I lived in Dallas for 8 years and wouldn’t mind a trip back, but neither my wallet nor my car are hefty enough right now to get one of the many tempting items on this list.
But I couldn’t help but notice…
I feel like a dues conversation belongs in a different thread.
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We cant just quote dues without seeing the maker space. From everything they are selling they seem way bigger and better stuff then we have. They also have a family plan.
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They also have a 36,000sq space to our 22,000. Also have forges, blown glass and complete automotive shop just to name a few things we dont have. If you add half that ill pay 60$ a month
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Before the pandemic we were about 2 years behind Dallas in growth of membership and size growth. The one thing we have that they don’t is ownership of our property… They rent and just happen to be in a dying industrial area.
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Check out the pictures on Google. That place puts our little hut to shame. I’d pay $60 a month for that place. It looks incredible. Plus the real estate is probably worth a fortune.
Seems like a great place to learn from.
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Yep! We have some of the lowest dues out there, especially for 24/7 access. I feel it makes us more accessible, which is something to be proud of.
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I agree with @gemma A big part of the reason I went ahead and joined was because of the lower monthly dues. If we would have had $60 dues, I know I wouldn’t have joined no matter what kind of equipment and work shops we had.
Plus, the Dallas maker space has a lot more to draw on. Dallas County has a population of over 2.6 million compared to Sedgwick County with a population of just over 0.5 million.
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MAKEICT 4ever, grass aint always greener
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I’ve been reading through the Dallas makers space website. It’s interesting comparing them to us.
A couple things that I noticed:
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They put more emphasis on members voting on decisions.
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They have a much easier membership joining process. Any regular member can simply add another member. They become a probationary type member for 90 before becoming a full member.
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They have stuck with and emphasize “Be excellent”. It seems to be working well for them. They have a well written anti discrimination policy that doesn’t prohibit people from being protected based on their gender or sexual orientation.
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Now here is a holy cow scary one. They have public cameras on the website. They are just a still image but its current to the time that you loaded the page. You don’t have to register or anything to see. Someone could pull up the page and easily see who was in what room. Or who was alone. This gives me chills. They’re open 24/7 too.
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I enjoy the cameras. Its cool to see whats going on and how many people are there before you want to go in among other reasons. Am i for being recorded and people looking at me all the time? Of course not but its normal in this society and will only get worse.
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Oh I’m fine with being recorded myself. I just assume I’m always on camera. I think it’s creepy because for example someone’s crazy ex or stalker could easily track their location with no tracking or authorization. Or a thief could see what rooms are empty. Just seems weird to me.
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Many of the things we have done at MakeICT were modeled off of the Dallas Makerspace. Like us, be excellent to each other is one of their rules. Here is a link to their extensive set of rules: Rules and Policies - Rules and Policies - Global Site
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I remember “be excellent to each other” being stressed a lot more in the past, and going through the membership process this last month, I think I heard it once? Kinda interesting how things change over time
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It use to be in every nook and cranny
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