Build Out Support Question

[Frank Kallal]

So we are Coming up on a year in the space, and still working on build out.  The space has come a long way, but I mean ‘a year’….  I’ve seen / heard a lot of Calls for work times, but it always seems to be the same 4 or 5 people that are there to do the work.  The Work is hard at times and only so much can get done, especially if only one or two people show up to help. (Drywall is damn heavy)   Perhaps the Answers to this will help move this Project Along. Because 4 or 5 of 30 Full and alot of Supporting Members is a Very Poor Ratio.

My question is: What would get “YOU” out to work on Build-out?

For Me Personally:

Things like More “Scheduled” Times. because Last minute or only a couple days’ notice doesn’t generally work for me.  It’s a Pretty good drive (40 minutes) for me so Weeknights aren’t great, and a family of 5, a wife with a job, and Only a single Car, greatly hamper my Freedoms as well.  I know I don’t have a lot of Knowledge in Building stuff, but I have learned each time I helped. 

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<PSA> I’m not on the Board, I’m only Simi-active, and I’m poor so I’m not even paying the full Monthly membership right now.  So take my comments with that Knowledge.

I’m not counting myself in the 4 or 5 above.  I know I don’t make it out as much as I would like to and I don’t think it’s my place really to poke other’s for not helping… but I’m gonna anyway.  Being Nice about it has not gotten things done. </PSA>

[Diane]

On Feb 11, 2017, at 11:25 PM, Frank Kallal wrote:

My question is: What would get “YOU” out to work on Build-out?

My two biggest issues have been my health and the fact that I often plan my life Far in advance.  I literally have three things planned for weekends in 2018 already.   By the time a work-day is set I've almost always committed to other things.  I'm on a long list of medical "though shalt nots" to let my back heal and I've lost any stamina that I had by being injured so long.  That said, I would love to help more!!

[Brad Tissi]

Frank,

I'm in a similar boat. I want to help, enjoy construction projects, and want to learn skills that I don't already have.

But I plan most everything a month+ out and have enough trouble breaking away to get to the space for personal projects, let alone more compelling group projects.

From my experience running other groups over the past handful of years, there's a few requirements to getting a reoccurring event some momentum within a group:

1. Any regular event needs a dedicated keeper/MC/organizer.

-The point of contact needs to remain constant. When a new message pops up from this person, readers already know that it's in reference to this event.

2. Make it a regularly scheduled event. Every Sun, first and third Tues, etc.

-It has to never be a question of if the group knows when it's going to be. It should just be an assumption that when a potential participant comes across an opening in their schedule, they already know that they want to pencil the event in without needing to look.

-This needs to be set by the frequency of the keeper's availability. If the organizer can only make 1 out of every 3 events, momentum falls apart. I've found that it's better to be less frequent, but more regular in the long run. If other times open up, then supplemental smaller events can be added, but it should be clear that these are separate from the main, regular event.

3. Advertising

-Have a catchy name to make it easy to remember, food so that there's fewer time conflicts, regular reminders so that it's always on their mind, etc. Leave no chance of a common roadblock to get in the way.

4. Have a full meal (pizza, giant sub sandwich, etc) planned that everyone brings $5 for (each dollar bill amount that won't break the bank - extra can be donated),

-How many times can it be expected that participants will eat the same thing or have to plan a meal around a time slot? Food motivates and a little forethought doesn't cost anything.

Those are my current notes that I pass along to anyone planning activities and/or taking over my roles in groups. Unfortunately, there isn't always one person that can take ownership and it then is shared across multiple. This never works as well, delays goals, and confuses the situation, but still gets the job done.

For this particular situation, a temporary board position makes sense to me to be able to dedicate to the cause unless this falls under an existing role that currently doesn't have a lot going on. Though since this isn't the beginning of the situation and we already have a handful of dedicated folks seeing it through, I'd vote for one of them if they're up for it, regardless of board affiliation.

[Chris Weiss]

we've done every saturday for a whole bunch of months, and many Sundays, except for holidays and weather, so just write down Saturday from now on. 

3rd Tuesday is now a regular too, and the first run of that had great progress.

we've had food, sometimes planned and sponsored, sometimes ad-hoc taking up a collection.  

there's a board with some things to do, but I'd like to see another for wall task priority and specs.  we've already done a couple non-optimally that'll we have to live with due to some communication and planning issues and this would fix that.

While not always well communicated, we actually have met most of those points. 

[Morganism]

These are great suggestions. Thank you for the feedback. I will be looking into ways to implement these with some of the other board members. 

As Chris said, there has been an unwritten, standing build-out every weekend, and we are into our third month of building on the 3rd Tuesday of the month.

I will look at ways to communicate better what can be done when no one else is around, and see what can be done about planning food.

All good ideas.

[Bohra Family]

What are the times of the "unwritten, standing build-out" on Saturdays?

[Nathan Schrenk]

Saturday build-outs are typically 10am - 4pm.

Nathan