I was reading this rivnut post and I know a lot of the van life people like using these. I thought there was a van SIG as part of automotive that they would be able to invest in tools for this purpose. Does anyone know what happened to that group?
SIGs don’t have any $$ - they rely on their sponsor committee for that.
I think they all packed up their bedrolls & camped in another locale. But there might be a few lingering folks that’ll chime in…
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I have never known of a van mod SIG under automotive
It may have never really got off the (camp)ground, but there was more than 1 effort…
e.g. Events | Dallas Makerspace Calendar
Aww ok. Bb bbgbbkkkvvvvvv
A couple things caused friction:
- Pulling a van inside a bay and working all day on just interior work was causing issues for people who needed the bay to do actual mechanical work on their vehicles. These were more like wood shop projects in many cases.
- Many people wanted to leave vehicles overnight(s) while they disabled.
I think there was a lot of interest just issues on how to make it work.
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I remember showing up at least once and the back and end parking lot looked like an RV park. I’m sure that didn’t help either.
I don’t think that was a big deal . . . as long as the park went away overnight.
How many people remember the “Great Bus Roof Raising Event”. That was something to see and take part of.
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In hind sight, I think that exceeded my personal risk limits. 
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X2. I’ve seen some van people are here for 3 or so months then never seen again. I’m not saying this is the case for all situations but short term members seem to have less respect for the space vs. long term. Tools get misplaced or put up incorrectly and anything over the size of an E150 ends up blocking both bays ie- a sprinter van or transit XL. Just kind of annoying from the standpoint of someone who frequents automotive and cannot use the other bay.
On the flip side there was a couple from Spain building an E150 van a few months ago and were very kind and considerate of the space from what I saw. Just my .02
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The issue of folks joining for just a project and then quitting has always been an issue. Another problematic one one is the one who joins for a month, does the job and then quits for months until they need to do another job, thereby getting the benefits of the full cost of DMS without supporting making it just a tool rental.
There have been a number of proposals in the past:
- You must pay $10-$15 month just to keep all your certs in AD valid (but no DMS access), then after say 6 months, go back to full pay and all AD permissions expire.
- Some after X-Months they all expire.
- Or initial membership costs 3 months.
I don’t have an answer, but membership turnover/churn at DMS is massive, DMS does not have a problem recruiting, we have a churn problem. When I was on the BoD it exceeded 100% a year for years … that was when we were growing and were at to 2,250 members. I would bet we are at historic levels. There is always going to be churn, people move, it’s too far, etc.
You’d also be surprised at what percentage of the membership actually comes into DMS in a three month period.
I think they are down by the river…
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