User:Trapa/Vancouver Furry Workshop

=Vancouver Furry Workshop=

More input needed
I made this a wiki article in order to be able to open up suggestions from the entire community, please feel free to edit this page and add your suggestions or modifications so that the plan can come together.

Purpose
The purpose of the vancouver furry workshop is to provide all furries, from anywhere a workshop to be able to build and work on proejcts and to provide a collaborative and creative environment so that furries can work together and create new levels of awesome!

Main Ideas

 * 1) Clean only area - Ideally there would be a Clean only work area including a table and chairs, and benches for sewing machines. This area would be meant for any project but needs to be clean enough that those who work on cutting fabric for fursuits don't need to worry about ruining their expensive fur with glue/grease etc.
 * 2) Other work area - The other area would have things like drill presses, belt sanders, scroll saws, etc in order to be able to work with plastics and metals for projects, but we want to be able to keep these tools clean, so we're not talking serious oily garage type stuff, we're talking mainly plastic and light materials. We don't want the oils and such transferring from drill press to fursuit, but these tools have proven themselves extremly useful in fursuitcraft.
 * 3) Lounge/Study/Art Area - I would like to see us have a couch or two around a coffee table, to allow for art, laptop usage, writing and to just have a general place to go and relax.
 * 4) Chemical/Fume Hood - I would like to see a corner dedicated to chemicals and paint with a powerful fume hood or fan system such that glues and chemicals can be used without getting everyone else in the space intoxicated or dead.
 * 5) Space should be convertable - I would like to be able to have the space convertible to a board room or meeting room configuration so that this is where we can have Vancoufur work parties and meetings.

Ideal Tool Set
With any workshop, we would want to make a list of tools that would be desirable, wanted, and needed. Below is a list of those tools broken down into wanted, and needed.


 * Highly desirable:
 * Drill press
 * Scroll Saw
 * Belt Sander
 * Cutting table
 * Various knives scissors
 * Sewing machine (multiple)
 * Serger
 * Wish List
 * RFid Kit
 * Vacuform Moudling

Funding
A organization or group like this will likely not be a inexpensive venture. A commercial property would need to be found, and rented with a monthly fee. Electricity, water, sewer would all need to be paid, and then in addition shop supplies and new tools and materials would need to be brought in. All of this costs money and so a important part of starting this project would be to determine funding sources.
 * Members - Typically these kinds of shops are often paid by a collation of members, below is a small sample of the possible membership levels.
 * Investor - A investor member spends more, possibly much more than the keyholding member does just out of the kindness of their heart.
 * Board Member - A board member would be a keyholding member with the ability to vote and help the shop grow and move in directions which make the shop more stable or better for the furry community.
 * Keyholding Member - A keyholding member would typically pay a bit more each month in order to be able to have unrestricted 24hr access to the workshop. These members may come and go as they please and may invite others to join them to have a work party.
 * Regular Member - A regular member pays a small amount of money and can come and work on any night that a keyholding member can open the space. These members are able to work on their projects and keep their projects in bins at the workshop.
 * Non Member - A non member can come and work in the shop on any day that the shop has open classes or open nights. The keyholding members will likely have a schedule when they can be available for non-members to come in. These non-members should pay a nominal per-use fee.
 * Sponsorship - One possible idea, is that once Vancoufur gets it's feet stable, it might be able to hold meetings at this workshop and in return it might be able to pay some unspecified amount of money each year to further the fandom through the workshop.
 * NonFur members - Commmunity workshops have cropped up in many places, it may be possible or required that we allow non-fur members into the workshop should there not be enough funding from the fur members.

Project Start
This project has some inital backers, Gizmo, Loial, Sabertooth and Trapa, all of whom have equipment and tools ready to be moved to a workshop in order to see the start of this project.

Location
Some possible locations that we are considering is, Royal Oak area, New West Area, Scott Road area, Surrey central area, Vancouver storage (Gizmo's storage facility). If you have any idea's or suggestions please put them here.