The Project Starts

The idea to try to create a local Makerspace for the Qualicum and Parksville area had been brewing for a while, but in mid 2016, the call for proposals for a New Horizons For Seniors grant came out, funding that we have been successful in getting in the past. So, we decided to make the effort and developed a comprehensive bid and got support letters from a number of local groups.

Well, it takes quite a while before you get to hear if you have been successful – the success note came through in Feb 2017 with a start date of 20 May 2017, and a year to run the project. Unlike many other grant funded programs that have a short-term tack to achieve, we plan on creating a self-sustaining club that will be able to continue to fund its own existence once the start-up grant funding runs out.

Luckily we had begun an computing/electronics/tinkers hobby group in Feb 2016 and had roughly monthly meetings since then, so we had a significant group of people on our email list, who had got to know each other quite well over the year. With this group becoming a Makerspace Interest Group, the project got off to a very quick start, doing all the background research, looking for potential club-space locations, insurance options, creating documents, rules, paperwork etc. We wanted a visible location in the middle of town – either Qualicum or Parksville, where people could see the club-space while going about their day-to-day life and where people living in down-town condos and strata would be able to walk to the club – and indeed, such as space became available, in Parksville – the word is probably out by now, but the contract is not signed yet, any day now though …