Revision as of 11:56, 26 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.
• Egg dropping - create an enclosure/system to protect an uncooked egg when dropped from a set height, or fired from a catapult. BC
• Water rockets - build an water rocket from a soda bottle, and launch them (may need to be a 2 week project, build rockets one week and launch them the next week) BC
• Make a timing system for toy cars. BC
• pin hole cameras. BC
• spy stuff - make badges, long distance mic, spy cameras, spy gadgets. BC

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
• build a maze solving robot and enter it in to Competitions. BC
• build 3D printer - maybe a reprap. BC

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)
• Maker Club Play book link to a document about setting up a maker club for older children.
• Young Makers website the site where I found the above play book.

Notes from the Make Club Playbook

These are notes that I (MW) have taken on the Maker Club Playbook (see the Links section above). The Playbook is a guide for setting up maker groups with older kids (ages 12-18) to get projects ready for Maker Faires. Even though we will not be preparing projects for Maker Faires (not yet, at least!), and there will be younger kids in our group, there is a lot from the Playbook that is helpful and relevant. Below I pull out what I think is most useful (but another person to scour the Playbook and find other important points would be good). In particular, I want to pay attention to the sections on philosophy and documentation: Ensuring our group has the right attitudes and making sure that we document our ideas and accomplishments is crucial. All is up for discussion, of course!

• Philosophy/Approach (p. 5):
• "Makers believe that if you can imagine it, you can make it. We see ourselves as more than consumers--we are productive; we are creative. Everyone is a Maker, and our world is what we make it.
• Makers comprise a community of crative and technical people that help one another do better. They are open, inclusive, encouraging and generous in spirit.
• Makers celebrate other Makers -- what they make, how they make it and the enthusiasm and passion that drives them
• Maker Clubs are about exhibition, not competition. We don't see Makers pitting themselves against each other. We hope each Maker gets useful feedback on what they exhibit, and that the feedback is offered in a spirit of generosity and received with similar openess and magnanimity."
• And from p. 7: "...[T]here are no winners or losers -- anything that's cool is fair game. It's not a competition and there aren't prizes, so there are no judges deciding who has succeeded and who has failed. ... [M]ost importantly, we notice that all Makers are curious and motivated people."

• Starter Projects (p. 8)
• "We recommend that you make something [simple] together to get your feet we and see what it's like to work together"
• The Playbook recommends many websites for finding starter projects including Make:Projects, simpler Instructables projects and Build Howtoons projects. [We should see also the links that Maria Kettle from CUED has suggested.]

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