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Maker Stars

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Maker Stars Chart

Ipswich Makerspace have had an amazing year, with an exciting future ahead.  All of our success is down to the effort put in by our members.  Obviously some put more effort in than others, but no matter how much effort is applied, we appreciate it and want to reward and acknowledge it.  Last year we came up with the Maker Stars Chart.

Maker Stars Chart

This was a simple chart, with a list of potential actions with a list of members names, the idea being if you did a good deed you applied a star on the chart adjacent to your name.  After a year of it being on the wall, we got quite a lot of engagement with lots of starts applied.

So when it came to our Christmas Party this year we could not let it pass without acknowledging our most engaged members.  So this Christmas the acknowledgements went to (in absolutely no particular order) :

  • Steve Chalkley
  • Adam Reid
  • Pete Onion
  • Mal Hurbert
  • Jon Leach

There were more people to be acknowledged and you can see the chart above, but we decided to keep it to those who were in attendance at the Christmas Party.  That does not mean we do not appreciate the efforts of all those people who were not at the party or chose not to take part in the Maker Stars chart.

So to everyone who has impacted the Makerspace in the past year, Thank you VERY much.

There is a new chart up in the space now for the coming year.  Names are not pre-populated, so please do add you name and start collecting those stars.  We don’t promise anything, but who knows how we may choose to acknowledge people this year.  One thing we do know though, if your name’s not on the list your not going to be selected.

So don’t be shy, if you’ve done something to benefit the Makerspace, give yourself a star.

Here’s to a wonderful 2019, it’s going to be exciting and we want you to be part of it.

 

Jobs List for Our New Home

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A big list of things to talk about and prioritise but I propose a working party next saturday (11th) to make a start. If you want to get involved but can’t make this Saturday have a chat with one of the committee members to let them know. Chances are we’ll be doing stuff on Thursday evenings too as long as it’s not intrusive. Also mention anything you think we’ve forgotten.

Security

Furniture

  • Main table and chairs – we need to decide what we want the place to look like, but having a big cluster of tables has worked well in the past. I’d quite like to make tables similar to the ones we used in the church hall as buying them is damned expensive. 18mm ply works well or something like scaffold planks are quite ethnic too. Having tables we can move/stack would be extremely useful for hiring out the space purposes. Chairs are available cheaply from the Foxhall recycling centre and I may have a bunch of stacking chairs we could use.
  • Electronics workbenches – up to four stations with a good set of basic tools like a psu, soldering iron, monitor etc setup along the wall between the heaters so people can just rock up and get to work. Not exactly a quiet area, but definitely a work area.
  • Tim make sticky labels for our property
  • Tim make sticky labels for other people’s property saying (On loan)
  • Lighting (I know it’s not furniture), it’s a bit poor at the moment. We can double up on the lights we already have (somehow). If we go down the cluster of tables route we can put in a row of decent lights over it. We should also replace the current bulbs with LEDs for energy efficiency.

Tools and Equipment

  • Sort through and organize all our stuff
  • Laser cutter
  • Small tools
  • Dangerous Prototypes power things
  • Consumables

Facilities

  • Fridge (Jon has one to donate)
  • Microwave
  • Toaster
  • Kettle
  • Recycling bins

Miscellaneous

  • A letter box
  • Coat of paint
  • Fix dripping tap
  • Tidy/repair/clean the loo (filler etc)
  • Lay an easier to clean floor in the loo, vinyl or similar
  • Fix the heat loss
  • Tidy/repair the kitchen
  • Sockets in the kitchen
  • Fix sliding doors to storeroom
  • Staircase non-slip paint
  • Install dexion shelving in storeroom
  • Solve condensation problem in the storeroom
  • A membership system
  • Unwire the tables and replace with floor boxes
  • Replace TalkTalk router with DrayTek router from church bungalow
  • Some form of wired networking to the tables and workbenches
  • Shelving system for member storage boxes
  • Purchase cleaning supplies and set up cleaning rota
  • Create leaving checklist to ensure space is secure and nothing is left on.
  • Install makerspace sign

Third Ipswich Raspberry Jam

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The Makerspace are organising the third Ipswich Raspberry Jam, tickets are now on sale (for free).

Ipswich Raspberry Jam

If you have heard about the Raspberry Pi and want to learn more, already have one but don’t know how to get started then go and register for tickets. We shall be having show and tells, demonstrations, talks and a couple of work shops where you can get hands on with a Raspberry Pi.

If you are keen to show off your project, give a talk on how the Raspberry Pi has influenced or affected you, help out in the workshops or generally to help the event run well, please get in touch. membership@ipswichmakerspace.com

For more information visit the Ipswich Raspberry Jam website.

Looking for a venue

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Unfortunately our latest venue, 83 Grimwade Street, did not work out for us. This is a real shame, since we were starting to open up more frequently and getting a real Makerspace atmosphere with actual making taking place.

We could take this is a step back, but I feel we must take this as a positive, it is an opportunity, an opportunity to find a more suitable venue, with better access and walls and floors we can bolt kit to.

For the short term we will revert to meeting on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month. The next meeting is this coming Thursday, and we are reverting back to the Trinity Church Hall. See the events page for more details and we look forward to seeing you there.

We need to reach out to all property owners/agents, businesses etc. Please ask around and if you come up with any potential leads for a new venue please do get in touch.

Help shape the Makerspace

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The Makerspace is growing, it has been a slow process, but it’s come a long way from the three or four people sitting and chatting in the Brewery Tap.  We now have our own venue and with it an opportunity to create something great, something we can be proud of, something Ipswich can be proud of.  What do we create though?

Well, that’s not down to me, Ipswich Makerspace is a not for proffit organisation to serve you, the community.  Like all things, you get out what you put in.

So what can you do to help?

  
Any number of things:

  1. Come and meet us on Thursday 14th April, we will be having informal discussions on how we want to develop the space.
  2. Join us for our working party on Saturday 16th April at Grimwade Street. We have a few essential jobs that need doing. See our wiki for details. Working party jobs
  3. Got some spare kit sitting around that we could find useful, why not donate it. For a list of specific kit we are after see our wiki Required kit list
  4. Join us at a meeting, we would love to meet you, see what you are up to and maybe help you achieve your next project.
  5. We’d also love to hear what you want from the Makerspace, so have a think and let us know.

New Venue

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The last meeting was held at a trial venue, 83 Grimwade Street. It tuned out it is actually rather nice and has lots of potential, including the ability to have permanent storage and eventually equipment.

So all future meetings will be held here.

The internet is being installed Friday apparently, so as long as it all goes well we should also have online access. If anyone has a spare large flat screen TV they no longer want, it would be most welcome so we can get the retro games room on its way.

Look forward to seeing you all there next week on 25th February.

Beta Forums

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Ipswich Makerspace now have Forums, anyone can register and post so please make use of them. They are in beta at the moment so if you have any comments please let us know.

To try them out visit forums

New Website

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Welcome to our new website!Under-Construction

For a while we have had a number of different sites on the web including but not limited to 3 static sites, Facebook, Twitter, Google groups and WordPress. This website is an attempt to bring these all together into a single point of presence for the makerspace.

This is likely to be under construction for a while and any comments or suggestions would be more than welcome.