Family Makers Meetup Cheatsheet

Family Makers events

Family Makers events where all attendees participate together in a shared activity and which are open to the public, are run roughly once a month 10-12am on a Sunday. Each event must have a host who can take responsibility for non-members in the space and who can support parents and children who may be less familiar with Family Makers. In addition an event may have a separate organiser who is running the an activity for the day if the activity needs significant support.

Hosting an event

Family Makers has its own Meetup group at http://www.meetup.com/Family-Makers/ to advertise it's public events and control and anticipate numbers. Anyone can join the group to get announcements of upcoming events. If you are hosting a family makers event then join the group and then ask on the mailing list to be made an event organiser of the meetup group.

Creating your event listing

An easy way to create an event in Meetup is to go to a previous similar event and select the 'copy this event' option. Events should be limited to at most 20 attendees with up to 3 guests (children), or lower if your event supports fewer participants. Your description should clearly state the planned activity for that event, what people will need to bring, if it's age appropriate, if there's a charge, whether people need to be there 10 sharp or can drop in. You should select to have a waiting list on the event which will allow people to be notified if a space opens up. In the directions you should remind people that Makespace is an accessed controlled environment and they will need to buzz to enter.

Publicising your event

It is recommended to publicise your event a month in advance so that there is only ever one family makers event live at a time. This will minimise the problem of members signing up for events far in advance and then not attending. An exception to this would be if your event needs significant materials or preparation in advance where you need to know numbers.

Once you have created your event you should opt to announce it which will send an email to all members.

A week prior to the event you should email all the attendees (go to the event and look in the Tools drop down in the right hand column) giving them any special information, reminding them of costs, but most importantly asking them to update their RSVP status if they're now unable to attend. Highlighting the limit on numbers and others waiting is a good motivator.

Charging

Events with significant materials costs can be charged for on the day above the normal family makers charge. This should be advertised clearly in the event description. In the future we can look at whether this is better done by charging through Meetup when people sign up for the event.

On the day

As parents arrive ask them to sign the registration book and pay the fee for the event. If they have not visited Makespace before, make them aware of the safety aspects of the space. Highlight the toilets and the honesty box in the kitchen.

Try and take photographs during the event, but if children are in your picture seek consent from their parents first. After the event, go to the event page on Meetup and upload the photos against the event so we build up an archive.

Be aware that other Makespace members may be using the space during Family Makers. As a host you are responsible for the parents and children in the space. If you feel that you need to ask a family to leave that is totally okay. However, members know they should expect noise and kids having fun if they turn up to Makespace on a Sunday morning.