Volunteering Ideas
This page is a living document; feel free to update with any new ideas you have, or cross off anything you complete! Please also record your volunteer time, especially if you have a Volunteer or Reduced Rate membership.
Hosting Open Hours
We prefer to have at least 2 members in the space during all recurring events like our Repairsday Thursday and Open Hours on Saturday. If you are interested in helping with these events at our space, please sign up on the volunteering schedule spreadsheet. The basic outline of how to run an open hours event is located at the VolunteerActions page.
Wiki maintenance
The Wiki is a constantly changing, living web of ideas and information, which is an amazing resource! However, our Wiki could use some extra love getting it organized and more easily navigable. Some specific short-term tasks include:
Eventually, we would like to make the Wiki more user-friendly by streamlining the navigation and landing pages. We are inspired by the i3 Detroit Wiki, and would love to have something that clean one day!
Website
Help with website issues on the Github
Teaching
A big part of the AHA Purpose is to share knowledge with the community. Towards that end, we encourage members to help people to learn how to use new tools in a variety of ways.
- Running Classes: see Teaching for a (slightly outdated) resource on how to prepare for a class!
- Write manuals, make video tutorials, etc.
- Update/make the wiki page for a tool you are familiar with, particularly
- Laser Cutter
- CNC router
- Vinyl Cutter and making a page for the hobbyist Cricut
- Lathe
- 3D Printer Workshops and linked pages
- Make a page for the vacuum chamber
Marketing
Marketing for AHA includes both one-off and recurring tasks. You could commit to doing a one-off task, or agree to take on a recurring task for a specified period of time!
- Interview members about projects and publish to social channels (this could include setting up CiviCRM to automate the social media management)
- Promote upcoming events on social
- Make sure our listings in directories like Ann Arbor Observer are up to date
Social
Organize and market a quarterly social hour. People can share projects with each other. Some ideas are:
- "weird-/hacked-foods" potlucks at Island Park
- Fancy outfit tea party on the Diag
- AHA Flotilla from Argo to Gallup
Fun projects can also be great social activities. For example,
- Building a puppet for FestiFools
- Running a hackathon
- Running a WreckLab!
Fundraising
We always need more help fundraising. Find corporate sponsors, keep them updated on what good things their money is doing.
There is a channel on the Matrix chat called Outreach and Fundraising if you're interested in helping with this!
Community outreach
- Make sure we don't miss community events where we would fit and connect to the public / prospective members
- Find other organizations we can partner with for projects (make PPE, 3D print tools or learning aids for physically or developmentally disabled people)
- Run a repair night with different themes each week (vacuums, phones, etc)
- Partner with scouting, schools, etc.
Volunteer Resources
When doing outreach or promoting AHA, use our official Branding and Graphics! There are typically flyers available on the sign-in table at the space to hand out. If the table is out of flyers, the digital file is here and can be printed with the space's Printers.
Some older volunteering ideas are located on the HOWTO Help page. This is not the most up-to-date information on what AHA needs done, but many of the ideas are still relevant.