I apologize for being late with this.
Two questions,
We invited Food Trucks, as of Tuesday this week, the one that committed, and backed out. Malissa is working on it.
There was some limited discussion about alternatives. Such as a group bringing in pre-prepared sandwiches (Dillon’s Premaide or QT or other) for Resale.
The Woodturners or another space, may or may not be interested in working the food, if nothing else.
Some members are setting up an Amateur Radio Station in the Electronics area Saturday. Joe Pajor just called me, he has talked with Terrance. That will be a great draw for kids from 4 to 104. I worked out parking my car to reserve a space for him. That way he can use an antenna on his car. I am planning on 7:00 am arrival.
Limit of 250
We put a call out for volunteers to check people in and get waivers signed at the welcome desk. Steve deserves all the help he can get. Rustin, on behalf of the Board, put a call out for 6-8 tomorrow night for a quick cleaning party. I think you should put out a call for volunteers to help with sign ins and tours. So far we have had feedback for Anna, Jessica and LaDeana.
My reading of the paragraph you reference makes a specific reference to outdoor events with a list of included but not limited to types.
This is indoor and I do not believe it applies. Have we been specifically told it applies to an indoor event? or are we just reading the 250 number. If we have been told; who in the city is giving these instructions?
Our Certificate of Occupancy gives us permission to have up to 425 people, inside IIRC! The community event ordinance is a way for the city to have advance notice of outside stuff that is not covered by the CO, and to allow the FD and PD to weigh in with their perspective and for the city to price the cost of the permit based on any extra costs those departments may incur. Think Fireworks and the Fire Dept. Think alcohol and late nights and the PD.
We don’t have any food trucks scheduled. I asked the city about indoor events and indoor events do not need a permit no matter what the size.
Per my discussion with the City
“I realize it’s odd, but no event permit would be needed if a similar event were to be held indoors. One of the reasoning for the regulations associated with outdoor events is to stop pop-up markets from encroaching on brick and mortar businesses. I’ve been advocating to make the rules a little less broad, but don’t see that changing anytime soon.”
Cool. Thanks for the update.
I was thinking less food truck and more popcorn machine and sodas getting handed out.
I’ll be there for tours and to help.
Not Odd, see above on our Certificate of Occupancy.
City employees words not mine.
For those of you who are interested in the attendance numbers for todays events.
We had about 150 people for the entire event.
About 75 of those attended between 10 - 11:30
There was about 10 per half hour from then on.
My congratulations to all the organizers. This seemed to be a huge success. Lots of new people were introduced to the space. Many told me they were surprised they had never heard of us before. I’d like to know how many signed up for membership today.
I’d love to see this repeated in October and on a larger scale.
Thank you to all who participated.
We did not actually sign anyone up today, as I was at the welcome desk by myself, and really didn’t have time to do so. However, I did take to a number of folks who were asking what they needed to do to sign up, and indicated that they were going to do so.
Looking at Wild Apricot, there is one person who registered today, though I can’t guarantee that they actually attended the Open House. But hopefully we will see a number of registrations soon.
We will actually be having an outdoor event in June with hopes of having 30 vendors and food trucks and if it goes well a repeat in October. Maybe something between Thanksgiving and Christmas as well for Holiday shopping.
Thanks to everyone who supported the event today in anyway you supported it
Malissa, I would like to thank everyone as well.
Those that gave tours and got waivers signed. Those that worked on the Advertising. That includes all those that shared the Facebook posts from the MakeICT Facebook Page. Those that cleaned up on Friday night. The Board and members for the questions, comments and encouragement.
It was great to see people coming though. Meeting new people, both MakeICT members and guests. Seeing old friends. Making new ones.
I would like to encourage more Members to help out during the next event. We need some additional Makers to join the show. We need to expand those volunteering to clean. Steve did a great job with the waivers and showing people around. He needs more help next time. People have asked how many signed up for Maker Monday. We need to have more help doing those type of things on the day of the event.
Help us make our Maker Home better and continue to increase our membership.
John Nicholas
What if we hosted a Misc. Booth next time for makers that only have a few items to sell. The booth could require a 30-50% commission or the item could be donated and the maker wouldn’t have to man the booth. I would put several items in the booth as a donation to the space. I don’t have enough to justify a booth by myself though. Just brainstorming…
That was the idea with the SKW Table. Some members wanted to display items, when they give away most of what they turn. Others wanted the opportunity to display work as Not For Sale, but not at their table. I did a couple of those.
The Events committee can keep that in mind. That would be a way to get members involved. Brian, you can expect an invitation to join the Events committee as we plan future events.
@BrianP welcome to the Forum and thanks for sharing!
MakeICT has a Consignment Policy that covers the terms of MakeICT brokering something that someone else owns that sets forth a fee schedule and other terms.
