want to help reach out to potential new members?

[J C]

Just about every two days we get a new people sign upto the Hackspace meetup group, every few ever take the stop to attend an open evening or a workshop. What I would like to do is reach out to them (or some of them) and send a welcoming message/ encourage them to come down, I don't want to just send a standard email as I want to engage them and get them interested in coming along. 

I dont have the capacity for this too much a the moment but if i can get one or two of you to help me then it may be worthwhile trying. 

Anyone interested in helping? 

Joe

[YouMustBe Joking]

I wonder if what happens is that people discover Meetup and sign up for lots of groups in a rush of enthusiasm. Then, they see different groups and start to think that maybe that wasn't what they were looking for. Or maybe they have other commitments that just make getting to the Hackspace on Tuesday night difficult. 

Both these apply to me. I'm sure there will be other factors in play too. Lack of knowledge or experience, maybe there's too much testosterone, as someone said we probably see ourselves as being hackers rather than makers and that could put some less techie people off. 

My two penn'orth ;)

T 

[Owen Grein]

I'm just useless, I thought tomorrow was Tuesday. I got my days all muddled up somehow. On the plus side i have a day scuba diving to look forward to tomorrow instead XD

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[J C]

 "Lack of knowledge or experience, maybe there's too much testosterone, as someone said we probably see ourselves as being hackers rather than makers and that could put some less techie people off. "

Yes and this is why I want to reach out to people. Because many people seem to see it necessary to have a certain level of knowledge or skill to get involved which is fairly untrue, the bar is certainly a lot lower than many expect. 

I see myself as a tinkerer to be honest with a large slice or maker and a fraction of hacker. I see myself as being part of a hackspace rather than a makerspace due to the slight cultural differences (if any) so we may have to put the exta effort into reaching out to people who are made wary by the title of hacker. 

Reaching out to some people will make some difference reaching out to others will make no difference. But if no effort is put in not difference will come about :) 

[Marc Jennings]

Is it worth a rethink of the website home page to make it much more obvious what is on offer (lots) and what the minimum requirements for a potential member are (none, beyond breathing)?  The homepage should be the attention grabbing, quick route to say what we are about.  As it stands it is a little wordy and a little in-depth.

</2p>

[J C]

Samwise is working on the new website, and I think aiming for along those lines. 

Unfortunately he keeps getting distracted with all the work surrounding the new space.

What wording would you suggest?

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[tenst...@me.com]

I can be one of those one or two people.

On Tuesday, 5 July 2016 16:50:13 UTC+1, Japoteg wrote:

[J C]

Excellent, thank you. Will see who/ if anyone else volunteers then we can organise an approach.

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[Marc Jennings]

I am notoriously bad at keeping things simple, but something along the lines of

"We are a hackspace / makerspace.  Our aim is to put the means to make things in the hands of as many people as possible, regardless of your skill levels or experience.  

Why not come along on a Tuesday evening and see how we can open up a world of possibilities to you?"

I am so glad I don't work in marketing.

[Samwise Wilson]

The website will come with a update of our core stuff like the wiki. Overall the feeling is that these areas are pretty shallow but I have been doing bits and bobs... Its doing OK and I'll take all this feedback in.

Ultimately the file store and things like google apps hinge a lot of this stuff as we have to be prepped for growth. Quickly getting to the point where you can't know everyone so we have to adandon organising with that in mind!

[Marc Jennings]

I am not criticisng the website as it stands.  It serves its purpose.  I would personally prefer a vastly simplified home page with links to a lot of the deeper stuff.  Nothing should be more than one or two clicks away, but I'd worry about the amount of information being potentially off-putting.  My own site (http://poplarfarmguitars.co.uk/) tries to keep the front page as clear as it can without missing obvious introductory details.  It probably fails in that respect, but I tried. ;)

[Alex Silcock]

I really like London Hackspace's homepage in that regard - clear and to the point. Our Wiki could definitely be more people-friendly, we could do with having a bit of a tidy up on there anyway, there are loads of orphaned pages.

On 6 July 2016 at 13:02, Marc Jennings <marc.j...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am not criticisng the website as it stands.  It serves its purpose.  I would personally prefer a vastly simplified home page with links to a lot of the deeper stuff.  Nothing should be more than one or two clicks away, but I'd worry about the amount of information being potentially off-putting.  My own site (http://poplarfarmguitars.co.uk/) tries to keep the front page as clear as it can without missing obvious introductory details.  It probably fails in that respect, but I tried. ;)

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[Christopher Stanton]

There's certainly estrogen along with testosterone at the Hackspace these days. I'd say we have been successful with that over the past year.

The main message that the Hackspace is presenting is that it is a socially accepting community workshop and group which is prepared to support a variety of crafts, design, art and technology depending on what it's members want to do.

This is difficult because the identity of maker and hacker spaces is muddled with corporative and commercial marketing that offers the same tools and (starting to offer the same) access.

So the main challenges people will find that attempt to approach the people on meetup will be a mixture of an audience that think the Hackspace is a business with employees that provides a service (like a fablab), that they are expected to have some level of knowledge already and a project in mind (like a well established working group and some charities), or the timing of Tuesdays isn't convenient. Some will think we are not active, because meetup doesn't have every existing paying member on there marking that they're attending things.

The reasons vary more than what it used to be, as we engage with people we find out why.

The best way to find out is to ask, I would suggest that the people that reach out to the members on meetup start by asking questions, there's an email tool which will grab some attention, but messaging people directly may be necessary.

If anyone's wondering where I've got this all from its because for the past year or more I had been the organiser of the meetup group, and handling the social media accounts for the hackspace.

Hope this helps.

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[J C]

Thank you Stanto, 

I think we need more pics of our open nigths and upload them to show how active we really are

[YouMustBe Joking]

Would it help if those of us on Meetup said we were attending too?

(even though it's very likely that I wouldn't be there).

[Christopher Stanton]

Have you been able to come along on a Saturday?

[Christopher Stanton]

We can also put videos on our YouTube channel.

[Samwise Wilson]

Marketing!

This kind of activity is becoming increasingly important to the space. I think it could be classified as part of space infrastructure, Stanto has contributed some very valuable stuff in terms of who it reached and the eventual generation of members and thus cool projects!

Those who want to be more active around our outsidey bits should be; we are based around our members so I think this would encourage more questions and activity prior to arrival at the space and afterward... Its always nice to be able to show people what we do across platforms.

Does anyone feel like we lack anything to enable people to get more active with this? If so we can put in the work to make this kind of outreach habitual.

[Andy51055]

Making access to the blog more universal to members so that they can write up their projects and show off what's happening in the space would be good.

[J C]

That's a good point Andy. I think I'll add that to the induction checklist.

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[Samwise Wilson]

Yes - syncing accounts there would be great, everyone should have a website account generated either as you are interested in the space (subscribed) or become a member (part of the induction).

Its a big feature of the new site that's already in hand - user created projects section.