Keep up with what's happening at Wichita's Makerspace!
MakeICT News - November 2019
This month's newsletter is pretty beefy -- but then again, there's a lot happening at MakeICT right now! Of course there's a lot of interest in where we're at in the process of moving into our new building at 5920 E. Mt. Vernon.
A few weeks ago, we hosted a small Open House for the neighbors. We had about a dozen people drop in, and the verdict was that the neighbors are generally very enthusiastic that we're coming! Several of the visitors made commitments to become members, several asked about attending classes and having meetings in the new space, and one offered to email our City Council members with an endorsement and request for them to vote YES on our zoning request.
Board Secretary Rustin Atkiesson and I were recently invited to visit with Spirit Aerosystems. They were glad to hear that we were moving much closer to their facilities. We discussed ways in which Spirit might be able to give MakeICT some assistance, and they had several great suggestions about resources that we might be able to make use of. We'll be inviting several Spirit representatives to our big Open House & Housewarming Party once we get moved into the new building.
Wichita City Council Representative James Clendenin visited our new building recently, and I was pleased to hear that our zoning application has the support of the City Council. Mr. Clendenin is an enthusiastic supporter and cheerleader for MakeICT, and he loved touring our new building and seeing where we planned to put each area.
I was invited to speak about MakeICT at the East Mt. Vernon Neighborhood Association meeting this week. They were gracious enough to let me tell about our organization, mission, and plans for the new building, and they had a number of great questions. In the end, everyone I spoke to was very enthusiastic about having MakeICT as their new neighbor. The fact that we started mowing, edging, and cleaning of the new facility immediately upon possession was a big factor in their enthusiasm. The property had been somewhat haphazardly maintained immediately prior to our purchase, and the hard work of our members made a huge difference in gaining a warm welcome.
Our Building Modification Work Group has been meeting each Wednesday evening at the new location. They have been mapping out the space, tracing wiring and plumbing, and trying to compile all of the details needed to facilitate not only the modifications we'll be making, but also providing information needed in the process of applying for a Certificate of Occupancy and moving forward with our zoning change application to a Planned Use Development that meets our needs as a makerspace. As you might imagine, our move is quite an undertaking for our organization. We will be required to meet many rules and regulations in regards to the Building Code, the Americans with Disabilities Act compliance, and changes that the zoning board will require in order to approve our application. Many of our members have stepped up and given of their time and talents...THANK YOU!
We've still got a few hearings before we're ready to pull the trigger on the move. The Wichita City Council should have our zoning request on their agenda for their upcoming meeting, and we will be on the District III Advisory Board agenda on December 4th. We believe that we have worked out all of the major issues, and it appears that we'll have an approval recommendation from the MAPC for those meetings.
At the risk of too much info in one newsletter, I have one final item. Most of you are aware that we've been collecting merchandise donations for a huge garage/rummage/yard sale at our new building in early December. We're desperately in need of members to volunteer to be a part of that project. We need folks for collecting, displaying, and pricing all of the merchandise, and we'll also need people to actually run the sale. It will run Thursday through Saturday, December 5-7, with a sneak peek for members on Wednesday evening the 4th. They'll have an opportunity to be the first to shop the array of items we have for sale.
Thanks for your attention, and for all of your hard work!
David Springs
President, MakeICT
We currently have 2 short surveys to help the Fundraising Committee collect information for the short term to aid in submitting for grants and reaching donors.
The first is an Anonymous member demographic survey 5 to help update the information from about 2 years ago.
The second, Membership Demographic Survey 4, will also help with direct fundraising and to communicate with you the way you like to digest information.
For the long term, we are hoping to use the Nation of Makers Survey and I will be sharing that information in a post on our forum. - Malissa Long
Area Leads, Committee Leads, & Volunteers
With more than 400 maker members, it takes a lot to make the makerspace a place where makers can make! It is time to appoint our Area Leads and Committee Chairpersons for the upcoming year. And if you are willing to pitch in and help in other ways, please do! Here's how:
If you are willing to serve as an Area Lead or Assistant, click here.
If you are willing to serve as a Committee Chairperson or Assistant, click here.
To volunteer to help in our move to the new building, click here.
It’s time again to take the national Nation of Makers Survey of makerspaces. Last year we were the BEST in the NATION and members who filled out the survey got a really awesome commemorative coin.
This year coins will be available again for folks who complete the survey!
As well, if we get just 80 of our 400 members to complete this survey we will be provided with a custom report just for Make ICT which will be INVALUABLE to our Fundraising Committee as we apply for grants.
Take the Survey:
We are listed as: 67214 MakeICT in the list of Makerspaces
Welcome to the 2019 Survey of Makerspace hosted by Nation of Makers (NoM)! Be a participant and Make The Data! Member SurveyTaken by individuals that are members of a space. Take the Member Survey!…
Check the Leaderboard to see how we’re doing:
Here you will find which makerspaces have responded to the Nation of Makers Surveys in 2019. There are three surveys – the Membership, Leadership & Economies surveys. IF we get…20% …
Surveys are accepted through December 30th.
Here are a few recent maker projects from our members:
Anna Lenhart Murray
We have an opportunity to host Bingo Nights each month to raise money for the space. However, we need volunteers. It is a big commitment, and we don’t want to over extend.
Who would be willing to work a Bingo night one night a month. Each night is five hours on a Wednesday night. If we get enough interest by Wednesday, we will go forward with this, if we don’t, we will need to decline. If you have any questions, please let me know and I’ll do my best to answer them. We met with the folks from the Bingo parlor, and have a lot of information.
If you would be willing to help out regularly (once a month, once every other month -- whatever), you can send an email to kthutch@gmail.com or drop in on the discussion on our forum. There's a survey in the forum that you can respond to by clicking here.
-Kate Goad
Fundraising Chairperson
MakeICT can be a great starting point for small businesses. Makers come here to create and invent amazing things, just like maker John Harrison. John is one of the founders of MakeICT, and it helped him create his successful business Friendship Lamps with his wife Vanessa.
Cutting acrylic on laser cutters or creating jigs for assembly all started at MakeICT, but now they’ve grown and have their own place! Since growing out of our little maker space, they’ve sold over 200,000 lamps all across the globe. John and Vanessa wanted Friendship Lamps to add beauty to the world not just as a product but in how they are created. With this in mind they partnered with both the Women’s Initiative Network (WIN) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
You can check them out at friendshiplamps.com
