News, new members and request for help

[Martin McGrath]

Hi everybody,

Please read this entire email, it contains the usual shenanigans, some
interesting points and for some of you action may be required on your
part.

The first order of business, new Members:

Gary Malcolmson

  "I'm a games development student and I'm interested in learning a
bit more hardware now that I'm learning software. Immediate projects
that spring to mind are making custom controllers for games, or making
electronic puzzles of some sort, though I'm pretty aware I'll be
starting making an LED turn on and off and building from there!"

Marcus Hazel-McGown

  "Self confessed soldering iron junkie, radio amateur etc"

Welcome both. I'll send separate emails shortly with some pertinent
info about events that are of interest to you, and how best to make
use of the space.

Room bookings.

Please review room bookings. If you have booked the room and no longer
intend to use it, please delete your booking. It has come to light
that people are not removing bookings which are no longer required,
meaning people are showing up for events which don't happen and other
people can't use the space when it's actually free. A separate
reminder email to everyone with a booking account will be sent later.

Electron Social.

We're planning some semi regular meetups in the space, held
approximately every other month. Some events will have a specific
theme, other will be a more general affair. An email announcing an
event in September will follow shortly.

Periodically people tell me they want to use the space for something
specific, just a reminder that any member can book the space for an
event. Telling someone else you want to do something doesn't mean
they're going to organise an event for you.

CCA 'cultural tenants' meeting.

Last Thursday evening I attended the annual (soon to be 6 monthly)
'cultural tenants' meeting with the CCA. A get together of everyone
who is resident within the CCA. This meeting was the best I've
attended so far, in so much that there was a lot of interesting
information given about changes, and there is a great deal more to the
place than most people know. In part the reason for the meeting is to
make people aware of such matters, also to establish collaborative
working between the CCA, their tenants.
Some good news, they're getting fiber internet access, so faster
internet access all round. The CCA provide internet access, as well as
heating, electricity and so on to us at no cost. We are the exception,
all other cultural tenants pay for their use of the building etc.

The CCA operate an 'Open source' approach to their organisation and
the use of their time and facilities. Please read the following:

http://www.cca-glasgow.com/about-cca/open-source-programming

Essentially anyone is free to approach the CCA proposing that they
(the CCA) run an event or work with a community or group. This year
part of their funding has change significantly in that they now need
to being to provide some metrics they previously have not been asked
for. We're working with the CCA, the other tenants and Creative
Scotland on how best to achieve this in a coherent manner and provide
the CCA with the data they need to secure funding required to remain
open and doing all the good things they do. It's in everyone's best
interests to be as helpful as possible with this.

Various people working within the CCA have a very broad brief when it
comes to their definition of 'Art' and working with communities, take
for example cooking pot:

http://www.cca-glasgow.com/programme/55c8c46a97f38a3d20000002

Work is done with the CCA to bring together external groups all over
the city, working on social projects and community groups. With this
in mind the topic turned to the groups we have using our space. The
CCA wishes to reach out to groups using the space to see if they can
work with them on certain things. I know about some of the groups
(mostly) from having to specifically ask people who they are and what
they're doing, but my knowledge is far from complete. When booking the
room for an event or group there are only 3 text boxes which need to
be filled in, a title, a description and the name of the group making
the booking. If in doubt check:

http://electronclub.org/doku.php?id=howto:calendar

Most of the bookings made don't provide enough information, common problems:

* Insufficient information for anyone browsing events to make in
informed decision as to weather it's something they can attend. Most
don't even say what is going on.
* Usage of acronyms which are not explained.
* etc

This doesn't have to be a vast description. It should contain
something written in plain English that anyone can read and understand
the purpose of the booking, and who made it.
In addition to this please add your group to the list:

http://electronclub.org/doku.php?id=groups

Provide a short description of who you are and what you do. Please
message me off list should you need help to do this. If your group
already has a page there please review the content and ensure it's up
to date.

30% of new people at the 10th anniversary event found out about the
Electron club and the event via the website. As we touched on during
the 10th anniversary get together, we're supposed to be a collective
with common beliefs and goals, encouraging people to get involved in
things. Use of the space and facilities are free. We're not asked to
do very much but moving forwards it's clear that being able to support
the CCA is in our best interests.

The last thing I found out about was the impact recycling has on the CCA.

Their waste management contract is something which costs them a lot of
money. Anything which is placed in one of the many recycling bins is
handled for free. Everything else is charged for. Significant savings
have been made to date, however despite the extensive signs and
notices a lot of waste which should be placed in a specific recycle
bin is dumped in a general waste bin. We should all be doing our best
to comply with this, and if we see anyone making a mistake pointing it
out to them.

As usual please let me know if you have any questions about any of the
above, off list is fine if you prefer.

Summary

* If you have a group create a page on the website.
* When making bookings describe the event in such a way that it can be
easily understood.
* Review existing bookings, ensure the above is taken into account.
* Delete entries when events are cancelled for whatever reason. Please
also send a message to the mailing list to this effect since some
people ignore the automated messages.

Cheers

Martin