Any similarities to any persons alive, dead, or directing, is purely coincidental
Monday March 25th @ 1900 in the Event Space
It’s that time again, where democracy (otherwise known as “He who shows up, wins”) reigns supreme.
We’ll be doing the usual financial reporting, strategic reporting, etc, but this time round, we really want to encourage the membership to raise any issues they’re having with the space, the community, or the organisation in general.
For mundane things that you’re not worried about people talking about, simply add them to the “Members items to be raised” section on the relevant wiki page (or discuss existing items on that pages Talk page)
Alternatively, if there’s something private you’d like to discuss with the directors, either contact them generally on admin@farsetlabs.org.uk, or individually on bolster@farsetlabs.org.uk, eoghan@farsetlabs.org.uk or david@farsetlabs.org.uk.
Finally, if there is anything you’d like to raise anonymously, we’ve set up the below form to submit your issues.
Farset Labs is what you make of it and we aren’t psychic; we can’t do it without you’re support, guidance, and ideas.
On Saturday 23rd March, Farset Labs are having our first ever Bring and Buy Sale! It’s a great chance to pass on those things you can’t bring yourself to get rid of, or to grab something exciting for a bit of a bargain.
It’s also an opportunity for any creative types who’d like to grab a spot to showcase their talents to a different audience – baking, art, whatever you can create you can sell (though let’s try to keep it legal!)
Members and non-members will be buying and selling things in the event space all morning. Table spots are free for members or non-members, so if you’d like a spot to sell your things sign yourself up on the Eventbrite page. Entry to the event will be free, though donations are always welcome of course, so just turn up between 10:00 – 13:00 and see how many things you can buy and manage to transport home.
Creativity Month is supported by DCAL and operated by the Nerve Centre
As part of Creativity Month, we have invited the _maker collective up from Dublin to walk attendees through how to build a fuzz distortion pedal from start to finish on Saturday the 30th of March. The workshops are aimed at beginners to D.I.Y. electronics and we cover all the essential skills that you will allow you to create your own electronic instruments and effects for you to take home and love!
These classes are normally priced at £60 for normal tickets and £50 for concessions (seniors, students), however, thanks to support from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure under their Creativity Month programme, we’re able to subsidise this down to £45 / £35 per person, the concession price includes Farset Labs members, and refreshments will be provided at the event.
Guitarists are encouraged to bring their instruments and a small amp if they have them to play / test with.
Please sign up early as we need to confirm numbers by Saturday the 23rd!
You will be invoiced after signing up via email and payment must be made in advance or you may lose your booking
UPDATE: Due to slow uptake we’re extending the booking deadline. The course WILL be going ahead regardless of additional attendance, and late attendance is not guaranteed.
UPDATE: This post is now very old and is possibly out of date, see here for the latest CoderDojo Updates
CoderDojo is a worldwide network of groups passionate about getting kids into STEM and Programming
Farset Labs is playing host to the Weavers Court CoderDojo, kicking things off with a ‘soft launch’ next Thursday the 21st from 17:30-20:00. With mentors (and kids) hopefully coming from all over the park and from the community of Sandy Row, we think that this will be a great addition to our growing outreach activities.
We’ll be running the Dojo on the First and Third Thursday’s of the month (we know this makes for a strange end-of-May, but it’s the lesser of two evils…)
CoderDojo is a movement orientated around running free not-for-profit coding clubs and regular sessions for young people.
At a CoderDojo, young people learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and more. Dojos are set up, run by and taught at by volunteers. In addition to learning to code, members meet like minded people, show off what they’ve been working on and so on. CoderDojo makes development and learning to code a fun, sociable, kick ass experience.
CoderDojo also puts a strong emphasis on open source and free software, and has a strong network of members and volunteers globally. CoderDojo has just one rule: “Above All: Be Cool“, bullying, lying, wasting people’s time and so on is uncool.
It also provides essential teaching and mentorship experience for budding software developers; after all, to teach is to learn twice! And you don’t have to be a hardcore code-hacker to mentor; anyone can help to guide these kids through the processes of problem solving, breaking down tasks, thinking in a stepwise fashion, or just picking out the killer-spelling-mistakes like variable names or missing semi-colons!
CoderDojo is aimed loosely at the under 18’s, but any child younger than 14 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
What are my transport/parking options getting to the event?
We’re 5 minutes walk from Europa Bus Centre, and Parking is available all across the Weavers Court Campus
What should I bring to the event?
We don’t have the resources available to provide everyone with a machine, so if you can help us out by bringing your own device, be it laptop/tablet/smartphone, that’d be great.
I can’t make it, what can I do to help?
If you can’t make it to our Dojo, consider some of the other Dojos in Northern Ireland, like at BMC in Belfast, Ballymena, or the brand new Dojo in Newry.
If you just want to support our event here at Farset Labs, please consider making a donation to the charity and mention in your donation that you wish it to go to fund refreshments, resources, materials, and equipment for the Dojo.
This is going to sound old hat, but here at Farset, we’re all about cultivating an environment where the next generation of technologists can come into their own, but as the old saying goes, to teach is to learn twice.
That’s why we are always encouraging not only peer-teaching within the space and at Farset events, but also try and encourage our members to take part in STEM outreach to local schools.
