Kickstarter

I am not really sure where time goes; I felt like I just updated all of you but when I looked at the time stamp from the last update it was May 15th, almost a month ago. At the very least you can't call me a spammer! I wanted to give you an update on where we are at with rewards.

Completed

* Passes: All of your day/month/annual/lifetime passes are recorded in our membership system, simply login to see your membership level, expiry date and all the fantastic benefits: http://www.lamakerspace.com/forms/user_sessions/new

* Classes: Phew, we did it! Mark Frauenfelder's Arduino class, Kent Nichol's YouTube workshops, Jeff Geoffray's Tabletop Film classes and the G+ Hangout for interested makers. We also had that huge Robot party that was pretty awesome.

* Groups: Citizen Science and Interstellar Hitchhiker Makers Groups have met several times now. The space enthusiasts have heard about the Space Elevator, toured JPL, have the inside scoop on touring the Mojave Air Strip. The Citizen Science group talks about stuff way above my head so best you just join the group and send me the summarized version.

In Progress

* Thanks For All The Fish: Names are being added, people are being thanked. There are some very amusing names too, like "LED" and "Green Eggs and Ham."

* Digital Badge of Honor, Stickers, Buttons: We have the digital badges and will be sending them to you using Credly, so stay tuned for that. Stickers and Buttons - we have lots of physical logos designed by young makers, we just need to digitize them. Just know that we know that you know that we are still working on this.

* Interstellar Hitchhiker Makers Group: Still a couple more events to participate in including building rockets and delivery of "the towel"

* Laser Cut Thank You Cards: for some of our backers we owe these to you. We are awesome at laser cutting now so this should be done shortly!

* Safecast Air Sensors: They are being worked on. The team hit a snag so these are delayed.

Thanks

I think I covered everything. If I'm missing something you are waiting on, please reach out to me. tara@lamakerspace.com

Hearts and Hugs,
Tara

Hello! I hope you are all doing well out there. I thought it was high time I sent you an update.

First things first, some of us will be at Maker Faire this coming weekend. Be sure to visit our booth. Our Evil Genius group will be putting on two workshops on how to make an electronic squirter gun. Saturday at 1pm and again on Sunday.

Hey, thanks for all the fish! The lovely Genevieve Becker painted us a giant laser shark and as promised your names are being added to them (see pic below). I took an EL Wire class so the laser is soon going to be, well, lasery looking.

Our website now includes a Member login so you can see what your membership level is and when it expires. There's some other goodies in there too like social capital that you might be able to trade in for something cool. If you are super interested in the finer details of the new site, we are using Nationbuilder, a community organizing system that started out as a service for political campaigns but now supports nonprofit organizations like ours. 

Now, here's the fun part. I need to know if your Kickstarter membership level is correct on our website!

1) Create an account on the LA Makerspace website http://www.lamakerspace.com/login
* Use the email address you login to Kickstarter with

2) Once you are logged in, navigate to the Membership page (http://www.lamakerspace.com/membership)
* Your should see the membership level that you received via Kickstarter on this page

3) Update your Profile (http://www.lamakerspace.com/forms/signups/2/edit)
* You can choose not to publish it on the website

4) Find Your Friends (http://www.lamakerspace.com/friends)
* If you connect Facebook and Twitter you can see which of your friends like LA Makerspace

5) Take a look at the Leaderboard (http://www.lamakerspace.com/leaderboard).
* These are some of the amazing people spreading the word about LA Makers-pace. Are you on the list? We haven't worked out the details but we're thinking of converting points into rewards.

Something not quite right? Let me know and I will fix it.

I just want to thank you all again for being so supportive and kind and generous. I hope to see you soon!

Tara
Chief Encouragement Officer <--- my fancy new title

p.s. We have a few spots left in our Citizen Science Summer Camp: http://www.lamakerspace.com/summer_camp_for_citizen_scientists

p.s. x2 We want a new logo (unless of course you like the one we have; tell us that too) http://www.lamakerspace.com/make_logo

Last p.s. Checkout all the fun stuff we've been doing: https://secure.flickr.com/groups/lamakerspace/

Hello and Welcome to Spring,

I've been asked a few times by folks when they can use their Day and Month Passes and the answer is, whenever you want. If you want to use your Day Pass this Saturday, go for it. If you want to start using your Month Pass on Sun., March 17th, it will be good until April 17th.

Please come on in to work on a project, learn a new skill, or take a class.

Info on classes is here: lamakerspace.com/calendar.

We just fulfilled one of our rewards last weekend when Mark Frauenfelder and QTechKnow taught an Arduino class. Take a look at the pics of happy Arduino programmers. 

We were very happy to have been able to gift some of the seats to folks through the generosity of our backers. In addition we have just begun to gift our memberships out to nonprofit organizations who are in turn identifying their members who will benefit from having a membership to our space. Thank you. Thank you.

Please let me know if you have any questions! We just started using Nation Builder to manage memberships so we'll be getting better at communicating with our members specifically about that. We already do a good job right now of sending out weekly notices about classes and events so I recommend signing up: http://lamakerspace.com/subscribe/

See you soon,

Tara

Hello, is it me you're looking for?

I have received enough related membership inquiries lately that I thought it warranted a proper blast... but first, I wanted to share this with you: in just one month's time since we received our Kickstarter funds we have been able to do what we wanted to do, buy a Laser Cutter, 3D Printer and have Open Project Time. Kind of awesome/amazing/outstanding. So, thank you thank you.

Questions:

• When can I start using my membership?
• When can the person I bought the membership for start using it?

Answer:

NOW!! It took us a bit, alright, a lot longer than we thought to sort through the survey results to determine who planned to use vs. gift memberships but that is all sorted so we can now enter everyone into our membership system and send out nice welcome emails.

