Kickstarter
--As discussed in tonight's meeting (2011-05-31) we are going to move forward on putting together a kickstarter fundraiser for ssd. It will need to have well written copy, an interesting and do-able reward structure, and a creative video.
Contents
Overall theme:
We are a fledgling hackerspace from boulder colorado. We have done a good job finding each other and building up to this point, but we need help so that we can lead more classes, do more outreach, and contribute more to our community.
Copy
Solid State Depot. 6 months ago we transformed from a coffee shop hacking group into the fledgling hackerspace you see here. If you're not in the know, then a hackerspace is a place where grown men and women go to make sparks, sawdust, talk geek with other geeks, and just generally play with technology. It's a clubhouse where it's ok to fail as long as you learn doing it, and a school where you can bounce ideas off of people who have degrees in the things you only just got interested in.
Solid state depot is a fun place, but we're definitely still growing and figuring things out. Sometimes we have to pass the hat to pay for rent. We didn't have any tools until a month ago, and now that we have tools, we don't have any tables to put the tools on! In short: there are tons of little and big things we still need. Want to know some of them? Shelving to store our projects on, more safety equipment so we can ...um... be safe, a nice solid door so we don't have to worry about the big bad wolf anymore, and some 2x4s and plywood so we can build some nice big tables to teach soldering classes on.
The only thing we don't need is ideas. We've got plans for steampunk gauntlets, robotic arms, drinkbots, and hydroponic grow systems. We have members who are interested in building soft circuits, refurbishing cars, and heavy duty metalwork.
So where do you come in? Well, we are looking for your help to step up to the next level. With a little help from you we can more easily design and implement our ideas. We can more easily run workshops, and we can develop into a bigger community of makers.
We're not shooting for the moon here, we have our sights on a fairly humble funding level. Most people's cars are worth more than what we are asking for. And we aren't trying to get something for nothing. On our kickstarter page you can see what we want to give back to those generous souls who support us. We've put a lot of thought into it. Starting from some ssd stickers and going all the way up to laser cut robotic arms, or your name spray painted in three foot letters on our wall! We have a lot of ways to say thank you. Since we are also a 401c registered non-profit, your donation can be tax deductible. Even if you aren't in a position to donate, help us spread the word! If the only thing we end up with after this is more people wanting to join our community then it will still be a success. Regardless of your involvement level, thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you for supporting our little maker community. If you have any questions, please email us! We would love to hear from you.
Reward structure
A large number of our rewards are based on the Lasersaur build so we need to figure out a way to create these another way if that project ends up not coming together in time.
- Small things like
- Medium things
- Wooden etched business cards,
- Solder spool holders,
- laser cut calipers [3]
- servo controlled light switch covers
- t-shirt
- free classes
- free membership
- Top levels
If someone is willing to offer enough, then we are possibly going to consider custom cutting projects.
Lastly, we will sell our wall space. We will laser cut a stencil of your name or business (up to a max# of characters) and spray paint it on our wall. The price will be based on height. For instance, ten dollars gives you letters an inch tall. All winning pledges will be painted on our wall biggest to smallest, top to bottom and (based on price) will receive a
- digital photo of the group in front of the wall (with closeup of their name and a thumbs up),
- a printed version,
- or a printed and signed version.
Video
I (_Ross) can film and edit whatever we come up with. Our video should play off the theme chosen for the copy, and show why we are interesting and deserve a donation. If possible, showing some of the nicer rewards could be a good thing.
Length: under 2 minutes.
- Old content below -
We are planning to create a Kickstarter video to present our goals as a hackerspace/makerspace and ask for community support in developing our enterprise. The deadline is fast-approaching, as we would like to have our entry up before the Dec. 8th Boulder Ignite 13 presentations. We are still brainstorming ideas and will be meeting weekly to get new video recorded as well as work with member submitted video segments. Please place any video submissions or concepts on this page and try to get the hardcopy into Dan Davis-Boxleitner's hands.
