Seattle Free School

[Justin Martenstein]

There was a piece on KUOW about the Seattle Free School today (my
genius wife heard it and immediately thought of Saturday House).
Anyone know about these folks? We should definitely team up with them.

http://seattlefreeschool.blogspot.com/

--
Justin Martenstein
justinma...@gmail.com, (425) 802-3104
http://www.meetatthepig.com
http://www.sixhourstartup.com
http://www.twitter.com/jmartenstein

[Marty Hale-Evans]

I heard it too, and also thought of SH. (Does that make me genius? ;-
>) Don't know about them yet either, but they seem cool.


Marty

--
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Marty Hale-Evans ma...@martynet.org Seattle WA, USA

"[Finnegans] Wake, in this sense, captured the dizzying amplitude of
the
Internet before it existed. Like the Web, the book is an incredibly
vast,
far-reaching, piecemeal collection that is brilliant and unifying when
taken
in context, but gibberish when not. (Also, a portion of each has been
dedicated to naked women.)"
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[bansìth]

this place looks so cool! thanks for link--

On Jul 3, 9:36 pm, "Justin Martenstein" <justinmartenst...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> There was a piece on KUOW about the Seattle Free School today (my
> genius wife heard it and immediately thought of Saturday House).
> Anyone know about these folks? We should definitely team up with them.
>
> http://seattlefreeschool.blogspot.com/
>
> --
> Justin Martenstein

> justinmartenst...@gmail.com, (425) 802-3104http://www.meetatthepig.comhttp://www.sixhourstartup.comhttp://www.twitter.com/jmartenstein

[Lion Kimbro]

  This looks awesome!
  And this is just the sort of thing I've been looking for.

  On their help needed page, ...

    http://seattlefreeschool.googlepages.com/helpneeded

  ...their first item is SPACE.

  I think it'd be great if we connected with them and made
  our space available for some gatherings.  Perhaps a decision
  for Cigar Chomping is in order?

  We need to figure out how to isolate sound, I think, but
  I would hope that doesn't stop us from sharing our space with
  them..!

  I'll be announcing about them to Clearwater & Sustainable
  Ballard's Sat. House as well.

  Take care,
    Lion {:)}=

[Calvin Freitas]

Isn't the space technically run by Giraffe Labs now?  Not sure if  it makes a difference since the board has a lot of overlap.

Cal

[Lion Kimbro]

  Clarity in authority would be nice.

  My expectation is that Cigar Chomping makes decisions for the Saturday House as a society, and has enough authority to say, "Such-and-such group can meet in the space on Saturday from 3:00-5:00PM" (or whatever time slot on Saturday.)

[Calvin Freitas]

Gotcha.  The only thing I'd be concerned about is making sure Saturday House still has an open feel.  If the space is "sublet" to a specific group for part of Saturday, I think it risks losing the openness and driving some people away.

Cal

[Lion Kimbro]

  Actually, there's been a conversation I've been wanting to raise about Saturday House in general, with regards to the new space:

  We've seen far fewer people, lately, I think.

  It could be summer;
  It could also be the new space.

  I think it's just not very good for having more than 1-2 conversations at once,
  as the sound presently divides.

  I've felt guilty about holding the notecards conversation in the main room, because it seems to "use up" the whole entire room.  I was very sad when I saw a troupe of people come in, observe that the notecards session was going on, and then turn around & leave..!

  If we were in a separate space, there's not a doubt in my mind that that wouldn't have happened.

  It seems to me that group sessions MUST happen in the back room, since the entry area is the entry area, for greeting people and making them feel welcome.

  Thoughts?

  Does anyone else perceive this?  Or how do you perceive it?

  Anyone know how we can increase the number of conversational spaces?

[Brian Dorsey]

On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 4:44 PM, Lion Kimbro <lionk...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Anyone know how we can increase the number of conversational spaces?

For smaller conversations, the couch near the elevator works well. I'm
planning to do a bit of cleanup of the far back room (with the
separate entrance) this weekend. While, it's not actually sound
separated, there is at least a wall there. ;)

I'm planning to have a small intro-to-Django session somewhere at
Saturday House around 3:30 (is that enough time after the notecard
session, Lion?). I was thinking that the far back room would be a good
place for that. Thoughts anyone?

