Ways you can help us reopen

Hi everyone, thank you all again for so patiently waiting for the makerspace to reopen!

Our Reopening Plans seem to be pretty stable at this point so we’ve recently been compiling a monster list of todos to proceed with Phase 1 of the reopening.

We’ve had several people ask how they can be helping, so we’ve identified the subset of items that volunteers can help with and I’m sharing that below. Please note that some of these todos may have dependencies such as going to the space or getting products/info from board members.

If you’d like to help, reply here and we’ll make sure you have everything you need to help out in the safest way possible.


Cleaning and Reorganizing

We have to use very specific cleaning products (“EPA List N”), so we’ll provide those to anyone who wants to help with the deep clean.

Make hand sanitizer stations
Rearrange tables and chairs to minimum 6’ between any seat.
Move the printers to outside the space.
Remove or stow the sofa in the entry area.
Lock away or remove the dishes.
Remove the shared coffee machine.
Remove the water tank from the water cooler and make it clear it’s off-limits.
Remove PPE from the woodshop.
Move the 3D printer out to create more space.
Put everything away at the electronics area and find homes for everything.
Put everything away at the craft area and find homes for everything.
Put everything away at the front desk and find homes for everything.
Put everything away around the restrooms and recycle the cardboard.
Remove additional scrap from the laser cutting area.

Marking

Supplies are available. Please contact a board member to coordinate putting markings down.

Tape off the shared parts storage.
Tape off two workstations in the flex space and ensure glue, tape, and other material is available in both workstations.
Establish two workstations with irons, hand tools, and test equipment in the electronics area.
Establish a designated area for a second volunteer on-shift.
All machines and shared stationary tools need to have their high-touch areas marked consistently with colorful electrical tape or paint.

Barriers

Brian’s working on purchasing the barriers. Once we have them, we could use help with installation.

Install barrier at the front desk.
Install barrier between tables.

Signage

You can find sign samples in our shared drive. Please work with us to get sign-off :smirk: on the wording before spending a lot of time on the design or posting them.

@Jimmy has volunteered to help with signage. Please coordinate with Jimmy if you’d like to help with signs.

“No camping” sign on woodshop worktable. ← Brian working on this
Put up clear signage about no food in the space (and other kitchen policies).
Sign at the sink about proper handwashing procedure.
Create and post signs about sanitation etiquette at the makerspace.
Create and post signs about station occupancy limits.

MSU Surplus has some acrylic sheets that would probably be good for making barriers. They’re 4’x4’x1/2”. If anyone is able to pick an order up there if I place it that would be swell.

I can pick it up. Send me the details

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Signage added today:


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I realized I forgot to share the hand sanitizer stations we made a few weeks ago.

Thanks to @RealCarlRaymond for the assembly and @jody for the toppers

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And @RealCarlRaymond installed the front desk barrier yesteday.

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I’m available for just about anything that’s needed. Feel free to e-mail or contact me if there’s anything I can do.

Tony

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@Tony, awesome! I updated the list based on replies in this thread.

It looks like there’s plenty of cleaning and reorganizing items left. Can you coordinate with someone to meet at the space to stow some of the items we want to avoid using, like the sofa, 3D printer, coffee maker, etc?

Erik, who do I talk to?

Or alternatively, anyone who will be working there to prepare to open, please contact me .

Tony

Sure thing. @brian.adams, @RealCarlRaymond, or @cafwood: are any of you able to help @Tony into the space to take care of some of the pre-open todos?

I’d be happy to help if someone let me know what to do/what time to be there. I’m pretty free most of the time.

Thanks, @AdamCozort. Let’s see if Brian, Carl, or Charlie hop in to work out some times for you and Tony to help. If we don’t hear back today’ish, I’ll send an email their way. :slight_smile:

I can probably let Tony in the space depending on the time.

Are there specific tasks he hopes to accomplish?

Well, I am partial to the wood shop, but I’d be happy to volunteer anywhere in the space where I can be of use. So if you’ve got specific tasks, or someone is coming in to work on a particular area, I’d be happy to help. I know Erik has the list at the beginning of this thread, but some of those are just vague enough that I would prefer to get some details. For example - decluttering some areas - where does the clutter go? Are there things that need to be put away in those areas? Does this stuff get pitched, or is there a storage space or shelving to store these things? Or removing the water tank, the sofa, the dishes, etc. Do these get put into storage, or donated, or…?

Tony

Hoo, good questions! I think decluttering is intended to spread items out to minimize accidental contact with items in the various stations. I don’t believe we want to throw anything out so much as move things to an area we can mark as “off-limits”.

@brian.adams and @jody (I think), walked the space to assess the adjustments we need to make based on the latest executive orders and OSHA guidelines for reopening so I hope they can clear that up in case I’m wrong. :sweat_smile:

Tony, you’re asking some of the same questions I am wondering about. Let me see what has already been done and try to find out more about specific tasks that still need to be done.

I emailed the board members for some clarification on the clean-up tasks. Hopefully, we’ll get things cleared up soon. :slight_smile:

Sorry everyone for being out of the loop on this. I broke away from email during the holiday break and I’ve been scrambling to catch up on work all week and haven’t had time to get to my personal email.

Here’s my thoughts:

  1. I completely understand the frustration.
  2. I think maybe what we should do is plan for the group of us most able to help/coordinate meet up at the makerspace, walk through the To-Do List, and see what everything means. I’d suggest Saturday or Sunday. I’m pretty flexible both days.

We should probably keep this to a relatively limited group. So, those who’re interested in helping go ahead and reply below and we’ll try to coordinate it. Specifically include if Saturday or Sunday is better.

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I’m open almost any time both Saturday and Sunday during the day. I already have an appointment Saturday evening.

Thanks to all for helping to make this happen. I realize most or all of the board has day jobs, and that the makerspace has to be a secondary consideration.

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Either day will be okay. Sunday morning would probably be better for me.