly how pricing is structured. We pretty much an all you can eat. Only Laser and MIG welding have fees to use tools that I know of.

The Columbus Idea Foundry has a very unique pricing plan. It is true that the starting membership fee is at $65. But, after the new member attends a free 2 hour Orientation Class and a free 2 hour Safety Class then they save $5 per month on their membership price. Now they pay $60 per month. However, if they ever stop their membership, and then try to start it again several months later, then they have to re-take those 2 classes again in order to get their $5 reduced fee again. This forces continuous membership as folks don’t want to re-take those same training classes again each time. This has helped them to retain continuous membership and eliminates the start, stop, start again membership issues that we face here at DMS.

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I think if DMS had your certifications expire after a certain amount of time “away” then that might help. But the flip side is be imposing a lot of re-training on ourselves which would probably over burden us.

However, it I like the idea of a couple on-boarding classes: first a Safety Class and a second class on DMS Rules, Practices, and Culture. Wouldn’t have to be detailed, but make new member aware and where to find the info.

Do you kknow or have an idea of their memerbship? I saw a 2014 article that said 300. If they had growth half of ours they’d be around 1,000.

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Two months ago at the Idea Foundry they had membership numbers of no more than 600. That’s the only number I could get out of them.

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Hey we have a daily fee too. $50 and a bonus of 29 days :wink:

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This is an interesting retention mechanism. Is the safety class also mandatory before using the tools (or at least the power tools or bladed power tools)?

This would reduce the “one and done” members using the DMS as a one-project tool rental resource.

This is the Safety Class that covers all of the equipment on site. Now this is just a basic safety class, not an equipment utilization class. Here is where the on/off switch is. Here is where the medical equipment is located. Do not have any hanging jewelry around your neck when you use this tool. Basic stuff but required by their insurance carrier. The class was said to be rather boring, boring enough to retain members because they don’t want to take that class again.

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So would resetting all the AD group privileges …

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May also preclude people from ever coming back. If done, maybe a certain amount of time: 6mo, 9 mo or a year.

I have taken laser training but need to take it again: none of the machines I trained on exist at DMS anymore!

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Yes, but it does make the new user more aware of everything the Makerspace has to offer with just the Orientation Class alone . . . plus they save $5 per month on their membership. They now have some skin in the game. We currently do not have any type of orientation class at all, then we wonder why folks do not play by the rules.

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Hey man, have we got a special deal for you. Free Laser Basics training! on our new machines! lol

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