You asked, we answered. Again. And again. So we put it up here, and pointed silently at this page…

“To Bodge” is a British term, meaning “To make or repair hastily; to MacGyver; to hack together; to jury rig”.

A makerspace, aka hackerspace, is a shared community workshop, where members and guests can use amazing tools, learn how to build almost anything, and find camaraderie doing so. In our case, we're democratically run, with our membership operating the ship. We are a friendly community of tinkerers, makers, hackers, educators, scientists, artists and crafters, and we welcome anyone who is, aspires to be, or just wants to hang around with folks like us!

The Bodgery has no paid staff. It is completely volunteer run by members. Some members help out with little things like emptying the trash. Others are in leadership positions.

No, but access by nonmembers is limited. One of the perks of membership is 24/7 access. Check our Calendar for scheduled events open to nonmembers.

That's unlikely. Ask an area's Area Captain before first use of an area to see what's expected. In addition, most of our power tools require you to be checked off by an Area Captain, and our more complicated machines require training (laser cutters, welders, machining equipment, etc). If your first visit happens to coincide with the Area Captain/Trainer you need, then you may have time to get checked off and use the tool(s) on your first visit. More often, it will take a second visit, after scheduling a check-off/training. And for the more complicated machines, it will definitely take more than one visit.

Kids are absolutely welcome at the Bodgery! And minors 16 and older may be independent members.

• Children age 7 or under require more attention and should remain in the same room as their adult at all times. Ideally, they should be within eyesight of their adult(s).
• Children ages 8-10 can be in a different room as their adults, but should be checked on every 20 to 30 minutes.
• Children age 11 and older can be in a different room as their adults, but should be checked on every hour.

These age frames should be individually evaluated by their guardian. Unattended children in the shop can be a danger to themselves, the equipment, and possibly a nuisance to other Bodgers. Please take a critical look at your children and their behavior before making the choice to leave them alone in the shop. Your kid's behavior will be considered an extension of your own and is equally subject to the standing rules. Parents will need to fill out the standard waiver for their children that all members and guests fill out.

Children are the sole responsibility of their guardian(s) and other Bodgers are not to be utilized as impromptu babysitters. Bodgers can report disruptive or unsafe children to the guardian or shop leadership. To facilitate this, guardians must utilize a name badge to label your children with their name, your name, your phone number, and the area of the shop you will be working in. Shop members who feel the unattended child is being disruptive can identify who to call in on that child’s behavior. Shop members, please do not abuse this mechanism because you don’t like children. This is to be utilized for disruptive or unsafe behavior only. Disruptive is a very subjective term, please also consider typical child behavior versus obnoxious child behavior (quiet and unseen is not typical behavior).

Children are only allowed to be left unattended in the Clean Room, the Library area, and the Clean Classroom area. If adults are in the Clean Classroom trying to work, children may not be left there unless they can demonstrate the ability to not be disruptive to the adult. We politely ask adults wishing to work (non-maker related activities) that require concentration and quiet to move to the Clean Classroom if children are present in the Cleanroom. Children cannot be left unattended in industrial areas of the shop.

Please note, this policy only addresses leaving children unattended in the shop. This is NOT a policy on allowing children to use tools in the shop. Children using tools must be trained by area captains and under direct supervision of their guardian while using tools. Area captains reserve the right to set age restrictions on tools in their area.

Additionally, this policy provides guidelines for leaving children unattended in the shop. Guardian’s should strongly consider how long they plan to be in the shop with their children unattended. Leaving them in the clean room, even entertained, while you work in the shop all day is not fair to that child. If you plan to be in the shop for an extended period, please consider obtaining childcare.

If using tools, both the non-member child and the parent must be checked off on the tool, and use it together. Red tools are member-only, and require a more lengthy training. These are the more tricky/dangerous tools, and expensive to fix if used incorrectly. To use them, the parent would become a member, and both parent and child would go through the training, and use it together.

Unfortunately, we are not set up as a tool loan/rental service, nor do we have a “day pass” to offer. Our goal is to offer a robust and welcoming workshop to our members, and to offer learning experiences to our members and nonmembers.

The expensive, tricky-to-learn tools are for members only, though member's guests may be present. Other tools may be used by trained members or trained guests of members.

Membership can be started and stopped on a monthly basis. While most members sign up long term, some members sign up for a few months of the year or as needed when doing projects.

Generally, no. We are not a fabrication company. We offer the tools for people to make things themselves, and the support from the community of makers.

Well…that probably won't work out. While one of our experienced members can often lend advice on a project, they may not be at the next Open Shop night. Or they might be busy working on their own project, without extra time that night. If you have a flexible schedule, finding some help usually works out well. But if you're in a hurry, or if the help you need is significant, your best bet is to reach out to local businesses in that line of work.

No. See the answer above (Can I use member-only tools as a guest?) for more details.

Sorry, no. Being run by volunteers means that we don't have paid staff to keep the door open and answer questions, unfortunately.

You can check our calendar for upcoming events, as some are open to nonmembers. And of course, with a membership you get a keyfob for 24/7 access, so you can use the shop anytime it suits you!

Your best bet for a quick response is by email: contact@thebodgery.org. Our phone number is 862-BODGE-ME, aka (862) 263-4363, but it's only checked a few times a week.