Humble Beginnings

To be filed under, "If we build it, they will come."

The HackNCraftNJ co-founders (Frank, Chuck, Peter, and Jon) have secured a temporary Makerspace in the United Way building on 60 South Fullerton Avenue in Montclair, NJ.  The United Way organization has graciously provided the basement space to us at a reduced rate as they work to enhance the physical plant of the building.  We're here now, and we have until June of this year to create our initial version of the Montclair Makerspace and determine if we have enough interest, members, and investors for the next, larger and more expansive version.

We welcome you to review our Makerspace 1.0 summary to understand how we plan on executing this "proof of concept".  For now, we've moved in our initial set of tools and projects and we're gearing up for a limited membership release in early March 2015.  We will offer our first memberships to a small group on a selective basis for a nominal fee.  We are looking for members to help build our infrastructure and support our mission, so your ability to assist us in addition to just joining is key..  To that goal, we encourage any interested party to complete the Volunteer Form and let us know where your strengths and interests lie.

Here's a small gallery of what the lab currently looks like:

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As the Dude would say, "that rug really pulls the room together."

We have:

• A couple of 3D Printers
• Multiple RaspberryPi set ups and all the supporting tech for them.
• Arduinos
• A CNC router
• Various tools and workbench on the way.

We're working on:

• A storage rack (Chip Lemar is working on this)
• Support for wearable tech - a sewing machine, etc.
• Soldering stations and more circuit stuff

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At our "Barn Raising" a week ago, Steve Long took a few shots of us all and some of the things we showed off.  Here they are:

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So, no doubt you've already had a look at the Makerspace 1.0 page, but let us build that down to our key success factors.

• Create and support "communities".  In a Makerspace and technology/creative community we all have different interests, passions, and talents.  Where a group of people share the same interest, those people can work together to build and share their knowledge.  We call those groups "communities".  The co-founders and those who have joined us at meet ups at Just Jake's in the past year or so have a good start on a few of these (e.g. 3D printing and design, RaspberryPi and Arduino, coding, fixing and repair, new technologies, HAM radio).  However, this is not enough to build and expand our reach.  We need to enable and encourage additional communities within our Makerspace and HackNCraftNJ.
• People.  To realize our growth goals and to make the jump to our Makerspace 2.0 this Summer, we will need people, passionate people who are willing to commit their time and effort to the realization of our success.  That means YOU.  If you want to help and you can, contact us.  We're happy to talk to you about how we can make it happen.
• Partnerships.  We understand that relationships help create the opportunities for growth.  To date we have worked effectively with the Montclair Public Library, Mt Hebron Middle School, the Montclair High School, Watchung Elementary School, The Montclair Coop School, The Montclair Adult School, L3 Academy, and others.  If you or your organization has an idea to work with us to enhance opportunities for us both, please contact us.
• Events.  We've participated in many local Makers events from the Mt Hebron Innovation Faire, to the Montclair Community Pre-K technology Open House, to a presentation to the Montclair HS STEM Small Learning Community.  We have plans to present and participate in the NJ Makers Day on March 21st and the second Mt Hebron Innovation Faire on May 30th.

That's about it for now.  We'll post updates here, but please also follow us on the various "social" media outlets:

Twitter - @hackncraftnj
Instagram - @hackncraftnj
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hackncraftnj

Thanks!

The HackNCraftNJ Crew