I feel like the benefits definitely outweigh any potential risks, and I don’t understand why project storage is still closed. If my information is correct it was initially closed due to concern about sterilizing other peoples’ items, but considering nobody seems to sterilize high touch points anyway this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I am not sure what the process is to formally request this so I figured I would start here so I can either be enlightened as to why this still must remain empty or the process can perhaps begin to reinstitute it.
1 Like
Project storage remains closed because we lack the volunteers to manage it. Covid concerns and the like.
Please remember it is not self running and requires lot of management.
6 Likes
Right now its wasted space. Not makerspace. Leave a date name and phone number if it gets filled, Next person is the manager trying to find a space. No need to micro manage.
Ah yes, the return to a free for all with things in storage that sit for years and never get moved. Also a return to it looking like the Clampetts go to makerspace!
2 Likes
This. It is only though the thankless effort of tagging then removing noncompliant storage items that storage slots are ever available.
6 Likes
The process to formally request reopening project storage would be to create an agenda item for a board meeting. Project storage is unlikely to be reopened until we have enough volunteers to manage it as this is a lot of work.
5 Likes
Alright, that makes sense. How far do you think we are (percentage wise) from having enough volunteers? How is that metric even being looked at? It’s definitely something I would be willing to volunteer for and I know a couple others I think may share that view.
2 Likes
We discuss it quite a bit. We just had a work day that was on the calendar - I’d like to see more volunteers show up for our work days. It’s difficult to keep up with the people who are already violating project storage rules when we haven’t even reopened project storage yet.
4 Likes
We had two people who were not officers or board members show up for the cleaning. For dealing with just the abandoned items in pergatory we have had zero volunteers.
As far as self policing goes, we have a small handful of members that try that, but are mostly ignored by the violators and end up having to get a board member or officer to handle it.
We will keep putting out calls for volunteers, but until we get more people it’s going to be hard to reopen.
That said, we’ve seen volunteering start to pickup with several of the committees, so the more we can support committee level increases the more likely we are to see increases across the board. I see that as our best path back to normal operations.
4 Likes
If an abandoned item is small and lightweight, it’s not that difficult.
If an abandoned item is heavy and requires multiple persons to lift, social distancing is difficult to maintain.
Since there’s no way to limit project storage to “small things that weigh less than 5 lbs each,” it seems prudent to keep it closed.
4 Likes
Hanna - take a little while to read through the “rules” for project storage currently posted on the wiki.
Basically, it involves at least two successive weekends+ of work for the manager on a MONTHLY basis.
First week involves hearing requests from members for storage extensions (not granted willy-nilly, for the reasons cited by both Freddy and Erik above - half-finished projects end up sitting there collecting dust indefinitely, preventing someone else from being able to leave a not-very-portable project while underway. Or, storage space used like a school locker. Following that, they and their volunteers (if any) must review every one of the items in storage spaces, checking for the storage slips for expirations. Items that have expired must be tagged and the holder of said tag must be notified that they must come and remove that item prior to “X” date.
Second week: Return to see what expired items remain after being tagged. Haul those items to the locked storage space known as “purgatory.” Take all items that were already in purgatory from the previous month and remain unclaimed out to the dumpster. (no, you can’t just put them up for grabs, despite the uber cool supplies or half-finished projects that might be part of the stash. that’s an old DMS fight that we don’t wish to reenter. Dumpster. Period.)
Volunteers may start out all motivated and happy to help, turning up in significant numbers, making the work light. But then other bright shiny objects intervene. And the volunteers fall by the wayside. But the responsibility is still there. The work still has to be done. And it falls on the shoulder(s) of one or two people. And as a result, they burn out and fade away too.
6 Likes
So is it an effort that will just be abandoned completely? Without any option for project storage there is a limit to the scope of projects possible. I personally don’t have the capacity to haul large projects home every night. Even if I did, it is cumbersome and can cause pieces to be damaged. I understand there are logistical hurtles but honestly it seems like COVID was used as an excuse to eliminate something useful because it was a bit of a headache.
1 Like
“A bit of a headache” is treating the issue far too lightly. This has been an issue for years, and involves as stated above volunteers to perform very heavy labor every single month.
Appeal to the better natures of the membership all you want, we have once again years of data that there are more than enough bad/selfish/whatever users of storage that will abuse whatever rules are put into place. Until we have a solid group of proven volunteers (who have been often subject to outright abuse in the past) to deal with this underappreciated job once again, it’s not going to happen.
