I have been in a situation twice now where I was either using or going to use the electronics room and was kicked out because a class was being taught. I understand that in order to teach a class you need space and tools, but it is a major inconvenience to me (among other people, I imagine) since the electronics room is the primary room I work in. I would like to know what you think: is it fair to reserve an entire common space for teaching a class? Is there a policy on this? Thanks for your time.
Tonights class, for instance, was intro to oscilloscopes, which requires multiple benches and test gear. The Electronics room is really the only viable option.
Whether itās fair or not is not the question. There are classes that teach basic use the test gear in the ELab. The ELab is the only place where that can be done. Classes are posted 240 hrs out prior to the date on the Events Calendar. You have 10 days to check the Events Calendar and schedule accordingly. If youāre being kicked out of the ELab because of a class, you have only your self to blame for not checking the Events Calendar. Classes have priority. As far as policy goes, use of a committee area is primarily left up to the Committee Chair.
A reminder to you, and others: Return gear and supplies to where you found them. You were reminded several times to return things. You left spools of wire on the bench. Yes, it may seem like a minor thing to you, but cleaning up after folks gets old real fast.
Check the Events Calendar regularly and plan accordingly.
Clean up and return things.
Welcome to DMS!
Correction/update on class postings: 10 days submission, 3 day review, release 7 days before
Also, class/event schedules for the day are posted at various places on walls of the 'Space either the day before or day of, so its easily determined whether or not, and at what time, a room is booked that day.
Great bureaucracyā¦but you didnāt address the complaint.
The Basic Oscilloscope Class had maybe 5 students, in the center of the room. Other people wanted to work in peripheral stations on the edges of the room, but they are booted because of WHY?
On the same day I took a Wood Lathe Class, where other people were working around us in the same space, but nobody felt the need to evict those interlopers.
The General Rule at DallasMakerSpace is that Use = Possession. This counts for space as well as equipment. Sure, if a Class is scheduled to cover Imbecile Oscilloscope 001, the Instructor should have complete dominion over ONE OSCILLOSCOPE, and ONE LAB BENCH, but to clear out the entire Space is absolutely ludicrous.
We have to cooperate in order to share the bounty of all the cool tools we are afforded. When one group/person starts staking territory, it never ends well.
I am sorry but that is grossly inaccurate DMS primary purpose is education if there is a class using equipment it takes priority over any work an individual is doing.
This has been answered, but you clearly arenāt paying attention, so to repeat, The Dallas Makerspace is primarily a non-profit education institution. Our primary purpose is teaching, and classes have priority and always have
Actually yesterday, only had three of the six registered students show up. They used all three scopes, which is how the class is arranged, when there are six students as well. Indeed, using the revenue from these classes, we intend to purchase another Rigol Scope to expand to eight.
The people taking this class are given lab exercises, that are setup one to each scope. They are expected to operate the scopes with the lab circuits taking measurements and recording the results. In other words, they learn by doing.
Yes, and wood working tools are inherrently extremely noisy. The wood shop has to live with that, other areas do not. In the machine shop if you attempt to use a noisy process while a class is going on you are asked to stop. In the machine shop when they are teaching welding, you are expected to refrain from using the plasma cutter or the grinding wheels (or other noisy items).
So glad your an expert with such a low opinion of those who donāt already know how to use the tools. For the rest of us, quiet and no distractions, are in fact the best learning environment. As the instructor of said class, I can tell you that I have allowed others to use the unused areas of the lab during this class, and they proved to be a significant distraction to the people there to LEARN. So I donāt allow it any longer. And as long as we remain an educational institution first and foremost, that will continue to be the case.
If that is inconvenient for you, I suggest monitoring the calendar using the link above to ensure a class is scheduled for the room before you come out to use it. Oh and perhaps show a little bit of consideration to those āimbecilesā that donāt have your āvastā experience with electronics and just want to learn.
Youāre condescending attitude isnāt going to win you points here. This class was limited to 6 students. There were a number of no shows. Imbecile 001? Really? Not so much fro the person who has never used one, or needs a review.
Got something to !itch about? Donāt fully understand or appreciate how things are done? I challenge you to show up for Membership Mtngs and BoD Mtngs. Become a voting member, show up and voice your concerns/unhappiness. Run for office. !itching is easy peasy. Getting involved in improving DMS takes time and work. Are you up to the challenge??
