So has woodshop ever offered scheduled office hours like some other committees have done?
Just a scheduled window of time where someone relatively new to woodworking could come and know someone would for sure be there to answer quick questions?
I know some of the larger mentoring things above won’t be practical or would be more burden on volunteers, but office hour windows would be a smaller time commitment. There might could be folks that aren’t up to teaching a class but are skilled enough to recognize and redirect newbie woodworkers, reinforce some things like how to clean up after, etc.
I know for myself, I took the old classes, have vague idea of simple beginner projects I’d like, but I was chicken to go in completely on my own, so didn’t. And at the time I didn’t know people to ask.
But really, if I’d had a window where I knew I could get someone to just check me out that I’m remembering the right details from training class before I turn on something sharp, I’d have been all over that.
As it is now, I know people that I’d feel comfortable asking for help, but that’s very intimidating if you’re new.
And maybe the office hours thing has been tried and I missed it, but if not, it seems like it wouldn’t be hard to try it.