Although the policy may need to be updated to reflect the physical arrangement of the Booth location, all the provisions are currently in effect. In the current location, there is a display cabinet in the West hall for such items that differs from the policy description. This cabinet is on wheels and, depending on its contents (currently none) and nature of the event, could be proposed to be temporarily relocated to feature more prominently in events similar to the Open House.
I also notice that the current policy text, as written, doesn’t make clear which MakeICT role is to be contacted and on what basis MakeICT will decide what for items it is and isn’t willing to enter into a Consignment Agreement… although, from searching, it seems that would be Inventory and Procurement Committee. @Inventory
All that being said, my feeling is that whatever terms the host of an event agrees to in collaboration with @MakeICT with regards to a vendor booth would likely be applied consistently to all booths at an event. In my experience with events at MakeICT and otherwise, there typically isn’t a prohibition on multiple parties choosing to share a booth. Although, in some circumstances where space is limited, I can imagine a restriction on the amount of seating or number of people manning a booth concurrently.
Donations are always appreciated and donations for items on the Equipment Donations list earn extra 
! Contact @Inventory! Of course, if you choose to sell at a booth, 
cash donations always help move us toward our goals!
EDIT: @BrianP, I forgot to mention that I am happy to share a booth!
Brad,
The consignment policy is left from the E Douglas building. The display cabinets had member items consigned for periods of time. MakeICT had some responsibility for security. The cases were not locked and the honor system was used by putting payment in an envelope. We rejected that approach for the Open House. Vendors were bringing their property in and responsible for security and payments.
I think Brian has a good idea and will add you to the invitation to Events Committee to help Brian work out the details and how that might be handled as a table, including goals, sales, payments and sales tax collections.
The idea of consignment was great for the Final Friday traffic and other events in the E Douglas area. Re activating that concept for Mt Vernon would be a separate effort.
John
What If we had free booths for people who don’t want to sell but just want to show off what they make. We can keep them separated if you want. But that’s how makerfair used to work.
I’ve made a reminder note that a policy update suggestion should be raised with @Inventory at their Apr 14, 2021 meeting.
I think the decision to not have a consignment booth made sense and set consistent agreements across all booths at the event. That being said, at our current location we do have a couple of unmanned honor system “For Sale” consignment cabinets in the hallway. These are subject to the current Access Policy for members and accessable by the general public during “open house” style situations such as this Open House event, the upcoming Make May event, and Maker Mondays. So, although the cabinets are currently empty, consignment was available… though sensibly not presented as a booth.
@BrianP gave excellent input, again, thank you! However, I don’t know that any new arrangements would be necessary with the @MakeICT committee. An event host may come to whatever arrangement they choose for thier event in coordination with the committee as to what parties may be vendors and whether or not they allow table sharing.
In the case a consignment table is desired or welcomed by the event host, it seems the consignment table would be manned by someone arranged by the @Inventory committee as they are the agreed custodian of consigned items and have the right to move some or all of the desired items at their discretion under the Consignment Policy. This also appears to leave open a decision to relocate the rolling consignments to whatever area is not specifically reserved by an event host.
Your suggestion to “work out the details and how that might be handled as a table, including goals, sales, payments and sales tax collections” seems to be handled by the above arrangements and agreements.
Agreed, I think consignment is a great avenue for our makers to get their work out there and to benefit MakeICT at the same time! Consignment is currently an option for members and non-members, although it certainly could benefit from some promotion and the policy either need to be updated to reflect the physical arrangement of the new space or made more generic to be resilient to changes of physical presentation.
Certainly an event host can coordinate whatever parameters they like in agreement with the @MakeICT committee. However, I would imagine there would be a tendency to choose a consistent booth arrangement across all booths during a given event. Apart from that, we do have the wonderful displays at the welcome center and outside each of the areas. Additionally, I would think that any area under MakeICT control that hasn’t been specifically reserved or constrained by an event agreement can be used in any way consistent with standing policy.
By way of example, during this event several individuals had set up lathes in the woodshop to demonstrate their work druing the event. I don’t know for certain, but I don’t believe the woodshop with “reserved” under the umbrella of the event agreement as there was a Woodshop Authorization class scheduled at the same time as well as members working on projects.
There is a lot of words there. But you bn pose an interesting idea.
The next open house all the nerd stuff should come out of the woodwork and be on display.
Like I want me lab filled to the brim with home made DACs and robots! I’ve some leather peices that Malissa can display. We make an effort to not just display the area, but the community BEHIND the area as well.
Brilliant! Good job!
We have a bunch of lovely display stands made for the old gallery that could be set up in the hallway leading down to the vendors to display items that are not for sale. That would look nice and give a bunch of space for makers to show off.