Meeting Thurs Jan 27th 7-10pm

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Jerry Isdale

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Jan 18, 2011, 3:20:41 AM1/18/11
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http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/?p=581

We will be meeting on Thursday Jan 27th 2010, 7-10pm at the home of
Ben Ward.

We will be buying a couple pizzas to feed, so please reply as comment
here, or to the blog if you plan to attend so we can get enough.
Bring your own drinks.

We will fill you in on the status of our hunt for a home, and there
will be time for people to share their projects, ideas, etc. Come and
talk story!

See the blog post for address information: http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/?p=581

Jerry Isdale

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Jan 19, 2011, 1:00:20 AM1/19/11
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Aside from the basic update and round-room intros and project talks, I do have one rather important item coming up on which I need input from y'all...
I have a meeting on Thurs Feb 10th with Teena Rasmussen, Director of Economic Development for Maui County. This is the first follow up to my discussion with Mayor Alan Arakawa last October. The Mayor (then candidate) was very interested in the maker space concept, especially our outreach and teaching activities.

I would like to solicit your input on what and how we should talk about/propose at this meeting. My rough plan is to talk about Fab Labs/spaces in general, and our maker space in particular, with various project ideas from members to illustrate. I hope to secure some backing ($) as well as assistance in site-ing the space. If you would like to work with me on the presentation and/or business planning, please speak up!!

Mahalo

Jerry Isdale
http://MauiMakers.com

Reichart

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Jan 19, 2011, 1:43:23 AM1/19/11
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- Make the connection for the mayor that the white house is talking
about maker spaces, knowing it is popular at that level give power to
local level events, and lets the mayor know it might get picked up by
the press.

- Reichart

--

Reichart...

Jerry Isdale

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Jan 19, 2011, 1:54:03 AM1/19/11
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Good point. Thanks Reichart
The Factory At Home report (http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/?p=571) is very interesting with a good number of action items - like creating a local Fab Lab/Maker Space, and getting teachers involved.

I have found that the Kihei Charter School has a grant from U.H to build a 'makery', which is akin to a Fab Lab. Also King K HS has a grant to get an advanced color 3d printer (jealous? yes I am.) We can help with the schools, and get adults involved.

Jerry Isdale
http://MauiMakers.com

cole

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Jan 21, 2011, 1:06:54 PM1/21/11
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There is two things the Mayor can do for us:

1. Grant money for development
2. Space in a Public Building or Public Land to build our makerspace
from scratch

There are a few public building available (local community centers)
and there is tons of county land available if we want to start from
scratch.

Because significant amounts of grant money may be available, I would
suggest we start with land and containers and build the facility
ourselves as a project. Starting small in a prebuilt space only makes
sense if we have to pay for it out of pocket.

also collaboration on mini maker spaces in high schools is important
aspect of the big picture plan. The most important thing to do is keep
the big picture in mind. (mobile makers, custom building, lots of
space for high tech ag, sattelite makerspaces, ect.)


On Jan 18, 8:54 pm, Jerry Isdale <isd...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Good point. Thanks Reichart
> The Factory At Home report (http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/?p=571) is very interesting with a good number of action items - like creating a local Fab Lab/Maker Space, and getting teachers involved.
>
> I have found that the Kihei Charter School has a grant from U.H to build a 'makery', which is akin to a Fab Lab.  Also King K HS has a grant to get an advanced color 3d printer (jealous? yes I am.)  We can help with the schools, and get adults involved.
>
> Jerry Isdalehttp://MauiMakers.com

Crystal Jean Baranyk

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Jan 21, 2011, 10:48:26 PM1/21/11
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I'm not actually sure that the Mayor can get or secure "grant" money for us.  He may play a small part in it, but the reality is, that relying on the mayor and grants that we don't have yet is most likely foolish.  The mayor may provide us with interesting opportunities and contacts, and this will definitely help a bit.  Working for and with two other non-profits, this is a tricky sort of beginning in an unstable economy.  And, I do know that grant money is more difficult to obtain now. It will be best to not take on too much, as we are very small at the moment (unless we have grown while I was busy).  I am not taking a pessimistic view, or even suggesting that we will not get grants - but it would be good to outline why we are special, unique and significant.  And what we plan to do, as well as what we give back to the community in order to firm up our chances of getting funding?  Jerry undoubtedly has been working on this already.  A growth plan will also be a good idea.  How many board members and general members will we have in two years?  In five?    Once Jerry selects a board, he should have profiles on all of the members to submit along with various grant applications.  I am not sure what the formal process is for obtaining use of public land on this island is like, but I do know one thing about that.  We need to be recognized as a non profit. We need to file DCCA forms, pay those fees, submit a G6 form, have a board together for the DCCA paperwork.  We need to know what kind of non-profit we will be as well.   All of this said, I have been so busy that I am not sure where we are with all of this.  Maybe most of it has been addressed already.  
--

