fizzPOP and YOU && AGM Wed 28th March

[snim2]

Hi everyone, 

there's been a lot of debate in the weekly Maker sessions recently about what people want to get out of fizzPOP and what people are willing and able to commit to make that happen. This was partly prompted by Dominic visiting us for the last Show & Tell (thanks Dominic!) and his stories of how Nottinghack has grown over the last few years. Partly though, the discussion has been driven by the low turn-out we've had at the weekly meetings and a continued desire that several people have to find premises for fizzPOP.

So, to open this discussion up to those of you who weren't able to come to the last few weekly meetings we are going to do two things. Firstly, there will be a fizzPOP AGM (or EGM, depending on your view) in the same time-slot we would normally have the Show and Tell for this month -- 7.30 Wed March 28th. We'll meet up at Cafe Soya, rather than the Edge, and move onto a local pub if we need more time. Nearer the time I'll post an agenda here. In particular though, we have some interesting opportunities regarding premises that Leroy and I want to put to fizzPOP members.

Of course, some of you will  have commitments elsewhere and won't be able to make that meeting, so I'd like to also invite you to discuss the future of fizzPOP on this thread, so that everyone who wants a say has a chance to voice their views. To get you started, here are a few of the things we've discussed in the weekly sessions, in summary. Hopefully members who were at those meetings can correct any views I've misrepresented here...

Low turn-out at maker sessions. 

We haven't had a great turn-out recently, and most people seem to agree that we are currently in a situation where the "offering" we are able to make perhaps isn't high enough to bring in a larger number of members. Several people thought that that could be resolved if we had more of a permanent workshop with equipment that was available to members.

Workshops and income

We haven't had much in the way of workshops recently, which has also meant that income has been quite low, usually just enough to cover our current rent. The major reason for this is that Leroy and I haven't had as much time available for fizzPOP as we might have liked (due to work commitments), so things like this have fallen off the radar a bit. Also, workshops can work very well, but they need a bit of organising and a big marketing push to drive people to them, which leads to the next point...

Organisation

At the moment it's just myself and Leroy organising pretty much everything. Other UK hackerspaces have an arrangement whereby a "board of trustees" runs everything (often "limited by guarantee" and insured, so no-one will lose their mortgage if the group runs into problems). Having a Board like this means that the workload of the organisers is spread much more thinly over more people, making it a bit more feasible to organise more activities. Most jobs that need doing in the end are not onerous in themselves, but there's a lot of them if we want to be more active.

So... over to you. What would you like to see fizzPOP doing over the next few months and what would you be willing to commit to make that happen?

Cheers,

Sarah

[Kwah]

Perhaps at the risk over-zealously pushing forth my own opinion, I'll share my experiences with the group with the hope that perhaps others might +1 it or prompt others to share their own thoughts.

Personally, I have been following the list for quite a while (I'm too lazy to go check ;) ). At the beginning I had the best of intentions - Birmingham Hack Space looks pretty darned cool and interesting and for about for or five months I had every intention of coming along. For those four or five months, for one reason or another, I wasn't able to make any of the sessions that I became aware of.

Now, my situation is that although I would love to come attend the initial magic / spark has disappeared and there is some hesitation/apprehension
knowing that many of you guys and gals have years of experience both in the trades and as hobbyists. In other words, I have a limited amount that would be able to (confidently) contribute.
To put this into context, I am a student (happy to discuss off-list).

Whilst I realise that, in reality, if I were to just turn up at a season I would be warmly welcomed, outside pressures and the initial apprehension are still there. It is with

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[Sarah Mount]

Nice to meet you! You will certainly be warmly welcomed at any of our
meetings. Of course, members are all experts in their own areas, but
one of the nice things about hackerspaces is that they give people a
chance to try out new skills that they wouldn't pursue professionally
and aren't necessarily "good" at. You'll know what I mean if you ever
see me with a soldering iron ;-)

Cheers,

Sarah

--
Sarah Mount, Senior Lecturer, University of Wolverhampton
website:  http://www.snim2.org/
twitter: @snim2

[Kwah]

Oops, a little quick off the mark hitting send there :P

See below for the completed message.

