craft space winding down...

[3ric Johanson]

Hackerbot labs craft room will be going dark as of April 7th.  That's one week from today. Yes, the date is April 1st, but this is no joke.

We should thank Ratha who offset a majority of the costs of this experiment, along with a bunch of the equipment (chairs, tables, etc) and supplies.

Most of the sewing machines belong to Ratha or me, but a bunch of people have project leftovers in there.    As this is just a one week notice (well, to be fair, a warning email was mentioned Mid-march), we can do two things if you have stuff in there you don't want to get tossed or turned into something else.

 - Email the list with details of what it is/where it is, and a statement of how long you'd like it to be stored for you. Details can be worked out.

 - Do nothing, and whatever it is gets eaten by the winds of time.   SO SPEAK UP NOW.  :)

On 8/22/12, I announced a limited 6 month experiment to see how well this space would work, to see if it could cover it's $300/month costs.     That would have been Feb 22, 2013... sadly that date has come and gone and despite going longer than we said it would it's clear that there isn't quite enough activity to keep this place going.  Meh, no problem -- it was an experiment, but one we should close out.

I will be re-purposing the room (short term: garage sale staging, long term: top secret plans), so it's important that we get stuff out of there or packed up.    After the 7th the space will not be "open for business", and we'll be packing up stuff and moving it out.

Cheers,

-3ric

PS.  As hinted at below, I'm crap at keeping track of $$ figures.  but I know the *most* the craft lab has collected has been $80 in 30 days.  If folks really want more detailed information I can collect what has been entered into the sheets. 

---- email from 8/22/12 ----

<please direct dialog on this to "hblcrafts@ google groups">

I've decided to rent out a new space for a trial period of 6 months. The goal of this new space is to have a dedicated craft area to really help with active involvement. Also, I would really like to be able to use the RE lab for other experiments.

I'll get the keys on Monday, but I'm pushing for getting them sooner - we shall see; I'd love to get them before this weekend.

We've had some discussion around how to bootstrap something like this.  Here's what I've come up with:

- the monthly costs on this new space work out to be about 300/month.  I'm willing to give away 6 months of this in order to build some community around crafts and sewing. 

- At the end of the 6 months, we should see if there is enough involvement to cover the $300/month.  If not, I will give up this rental.  If it's really close to breaking even, I might extend the trial period. 

- Covering the $300/month means on average - I will still cover the rent if it's short one month, at the same time if it's over it goes into the rainy day fund.

- Rainy day fund is for equipment repair, or purchases if it happens to grow to that amount. Historically we've never had to solve this problem.

One thing to keep in mind here:  

I'm not going to be heavily involved in this space.  It's up to the people on this list to think up shit to do, promote it, make it happen and clean up afterwords. I view this as an $1800 investment into something awesome.  Please take advantage of that seed and help it grow. 

Please don't introduce liability for me; this isn't the place for a heroin den or underage drinking.

I'm really fantastically bad at keeping track of ledgers and balances.  This is in part because I'm just bleeding money on this space and I'd rather not know how much. :)  But for this craft area experiment, it might be helpful to keep track of how close to the $300/month we are getting.  To that end, if someone wants to sign up to track this for the group, I will happily help/empower them however I can.

Cheers,
-3ric

PS.  The $300/month is a rough average; the base rent is 200, plus a fraction of utilities/water/internet/

insurance/etc/etc which I'm really guessing on and likely underestimating.

[kyle drosdick]

dear hbl crafts,
i have a medium size blue tub marked with my nick. i want it back
or otherwise not to be tampered with. i will pick it up & hope to join
everyone at the lab this weekend!
- kyle

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[Susan Kaliaphe]

Oh :-(  well not every experiment is going to be a success.  I'll be over tomorrow to do some cleaning and can come in this weekend to finish up and help with anything if you'd like.

[Susan Kaliaphe]

Hum it seems that message didn't get sent yesterday.   I'll be there tonight not tomorrow.
Susan

[3ric Johanson]

So.

I view things a little bit differently.  An experiment is a success if:

 - You know what you are going to do.  In this case: "see if there is ample community to maintain a small craft area"

 - Know how to measure it.  In this case: "Can it cover it's costs?"

In that sense, the experiment is a success, but the outcome isn't necessarily what we had hoped.    But we did learn what we needed to - - that this combination of location, space, interest, energy doesn't make a balance.  That's important to know.  And we had fun along the way and folks made interesting things. 

So in that sense, I'm really happy we did it, and I'm glade we are shutting it down - gives us a chance to try a different experiment.  

All of this being said, if folks have ideas or input into a new experiment, let's talk about it!

Cheers,
-3ric

[3ric Johanson]

Kyle,

Your already clearly marked bin is already earmarked for you. 

By the way, you get a gold star for always marking your stuff. 

-3ric

[Jenny Hu]

I have lab coat pieces in a bag.. if someone can save that for me I'll be back on the 13th to get it.  I would like to finish the coat this spring too.. Will there still be a sewing machine in the blue room?

[Ratha Grimes]

3ric's serger and singer will be staying at HBL somewhere, presumably, and I am planning to set up the rest of the machines at my house in a spare bedroom, and if there is interest others can still come and use them...

[Susan Kaliaphe]

Well... I'm interested, but that's a given.

I think before the machines go they should have a cleaning and an oiling, esp the brother and the large serger.  I can do it on sat.  Does the labs have what's needed?  Either a vacuum with a tiny attachment or something that blows clean air (no I didn't say hot air) and machine oil?  If not I think that I do.

Susan

[Ratha Grimes]

Yes we have clean air cans in the main lab. I brought in half a dozen of them. I can bring a couple to the sewing lab on Sat morning - what time will you be there?

--

[Susan Kaliaphe]

Noonish. Do you know if there is light machine oil as well?

[Ratha Grimes]

I'm sure 3ric has some but I don't think there's any in the craft lab and I wouldn't know where to find it.

[3ric Johanson]

Yes. Oil cabinet. 3in1 can.

[Susan Kaliaphe]

Great. Thanks

[Bergen McMurray]

Hey Ratha, 
It just occurred to me that the pieces of my lab coat might still be in the crafts lab.If they are I can pick them up tonight, if not, no worries. Sorry that I forgot they were there for so long.

Bee