In the meantime, come on in!  

OPEN PROJECT TIME

Saturdays 9am - 1pm / Host: Eain Bankins

Sundays 1pm - 5pm / Host: Robin Sehler

One of our Board Members will be in the space during Open Project Hours either teaching a class or supporting you in your projects. We will continue to work on adding more open project time as we work on logistics, budget, etc.

All of our scheduled classes and workshops can be found here: http://lamakerspace.com/calendar

GROUP MEETUPS

http://lamakerspace.com/groups/

• Evil Geniuses
• Filmmaking
• Guerilla (Citizen) Science
• Hacker Scouts (Build skills, earn badges. New theme each month!)
• Interstellar Hitchhiker Makers

VOLUNTEERING

We are always looking for volunteers that want to help with classes, during open project time, to teach a class, mentor, etc. Sign up here: http://lamakerspace.com/i-want/

We have openings for Fellows/Apprentices that can work a minimum of 20 hours/month in exchange for a full membership. If you are interested, check out the current opportunities or propose something to me: http://lamakerspace.com/job-openings/

I hope this update has been helpful. 

Hope to see you on Saturday or Sunday!
Tara

Helllloooooo LA Makerspace Posse,

Sorry for the gap in updates. It's happening. IT'S ALL HAPPENING. In order for it all to happen we had to actually make it happen and that made my communications a little on the say, dry side. So sit back and get comfy, because I have jammed a lot of stuff into this update!

LASER CUTTER
We are purchasing an Epilog Zing 24 Laser (60 watt). It will be in the space by next week. We got a wicked deal on it and are super excited. Here's what our precious looks like: http://www.epiloglaser.com/zing_24.htm

3D PRINTERS
Our first printer will be at the Robot Party this Saturday. It's a Bukobot and locally and lovingly made in Pasadena. In fact, Diego customized it just for us! Here's the beauty: http://deezmaker.com/bukobot/

We are currently negotiating for our second printer which may be an UP!

We are going to let our first 2 printers bake for a bit before we settle on a third. I know what you're thinking, 'what about a Makerbot?' Yes, that is a possibility, but they are also more expensive than a bunch of the other models so we are going to compare the two that we purchased with the Makerbots that our members own.

OPEN PROJECT TIME
We just hired two awesome makers to manage open project time on Saturday and Sunday:
Saturdays 9am - 1pm = Eain Bankins (starting Feb. 9th)
Sundays 1pm - 5pm = Robin Sehler (starting Feb. 3rd)

Here's Robin showing off her mad power drill skills: https://secure.flickr.com/photos/lamakerspace/8428424630/in/set-72157632645475436

And Eain, hmmm, I need to find a pic of him. Just look for the tallest person in the room.

In addition one of our Board Members will be in the space during Open Project Hours either teaching a class or hopefully cleaning up the storage room (HINT). We will continue to work on adding more open project time as we work on logistics, budget, etc.

Speaking of, we have openings for Fellows/Apprentices that can work in exchange for a full membership. If you are interested, check out the current opportunities or propose something to me: http://lamakerspace.com/job-openings/

WORKSHOPS
Our monthly group meetups are starting in February:
-Evil Geniuses
-Citizen Science
-Interstellar Hitchhiker Makers
-Videoblogging
- and more to come including a Hacker Scouts group that are all about showing off their mad skills. I still have my Girl Guides sash and all-round cord (Canadian version) and I take badge earning very seriously. Just FYI.

Group info is here: http://lamakerspace.com/groups/

All our scheduled classes and workshops can be found here: http://lamakerspace.com/calendar

ROBOT PARTY
I'm going to be honest, I think this is going to be a pretty big party. I underestimated how many people like robots in LA. We are going to be joined by a few organizations who will demo including ROBOTIS, Rolling Robots, Electric Imp, Robot Magazine, Wrylon Robots, Robots and Androids, LA Robotics Club, FIRST Robotics. Door prizes include Roomba or Mint, Recycled Robots, mini 3D printed Robots (they are so cute) and more. Activities include screen printing your own Robot poster, Bristlebots, Battling Robots, Robot Dancing, chillaxing and watching Robot movies and showing off awesome Robot Costumes.

If you are at least a one month membership and have not signed up for the party, you should definitely do that: http://robotparty.eventbrite.com

MEMBERS
We are currently setting up our membership system and once that is done you will be invited to it. In the meantime we have a handy dandy spreadsheet with your name and your membership level. If for example you have a day pass, you can use that for open project time.

We still owe you badges and stickers and so forth, don't worry, we haven't forgotten!

GET INVOLVED
Already members are working on projects. Last week we built furniture for the space out of pallets. https://secure.flickr.com/photos/lamakerspace/sets/72157632645475436/

Next we'll be hosting a sewing session to make cushions, etc. We have quite a few more pallets and we need to do something with them. I'm thinking art easels, a shelf for air plants, some chairs...

The best way to get plugged in is either through the Google Group or G+ Community (links below) and keep an eye out on the calendar.

Definitely come out for the monthly open discussion night (first Wednesday of every month) to learn about what's being planned and voice your opinion. The next one is schedule for Wed., Feb. 6th at 7pm. http://lampubnight.eventbrite.com

THANK YOU
Thanks again for supporting this community that you are helping to build. I'm always happy when one of you introduces yourself to me at an event and asks lots of questions about the space. LA Makerspace is for YOU and it will become as awesome as you want it to be.

See you soon!
Tara

Join in on the conversation:

G+ Community: https://plus.google.com/communities/111721802961854700392
Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/la-makerspace
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lamakerspace
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lamakerspace
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/lamakerspace/
Newsletter Signup: http://lamakerspace.com/subscribe/