My name is Jordan, I am an electrician by trade and currently living downtown Vancouver. Like most people, I do not have the space or necessarily all the tools to tackle all the projects I would like to dirty my hands with. Which is what led me here.
I had a few questions that I was hoping could be cleared up. I would love to come down and take a look at the space and see if it would work out for what I would like try and do, a little metal work along with some wood working. Can I just show up whenever? or is Tuesday the best time? or both?
I was also reading under the membership page that says as a new member I will have access every Tuesday. Does that mean during other times of the week I am not able to work on things or just depending on if a key holding member is around? is it fairly common that on most evenings there will probably be someone around?
Does membership only take place at either the beginning or end of the month or will it commence right away and be billed according to when I signed up? Do you need pay pal or can I pay cash/credit some other way?
I am sure that I will have a few more questions but will leave it at that for now. Thank you very much for taking the time to read all this and hopefully for answering some of my questions!!
Tuesday evenings are the best time to check out the space. We prefer folks not use the shop tools until they sign up for membership, but someone will be happy to give you a tour and show off what we have.
Does that mean during other times of the week I am not able to work on things or just depending on if a key holding member is around? is it fairly common that on most evenings there will probably be someone around?
If a keyholder has opened the space, other members are welcome. We have a webpage for members to check if the space is open, and people will sometimes pre announce. Itās fairly common for the space to be open most evenings and weekends, Tuesdayās just the only day you can count on it.
Membership commences immediately on signup, and gets renewed based on that. We use PayPal to process payments, but just a credit card number is sufficient there - you donāt need an actual PayPal account. Cash or cheque are a lot of pain to process, so are discouraged.
that answered everything I was after. Much appreciated! Is there a certain time on Tuesdays that you guys are open for or would be better for me to come by and take a peek around? I am looking forward to a visit and hoping it works out.
Check out the events calendar, itās got that sort of info you are looking for.
Specifically, Tuesdays open at 7:30pm (though there are often people there earlier). Note the āOpen Houseā event on each Tuesday. The calendar changes often, so if you want to subscribe to it, it is just a google calendar.
Once you are a member, you can also see if there are unplanned drop-in times at https://isvhsopen.com or in the slack room #isvhsopen (slack is available to all members via your member portal). Thereās a lot of unplanned openings compared to scheduled nights, and coordinating on slack is often useful for that.
Once you get past the vetting process, you can apply to become a key holder and arrive at any time (and hopefully open the space for others that arenāt key holders yet).
At 7:30pm or later, literally poke your head in and say āHi, Iām new hereā
The whole space is member-run, there are no āstaffā. If you like the little slice of crazy (most of us would say Awesome) we hope that the Tuesday after your first open house you are the one someone is saying āHi, Iām new hereā to :).
Once you say your Hi, you should expect to sign our waiver, and then get a tour of the space. The person giving the tour will show you a bunch of the cool stuff we have for you to use, look at, dig through, etc, as well as all the safety equipment. With any luck, theyāll also do a good job of trying to describe the sort of community that we are (inclusive, awesome to others, encouraging, and one that provides a safe space, etc).
I look forward to meeting you at some point.
Oh, and if you want to bring a project, thatās great (though as mentioned, shop tools are members only). Or if you want to work on something you see could be better in the space, thatās awesome as well!
Ask people what they are working on, most people are happy to share.
