The PR Committee is meeting for the next 2 Thursdays @ 6pm. These are 45-55 minute meetings. Fast and full of biz-ness.
We have the picnic on April 21st. (Please buy a ticket!)
We have a new shirt design to choose. The choice got delayed because my schedule got zorched today. My apologies.
The membership drive for new makers.
The “MakerMade” Event in May.
A new flyer to hand to people touring DMS.
Chairs think about what you might want said in a 1 minute video about your committee.
I’ve got the flyer about halfway fleshed out!
Could definitely use some input from the group, so I’ll be there next week.
Helping out with the tours was mind opening. I asked a lot of questions to prospective members trying to get an idea of what brought them in and answering their questions gave me more ideas of what to put in the flyer.
What are the major headings topic areas?
I’ve got a section for
This is from memory, I know I need to add a section on storage and one on how DMS is run but I can’t remember what all I added last night.
Basically I’ve been scanning the handbook and the wiki for info that seems pertinent to potential members.
I didn’t feel the need to list what tools we have available since it’s mentioned on tours, listed on the wiki and changes so often that printed material would be dated quickly, but also because 100% of the people I talked to last night knew what tool they were interested in and what it was capable of.
Also everyone I talked to last night mentioned that they had been aware of the space for some time, and all had different reasons for not coming in sooner.
It seems like awareness of DMS is high. Maybe the idea of giving tours on the weekend could help entice people for whom Thursday is not convenient.
I would suggest a section talking about training requirements and how they are taught by volunteers and that some high demand courses have back logs.
Definitely need to empathize we are unique in that an organization of our size is all volunteers and has no employees, we are a community of volunteers and that our low cost is result of members volunteering time teach, mentor, help with maintenance, tours, taking part in committees, etc.
Good points! Thanks for your input David.
I think that once we establish a path to being approved as a trainer that we will have a larger pool of people willing to teach classes.
Hopefully that will lead to less wait time for new members to get onto the ONE TOOL that they joined to use.
If we could get to a point where people don’t even complain about how long it takes to get into woodshop or what have you then we would eliminate the #1 complaint of members who quit, which theoretically will help us KEEP the members who join.
There is a “poster” on the front bulletin board that is used to help manage expectations. I’d recommend that you include something similar. The biggest complaint from new members has been regarding training expectations and the time it takes to get “certified” on the tools they want. While we can always do a better job, those complaints seem to have declined somewhat since we started explaining the situation.
What is attached is slightly improved over what’s on the board.
The phrase “backlogs” suggests we maintain a waiting list (which we obviously don’t). I like your idea but I suggest we use slightly different wording.
Do we have data on this? Because if we do, that’s good news and we can work on improving it. I didn’t realize that we were conducting “exit interviews”.
I’m paraphrasing something I heard someone else say. I don’t think there is an exit interview per se. I think it’s just a one question thing when you cancel membership.
A better word(s) less than a paragraph?
Some high demand classes may not be immediately available.
(Best I can do … it adds a few words but not many).
More words but explains several things and tell them what to do.
"Classes are taught by DMS volunteers and may not be immediately available. Classes typically appear at calendar.dallasmakerspace.org, 10-14 days in advance. Please check daily for classes that are desired.
A Member Handbook link should probably be on the member page used to sign up on that can be downloaded.
Here are several ideas. Most of these are not original to me. I will attribute them when I can
Clean out the backlog issue by incentiving instructors with more pay for teaching high demand classes. (David Kessinger)
Setup high demand classes for 9pm on Thursday night. They would have priority for new members and standby for the rest of the slots. It would give new members “a taste” of what DMS offers. (Chuck Graf)
For people who quit send them a brief survey
on why they quit. Offer to have a phone conversation with them as well. (Steve Blanchard)
Have the class approval system modified. For “Standard” classes, the policy would remain the same. For “High priority”
or “Very High Priority” classes they would be fast tracked onto the calendar and have a lead time of 6 or 3 days. Instructor pay for these classes would be higher. (Mixed attribution)
Create an “I want a class” request list. We have no idea about unfulfilled requests. If there are enough people on that list that want to have the same class, fast track that class onto the calendar. If there is no class offered, it would point to new curriculum development and an expanded class list.(Steve Blanchard)
Love it! 9am Saturday would be a good alternative, too.
I would use the heck out of that feature.
My ideal system would be one in which you could just press an “I need training” button on the website and the instructor could decide whether to meet you up at the space for a one on one, arrange a class, or point you to online resources, all from one interface that would link up with Stan’s approval tracking system. (Yes, I realize this is technologically ambitious, but one must have dreams.)
The first list would be a Google Sheet.
Currently, we have no sense of our outstanding request/demand for classes. I want to capture that demand. That gives us answers about classes that need to be scheduled.
Having everything in a single interface is generation X. I would like an all-in-one interface too.
This would be great to bring up at the classroom committee meeting
tomorrow night
Good idea … but we’d have to manage the expectation that pressing that button would respond in an instantaneous class/training opportunity. Knowing is one thing, but having a volunteer to teach it is another.
