videoman wrote:
I'd recommend posting all events to a calendar somewhere... as the information on goings on is not consistent, nor is there a consistent place to view the announced events. It needs to be in once place, and ideally allow for folks to subscribe to a calendar. CCCKC has a google calendar sidebar that list all of the dates for events right on the front page (
http://blog.cowtowncomputercongress.org/). This allows anyone to easily see what is going on in the space.
We have an events calendar link on our main website page.
videoman wrote:
I would also highly recommend adding a vision statement to the main tcmaker.org site, and regular official meeting dates, etc, rather then having them somewhere scattered in the forums.
Our vision statement is implicitly on our main page, though we haven't tagged it there as our "vision." Our vision is to create a cooperative community “maker shop” to build projects using various media and technologies, from wood and metal working to electronics to fabrics and beyond.
videoman wrote:
Also I would recommend having scheduled content, pick someone to present on some topic, or run a small workshop each month, announce to the world that this is happening, these are very important keys to drawing a larger crowd. Maybe get William Gurstelle (Minnesota native) in to speak or give a demo, or invite other famous makers to the shop (Mitch Altman, etc) to run a demo or something to get people engaged, and most importantly interested in the maker scene.
Excellent suggestions, videoman. We have discussed such things, but it will be much easier for us when we have an established base location. If we are able to surmount the lease challenge we're now facing, we'll be in a good position to do these things soon.
videoman wrote:
Sorry to rant, but I do want to see this succeed and these are some lessons that I've learned help to draw a larger crowd (I've been running DC612
http://dc612.org) for almost 3+ years now. Anytime we have content that is somewhat structured, more people come to play.
No problem! We welcome your participation and help.
