Ideas for implementing the DIY handbook club members

[Ben Jones]

Has anyone implemented the club members? I am trying to implement them and wondering if anyone else has had success. Specifically ways of finding a good match for each club member type.

Anyone having success getting this going?

[Ben Jones]

More specifically the club roles (i.e. medic, chef, etc.).

[Michele W.]

Hmm, we didn't really assign roles, but they seemed to happen naturally in our situation. We are working with a local children's librarian running a club there. Since they have protocols in place they must follow those are the roles she has kept. We discuss ideas openly though and help each other however we can. I imaging with the Club Handbook being pretty new, there's not a lot of feedback on roles just yet. 

[Ben Jones]

Michele - thanks!

I am curious, what kind of roles do you have currently? What's working? We don't have specific roles yet but we are looking to implement some and are looking for some guidance.

[Michele W.]

Just for bit of background, my kids wanted to connect with local makers and help spread awareness of diy.org. They came to me with the idea of partnering with the local library and having a club there. I set up an appointment for them to meet with the children’s librarian March of 2013, but this was their project. 

From there Ogel has had the bulletin board area in the children’s section of the library to share info about diy.org, maker’s projects, some of his own projects, projects from the maker club, pictures from maker club events, and other maker related news. 

He’s also compiled project ideas for each season of events. This week they’ll wrap up their second season and they will soon have the next session of maker club events released. Each maker event has a general theme (such as card boarder, tape ninja, Minecraft, etc.) with sample project ideas, but the makers are also free to use any of the supplies and run with their own ideas. 

Once he and the librarian decide on a theme, they collaborate and share ideas for low cost/inexpensive projects. From there he makes a list of supplies that should be on hand for the event. Since we are unable to get reimbursed through the library, she does all of the shopping and purchasing of supplies. We do however, alert her to sales, such as duct tape 4/$10, etc. when it would be a good time to stock up. Two to three times a year he also helps organize their supplies and see what needs replenished. 

We help by bringing in items we no longer use, salvaging items, collect cardboard from local companies, and share reusable supplies that we have, such as square peg boards which are very popular for Perler bead events. My kids usually make samples of the project ahead of time so we know the project works, how to do it, and it gives kids an idea.We show up to events early to help set up and we also stay to help clean up. 

I tend to take more pictures to document projects because I enjoy it and she’s more the social butterfly. I also upload the pictures to diy and share them with the library for their marketing. She does the scheduling, handles pre-registration, plans within the library’s budget, and works with their marketing person to promote events outside of the bulletin board and hand outs at the events. 

Ogel has tried to get more makers involved in planning and suggesting events. He has had an idea box for suggestions and templates for kids to plan their own event. Neither of these have been successful. The librarian has tried to pull in other adult mentors from the community, that hasn’t been successful yet either. 

[Ben Jones]

This is great! I see your kids filling the Entrepreneur and Salvager roles which is great. Our club started in a similar way, but less involvement from the kids in the organizing, which is the big thing we are looking to fix.

I am curious, have any of your kids become less interested in the organizing part of it?

[Michele W.]

 "I am curious, have any of your kids become less interested in the organizing part of it?"

Last summer we met with the library weekly and also went to the weekly maker club event. So we were their twice a week on top of juggling three kids activities and school, it was a lot. This fall we have switched to once a month meetings along with the weekly maker event and that has helped. We do correspond via email in between if anything comes up. It's feeling like this next session, we'll be able to mostly organize it via email and at home with more flexibility. 

Ogel has enjoyed coming up with themes, sample projects, and organizing. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 6-12 months as the 12.5-13 age range is when I notice kids shifting from working with a variety of materials and enjoying open ended projects to being more technical and specific in their focus. 

This is what happened with my oldest. He was 12.5 when he met with the librarian. He was more interested in technical and computer related projects, but those weren't in the libraries budget. He was less eager to help with the non techie projects. Now that they can do more techie stuff, he's found his niche and is specializing, thus has lost interest. It's all about the timing.

My youngest has an Autism Spectrum Difference and struggles with fine motor and language skills. He enjoys making samples for the events at home and has gone to about half of the events. He wants to help, but even with clean up, needs suggested a task in order to get started. When making, he sees something he wants to recreate. 

I've noticed similar with many kids at maker club, they like an idea board to get their ideas flowing. Then you have a handful who come in, see the supplies, and know what they'd like to make.