If your mission in life is to be a dish washer, you’re on the right path. If you’d rather others wash their own dishes, however, that message isn’t getting out.
Do you think you could transfer your community building skills to something like logistics where the responsibilities aren’t necessarily a hobby you enjoy, such as working on bathrooms and cleaning up after other careless members? Maybe you could get one or two of your 15+ strong volunteer army to replace the ceiling tiles over the laser work table next work day?
I am skeptical of the approach of you just have to grow a group of volunteers to take care of things when the evidence seems to show that that approach is not effective in some critical areas of DMS. For example there is a growing toxic collection of untracked chemicals in the fire cabinet that no one maintains or deals with.
Hey Brandon, how is that new baby doing? Thanks for coming by and taking pictures to post yesterday. It’s very helpful to see your perspective. I, however, realize that an active, productive makerspace has some mess to it. Your way is your way and my way is my way and we don’t have to agree. But I appreciate that you get an opinion like we all do. Thanks for posting!
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I will agree that storage is a problem, but I feel it’s a matter of degree rather than a binary fact of its existence.
I’ll concede that there are some projects whose inherent logistics demand some storage.
As I’ve stated before, I feel like storage needs a cost of some sort to discourage slow-moving projects and some of the apparent directionless material accumulation I saw during my time as Logistics Chair. There was also a lot of small storage that just didn’t seem like it presented a burden to transport around, especially with most DMS members appearing to arrive in personal automobiles.
With the looming expense of the expansion build out, said cost might simply be financial.
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It’s not about any one person’s opinion (yours included), it’s about recognizing what’s best for the space as a whole. Especially if we need our membership to sustain and grow through the expansion.
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Good point about a productive makerspace potentially having some mess, to help decrease confusion in the future could you clarify how many 4x4s and scrollsaws one should be expected to climb over to get a wrench before it would be too messy? Would 2 scrollsaws be excessive?
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One potential reason to consider is that our membership has increased by some 40% in the past 24 months. Whatever other reasons there may be, we might at least expect the place to be 40% messier than it otherwise would be without this variable.
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This entire post is about Brandon’s opinion. He gets to have it. But when you infer that DMS isn’t running well because there is some extra mess right before expansion then all that shows me is that you aren’t ever here or you would know differently.
Hope that baby is a joy to you!
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I’m confused at why their baby comes out in every post? They didn’t mention it, why are you?
It comes off as very disingenuous.
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I fail to see how storage is a problem. Personally storage is a huge plus for me when working on projects that take more than one day. My storage space is not a safety hazard to anyone and I don’t think untidy storage has any impact to common areas being untidy. I know a lot of people are opposed to storage, but considering it is always full large contingent are in favor. We don’t all have to like everything about the space, but why do we have to try and take away things other people like?
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As the now long former chair of Logistics I’m in no position to take away project storage nor am I advocating for such. I do however have experience administering it for about 18 months. While a few things have changed since I stepped down, I’m reasonably confident that the underlying member behavior isn’t much different.
The problem with DMS project storage is it doesn’t cost anything, thus is supply limited against constant high demand. Speaking from past experience, this leads to quite inefficient usage with members tending to use storage for materials they’re not actively working on, tools they’re not actively using, as long term storage for items not related to projects, and even for committee items the committee can’t or won’t store in their area for reasons not clear. I know this because I saw it week after week monitoring storage and on a monthly basis tagging then hauling evicted items off-site.
On the administrative side, there’s the process of extensions, tagging and notifying non-extended projects, and the true grunt work of hauling things off-site + disposing of last month’s off-sited items. All of this is necessary so that …
- There actually is storage availability on at least a monthly basis
- So we don’t have the spectacle/conflict of evicted items being shopped out of our dumpster
- So the fraction of members that do retrieve items from off-site then have to make some effort, like the Logistics team, to recover their property and consider not risking it being trashed again
Off-siting sucks. It’s time-consuming, labor-intensive, invariably damages materials, and at the end you get to shlep more materials to the dumpster.
Space at DMS is more valuable for dynamic usage than static storage. Yes, we’re expanding. But we’re going to need that space to attract members and a square foot of work area and tools is better for that purpose and can serve many more members (tens or hundreds per month) than a square foot of storage (typically 1).
So my suggestion is to make it cost something so it’s not over-consumed and is used for higher-priority projects.
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Resorting to personal attacks versus addressing a real issue. I’m shocked.
Actually, Merissa mentioned it.
Kris said it once to each parent. I wouldn’t exactly call that being insincere.
