Revision as of 18:01, 17 February 2013

Aim

To enable makers and their families and friends to come together, make things and have fun.

Description

In order to progress and get the club set up quickly and reduce the required legal work this will be for existing members, their families and their guests. The classroom will be the main location used, possibly making use of the kitchen and maybe demonstrating some of the equipment in the workshop.

Meetings

Next meeting early March

Meetings/FamilyMakers17-02-2013
Meetings/FamilyMakers03-02-2013

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
• PaperCraft
  • I have a set of PaperCraft designs of locks, combination, cylinder etc, which are interesting to build and result in a working (but fragile) lock, RodW
  • Build hats and helmets with cardboard and hot glue
• Use 123D catch to capture 3D models, possibly heads
• Use 123D Creatures to design 3D monsters and cartoons, then 3d print them.

Longer Projects

• Create a mold and cast something - low tech by cutting out layers of ply, vacuum mold a heated plastic sheet and cast chocolate.
• Conductive Fabric - Sewing, sensors and simple circuits.
• 3D generative programs, create program (in openscad) that will generate 3D models, add parameterisation via thingiverse customizer script, 3D print
• Create a polagraph, draw quirky pictures slowly
• Raid Make magazine, Vinyl PCB Resistencourages custom/artistic circuit diagrams and the process teachs circuit board basics

Legal

<Todo>

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
• Instructables
• Lego
• Engineering faculty days – Maria Kettle
• Adafruit
• Proto pic
• The Roboticist (Seattle-based robot club for young kids)

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