We are working on finishing the paperwork to submit our federal non profit paperwork. We needed to document our present and future activities with Make:KC. The following is the working draft submitted so far. We welcome your comments.

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Make:KC Activities.

Overview:

Make:KC is inspired by Make Magazine and many of the projects it describes. Some are easy while others are technologically challenging. Too often, people won't attempt these projects because they don't feel they have the necessary skills. Other times we find parents are intimidated by Art or the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) skills these and other projects embody when their children begin showing an interest. Our intention is to help both youth and adults in expanding their skills and knowledge. Adults are a key part of our activities, they are essential to expanding our reach, working side by side with younger participants. Our continued growth depends on adults who are willing to learn and become mentors volunteering and encouraging others. Our challenge is to bring these skill levels within reach of people possessing an average high school intellectual level. We hope to show that “shop class” or hands-on and Do-It-Yourself activities shouldn't be perceived for the lesser students anymore and should be encouraged as part of students striving to achieve higher academic goals. We are working to encourage creativity, inventiveness, and entrepreneurship into the fabric of our lives that are necessary to grow in an ever-changing world. We are working to help organize communities for people who are, as President Obama is quoted as saying, “The risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things”.

Current Activities:

We provide a low cost and often free service to our members through a variety of activities. Our KC Mini Maker Faire was a highlight of the year bringing some local and national attention. Our monthly Show & Tell sessions remain popular and the addition of more Build Activities to the schedule are keeping new members coming back. Our experience with Public Exhibits are bringing in some new members but also expose the need to provide activities at other locations throughout the greater Kansas City area.

KC Mini Maker Faire

Our KC Mini Maker Faire is inspired by Make Magazine's premier event's the Maker Faires. Our first Mini Maker Faire was held on August 22, 2010 with forty exhibitors in conjunction with the Parkville Days Riverfest in Parkville, MO. A few thousand people attended the festival that day. We see our Mini Maker Faire as a good way to attract potential members and it was a boost to our income from corporate sponsors. This was a personal and interactive event ranging from awe-inspiring projects exhibitors brought including hands-on activities and kit building. This was a free event for spectators and our exhibitors.

This event was produced in conjunction with the Cowtown Computer Congress (CCCKC) hackerspace and sponsored by The Kauffman Foundation of Entrepreneurship, The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, H.M.S. Beagle Science Store, Clayco Electric Co, and the Main Street Parkville Association.

Show & Tell

Our Show & Tell sessions are held on the first Tuesday evening of the Month. We encourage participants to bring in projects and share how they make the item(s) and show the finished item. We also encourage people to bring in failures that show how something was learned from the experience.

Other Show & Tell activities can be found at our former blogging site on wordpress.

This event is free for exhibitors and spectators. It is currently hosted by the HMS Beagle Science Store providing facilities, Internet access, and audio-visual equipment.

Build Activities

Our Maker Nights are activities where we encourage youth and adults to work on organized DIY themed projects. Activities this year included projects as seen in Make Magazine including the Styrofoam Speakers project fand electronic amplifier circuits we created, the Lunchbox Laser Light Show project and The Most Useless Machine project. Other build night activities can be found at our former blogging site on Wordpress.

Events like these were free for participants but a materials fee may apply They are currently hosted by the HMS Beagle Science Store providing facilities, Internet access, and audio-visual equipment.

Public Exhibits

Make:KC participated with an information booth about our activities in the following STEM related activities.

• Johnson County Kansas Library, May 20, 2010 - Family Science Night.

• Missouri State Fair – August 15 & 16 2010 - Show Me Robotics days.

• October Skies – Rocket Science Day – HMS Beagle Science Store

• Family Science Night - Crazy Chemistry – November 4, 2010

Community Outreach:

Growth for Make:KC will require adding activities at new locations around the Kansas City metro area in places like libraries, community centers, community workshops, fablabs and other public access locations. We plan to continue our current activities and work to achieve increasing membership through Internet Based Outreach, Learning Opportunities, and Youth Programs. We hope to provide free and low cost activities to learn while making.

Internet-Based Outreach

We are consolidating our Internet resources into the www.makekc.org web site domain. This will become our portal for news, activities, member benefits, community interaction, fund raising and more. The web site will become our primary means of promoting existing and future programs like Learning Opportunities, Community Outreach, and Youth Programs.

Learning Opportunities

Our Show & Tell provides a way of encouraging people to participate in creating objects and inventing things. Our Build Nights are succeeding by providing people both youth and adults a way of using tools, exploring concepts in making things, re-purposing everyday items into new creative things. In addition we hope to begin a series of Study Groups as a way of researching more complex technical concepts to gain an understanding and create educational materials to share with others as a means of encouraging more people to become mentors. These activities are planned to be free or an a cost that includes materials and equipment.

Youth Programs

Our standard activities are designed with a family friendly atmosphere in mind. Our younger members are encouraged to participate and interact with adults. However, we are working toward establishing other activities focusing on teenage members.

• HighSchool Makerspaces – Inspired by the Young Makers program started in San Francisco with Maker Media and Exploratorium http://www.youngmakers.org/. Combining that with the general Maker Movement and inspiration from the hackerspaces starting up across the country. HighSchool Makerspaces are designed to provide after school activities for geeks interested in tinkering, designing, and making cool projects. Make:KC's role is to coordinate mentor's, students, and a space to work on projects. Corporate sponsors are sought as our source of facilities along with individual donations for supplies.

• Students Left Behind – This idea was born after FIRST Robotics Competition programs were dropped from an area school district's after-school activities. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) provides a hands-on approach for promoting the work flow from concept and design to finished product while promoting STEM based studies. This program is designed to emphasize the role entrepreneurship plays to make the team self-supporting through business management, marketing, public relations, as well as design, engineering, production and delivery of a finished product eligible for competition. This program will rely heavily on corporate sponsorship and private donations.

Fundraising

To date, fundraising has amounted to individual donations by members, sales of Make related items, corporate sponsorships and donations,

• Fundraising Sales – Items specific to Make Magazine and Make:KC are being offered for sale at the HMS Beagle store.

• Membership Fee – We currently are not charging a membership fee but will start a membership drive and a basic fee based system after the first of the year 2011.

• Subscriptions - One method of receiving compensation is through a fundraising program planned by Make Magazine through subscription reimbursements to teams and organizations. This program is being reorganized and hopefully reinstated after the end of the year.

• Donations – We gladly accept donations to help support the group.

• Web Site Advertising – As our website grows we will look into means of generating revenue through advertising on the website and revenue through book sales from sources like Amazon.

• Corporate Sponsorships – These are an important part of our fundraising effort as our organization grows, expanding our venues for future Mini Maker Faires, and increasing community outreach activities.

Member Benefits

Our current activities are the basis of our existing member benefits. Other benefits next year are planned with new features through our web site portal providing space to include personal activities and projects as well as increased web based and in-person learning activities.