On Mar 16, 2012 10:59 PM, "Kwah" <kwa...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Perhaps at the risk over-zealously pushing forth my own opinion, I'll share my experiences with the group with the hope that perhaps others might +1 it or prompt others to share their own thoughts.
>
> Personally, I have been following the list for quite a while (I'm too lazy to go check ;) ). At the beginning I had the best of intentions - Birmingham Hack Space looks pretty darned cool and interesting and for about for or five months I had every intention of coming along. For those four or five months, for one reason or another, I wasn't able to make any of the sessions that I became aware of.
>
> Now, my situation is that although I would love to come attend the initial magic / spark has disappeared and there is some hesitation/apprehension
> knowing that many of you guys and gals have years of experience both in the trades and as hobbyists. In other words, I have a limited amount that would be able to (confidently) contribute.
> To put this into context, I am a student (happy to discuss off-list).
>
> Whilst I realise that, in reality, if I were to just turn up at a season I would be warmly welcomed, outside pressures and the initial apprehension are still there. It is

It is worth noting that this isn't specific to Hack Space, however. I have no doubt that this would apply to any other organisation.

It is also worth mentioning that I am yet to actually attend any sessions, so none of the above is in reference to the sessions themselves.

I do wonder how useful / relevant this message will be, given those two points. Hopefully it will of some use at some point along the way :)

I'll try and make more of an effort to come to sessions in the near future even if it is just to say hi :)

Roger

[Kwah]

Aha, I'm impressed by the speed of your response there :P

[Andrew Thomas]

Hi Sarah,

In the nicest possible way, can I add to what you've said about organisation? It's important to remember that it isn't just 'organisation' that describes what has to be done. For my part I've spent quite a bit of time writing code for themed evenings that have happened, as well as two workshops that haven't happened (inc. NMF). However, that pales into significance compared to Nigel's facilitation of fun discussions on life, the universe and everything, as well as the lockpicking :-)

Also all the people who've talked about their work at show'n'tell's, including your paranoid laptop, Antonio's pure data demo, Thomas's pyromaniacal arduino fun, and everyone else :-) Hopefully we're still going to do a processing (Android?) evening soon too? Plus, perhaps we should give everyone details of the events ideas we brainstormed last wednesday before the agm: hopefully James can elaborate as our tireless and expert facilitator?

That's just my opinion though and, as you know, I'll continue to do my best to help with the bums on seats issue as long as there's at least one other person there to talk techy to (sorry, that's often you ;) For me it's the people who turn up Wednesday nights who make fizzpop fizzpop :-) Even if we don't get more people I'll remember the fun conversations we've had at FP and the techie community it promoted :-)

Having said that, thank you very much for being the one person who's always there to open up and keep everything going well :-)

Best wishes,

Andrew.

[Andrew Thomas]

P.S. Sorry Nigel, I meant 'insignificance' :-)

[Sarah Mount]

Absolutely. Of course, there's no way we can have workshops and all
these different things if there isn't someone to volunteer to host
them. Nigel and Kate in particular must have travelled the length of
the country back and forward to get to Digbeth. And your proce55ing
workshop is going to be ace :-) Thanks to all.

Sarah

[Colum Paget]

I've been unable to come to any meetings for the usual reason, hellish
work issues (and being in tamworth doesn't help). However, I'll try to
make the AGM.

On the point of funding, I, and maybe some others, would be happy to
sign up to a monthly donation to FizzPop EVEN IF I DON'T USE IT. This
might seem a little odd, but I would like Birmingham to have a proper
hackspace, even if I can only drop in there very infrequently.

Of course, if we had our own hackspace location, then it would be
somewhere when one could turn up whenever one had spare time, instead
of having to 'try and make' specific times, and often fail. So for me
if FizzPop goes through a 'growth' phase until it becomes big like
Nottinghack (at which point perhaps I'll get more out of it) I'm fine
with that.

Probably I should discuss this more on the day, hope to make it this time.

Colum

[Andrew Thomas]

Hi Colum,

Nice idea, I agree. I was thinking of asking at the agm whether we could do direct debit payment and so pay monthly subs instead of just paying for individual nights.

Best wishes,

Andrew.