Meetings/FamilyMakers03-02-2013

Dates

This meeting: Sunday 3rd Feb 2013
Next meeting: Sunday 17th Feb 2013 @ 10:00am

Aim

The possibility of a maker club for members and their children had been discussed on the group list and this was the first face to face for a more detailed discussion. The aim of this meeting was to start to build a straw man for how this group could be structured, run, funded and what we could do.

Attendees

Meg W
Chris V
Steve U
Brian C

Minutes

It was a great initial discussion but we ended up with a lot of questions that we'll need to answer. Some of these are a bit brief but we covered a lot and this is a first pass. We grouped the discussion points into the following:

What

• Let’s have fun

Who

• Initially members and their kids (<18)
• Potential extension to guests and their kids

Where

• Classroom initially, possibly making use of the kitchen and maybe demonstrating some of the equipment in the workshop ?

When

• Sunday mornings: 10-12
• Weekly to enable access for as many as possible, as people will be away and unable to attend every week

Rules

• We should have a committee of at least 3 members to organise and administer the club
• We should have a set of club rules, on top of the Makespace membership rules
• Parents are required to attend, it won't be possible to drop of kids and collect them later
• Full control of children is required as Makespace has potentially dangerous equipment
• Number of kids dependent on behaviour, typically up to 2 as we already have a majority of parents with 2
• Three strikes rule on behaviour, three bad behaviour instances and the child will not be permitted back
• Repeated ‘guests’ need to consider membership
• A committee member should attend each day, be there 15 mins early and organise refreshments and projects plus ensure clear up afterwards.

Potential Projects We need to have some level of structure to the sessions, especially at the start, after that attendees may want to do their own things. Some project ideas could be:

• Raspberry Pi
• Basic skills
  • Soldering
• Standard kits e.g. Adafruit
• Chain reaction
• Competitions
  • Catapults
  • Cars
  • Robots
• Laser cutter demo
• 3D print demo
• Educational component – e.g. what is this resistor doing?
• Sewing

Legal

• What to do to set the club up?
• What do we need to get access?
• Membership for Chris and Meg
• Risk assessments – what needs to be done?
• Weekly register
• Do we need at least one founder in attendance?

Funding

• Initial investment
  • Makespace ?
  • Founding members?
• Weekly fees
  • £2 each non member to cover refreshments and consumables

Other

• Communication – who, when, how?
• Wiki page, web page, twitter, calendar, meetup pages
• Founding families
• Outreach targets ?
• Sources for kits and spares
• Refreshments: Squash, snacks
• Are two members needed for each club event so that one can escort non members through the space if required?
• Future coordination with other groups?
• Committee meetings – how frequently? Monthly initially
• How many people interested?
• Who will actively attend?
• Next meeting end of Feb

Links
Some links that could have useful information for us going forward:

• Hacker scouts for kids
• Instructables
• Lego
• Engineering faculty days – Maria Kettle
• Adafruit
• Proto pic
• Gates foundation robotics club - Meg

Actions

Book the next meeting in a couple of weeks and create a Meetup for it - Steve U
Start separate discussions on the Google group for the areas that need to be clarified - Steve U
Talk to Laura about the legal elements - Steve U
Contact details for Maria Kettle at Engineering Faculty - Meg W
Contact friend at the robotic club for tips on setting up a club - Meg