New Member Orientation Class - Slide Deck

I’ve created a slide deck for the New Member Orientation class which I have been teaching every Thursday at 8pm (except next week, I’ll be at QuakeCon).

I’ve gone through a few iterations of the slides and got a chance to use them last night for the first time, the class went really well but there’s always room for improvement. For anyone interested in helping, please check it out and leave comments/suggestions.

17 Likes

Andrew, THANK YOU!!!

A regularly conducted New Member Orientation is long overdue and greatly appreciated. It’s exactly the sort of thing I was in need of when I originally joined.

I’m sure new incoming members will greatly benefit from it and it will assuredly accelerate their journey as part of the global Maker Movement.

Looking forward to reviewing the deck!

3 Likes

Please note, if anyone else does teach the New Member Orientation class, I’m asking that they don’t request honorarium if using my slide deck.

2 Likes

In keeping with the principles of the Maker Movement’s open source/freely available sharing ideals, you could always add that ‘no honorarium’ request to your deck cover page.

Just a thought.

2 Likes

I’ve updated them to include wording that shows they are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.

3 Likes

It looks good. Only suggestion is to add pics of the majors (where are restrooms, cleaning supplies, etc.)

Maybe pics of current board/chairs too?

2 Likes

A list of all the current active committees would be great as well as what @MrsMoose said. Also, maybe a slide explaining how to use the computers to access the drives… to be honest, I still don’t quite understand it.

Do you have a handout/packet that you pass out during the orientation or at the end? If not, it might be good to consider something with:
List of committees with wiki links, contact info/pics of the chairs
The list of useful website links
A labeled map of the building
Rules/Your Contact Info/A Thank You and Welcome

As someone with terrible memory, I would treasure a packet like this dearly.

I believe @jrkriehn, @MellissaRhodes and others may be working on a handout. It’s absolutely something I’d like to have as part of the class.

3 Likes

Thank you for the work you’re doing on this

2 Likes

Slide 7, you presumably mean “No working on Firearms” ?

1 Like

Correct, I’ll add that to the notes so it’s clear.

Good balance between information transfer and not getting too long.

I have the following suggestions:
slide 6 - HOW to ask for help? See “Dealing With Issues”
slide 9 - Use TALK to report issues, broken tooling, etc.

slide 10 - Consider adding:
“Commit a neatness”. Spend 5 minutes at some point in your visit making the space better for yourself and others.

I recommend adding a slide after the “How does this work, Who is in charge?” slide

DEALING WITH ISSUES

  • Tools:
    • If a tool is broken (whether or not you broke it), please report it on TALK
    • TALK and asking within a committee area is the best way to locate a specific tool or learn about training
  • Safety:
    • If you see someone doing something unsafe, speak up, or offer to help
      • members may be relatively unskilled with a given tool and would appreciate the guidance
      • assisting with others’ projects can be rewarding and help you get to know other members
  • Personal Issues:
    • If you have a problem with the way someone is acting at the 'Space, and can’t resolve it amicably, find a BoD member, Officer, or Commitee Chair/Vice-Chair

Maybe something like this, In there somewhere:

Volunteer Run Non-Profit

  • DMS is run by people just like you. People that enjoy making, and want to help other people, and help the Dallas Makerspace keep going.

  • Volunteers serve at every level, from the Board on down to the dishwasher. All volunteers.

  • Will you help? Attend Committee meetings, and volunteer to do something!

3 Likes

Good information. On slide 7, the last bullet point is Commercial Use. Do you go in to more detail during the class? If so what are the guidelines?

Yeah, there’s some info about that in the notes.

@AndrewLeCody I created slide templates for DMS. Have you seen them?

No, can you send them to me or link to them?

https://dallasmakerspace.org/wiki/Learn_to_teach

1 Like

I’m willing to do an introduction video to Machine Shop. This video would be a simple video to give an idea of how the Machine Shop operates, what the expectations are & to make them feel more welcomed.