We are reducing our space (which must serve all storage and build as well) this year. Our first four years, we were in a large science classroom with plenty of storage, though everything had to be locked up every session. Last year, we added a much smaller portable building, which was all ours, but did not have nearly as much electricity or a level floor. This year, we've lost the classroom, and are only in the portable. The biggest issues have been (in the order we recognized them, which is approximately inverse order of importance/problem):
- Where do we store things?
- Where do we set up the freestanding and larger benchtop tools?
- Do we have enough power?
- Where do we put people who are doing things?
We have already scaled back on the amount we stored and have set up. We pitched about half of the stuff we owned over the summer (by mass and volume, not value), including a couple of marginal tabletop tools. Also, unless we get use of another space and power outlet, we are going to have to keep the membership count lower, or find a way to coordinate people who rarely see each other because they are at different build sessions. Our trials with that a few years ago were not promising.