I donāt know if it works for electronics but if there is a class in .CA the general idea is that you may stay in the area as long as you arenāt disruptive (Aka running the vinyl cutter, hammering stamps into leather, carrying on a really loud conversation).
I have tried this and it doesnāt seem to work in electronics. I think this is partially due to it being a smaller room, and because unlike creative arts its available resources are for a singular purpose.
Electronics is one of the smallest committee spaces other than RC & VCC. They needed to prep the room for one student per bench and had enough students registered to use the whole room. Now once they realized that they had a few no-shows it was possible they could have let someone use the bench but Iām sure then busy teaching at that point.
Guess you were not around when we made the rules. I know what you meant to say but no member can posses any DMS space or tools. I think you meant āfirst come first serve.ā And in this case you were second since they reserved it for a class. Not trying to harsh but checking the calendar is becoming more important since our utilization is becoming so high.
Theoretically this is true, but my experience so far is when I do, those persons become disruptive to the class. At this point, unless the class fails to have at least three people, I donāt see it as workable, unless I know the person and know they can be considerate.
Adding to Kenās comment on first come first served. That rule applies to individuals using a tool or area. Classes have priority of use, to support our PRIMARY mission of Education and allows instructors reserve assets in advance.
There are places organized as āIncubatorsā whose primary purpose is Invention, they focus on invention, development, itās direct application and bringing to market as their Primary purpose. We have inventors and the incubator function can easily co-exist at DMS, but yields to the educational needs and purpose of what Dallas Makerspace is.
I know during tour nights, Iāve always heard the tour guides mention at the start that Dallas Makerspace is an Educational Nonprofit (usually a 501( c)(3) specifically). The details of what that entails may not be fully understood by a lot to people.
To better achieve our mission, our calendar system permits reservations for classes and group functions that have been vetted as being within the sphere of supporting that mission. As Walter and others have mention: Check the Calendar before you come to see that what you want to use.
It is unfortunate that you have had a misunderstanding as to what DMS is, its primary mission, its rules how it functions. Hopefully, your needs can be met within the boundaries and limitations of our mission.
Thank you all for your replies. I am impressed with the communityās involvement on the matter.
I would like to clarify on my original point. I have no problem giving up lab equipment and space for the sake of education. But I do have a problem with having to stop what Iām doing on a short notice. I agree, it is my fault for not checking online. But it was not clear that I should check online before coming to the makerspace. How many of you check online for events in the areas you will be working in before you go to DMS? My guess would be none, but please correct me if Iām wrong. If there is an event that occupies a common room, it should be made in bold neon lights that the room is unavailable for certain times. There needs to be a more rigid policy on this so that other people are not surprised when this happens.
Fairness is absolutely still a point in the matter. I donāt know how you taught your oscilloscope class so I cannot critique it, but if it is possible to teach a class so that it does not occupy a workspace, then it should be done to maximize utility of the space and equipment. Was it possible to move the oscilloscopes to a classroom for the class? I would have been more than willing to help move them if so.
artg_dms, I appreciate your response but please do not exaggerate here. I genuinely forgot that I switched the power supplies and did not see the spools of wire when I left. Iāve worked in electronics labs in four (going on five) companies and many other makerspaces. Just because I am absent-minded does not mean I did not put in my best effort to clean up.
I think Photomancer (among others) makes a very good point here, which is that I was genuinely unaware of the purpose behind DMSās existence. My impression was that DMS exists to provide a space and equipment for people to make whatever they want, hence āDallas Maker Space.ā It was not clear and obvious to me that DMS is, at heart, an educational facility. I am sure many others are also unaware of this too. My misunderstanding probably leads back to the tour I had before I joined, where the main emphasis is ālook at all the cool stuff we haveā and not āthese are all tools that are used for our primary purpose of education.ā Yes, āTake away our non profit status/purpose and DMS will cease to exist,ā but if you take away the memberās ability to make things then people wonāt want to come to DMS.
Once again, thank you all for the discussion. I am happy to discuss more.
I told you about an hour before the class that you had a little less then an hour before the class was to start. Not really short notice.
Unless you were the other individual who showed up about 20 minutes before the class was to start. If so, I informed you prior to getting your stuff out of your box/bag.
I plan what I am going to do at DMS before I come in so I can make the best use of my time. I had planned to spend three hours in the electronics lab. I was only able to spend one hour. If I had known beforehand that I would only have one hour, I would not have come at all.