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The area’s are reflective of the leadership of that area, you have to understand @Brandon_Green was a human robotic style organizer, he could not stand filth nor chaos. When i took over Vector as chair, i was the same way and Vector stayed spotless. Now it takes a very patient person to keep an area clean like his photos, but you better believe the users didn’t do that he did it, he cleaned up practically every other night.
So to not sugar coat the situation if it’s messy, its because of the interest the chair has for that space, not everyone is a clean freak, nor do they like picking up after folks, or enforcing rules that may rub folks the wrong way.
The only issue I had was sometimes your eyes were bigger than your area and your ideas starting spewing over into other areas where it wasn’t always warranted.
Beyond that you ran a clean shop, and busted ass to keep it that way, and to come back to a hell hole, i feel your pain and undertsand why you posted what you did. However people and places change and unless you plan on coming back and abiding by a few rules, the space you have a connection too will continue to be somewhat messy until the next anal chair comes in and cleans up shop.
Regardless, at the end of the day the space is messier, not sure why its an argument or discussion. Regardless of storage or the increase of usage, unless the chairs enforce harsher cleanup rules its not going to change, and some folks prefer working in pig pen, no right or wrong, its just a harsh reality.
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While some folks that have not been very active recently are getting upset of what they see as a mess
The active folks have been busy teaching classes, recruiting new members, working in many ways on the
expansion They are making DMS a better place to crate, to build and to make friencs
Some of this is a lot like having a critical Mother in in law She never thought your hubby or wife was good enough for you
she doesnt like the occupation you have chosen, and she doesnt approve of the way you are raising your children or your dog or your cat, As a mom, she sacrificed a lot to get you to school and to buy you things you needed or wanted. That baseval glove you wanted of Little League, she bought that with the money she saved on her own lunches. The fabric for that costume when you stared in the play, was fabric she bought for her self a new dress. Now she blamed the person her child married for them not being grateful for all she did for you What she had forgotten is the pleasure she got when you caught that ball that gave you team the win or of how proud she was that night when you were on stage
She needs to remember that she wanted up to grow up to be strong and independent and to me your own person
Hopefully in time she will realize that and be proud of you again but right now it is hard on her and on you and your spouse
This is not the same space I took a tour of in the early spring of 2015, when CA was in what is now Purple and whne the current CA room was still the Fortress of Solitude. Just hat name says a lot about how we have changed
It isn t the same space it was when I joined in July of that year when JSN was a rolling tool chest that lived just inside the door of the what is now CA
New committees, new tools, new capabilities and a huge increase in the number of classes offered
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To be clear I am in no way upset, in fact i was there the other day, my words were merely just an observation. I always clean up after myself and will continue to do so.
“New committees, new tools, new capabilities and a huge increase in the number of classes offered” this is awesome no doubt.
But this goes back to my point, clean is not a priority, no right or wrong. Im just not understanding why all the excuses, it is messier, but so what. Just admit it and keep it moving, new chairs will come through and maybe then their priority will be running a clean space, until then keep doing what your doing, at the end of the day the space will still be here, regardless of how clean or dirty it is. 
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Enough. Please, enough…
one: i never turned anyone away. in fact when i came to you in text asking for your help you said you had no more fux to give and would get back to me later, i never asked again because i thought you would come to me.
i will admit my mind is not the best right now. serious talk i have major depression and have been having issues getting back into the swing of things.
i am ecstatic that brandon is showing what needs to be done. it reminds me of what need to be done (as someone who works more on the front half of dms- CA 3d Fab common room) a lot of the back half gets glanced over… a lot.
i would be even more thrilled if brandon came to help throw the things we tell him to throw away.
yes i have a post about this same issue (re: the dock photo) that its time is running out
a lot of this does read like attacking.
that’s not DMS.
also how is baby? no pics?
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Really sorry to hear about your current struggles. Is there a logistics vice chair that can help with committee tasks? Maybe post things as volunteer opportunities so people know what tasks need to be taken on and that communication is out there.
Baby’s doing good 
We brought him to the maker night at Twisted Root the other day, so some folks got to meet him.
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im about to post a logistics meeting so we can converse about things-
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Kris will be directing off-siting this Sun at 12 noon.
https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/off-siting-needs-pickup-truck-volunteer/40673
First hand experience shows that 2-3 PUs and 6-8 people will usually get things done in ~2 hrs.
So here’s a challenge to certain folks in this Thread.
Show up Sun. to help
Time for some folks to put up or shut up.
Otherwise this whole thread is nothing but another political charade.
So @Brandon_Green are you up to the challenge??
Bring your friends and let’s get it done.
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