Skill trade program
We’ve had a long tradition of holding workshops at Bloominglabs to help share knowledge between ourselves and the public. While workshops are great, they have logistical overhead that can be a barrier to getting them off the ground (organizing teaching materials/power points, buying workshop materials, advertising, coordinating space usage, etc). I love teaching people but it can be a little daunting if there are no boundaries set on time commitment expectations. Workshops help provide boundaries in the form of a limited time investment window for the teacher, but again they have overhead that can impede progress outside of our annual workshop pushes.
The skill trade program is a semi-formal ongoing system of skill trading to help compliment our workshops. Since the idea is to also lower the perceived barrier on both sides we also have some formal language for this program too: tutors and learners. Tutors may handle as many learners as they feel comfortable tutoring in parallel, however it's assumed that this would mostly be one-on-one sessions.
The purpose of this program would be two fold: 1) To encourage a system of easier one-off learning sessions with minimal overhead and a better defined limit on time investment for tutors sharing their skills
2) To help foster an ecosystem of perpetual mutual skill trading in higher demand skills
To achieve this ecosystem we propose this: for every time block a learner receives instruction through the Skill Trade Program they must provide an equal amount of time reinvesting back into Bloominglabs. The form this takes is at the discretion of the tutor, but the intent is to pay this skill forwards. Alternatively time spent cleaning the space could be substituted.
Additionally, this program would not require either party participating to be a member, but I’m assuming it would mostly be members participating. Any areas that cost money to use (mainly the metal shop tools) would still need to ensure money is collected at the per-minute-rate for use of certain tools. It’s up to the tutor to decide if they want to include a fee for their time. It also sets time-commitment boundaries for the tutor so they can help without becoming overwhelmed.
Lastly, this program would not require those already engaging in intermittent tutoring to participate. It’s only a suggestion to help provide a framework if anyone finds it helpful.
