I think until more details are sorted this will be on a case by case basis. As for this case i have no issue with it.

Alright, cool. I would like to borrow the Makerbot Thursday to Monday. Can someone inspect it before and after I take it? Jude is usually at the space: can he look it over?

I know this isn't precedence-setting, and I don't plan on making this a habit.

I do, however, speak at local schools on a regular basis about engineering and innovation, and this might be an opportunity to educate and inspire.

Yea, I would just grab another TCMaker member have them inspect it a bit, and then make sure it comes back in a condition equal to the one it left in.

Bringing it to classrooms would indeed be a great thing and I would most definitely encourage that type of outreach into the community.

Have you heard about this push?
1000 Scientists in 1000 days

I have to say, man, starting the conversation with "I want to borrow the makerbot for a day or two", and then ending with "From thursday to monday" is a pretty big difference.

That's a long time to monopolise it.

Is there some reason you can't pack a lunch and do your stuff at the space?

I am really not ok with this.

Riley

Thursday->Monday was picked because I'll be in the area those days. I have somewhere between 25 and 40 hours of prints to do, and I'd really like to get them done by next weekend.

The automated build platform isn't going to work for this as it is right now, due to the plastic type.

I'm building a newer extruder, among other things, that could drastically improve our Makerbot.

If I can't borrow the bot, I'll buy the parts I need, but I won't be spending extra money to buy/make a stepper motor extruder head for our community Makerbot then. Outside of Wednesdays, I don't see much use on the Makerbot, and either does Jude--or anyone else whose in the space that I've asked. Not saying no one uses it, but it isn't a heavy-use tool. If this is going to be a problem, as I said, I'll order the parts. However, I have to order the parts by Monday to get them by next weekend.

If anyone still has objections to me taking the Makerbot over the weekend, post here or send me a private message or something. Otherwise, I'll borrow the bot tonight, and bring it back when I'm done with my prints--or Monday, whichever comes soonest.

I'll leave a note/sign with contact information so if someone has an emergency 3d printing need, they can give me a call. I'll have someone check for damage before and after I take it, and I'm using my own plastic, so I'm not even using shop consumables.

Adam, that sounds like a very well thought out way to handle it, in this specific case.

I didn't know about the new extruder head.

This sounds like a net gain for the space, based on that, I say go for it.

I do think we as a group need to come up with a way to handle this type of thing in the future.

One thing that strikes me in particular, is that a lot of the 83 members who might want to use a specific piece of gear might not read the forums in general, or often enough to catch this.

I don't want to see us turn into a first come first serve tool lending library, that's my main objection in general.

Does that make sense at all?

Riley

Totally.

On a related noted, I think that we really need to bless a form of communication that, "if you're a tcmaker member, and don't follow, it's your own fault." It can't be postal mail. It won't be there for *legal* purposes, but simply so the group can work better. For example, I needed to know the other day if we had a gear puller. Where do I do this? I asked on Twitter, and got some good responses in something like 3 minutes, which was awesome, but I think only about a quarter of our members are active on Twitter.

If the answer is "well, try twitter, and the forums, and then maybe the mailing list. If you don't get any responses there, go on a Wednesday," how can we blame members for poor communication, you know what I mean?

I think having some 'official' communications channel is vital as TCM grows. The coordination problem is already becoming prohibitive, as this thread demonstrates.

Please be very careful when you use the word official. I believe there are legal requirements for certain communications that the tcmaker organization puts out. We need to be absolutely clear that we aren't talking about that at all.

It's odd, isn't it? In one circle, 83 members of Twin Cities Maker. In the other circle, 342 users on this forum. The intersection between the two consists of 10-15 members actually active on the forum. Knowing that only 20% of the membership will ever know about any discussion that happens on the forum is a little irritating.