I think the main challenge is:
As a member, you should have access to classes. That should come with your membership. Especially trainings that are required to use the equipment. But if the teachers don’t get paid, a lot won’t teach, which reduces the amount of classes you get as a member.
For me, it’s more about expectations. If the tour guides point out that most classes charge a small fee, folks will be expecting that. DMS has always promised free classes, but that isn’t the norm, at all.
I usually go back to the Dallas Craft Guild as a counter-example. For one thing, they’ve been around since the 1950’s, and they are a 501c3, just like we are. Their membership fee for the year is a little more than ours per month, but members pay for everything else. Members get a small break off the class fees, but they’re still paying over $200 for the class. Granted, that’s more like a college class, in that you get several sessions, but you’ve still got a big outlay. They also charge for studio time.
In short, if we let folks know ahead that there will additional fees for classes, that shouldn’t be an issue. And, most of the class fees are very nominal, especially for what you’re learning. And then, any charges to use the equipment is usually a wear-and-tear or consumables fees. Again, if folks know what to expect, they won’t be offended by being charged.
We are still damn cheap.
We should go back to the old system soon as a short-term solution, but this might be a long-term solution:
As a member, you get X dollars from DMS to spend on classes per month. You don’t actually get the money, it goes directly from DMS to the instructor.
As an instructor, you put a price on your class (or free) and either accept donations or not. You configure this when you create the class online.
As a member, you can pay for classes using your own money or using your DMS balance.
I like this idea in theory, if there is a way to manage it.
Someone would have to administer it, and that someone would be a volunteer.
There’s also a gap in membership if someone leaves the space for a while, or if their payment source expires and therefore fails. The key fobs have to be reset, and the system “loses” all the equipment sign-offs accrued before the gap. Again, this gap can be a few months or a few hours. So, it would make sense that this pattern would continue with “DMS money” balances.
This is just something to consider if you’re thinking of putting a proposal together for something like this.
Since Eventbrite is listed in our “submit a class” form, anyone who wants to use it can take a lesson from the Breadboard Boot Camp, where the instructor posts a coupon code for a discount in a green dot member category that non-members can’t see. I seem to remember Eventbrite also allows different ticket price levels (early bird, etc.) There’s room to play with that on the Eventbrite platform which has customer support, which doesn’t require us to re-code our system using volunteer hours or treasury funds.
It would definitely cost money to set up the software.
Yup, it would.
I appreciate that you are looking for new ways to solve this problem, @raffi. I also appreciate it that you are being open minded and are listening to feedback and trying new ideas. Thank you.
Some of the classes that I have been to have been so bad, that the only saving grace was that it was free. Of course the time I spent driving to the Makerspace and sitting in the class was a waste.
I’ll say I’ve NEVER experienced that here. Every class I’ve taken with DMS has had an instructor go above and beyond anything that could be expected for a full-tenured prof (or their harder working grad asst.), regardless of how much I paid (many were free, some were not).
This speaks to the “we need feedback” concern others have raised. I think surveys are a horrible way to get that feedback (I myself abhor service providers pandering and begging for “all tens” - it’s demeaning to us both) but it IS sorely needed.
I’m to the point of imagining a “suggestions box”. But there be dragons on that trail, too…
Really, “NEVER”?
I have a few other theories about the whys…
and I’d like to apologize on behalf of the DMS I know and love for your experience. But that only goes so far. The question at hand is: how to fix it.
I’ll start by asking an uncomfortable question, and largely rhetorical unless you choose to take it further:
Have you complained constructively to people with the power to change it?
I ask because this is a daily thing for me: people mention it to their peers, and complain about it to their acquaintances, but often fail to state their case, plainly and clearly, with cold hard truth, to the one person (or people) who could ACTUALLY do something. So, I’ll suggest, should you be willing, to recommend you drop a line (email, phone, stop by office hours) to our BoD and give them the cold hard facts as you recall them. This would be a constructive complaint, in my opinion, and the best thing that could happen in these cases. A shorter alternative would be to address it with the Education team (@dougemes is, I believe, the head of that group, or is expected to soon be). If you choose to do this, thank you. If you choose not to, I understand.
Man I’m sorry to hear that. My experience has been about the same as Andrew’s.
Granted I don’t take that many classes.
Really.
The closest I got was one class where the instructor showed up 20 minutes late to a 2hr class and questionably sober (but the class was great after that, and I wasn’t certain about the sobriety concern so I kept to myself on that).
What I have been doing, is taking note of the bad instructors, and avoiding their classes.
There are a couple of guys that I have seen more than once because they were good.
That’s hilarious. What was the topic of the class?
Probably power tools.
I think that’s what many folks do. And @jast is correct in that a feedback system is sorely needed.
Can I count on you guys for all 5’s?
There is a $5 fee for the Dye Sub 101 classes that I teach to get signed off to use the dye sublimation equipment. That $5 goes to the CA committee, not me, to cover the costs associated with the materials and consumables used during the class. The students walk away with a mug that they decorated.
lololol…this is a strong contender for the 2019 Mblatz annual “cheap shot/snipe-snark” award :–)
Tonight will be first time that I will use printed forms at DMS to request students to evaluate the class. I was surprised to see the hesitancy expressed by several above at participating. I will report back here. The least useful evaluations are the ones that say everything was great. It may make me feel good for a short while but does not help in improving the next class. One person on this thread will be in the class and is welcome to comment here. Good, Bad or Ugly - All eveluations with suggestions are welcome.