I took most of the day off and went flying, but cut it a little short and raced back to TechShop to meet a couple that is interested in investing in TechShop RDU. We talked for a couple of hours about everything TechShop and they will let me know what they decide fairly soon. John came by and did some sanding. Our painter, electrician and the ever present volunteer Jeff B. were there working too. That's about it from me for today. Think I'll kick back and watch a movie. Talk to you tomorrow. Scott

Did I miss a day writing my blog or was my date out of sync? Oh well, I'm back on track now.

I just sent out the first email using the new system. This one went to both the News and Promotions email lists. The cool thing, is that if you signed up for both, you should only get one email.

Let's see how it goes.

For any of you who feel like dropping by TechShop RDU tomorrow, we can use a little help in a couple of areas. Sanding walls and moving a pile of broken sheet rock to our dumpster. Mark may be connecting some electrical but I'm not sure if he would need any help or not. You could certainly ask him.

I know things are going kinda slow right now, but we'll be running full steam here in the next few days.

Scott

OK,

Today was a bit different for me.

I found a great painter to finish off our painting but it involved making a couple of trips to get a van going.

We finally received the check for Theresa's totalled car and picked up her new (used) Prius. Now we're a two hybrid family. I like that they balance out our three nineteen sixties and seventies vintage 40' 568 cu in diesel powered buses. Of course, we hardly ever drive the buses. One goes to SC annually the week after Mother's day to the Joe Nall Giant Scale Fly In. It's one of the world's largest model aviation events if not the largest. We live in the bus for a week and have a great time.

We're starting to use the mailing system. Well, we're getting everyone set up on it so they can decide if they want to participate. I'm hoping to send out a real message tomorrow. Maybe a couple. One for promotions and one for news.

Scott

The big news today is the new mailing list subscriptions. The first emails will go out any time now. This is going to be awesome. No more taking hours to email a thousand people and then finding out many never got the message. You'd think this was simple, but trust me, it has been quite a bit of work for waaaay more experienced and talented people than myself. Jeff has put in a lot of time and energy and I thank him profusely. Others have given their time to help work out the bugs and hopefully present everyone with a top notch information dissemination system.

Let's see how well it works. You should get one of two emails from me tonight (this morning) if we have your email address.

If you do not get an email by Thursday afternoon and want to be able to subscribe and unsubscribe to our mailings, then email me at scott at techshoprdu dot com and I will make sure you get on the list. You can always get off at any time.

If you do get an email, just follow the instructions to be able to subscribe or not to our mailings.

Thanks,

Scott

We had a lot of help painting Saturday. We had a very good showing and got about 1/2 of the upstairs primered on Saturday. Sunday had fewer volunteers show up. Remembering this pattern from TechShop Durham reminds me how long it took last time too. I really appreciate all the folks that helped so far, but if we project this out we get about eight Saturdays of ten volunteers or so to finish the job. This won't work. We simply don't have that much time.

So we will hire out the job just as we did with the sheet rock. We need to get TechShop RDU opened as soon as we can and this seems like a good place to spend some money and pay professionals to get the job done quickly. I will be accepting quotes from professional painters this week and make a decision soon. If you know someone qualified, let them know or let me know so I can contact them.

Thanks,

Scott

We had a meeting tonight with about ten or so folks interested in the laser room. I spent some time in the conversation and then got taken away for another conversation with a potential investor.

Anyone who has been watching or listening to anything about TechShop Durham and now TechShop RDU knows we have pretty much always been looking for investment money. But that really is coming to a close. We are looking for just a few more investors and then that's it. So if you want to own a part of TechShop RDU, you should be talking to me sometime soon. We still have some lifetime memberships for sale too. You can help TechShop RDU get off the ground by buying a lifetime membership for $5000. Contact us for details.

You should see a couple of emails coming in the next couple of days that will be asking you to subscribe to the new mailing list. I am so pumped about this. Finally you will be able to subscribe easily in or out of the three different kinds of emails we'll be sending out.

Thanks,

Scott

Very late tonight......

Too late to even be coherent. So I won't be. Talk to you tomorrow.

See you at the laser meeting Monday evening perhaps.

Scott

Painting, painting and more painting. We had a good turn out today and got a lot done, but there is still a lot to do. We'll be back at it again Sunday around noon... or so. We can sure use all the help we can get. We have tons of cold soft drinks and snacks and will be happy to send out for food for all the volunteers. While it was a lot of work, the friendship and conversations were a real pleasure to hear. We really do have a great community developing. It's the most valuable part of TechShop. Come join us for the fellowship and of course.......... the painting.

Here's a reminder for the Monday evening meeting at TechShop RDU for the discussion on the layout for the Laser room.

The last private space was reserved today. This is awesome news. So here is the latest floor plan. http://techshoprdu.com/images/sh3d/5905TriangleDr_2ndFloor_base-2.5.sh3d

One of our members was telling me tonight how much he liked the the entire upstairs area. He said, "It's all about the community up there." And he's right.

Hope to see you Sunday.

Thanks,

Scott

Oh yeah, one of the former tenants is moving out and has a desk for sale for $20. Anyone want it? Moving it into one of the rental rooms would be pretty easy compared to bringing one in from outside. It's already upstairs in what will be our Computer Classroom.

Let me know if you want it.

Thanks,

Scott

We bought some primer today and are all ready to paint Saturday starting around noon. We'll make it a party..... sort of....

At least we will supply soft drinks and snacks. We will also order food after a while if anyone wants it. It all depends on who shows up and what they want.

Another huge load of sheet rock arrived today for the downstairs. Does it seem like this has been going on forever? Does to me, but it really is happening fast thanks to all the hard workers we have.

Short blog tonight and early so hopefully we can get a good turn out for Saturday.

Hope to see you there.

Scott