Latest member news 18 October 2016

Dear all,

Makespace is holding an Open Day on Saturday 29 October. Please tell your friends, tweet about it, Facebook it to smithereens, and come along yourself - bring a current or finished project to show off, or demo some equipment, or just be on hand to talk to people about Makespace.

Also, don't forget there is a community clean-up the previous weekend, on Sunday 23 October. Details of both events and other news is below.

Forthcoming events

Cambridge TV, 20 Oct

Cambridge TV will be in the space from 4-8pm this Thursday, 20 October. They hope to get material for one and possibly two items about Makespace (for different programmes). They'd love to meet any members who are happy to talk on camera about a project or their use of the space, or be filmed using equipment. Of course the space will also be open as normal and there's no obligation to be filmed!

Grand clean-up, 23 Oct

Come and help clean, tidy and organise the space, from 11am on Sunday 23 October. Free pizza for all helpers! Just turn up or sign up here.

Open Day, 29 Oct

There will be an Open Day on Saturday 29 October, 12-6pm. Please publicise it and come along if you can - for this to be a success we need lots of visitors and lots of members to help demonstrate equipment, show projects and point the way to the toilets :-) The event is part of the Crafts Council's Make:Shift:Do programme, so it is one of over 30 on the same day at maker spaces across the country. Jo Brook is organising the day, and if you are bringing something to show or can demo some equipment it would be great if you let her know. Please also e-mail photos of things you've made here! More details here or here.

Makespace in the media

MagPi 50

The MagPi (the Raspberry Pi magazine) recently celbrated its 50th issue and the 10 millionth Raspberry Pi with a list of the 50 best Pi projects ever. Not one but two Makespace projects made the list - Tom Oinn's robot Triangula, and Brian Corteil's wonderful Digital Zoetrope. You can download the whole issue here.

Smartbell on TV

Makespace regular Jose Chitty and his business partner were interviewed on Cambridge TV about their startup Smartbell, which makes smart wearables for cows. You can see the interview at the link here (including a shout-out to Makespace at 03:10).

Storage and fire risk

A recent Health and Safety inspection highlighted the problem with lots of junk lying around - both as a fire risk and where it could impede people leaving in an emergency. Jonathan Woolf has done heroic amounts of work clearing out junk, putting up new racking, and throwing things away. By an amazing coincidence the place is also looking much nicer as a result.

Please can you remove or move anything you have in the hallway that is not in your named box. Anything still there in a few weeks may be unceremoniously thrown away. If you don't have a box and need one, get in touch! There will be more racking going up soon so there will be space for everyone who wants one to have a box.

Reminder: answering the door

Please ALWAYS follow the rules when answering the door. If someone wants to come in who isn't known to you, you are under no obligation to let them in. If you do, *they are your guest*, no matter how much they tell you they are a member who has forgotten their fob. You must not leave the space while they are still in it.

It is up to you to decide whether to answer the door when in the space, but if you are expecting visitors, please do answer it, rather than waiting for someone else to let your visitors in, unless you are running a machine that you really can't pause or leave.