Jerry Isdale

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Jan 22, 2011, 2:04:36 AM1/22/11
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Grant money would be nice but it is a long and resource consuming road
to get it. The TAACCCT grants from USDoL (mentioned in other msg
today) is very interesting and could offer some great possibilities.
Just knowing about it, the UH Makery project, and Factory@home gives
me some hope we can someday get some get financial support from
government and UH. I wont count on it too much in near future.
Getting some help finding a location would be good, but as you say it
can take a long while. La'a Kea foundation got permission 5 years ago
to build a farm/community for adults with learning disabilities on 15
acres in Paia. The farm is there, and they just got the first
building constructed - from a pair of shipping containers (Cole and
Tommy are now excited). 5 years. I wont hold my breath, but I will
hold hope.

See you all next week (i hope - only a couple of RSVPs so far!)

On Jan 21, 5:48 pm, Crystal Jean Baranyk <crystalje...@gmail.com>
wrote:

cole

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Jan 23, 2011, 8:44:40 PM1/23/11
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We give grants/contracts at my work for different things from 100s of
thousands for watershed protection, to 10s of thousands for
demonstration gardens for native xeriscaping. The office of economic
development, parks and recreation, dept of water will all help and
listen to you if the instruction to do so comes from the top down in
the form of a few phone calls and a letter. The meeting could change
the face of mauimakers instantly, or not at all (I'm banking on the
former). I am a county worker and my department reviews conservation
contracts. When someone comes in my office for money I want to see a
plan. The more developed the plan the more money we give them. We
don't need 15 acres we need 5000 sq feet and a few containers and 20k.
Total budget is almost a billion for maui county, there is money
there. We just have to convince the mayors staff that a small
investment now will yield large returns later. Then make your way down
the chain to the people in charge of the space we need.

Side note to this:

Every space we have looked at so far does not have an outdoor space
for aquaculture unless we use indoor lighting (which costs way to much
in maui to be feasible). Aquaculture is one of the fastest growing
industries in Hawaii. Something to keep in mind. Doing agriculutre
research is one of the easiest benefits for maui politicians go wrap
their minds around. Farmers are one of the most outspoken and
political groups on the island. Kula ag line cost millions, wont work
[not enough water at olinda during the summer], and serves very few
people yet it is build at the cost of Maui land owners through
property taxes. Politicans dont do things that make sense they do
things that will make them popular.

cole

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Jan 23, 2011, 8:55:43 PM1/23/11
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We need a project proposal county style, I can help. Not just talk,
but charts and text and pictures, etc. It has to be bigger than
anything they could read while they are meeting with you (he/she with
the largest book gets the most money). It should contain general
community benefits with a budget, implementation plan, and short bio's
on our founding members. If you say things like "I made UAV's for
DARPA" while wielding your "book like plan" that will impress them. If
you ask for help with no set numbers and specific parcels then it will
be too much work for them and we'll get little from it. If we ask for
a specific parcel and 25k or 100k and a plan for what it will be spent
on then your chances of success are greater.

Jerry Isdale

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Jan 23, 2011, 9:33:15 PM1/23/11
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Heh Heh - i remember some proposals being physically weighed to determine funding. Then again, there was one where we beat The Tome submission by showing a functional prototype. Here I think we can do both.

I'd like to have anyone who wants (up to maybe 3 people) with me for the Feb 10th meeting, and as much help as possible preparing the presentation/proposal. The unfortunate part is I will be off island Jan31-Feb7, but if people here can work on things, I'm happy to collaborate remotely!

Also I'm going to Oahu on this Tuesday to meet Neil Scott of UH Invention Factory to talk story. They have a terrific concept in their Makery Cloud(tm), which seeks to create a network of small scale fab setups in schools & community, sharing instructional and other resources. My 45min phone call with him today shows great potential for collaboration.

Jerry Isdale
http://MauiMakers.com

Jerry Isdale

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Jan 24, 2011, 2:37:41 AM1/24/11
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Blog post updated with comments....
I want to encourage interested parties (aka members) to be more active
and share in making our space happen. I would like to have others
organizing, hosting, posting, editing and contributing. Check the
blog comments and speak up...
http://www.mauimakers.com/blog/?p=581
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