I will be up there at 8:30 setting up other stuff for the Renaissance Fair but yeah, I’m doubtful it will take us more than 30minutes to setup, baring faire weather…
Also, just got the brochures from Spirit and some Masonite for the lasers.
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Rustin, I just got the 24th off of work, so please feel free to sign me up for set up for the ren fair!
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Well, making some progress on the stuff for the Renaissance faire, but now we’re a week put from the ICT Comic Con.
It sounds like we’ll at least have a lot of items for a show and tell as well as brochures. I haven’t pulled out the vinyl MakeICT sign yet, but I’ll see if I can dig that out tomorrow and make sure it’s still in good shape.
I managed to cut the poles for the tent tonight but the corners still need to be routed, and then sanded, stained and sealed.
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Haven’t found the vinyl sign yet, but does anyone know where the power supply for the other sign is?
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The vinyl sign used to be with Barb’s outreach stuff, I believe.
That’s where I looked… There was a black vinyl roll by the two pop up tents, but that black vinyl didn’t seem to have anything on it.
If you find it, please let me know.
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If memory serves that’s el wire. So does the el wire terminate to a box or a plug. I was thinking that had a sequencer. Is there a bunch of electronics hot glued on the back?
There is a box attached to the back of the sign with a pair of barrel jacks.
There was also a power supply sitting near it with line tacked on to a piece of wood for negative and positive terminals, but I did not see anything that plugged into the barrel jacks.
Seeing that EL Wire sign brings back some fond, early-days memories.
FWIW, EL-wire brightness diminishes over time, and I’d be surprised if that wire is still visible during the day. Also, let’s be honest, it’s not a very attractive sign - it never was. At the time it was made, we were hosting monthly build-nights with Instructables. They would send us free products (like the EL wire), and in return we’d build something with it and write up an Instructable that linked to the products. It was a neat partnership and made for some fun evenings.
The sign didn’t need to be attractive back then because it had a cool story about the Instructables partnership, a group of people hacking a thing together with whatever we had lying around, and then someone taking the time to write it up and share what we learned with the internet. Most of the people doing outreach stuff were the same people doing the Instructables build-nights, so it wasn’t just a cool story - it was our cool story, ya know?
I’m mostly just reminiscing, I guess, but I do have a point. That sign carries some charm for me, and although it’s ugly, it came with good talking points about our community and activities. Symbolic, I guess - like our little organization, the sign was certainly lacking polish, but it was functional and assembled by passionate people having fun together. That sign embodied the “we’re not here to impress anybody - we just want to make cool stuff and share things” energy of our young org. It moved with us from Bluebird to East Douglas, where it hung in the front window for some time and then in the lounge.
I doubt any of that charm comes through to passersby at outreach events today though. Personally, I think it’s time for a new sign. That old EL-wire sign should be retired somewhere with other memories, like the Cow Car.
Maybe some members want to make a new one? Maybe we just want to buy a banner or something? That old sign was a fairly honest representation of who we were at the time - a new sign should represent the us that exists now.
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Been a lot going on.
Got confirmation that there will be a setup on Friday from 10am to 8:30pm for the ICT Comic Con.
Anna DiSalvo cranked out a sign for the event and is using some of the donated Masonite to make another sign for the renn fair (though I think this one would still work great for that event as well).
For the renn fair, I’m still working on the poles for the tent as well as the sides (still need to cut the walls to height and start sewing them), but I finally got a photo of what the tent looked like before it’s parts were scavenged for a bigger flashier tent…
I could still use some help this week with prepping little give away kits for the ICT comic con, but there are a lot of meetings I am going to be tied up with this week… I could definitely use that amazing electronic expert’s help on getting those going (@james.a.seymour ).
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I can help with the sewing. Just let me know what you decided.
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The tarp for the sides is sitting in the hot shop…
Unfortunately I found out that the tent had been designed for taller 2x2s than what I had cut… I don’t think my wood stretcher if going to stretch those 6ft posts to 7ft… At this point, I think it may be better to cut a new set of 2x2s to whatever wall height we can get out of the 10x35ft tarp.
We can still cut the white tarp into 7ft x 10ft, but I’m not sure how much the 7ft shrinks to be able to sleeve the top (for either rope or pvc) and double up the bottom edge.
Thanks for letting me know when to be there. I should be able to help setup at the Comic Con from 10:00AM until 5:00PM.
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@KatieOfConrad @deanday @bradcozine @ladeana
Would you guys be alright with meeting up at MakeICT Thursday night at 8pm (usual classroom committee time and place) so we can make sure we have a plan together for the weekend?
Also, if anyone else is planning on having a booth at the ICT Comic Con, please let us know so that we can come around and help each other out as need be (sounds like Steve Thornton and Doug Wilson will have a separate booth up there selling their goods).
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Yes that should work for me.
Absolutely.
Talked to Dean,
He might not make it tonight, but suggested that we stay around after we’re setup tomorrow to help other vendors bring in their equipment.
It’d be a fun chance to talk to vendors, and also be a way for MakeICT to show our support for the community.
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I will be in the building doing neighborhood meeting… so whenever we can catch a break
Big thank you to everyone that helped this weekend!
@bradcozine @KatieOfConrad @deanday @ladeana @SarahDenton @Ethan.Doak @AnnaD @doug.wilson @Thornton
One event down, and three to go! I know there will be different people at the next events, but it is definitely inspiring how many of you have already stepped up to these challenges. Thank you all!
Not sure how many people will be at Maker Monday tomorrow as a result of our presence at the ICT Comic Con, but there are already 18 people signed up. 
Definitely seemed like we had enough people at the event and it was nice that we were able to schedule brakes in for people to check out everything else going on.
It also seemed pretty handy to have a set of brochures at Doug and Steve’s booth. I’d kinda like to hand vendors a little plaque for their booths that say ‘Made at MakeICT’
What do you guys think we could have done differently or something we can do to help make the Renaissance faire (in 2 weeks) just as awesome?
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I think one thing that would help in the future would be to have a sign that says what MakeICT is, and that has a list of all the different areas, also how much it costs per month.
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