Settling in: a quick tour for Makers Network organisers

The Makers Network has been on this site for about a week, and thank you to Sarah Rahimi and the organisers who moved their spaces over. A few of you have asked the same practical questions, so here's a short tour of where things live.

Workshop and repair café dates

Thanks to everyone who replied to the calendar thread. Every regular fix-it day you sent me is now a recurring event in this group, and each organiser is a co-host of their own events, so you can change a time, cancel a date or add a one-off workshop without waiting for me. Members who join an event get a reminder the day before.

Checklists and inductions

• Put safety inductions, machine rules and opening-hours notes in the group's files, so they don't sink in the feed.
• Pin the one or two posts every newcomer should read first. With more than three pins, nobody reads any of them.
• If a document is still changing, post it as a draft and ask for comments before you pin it.

Volunteer calls

For rotas, a simple post listing the shifts with "reply to claim one" works better than you'd expect. When someone claims a shift, edit the post and add their name next to it, so everyone can see what's still open.

What isn't here yet

Tool booking. Most spaces still run laser cutter and 3D printer slots from a shared spreadsheet, and I don't want to bolt something together before I understand how you actually use it. If you manage bookings for a space, tell me how many machines you have, how long the slots are and who's allowed to book what. I'll collect the answers and see what the platform can do.