I might peak a few ears and ruffle some feathers with this, but I feel that every class that qualifies for honorarium should claim it.
The reason for this feeling is because honorariums help committees. I’ve worked with many committees at the space and it is difficult getting money for a committee, especially for buying expensive or redundant equipment. You often have to beg the board for funds and if the board declines committees often give up on the purchase. Honorarium allows individuals that are donating time for a class to receive $50 for teaching and $50 for a committee. The teacher can go above and beyond and donate back the $50, but I think they should keep it and use their $50 to better themselves or the class. But, please don’t forget about committees, I don’t know of a committee that would turn down the $50, and many committees are trying to find ways to fund tools and supplies.
So please, when thinking about throwing a class, take honorarium and kick some support behind a committee.
Committees that are in need of funds and why:
Electronics Committee: reworking the electronics room and developing more friendly projects for novice members.
Wood Shop Committee: keeping up with growth of tools and usage, also working on better dust management (especially around sanding)
VECTOR Committee: Wanting to buy a class pinball machine that the DMS owns, that we will refurbish and try to take to DMS Events.
3D Fab: Wanting to offer more options for 3D Printing, would love to get the double wide version of the poly printer.
Laser Committee: Wanting to get a second laser cutter which is definitely needed during peak use periods.
HAAS Mill Commitee: Increasing tools and tooling for member use.
Forge Committee: Offering more classes in jewelry, stained glass, ceramics and many more.
Bio: Building rolling planters that can be rolled outside to counter act the sun burns from the grow lights.
Arts: building up supplies for embroidery
These are what I can think of as money needs for committees, I’m sure there are many more and some of these are probably not the most important expenses for the committee, but I hope it illustrates what power the teachers at DMS have and how they can help the committees by claiming honorarium.
I could cover the basics, things like Ohm’s Law, resistor color codes, soldering, voltage dividers and maybe even the math and behavior of basic RLC circuits, because then I don’t have to remember specifics too much or study too hard. I’ve taken a half-dozen digital electronics classes, too, so basic digital electronics is not out of the question. In theory, I could go beyond that, but that would require that I brush up on my skills. If someone wants to get me up to speed on modern o’scopes, I could teach that; the last time I used an o’scope was about twenty years ago, and nobody went over 20 MHz/channel.