And before you say “That’s the teachers job”, just think back to your own teachers. Did they really know about the latest and greatest technologies going on?
Did your Geography teacher show you have to use GOV.UK open data resources to map GIS data in real-time?
I bet they didn’t (obviously replace those with temporally relevant technologies…).
As an aside, we’re trying to find someone to fund travel expenses for such outreach, because we definitely can’t! But if you’re free at any of the listed times, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us or the listed contact points on the wiki and give back to the education system.
It’s time to get out of the space and relax for a change.
Farset Labs in association with the Department of Culture, Arts, and Leisure’s “Culture Month” are inviting makers, breakers, designers, fashionistas, hackers, painters, sculptors, teachers, and any other kind of practical creative to just ‘hang out’, and encourage serendipity. (more…)
This mate-extract based soft-drink has carved a niche in hacker- and maker culture across the globe, and now, Northern Ireland
Farset Labs is proud to announce that we will be the first people to bring the amazing Club Mate caffineated soft-drink to the hallowed shores of Northern Ireland.
This low-impact, all natural energy drink is renowned within hacker-culture across the globe (having powered the author through a 76 hour straight volunteer-fest at The Next HOPE without any crashes or heavy-buzzes…).
However, because noone else has imported it before, and we all know how painful it can be to get things delivered to Northern Ireland, we’re making a concerted effort to put in a big order to reduce per-crate delivery costs. As such, we’re inviting the community to buy in to our purchasing consortium at cost-price (rounded up…) on a per-crate level (£33 for 24x330ml, £35 for 20x500ml).
If you’re interested, just fill in THIS FORM. This buy-in is open to non-Farset members and to groups of people clubbing together to buy crates but we will not be selling by the bottle at this point.
The entire Farset Labs membership were invited to the Town Hall meeting on Saturday the 16th of February, 2013, and a total of 7 active members turned up, with some additional people turning up out of interest. Among the matters of business was one vote and a discussion on all other issues, as detailed below.
Code of Conduct Review
As mandated in the Code of Conduct, the document is to be reviewed at least once a year, but may be changed at any time given the approval of the membership. The review for 2013 was held at the February Town Hall meeting, and it passed with a vote of 7 ayes, 0 noes and 0 abstentions. The changes outlined were mostly wording changes, but some new clauses covering the use of specialised equipment, the use of VPS, VPN and Web services provided by Evorack and Tibus, and a clause governing member representation of Farset Labs (to protect the members from any legal liability).
These changes will be made available soon and the online versions of the Code will be updated appropriately. If you have any issues or wish to change or add anything in the Code, please bring it up at the next Town Hall meeting, or get in touch as outlined below.
Other Matters of Business
In other news, investigations are ongoing to price reversible (fleece/waterproof jacket) coats branded with the Labs’ logo and member names/handles, plus some other apparel options. A “common sense” ideology for use of the 3D printer and other specialised, easy-to-wreck equipment was stressed, and a tally of the workshop tools to date, both installed and incoming, was taken.
The store’s indexing system to make things easily to find and return is complete, with the allocations changing as the best practice becomes apparent. In the next while, truly useless items will be disposed of. They will be left for a period of 1 week and will be advertised on our social media outlets if you are interested in taking them yourself.
After our first birthday (more on that soon), two new Director positions will be open to voting for the membership body, with any member not disqualified from holding a directorship to a UK Limited Company being eligible. After the first elections, there will be subsequent elections every year for all five positions.
The state of the Labs’ finances was reviewed, with an overall positive result. However, as our utilities and equipment use grows, we will need more income, and could do with some more members.
The series of events scheduled for the upcoming month was laid out, with comments made on future Gathering of Lightening talks regarding presenting. Our GoL talks are open to members and the general public; admission is ticket-based because it is usually a very popular event.
Open discussion to the floor quickly turned jokey, but one non-member who attended commented that we should consider buying lots of canned air.
The next meeting
The next Town Hall meeting will be scheduled for March 2013 and will be published widely with good notice. Comments, complaints and questions can be sent via email (anonymously or not), but voting matters are open to members only who attend the meeting.
Gathering of Lightning, Farset Labs’ highly successful ad-hoc presentation series, is coming back!
7th March 1730-2000
This time around we’re working in collaboration with the QUB Science Shop to bring in some weird and wonderful presenters (on top of the usual bunch of miscreants).
We’re still working on confirming an event sponsor so it may end up as a ‘please donate’ event, but we’ll keep you posted!
BCS – Belfast Chapter have confirmed that they will once again be providing refreshments for GoL, so be sure to register on their page too!
We had our Town Hall meeting over the weekend, which was a great success that we’ll be posting about separately, but one of the suggestions from our fantastic community was to bring back the old-school idea of tech-swaps, or ‘Bring and Buy Sales’. Bringing back the classic swap-shop atmosphere with a bang, and also hopefully raise some funds for much-needed upgrades to the space.
The Farset Labs Bring-And-Buy sale enables community members and others to sell or swap their creations, or their attic-junk.
The rules are simple, £5/table for members, £10/table for non-members, and don’t try to sell anything illegal.
If you want to attend and check out the wares on offer, don’t worry about tickets, just show up! (Although, non-members attending are ecouraged to donate on arrival…)
