Onboarding Process - New Member

I just signed up and it looks like the weekly Saturday meetings are no longer scheduled:
Dallas Makerspace (Column 2 - “How To Join”)

If anyone has time to get me setup I’m interested in taking a look around. I have a flexible schedule.

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Tonight is a board meeting so there should be more members there than normal.

We’re a bit informal with the onboarding process, but I would recommend you get at a minimum two things done as part of your onboarding.

  1. Get a tour of the space if you haven’t already. It will take around an hour or two to see all the areas and hear the run through.
  2. Get a badge (there are some free in the common area, or any 125kHz RFID you provide). Get that number imported into Maker Manager and you’ll be able to badge into the doors.

You should have pretty good luck wandering around and asking for help from most members if no-one replies to specifically meet with you.

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What Malcom said, except I’d start with the badge. Since you’re a member now, you’re allowed to roam around. Granted, that won’t get you any idea of what you’ll need training to use, but you’re not required to have somebody with you.

And – you should go to the Green Dot (or whatever it’s called), and ask for your green dot, which designates that you’re a member and allows you access to the extra members-only forums, like Issues and Requests.

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Oh, and I’d volunteer to help you with the badge, but my time is heavily scripted until Monday…

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Welcome!

I’ll be there for the board meeting tonight; if you can get there between 6:30-7:00 I can help you before it starts. Otherwise will be likely 7:45-8 before I’m free from it.

We still do have Open Tours on Saturdays from 10am-12pm

~Tails

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Our tools list on the wiki is a good resource. While it’s probably not 100% accurate/current, it contains our major tools and it lists whether training is required for each of them. It also links to the various committee pages, and lots of manuals and detailed information.

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Welcome! Take a look at https://calendar.dallasmakerspace.org and start signing up for classes since they fill up pretty quickly, especially Intro to Woodshop. You’ll need that one to get started with the bigger tools. Also, if you think you’ll want to do any metal work, sign up for the Hot Process class as soon as you see it. It’s the preliminary safety class required for other metal classes.

You can often get signed off on tools if you attend the meeting and cleanup days for metal shop and sometimes woodshop. Laser classes are the prerequisites to using any of the lasers. 3D printing classes show you how to use the printers, but NOT how to design. For that, you’ll need to take a 3D printing class for Fusion 360, Adobe Photoshop or something else. I’m not aware of any software classes like that being taught, so you might look to Udemy, Skillshare or Lynda.com for that. DMS training focuses on tools for the most part. You can use Adobe products or Inkscape for the laser.

Enjoy!

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Don’t forget the free Solidworks!

You can get that right away, after you’ve paid your first dues.

DT

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That list is a huge help.

@Holliday Thank you! I will keep an eye out for the hot process class - I have never used a laser and will impatiently await the class. I’m primarily interested in metal work but I do a lot of electrical tinkering.

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That’s AWESOME. Sadly I do need a commercial license and have AutoCAD and Adobe CC licenses. That’s like a 5k a year spiff though and makes signing up a no brainer.

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Our commercial license is on the jump server for any member to use. Enjoy it. DT

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Alright… That’s amazing.