Sept 12 2015 Open House - Administrative questions

I’ll apologize in advance for not knowing these things. I’m a recent volunteer, so if this information has been posted / circulated, please point me to it.

  1. Are we volunteers supposed to park in the back or across the street or something in order to leave space for the visitors? It looks like we have enough volunteers to fill the “normal” parking lot out front.

  2. Do we have a list of FAQs or a cheat sheet for the volunteers to answer more common DMS-level questions we might receive? (like membership pricing, etc.)

  3. Will a member be there enrolling any new members who are so inclined after seeing our wonderful Open House?

  4. Do we expect all non-member attendees to sign waivers? Do we plan to have some hard copy waivers to prevent a long queue at the kiosks?

  5. What are the rules for safety / waivers for children? Any issue with strollers?

Thanks mucho!
Chris

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I can take 4 the preference is to do the kiosk but we can bring up laptops so they can act as kiosks as well.

Kiosk gives us Data like how many people came out.

These are are all excellent questions, I too would be interested to know what the answers are.

…X…

I was at the PR meeting for this and I can answer a few questions - this is what was decided/talked about during the meeting- things might have changed
@MellissaRhodes @KrissyHeishman

  1. This wasn’t talked about but t think this would be a good thing to do - allowing for the greatest accessibility to the public via the front. The food trucks, a tiny house (I think), and an art car will be displayed in the front. So let’s just go ahead and let’s make that a norm to park in the back for all members.

  2. Not that I’m aware of. Anyone want to take that on?

  3. A room will be setup with a volunteer all day specifically to sign up members. They are expecting us to hit over 1000 members. We talked about having a 1000 moment but I don’t believe that was decided on.

  4. Yes paper waivers will be available at the front entry and the back and after they sign the people are to get hands stamped to show that they are “a signed in visitor”

  5. This was not talked about

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We are doing strictly paper waivers for the open house as the Kiosks are slow to process the amount of people we are expecting. We will be adding fields to the wiaver to ask about how they heard about us and maybe some other info.

everything else is what @uglyknees said.

As for #5, defer to our Rules and Policies. I would STRONGLY discourage strollers, and any children of an age that need to be in a stroller for safety reasons. We also don’t know how many people will show up, but assuming a ton of people do, strollers get in the way and really annoy guests (and members cough).

IMO no strollers in workshop areas. Strollers are low and the future Makers head’s are below table top heights and falling objects could easily get knocked off in a crowded environment as well as being a tripping hazard if stepping backwards in a crowd while attention elsewhere. Power cables, airlines, etc., also pose a problem. That’s just me.

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As a constructive suggestion, and you may already be doing this, but I’m assuming that minors can’t sign their own waivers - so if there were blank spaces on the adult waiver to add the names of any minors in attendance it might save some time over filling out a waiver for each minor child. Unless there is some liability reason to not do that …

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An alternate view on strollers…

This is NOT going to be a “typical day at the 'Space” (whatever that might mean lolz); and, the fact is… there WILL be a lot of visitors - including young kids - pretty much ‘everywhere’ at the 'Space that day… One BENEFIT of strollers - they do help keep kiddos in place!

Food for thought… :wink: :slight_smile:

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I have a several thousand wristbands (that I normally have on hand for when events need quick solutions at registration) that may be useful when someone either doesn’t want a stamp or can’t get a stamp (sensitive to ink on skin). Wristbands (or even just stamping wristbands) might be a better idea than stamps (but I’ll leave that to someone else to think on). I also have about a dozen or so Chromebooks (along with Chromecasts) that I wouldn’t mind lending to the Space for the Open House (if they would prove useful in some way). I also have a b/w laser printer that I use for printing schedules at events (useful because it has a large toner tank (12,000+ impressions), 42 ppm, 550-sheet feeder and automatic double-sided printing) but I’d need to check on my current toner stock levels.

-the purring dork

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@Krissy_Heishman might need to know this.

@AlexRhodes , @Robert_Davidson and PR Committee,

What is the nature of the advertising (in medium and extensiveness) for this event?

Any idea of expected turnout for the day? 300? 500? More?

In 2010 I see that 150 - 200 showed up.

JAG “Stroller Tours Will Be Handled Exclusively By Brooks” MAN

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We have fliers out at local businesses. There is a Meetup and Facebook events up. Likely I would expect 300-500 people and 100 members.

In just a moment I will check on the Facebook probably a good opportunity to start sharing and getting it on people’s wall.

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It has been posted on:

Art and Seek - http://www.artandseek.org/event.php?id=66389&__utma=82514246.1137695304.1438296858.1439267087.1439942695.3&__utmb=82514246.9.7.1439942703875&__utmc=82514246&__utmx=-&__utmz=82514246.1439267090.2.2.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)&__utmv=-&__utmk=263568133

The Observer - http://www.dallasobserver.com/event/dallas-makerspace-open-house-7481048

Guide Live - http://www.guidelive.com/things-to-do/262107/open-house-dallas-makerspace-carrollton

Like Robert said, some other social media outlets and I would expect around 500 people, as that is what we roughly had last time.

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If you have wristbands to use that would be great! I would prefer them over the stamps.

As for the chromebooks, I think we can get by with the current laptops we have to just sign people up.

We are getting the programs printed in color full sheet duplex that will allow people to take self guided tours.

If people want to get involved but aren’t sure how to get involved, either go to the committee chair you want to help with or PM me.

Please park in the back on the day of the event. But keep in mind blacksmithing and RC cars will be back there as well, in their usual spots. We’ll try to cone that area off the night before or early that morning but just keep that in mind.

What kind of stuff would you like to see on a volunteer cheat sheet? I’ll put something together.

The tiny conference room off of the main common area will be set up and manned with someone able to sign new members up. It’ll also be base of operations for the day.

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The equipment in each area. The cost of consumables. Equipment that requires training before use. The dimensions of the Lasersaur bed. The proper spelling of my name. Pretty much any information that you would want us to get right when we lead visitors on a tour.

The Open House will not be set up for tours. Visitors will receive a map upon entering and each committee will largely be responsible for manning their areas and answering visitor questions about their specific areas of expertise.

We realize tours may sort of naturally happen and many members will be bringing their friends and families out on this day and giving them tours but tour guides are not a built in part of this Open House.

So Richard I would expect you to be able to answer questions like these in Science and other key people to answer those types of questions in other areas.

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Just a reminder unless someone steps up last minute Amateur Radio will not be manned and the station is currently shut down until we can get some maintenance done.

To address the original “cheat sheet” idea, which I think is good, perhaps each committee area should create their own and post it prominently if there are things they’d like the general public to know.
Oh, and if you want it there for the open house, do it before that happens…

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