When it comes to Makerspace, there are some things that I’m good at doing: advertising and promotion, coming up with ideas, experimenting with materials, and making stuff (especially with paper). I was reminded this past week of the fact that Rebels Makerspace simply could not run with just one person behind the wheel. It needs a team, and I am blessed to be working with a great one.

My humble reminder came…

up during our meeting this week to prep for our upcoming crocheting event. When it comes to our events, I usually try to become an expert before going in: I do my research, learn the necessary techniques, and build some prototypes ahead of time. But, the problem this time is: I can’t crochet. My fingers get stiff, I can’t get the right tension in the yarn, and the stitches consistently get loose. I suck at crocheting (right now), and I don’t have the hours to become one right now. Thank goodness we have a crochet expert in Lisa. She’s definitely an expert – having crocheted since she was a teen and continually crocheting products (occasionally for sale too) outside her teaching hours. Not only did she agree to lead our next event, Lisa also tried to “train” us (although I didn’t think it was all that successful) at our meeting.

Besides not being able to do needlework, I also lack in organizational skills. I tend to operate in “organized chaos” (ex. I hoard a great deal of equipment, materials, and projects in my classroom, which ends up looking like a fire hazard and may be completely illogical), which works great in my classroom, but not so great in more public settings like a library. I also have limited time to make flyers for our events, get volunteers to help run our events, and take pictures documenting our events.  That’s where Kathleen and Caroline come in, both of whom regularly help shore up these and other areas I don’t attend to. Our makerspace would be one hot mess without their help (but, then again, with the lack of photos and documentation, hopefully, no one would notice).

The whole idea…

of working as a team – as a community – is what a makerspace is all about. Students work in teams in a makerspace to further their own projects because each team member generally brings something new to the team. So too is this reflected in the organization and running of one. A makerspace cannot be a one person show – if it is, something will always be lacking (either regular programming or awareness/promotion or access to resources/tools or training). So, if you’re planning to start a makerspace, reach out to your staff and students to see who could help. It sounds like pretty obvious and logical advice, but, then again, people are not always logical.