Does anyone have thoughts on the concept of dissolving area leads into area committees?
Imo it would solve a lot of internal problems at MakeICT.
talk.dallasmakerspace proposal that changed from whatever they were doing before, which happened this year. Maybe next time @David is communicating with them, he could ask for a summary of how this is working out for them, and what was the problem that was happening before.
Mike B
Honest question, what kind of internal problems do you think it’d help with?
Volunteers. Growth. Community. Long term sustainability in general honestly. Pride in the space. I could go on. I’m not trying to be a downer. The space is great. What happens when MakeICT moves into a new building with 40 people running the entire show? I don’t know it, but i wonder if the idea that 10% do all the work (and get burned out) isn’t a little conservative. It sounds like the board (going off past presidents and past members own admission) is bogged down and something about being curled up singing Mr Rogers in the corner. I assume there are lot’s of philosophy lessons going on in board meetings.
Let committees get into the weeds on the issues internally. Board meetings should be about the direction of the organization and over arching policy. Board members should be supporting the committee chairs. Provide them the resources they need who will in turn develop their committees.
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I guess the reason I asked is because from my perspective, the areas should already be lead by committee, at least this is how the good area leads do it. Ideally they’d all have an assistant or two, involved helpers, multiple teachers, and the area lead would just be there organizing it all. I feel like the metalshop is a “crew” that’s always together working on projects.
Not all areas are so lucky though. You can refer to this page for the roster of people helping out: http://makeict.org/wiki/Contact_Information
We are missing assistants and in some ways even leads for ERP, woodshop, jewelry, and textiles. I know some of these leads have posted multiple open calls/requests that went unanswered.
From a committee standpoint I promise that we need help with fundraising, events, the gallery/showroom, and special projects.
We also keep this list up to date: http://makeict.org/volunteer/ - I especially use the crap out of that form when we’re doing events, like staffing riverfest tables, that is the easiest way to do some short term easy volunteering.
Most of the help we need isn’t easy, we’re not like habitat for humanity where you can show up and brush paint a house, we’re not going to tell new guys they can immediately join the IT committee and get admin passwords to everything, that’s what makes this tricky sometimes. But I am hearing you and others too that our existing committee leads might be working on the dark, you don’t know who’s on what committee or what’s going on with them. More posts from those leads might help.
Thoughts from area/committee leads on this?
Well… we haven’t been spectacularly good with committees to be honest. I think I am one of the few people who rounded up volunteers to help on my committee (which is at least 3 committees to be honest) and I kinda fell down on the job when I got busy this year. (Sadly, I think I have made better progress than most committees)
I do agree we need to try and do better with our volunteer workforce. When I get back from NOMCON, I will crank my committee back up and I will add you to the list of folks who want to work on it. 