Take care,
-Brian

[Lion Kimbro]

  I think we'll be done by 3:00, so it should be more than fine.

[Calvin Freitas]

Brian,

I'd definitely love to participate in the Django session.  I have a couple small projects I've been playing around with in Django.

I'm not sure how much you plan to cover, but an aspect of Django I've specifically had difficulty implementing in my project is the user registration/login/logout functionality (using the django-registration module, although it looks like some of this may have been built into the trunk since I first grabbed it).

Cal

[anders conbere]

It needs lights really badly. That's high on my list "o things we
need". If you had some time this weekend it would be great to get
lights for the whole space. And maybe a door to make access to the
back back room easier :)

~ Anders

>
> Take care,
> -Brian
>
> >
>

[anders conbere]

On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 4:44 PM, Lion Kimbro <lionk...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Actually, there's been a conversation I've been wanting to raise about
> Saturday House in general, with regards to the new space:
>
> We've seen far fewer people, lately, I think.
>
> It could be summer;
> It could also be the new space.

I've seen this as well, and I'm not sure either. The Kite Flying had
great turn out, so the people are still here. I tend to think at least
some of it is the idea of being cooped up on such nice days... but I'm
biased :)

[Jeffrey Melloy]

I love Saturday House, but it's not at the top of my list of priorities because it's every weekend.  So if something comes up on a random Saturday, I don't feel bad about missing it and tell myself I'll catch the next one. And sometimes that means I miss 4 or 5 in a row, but still feel like I'm part of the group. On days when there's something specific going on, like the Kite Building, it bumps up in my priority scale. Either by accident or design, I think one of the unspoken tenets of Saturday House is that you should be Doing Something (and that it doesn't matter what) so people who are attracted to the idea of Doing Something will occasionally be pulled away by the outdoors or just have their other friends ramping up their social calendar when/because the weather is nice.

The two back rooms at giraffe labs do feel pretty small, plus I imagine people are more concerned about overflow space due to people in the overflow areas actually, you know, working. I think the main advantage of the SoDo space over the Giraffe Labs space was the back rooms.  The bigger main room is certainly nice, but I think people were underestimating the value of the bigger alternate rooms. Although perhaps lights would help.

-Jeff

[Gregory Heller]

Use the middle room. I used it for meetings earlier this week with
clients and no one in the main room seemed to mind. there is also the
back room. total that is three rooms, same as sodo. ANd we have space
by the elevator, like at sodo.

I think the issue is it is summer.

Would you choose:
a) hanging out in windowless room in pioneer square
b) hanging out in your back yard, or a park, or the burke gilman trail,
(insert outdoor venue here)

As much as i find sat house conversation stimulating, when it is nice
out, i don't want to spend more time than necessary inside.

we had probably a dozen people show up for kite building on saturday.

lastly regarding cigar chomping and freeschool: as a member of giraffe
labs, i think it is more of a girafflabls question as to whether or not
to make space available for the freeschool.

I do not think that the freeschool should supplant normal saturday house
activities.

--
----
Gregory Heller
http://www.GregoryHeller.com

[Lion Kimbro]

  I propose (and nominate myself) to write to the Free School, and say:

  * If anyone is offering a class and looking for a place to hold it,
    we want them to consider hosting it at Saturday House.

  * People who want to use the Saturday House time and space can get
    permission by writing to the Saturday House mailing list.

  I don't see how this is any different than Brian Dorsey's Intro to
  Django, or my Notekeeping sessions.

  I basically see no chance that Free School could "supplant"
  Saturday House:  only extend it.

  Free School activities are *definitely* in line with the Saturday
  House "charter" (both written & in spirit,) and if Saturday House
  has a mission, (I often think that it does,) holding Free School
  classes at Saturday House clearly furthers that mission.

  Take care,
    Lion =^_^=  206.427.2545

[Calvin Freitas]

It might be a good idea to find out the scope of what the Free School is doing: i.e. how many people and how much room they'd actually need if they hosted sessions at SH.