12 Likes
I believe the last time this was mentioned, it was on the shoulders of the person wanting Project Storage reopened to drum up the requisite numbers of volunteers.
So marshal your forces, and you can be in charge. Please present your staffing with your proposal.
6 Likes
One recent set of abandoned stuff consisted of a 2 foot by 2 foot marble slab, and about 50 pounds of lumber.
We also found an entire pallet of stuff hidden in the expansion supplies. They had put some of our electrical supplies over it thinking no one would notice…
4 Likes
If someone presents a manageable plan that doesn’t require a lot of volunteers to support we can open it back up.
If not then we need to keep it closed until we have enough active volunteers to support it.
Honestly, I’d love to see some form of manageable project storage for my own self interest. I drive a fiat, hauling projects, especially woodshop projects is a real challenge. However as one of the people in charge of keeping the space open and available to all members, managing project storage has proven harder than moving lumber in a fiat…
As I said before, as covid becomes less of a worry and our volunteers begin to come back to the space regularly we will be able to open it back up. Without a consistent set of new volunteers our current volunteers can’t support it. It is happening, but it’s a slow process right now.
3 Likes
Items abandoned past due date will get a final warning before being posted on craigslist and facebook marketplace for free 
this might get stuff rolling .
We’ve had a similar proposal before. @Josh_Melnick wanted to ebay them. There are a few logistical issues to address first.
- Josh moved to Ohio, so while he can manage the ebay posts he can’t pack and ship from there.
- As a charity we have some pretty specific rules for the intake, use and sale of items. So it actually creates additional work for the volunteers involved.
- For Non-shippable items someone has to meet the buyer to complete the transaction.
- We don’t have any infrastructure for dealing with people trying to return items or refusing to take delivery of items.
It’s really quite depressing the number of things that are very nice that we end up having to throw in the dumpster because they were just abandoned and we get no response from the owners when we try to contact them.
I’d love to see a plan that works through some or all of these challenges. We could even test the plan with some of the stuff committees already have that they want to sell.
2 Likes
Well…no one has ever accused DMS members of not being endlessly creative.
(assuming your suggestion was quasi-serous as opposed to tongue-in-cheek) Except…someone has to then assume the responsibility and go to the effort to take pics, create and manage C/L post & communications, and provide services for physical transfer to sketchy Craigs-lister. And this isn’t even taking into account the questionable legality of disposing of people’s property like this or the possibility that said sketchy Craigs-lister might, in fact, be a DMS member or cut-out for one.
But anyhoo…this thread seems to be becoming one more rehash of the “DMS Adventures (read: problems) with Volunteerism” discussion/saga.
My ~7ish years as a member have empirically indicated that no more than 5% of the membership engage in the real and meaningful volunteerism that keeps DMS open and running. (I am reminded of making this general statement to someone in the past and they responded to the effect of “well, I do my part…I clean up after myself”…lol).
The solution to this is the same as it has always been, and which we just won’t or can’t seem to do: implement some real and effective orientation (read: indoctrination) process that occurs at or near the time of sign-up, i.e. you can’t get a key fob or sign-up for classes or use the tools or whatever until you have taken DMS 101: How to be a Member, aka, How Not to be a Customer. Ideally accompanied by a probationary period to track the amount/level of “giving back”, aka “volunteerism” said new member engages in in first N months.
But, depressingly, even this proposal requires someone to “put the bell on the cat.”
3 Likes
As a past Logistics chair, it’s my opinion that project storage is a labor nightmare because it doesn’t cost anything for its users. If it cost something - money, volunteer time, non-transferrable tokens that deplete faster than that can be refreshed with heavy storage usage - users will be incentivized to make more efficient use of storage and the administrative burden will likely be decreased.
Shenanigans should be dealt with on a summary basis because some members are either too stupid to function in the real world or think rules don’t apply to them. Revocation of project storage privileges for 60 days, immediate disposal/destruction of offending items, suspension of membership on the spot are all penalties I would suggest based on the situation.
Also, project storage desperately needs some sort of automation to reduce the ‘supervisory’ labor. Check in slot/shelf via kiosk/website/app, check out or get pestered by the system when expiry is nearing or you’ve been evicted.
8 Likes