The Ranger Hub

We have a name!  I think we have our hashtag too - #MakeItRanger .  That one may still be up in the air but it's definitely my favorite!

Next order of business is changing all of our social media profiles to the new name.  We are so excited to move forward with this student named and voted on choice! 

Getting ready for Students!

We have so much to do!!!

Thank goodness for Google Drive keeping us organized.  We have created shared folders among our team and now that I think about it, I should just make a Team Drive, duh!  Adding that to the never ending to do list...  Here is what else we are trying to tackle before opening day!

Tutorials - create easy to follow how to guides to store in sharable google drive folder

Inventory deliveries - what do we have?  what are we waiting on?  what do we still need?

Safety -  post PDFs near big safety concern devices; what equipment do we need?  goggles? gloves? first aid kit?

Orientation - all teachers and students come down for a quick show

Promotion - snapchat, insta, twitter, fb, school website, announcements, posters in halls

Tracking who is where, why, and all of that. - Google Forms for check in and check out

Resources - what is going fast?  what is being used most often?  how can we improve?  do we need duplicates of some tools?  monitor, react, monitor, react = improve!

Here is an example of a how to that I found for metal stamping from PJ Tool Jewelry. 

Ordering

I never thought spending money could be this hard!  It has always come way too easily for me.  Purchasing items for our new space has proved to be a serious task though.  There are so many steps and things to consider as well.  First there are just so many options out there and we want to make the wisest decisions.  Visiting other makerspaces around us was such a wise use of our time.  We were able to speak to people who have had solid experience with the tools and students.  We also reached out on Twitter for feedback on resources.  More heads is always better than one!

We had a pretty solid list before the money was ready to be spent but once we got down to it we made some changes.  We went through our list line by line in a shared google spreadsheet.  The sheet had links, prices, quantities, and it was sorted by themes.  We wanted to make sure that our space wasn't all techy or all crafty.  We wanted a good balance of themes to attract as many students as possible.  This spreadsheet has been an amazing resource.  We keep vendor information, quotes, invoices, dates of when things are ordered and received, and so much more organized and at all team members' fingertips.

Some companies are way easier to work with.  Some don't accept purchase orders.  This means we have to purchase the item and then be reimbursed.  Our savior has been our colleague, Pam, who does all of the final ordering in the building for us.  She is incredibly organized, efficient, patient, and kind.  We love working with her!

I am also spoiled rotten by Amazon prime.  When I place an order, I am used to some random stranger pulling up in his car and dropping it on my porch within the next day or two.  Sadly, ordering for our school does not work that way.  Even though we order through Amazon, as well as other vendors, the process is much much longer.  Ordering at this time of year probably wasn't the wisest decision either, but we are just so excited to get these tools into our students' hands!