Since Giraffe Labs is leasing the space, I think Giraffe Labs gets to make the decision on how it's used.

I love the free exchange of ideas and the community aspect the Seattle Free School talks about on the website, but I don't think it's a good idea to leap in and offer to share space without finding out more about them and who they are.  Saturday House and Seattle Free School are both great groups, but that doesn't mean we've got to bring one into the other or visa versa.

Maybe inviting a few Seattle Free School people to drop by and check out SH would be a good start?

Cal

[Lion Kimbro]

  I want to clarify my last post is a PROPOSAL, and that means that
  I am petitioning your support and comments.

  Nobody's "jumping into" anything, and of course, we'll have people
  visiting (and **talking with our mailing list**), before classes
  start mysteriously showing up..!  {;)}=

  From what I gather reading their web pages, there's no one class
  size;  It's all up to the host & teacher & so on.  But class sizes
  (by signups) ARE controlled.  (That is, I've seen talk of classes
  "filling up.")


  As for Giraffe Labs:

  Giraffe Labs should be comfortable that the space is secure, that
  things will keep working, etc., etc., that the space will be
  available on non-Saturday days.

  However, I *don't* believe this amounts to: "Giraffe Labs decides
  independently how the space is used."  If that WAS the intended
  order of things, I would have never consented to the move to
  Giraffe Labs.

  I think that conversation, as we're doing now, is appropriate.

  ---


  Here's why I think that we should invite Seattle Free School:

  * they're clearly "on charter"
    - and would extend us in a way that we presently don't fulfill
      our own charter right now

  * they have just the kind of people we've intended to meet

  * we've been looking to meet new people

  * they're requesting space
    - (Yep!  It's *actually* a reason why we should say yes!)

  * it's a great way of sharing between communities (a topic we've
    discussed lately)

  * we have the space available

  * we've always had as part of our story that we'd like people to
    hold classes in it

  * it would represent a meaningful change for Saturday House
    - (explicitly the sole reason why I supported the move to
      Giraffe Labs, incidentally.)


  It's true that we've been more geek focused.
  But I don't see that as an obstacle.

  And besides, I suspect a number of these classes will be geek
  oriented, anyways.

  >>  Maybe inviting a few Seattle Free School people to drop by and
      check out SH would be a good start?

  A great idea!


  Take care,
    Lion  {:D}=

[seattlefreeschool]

Hey peeps... found this thanks to google alerts. Thanks for the kind
words. I'll hopefully answer some questions here which might help the
whole discussion (it's Jessica, the person you heard on the radio and
the founder of the Seattle Free School).

Our classes range in size and can be limited to the space or whatever
the space feels is appropriate. We're currently working with Clare of
the Giving Tree in downtown to provide classes at her space and for
these classes we limit based on what the class is doing and the
appropriate amount of people that would fit into that space. I
offered a car repair (brakes) class at my house and limited it to 5
people since my carport won't hold more comfortably. The times we
have classes at the libraries we are forced by library rules to have
it open to everyone and anyone, and most classes we have in libraries
can be taught to as many people as show up. Really it's completely up
to the teacher, the space requirements of the place we're using and
what makes good common sense.

We're not as despirately in need of space currently as we're working
with Cascade People's Center and will soon have good access to that
space, however we like to spread classes around so it's convenient to
people who are teaching and people who are attending. It's for that
reason that we've had classes all over Seattle. Some of this will
stop for a while as we figured out that people were all driving long
distances to get to classes instead of the classes serving the
neighborhood (W. Seattle is the main area that comes to mind with
this). Until we have teachers that want to teach at a space
specifically we usually stick to stuff that requires the least amount
of transportation for the teacher.

A part of our unstated mission is building community and getting
people out to see other nonprofits and things going on in the city.
If nothing else it would be great to post information about you folks
on our other free classes page of the website to get people to know
you exist and what you're doing. Is there a specific place you folks
post what's going on each saturday?

I probably wont' check this group again so if you have questions or
answers please email me at seattlef...@gmail.com
-J