Membership for a class? (Rural participant)

[John Hoaglun]

Do I need a membership to take a class?  The reality is that it is just over 100 miles round trip for me to come in. As much as I like the concept of the community space the distance is too great for me to be monthly member. There are the occasional special event classes (fiberglass) that I would like to take.

I don't mind paying for a class, contributing to the club funds via a donation or something similar. But paying for a membership that I can't really use does not make sense. (I have growing personal shop of my own here in central Minnesota.)

Let me know how I should handle the occasional class attendance. 

Thanks, John

John Hoaglun
NG0R - EN25
http://www.hoaglun.com

[Sebastian Wiers]

On Tue, Jun 24, 2014 at 10:54 PM, John Hoaglun <john.h...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Do I need a membership to take a class? The reality is that it is just over
> 100 miles round trip for me to come in. As much as I like the concept of the
> community space the distance is too great for me to be monthly member. There
> are the occasional special event classes (fiberglass) that I would like to
> take.

I've always been told classes are open to the public. It would be
nice if the classes page(s) mentioned that.

> I don't mind paying for a class, contributing to the club funds via a
> donation or something similar. But paying for a membership that I can't
> really use does not make sense. (I have growing personal shop of my own here
> in central Minnesota.)

Attending the yearly member meeting, I also learned there are weekend
memberships available ($10 a weekend, iirc). So, if you have a
specific machine dependent task that you need to do (metal machining /
laser cutting / cnc wood) that might make sense (assuming you are
cleared to use that tool, which might require a membership). Not sure
if a weekend membership requires sponsorship or you can just come in
on your own, fill out the papers and drop them & money in donation
box. Might also be problematic actually getting in; although most
weekends the doors are open, risking a 100 mile drive on that could
lead to a lot of annoyance. Might make sense to set something up
ahead of time with a member who has a key-fob, would also cover
sponsorship.

- Seb Wiers

[DanBackslide]

 All of our classes are indeed open to members and non-members alike. I'll look into updating the pages later today to make that clear.

The "weekend" pass is actually a 48-hour pass. You do need to have a sponsoring member, and also need to be cleared to use whatever tools you want to use. For non-members that means you need to have taken a training class.

[John Hoaglun]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the notes. I will see if I can sign up for the fiberglass class right now. I am sitting in a fire tower in Montana getting ready for Field Day to start in 4 fours. It turns out that fire tower here at Monument Peak Lookout, MT has a large solar panel and four large deep cycle batteries. I am using them to charge my laptop, iPhone, and KX3.  (The fire tower is a decommissioned unit that is now rented out as a small cabin.)

Sitting on top of the mountain peak the LTE coverage is pretty decent for being in the middle of no-where.  :-)

Thanks again for the update on the class.

---

John Hoaglun

NG0R - EN25ue

http://www.hoaglun.com

On Jun 27, 2014, at 9:17 PM, tcm...@googlegroups.com wrote:

 Membership for a class? (Rural participant)

DanBackslide <kc0...@gmail.com> Jun 27 11:03AM -0700