Comments on: Decatur Makers Find New Home, Annouce Fundraising Campaign

By: Lew Lefton

Lew Lefton — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 23:21:18 +0000

Actually, I think Nancy raises some good points. The balance of kids and adults in a space like this will always be a challenge, but we’re willing to face it head on.

Nancy, it’s hard to generalize much about “most makerspaces” since each one tends to reflect the membership and community it serves. There are “family friendly” spaces in other cities, but the active spaces in and around Atlanta are not generally considered to be places where kids are integral to the community. We think that, especially with modern digital design technologies, there are actually plenty of opportunities for kids and teens to build things side by side with adults, as long as there are clear rules and policies. And it’s been my experience that most kids can learn to use and respect power tools and hand tools as well as any adult.

Safety (not just kid-safety) has been a critical part of our thinking from the beginning. Our current thinking is that the more dangerous tools (table saws, drill presses, laser cutters, lathes etc.) would likely be restricted so that they couldn’t even be operated unless the person who “badged them on” had completed the appropriate safety training, demonstrated basic knowledge of the tool, and signed the liability release. Standard machine shop safety practices (e.g. using the buddy system when working in the shop) would also be in force I expect. Tools that can cause serious damage would be in a separate area behind some additional access control. Electronics (including soldering irons), 3D printers, crafting, and other less dangerous stuff would be more accessible.

Our board has been working on developing policies which will allow kids to be in the space as members, but not unsupervised, not everywhere, and not at all times (e.g. we expect to have “adult swim” hours). Some projects will be kid focused (see the fixing the toys thread above), some will be kid driven (e.g. the CSD robotics team are likely to use this space), and some will not have anything to do with kids (abstract art, small business prototyping, weird burning-man-inspiried awesomeness etc.).

I’m happy to discuss this further if you want to shoot me an email at decaturmakers@gmail.com

By: smalltowngal

smalltowngal — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 23:00:58 +0000

I don’t think Nancy’s comment was condescending at all. Nowadays, the phrase “family friendly” almost always indicates a situation in which there is no expectation or requirement for children to behave and respect other people, or for their parents to take any responsibility for seeing that they do. We’ve all been trained to understand that when a venue or event bills itself as “family friendly” it generally means everyone else–restaurant patrons, shoppers, festival goers, people who mistakenly thought they might enjoy an evening of live jazz outdoors at the community center–is expected to put up with whatever gets dished out by any children who happen to be present and allowed to disrupt other people’s experiences. It’s a sad but true fact of life. Hearing “family friendly” attached to a place like the Makers space, where the presence of children has many specific and potentially serious safety implications and could mean the space is actually of little or no value to anyone who’s NOT working with children, prompts reasonable questions.

By: Nancy Wilkinson

Nancy Wilkinson — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 22:34:28 +0000

Sorry, didn’t mean to come across that way. I have not visited other makerspaces but had been thinking about looking into the Decatur Makers group as a way to expand and share my skills and to learn from other people who like to “make stuff” like I do. I have had kids in my own shop when working on projects and it’s a very very different environment when you have children around power tools and other equipment. You plan different projects, you do a ton more prep work, you pay a lot more attention to safety issues and you set different expectations for what’s going to be taught and accomplished in the space while there are children there. I love working with kids, but there are plenty of times when I would not want them anywhere in my workshop when I’m in the middle of some of my projects.

By: John

John — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 19:32:21 +0000

Geez Nancy. Not sure what your intention was but talk about a condescending response to a great development for the community–adults and children alike.

By: Nancy Wilkinson

Nancy Wilkinson — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 15:14:08 +0000

I’m curious about the “Metro Atlanta’s first ‘family-friendly’ makerspace” claim. Are most makerspaces elsewhere actually not family-friendly? And what does “family-friendly” mean? Is this like “family-friendly” restaurants? Do the other groups provide space for adults to make stuff without the need to ensure that everything is kid-safe? For example, where you can assume that you can set a power saw or soldering iron down without worrying about someone else’s child picking it up? Or that the projects are too advanced for kids? Or that kids are simply not permitted in these non-Decatur spaces at all?

Does this statement indicate that the plan is for your group to do a lot of kid-oriented activities? And that kids are always welcome in the space no matter what type of activities are being worked on?

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:47:07 +0000

My current house still has some asbestos siding buried somewhere within it. The safest thing to do was evidently to contain it. It hasn’t burned yet!

By: smalltowngal

smalltowngal — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:23:13 +0000

Not the post-WW II models. Lots of asbestos siding, sheetrock, masonite, linoleum. (That’s the house I grew up in — built in 1949 on the GI Bill.)