Author: ted@thebrickyard.org

Well, you may have, by now, begun to suspect that when things are quiet on the news from The Brickyard, that maybe we might be just up to some…  well, shenanigans.  You wouldn’t be wrong.  We have a whole lot to report, but we’re going to start with a little update on our health and welfare, first, and then tell you the Big News.

We’ve seen a curious thing this past year.  With all the changes in our daily work habits and the trends in employment and life in general, we’re seeing a whole lot of people come out of the woodwork wanting to do “that thing” they’ve always wanted to do.  In a lot of our new members’ cases, that means joining a collaborative workspace and learning, trying, even playing with creating and building.  That means, in the last few months, not only have we recovered the membership that dropped off after you-know-what, but we just passed a goal we’ve been working at for a long time – 50 members!  Without getting too philosophical, this is another example of a crisis showing us who we really are, and what we can accomplish!

We’ve also been awarded a few really amazing and generous grants.  One is from the MassDevelopment Collaborative Workspace program for expanding our space…  more on that later.  The other grant is from the MGCC – the Mass Growth Capital Corporation – to help businesses in Lynn pivot out into the post-covid ecosystem.  …and that’s what we really want to tell you about!

The Big News

We’re excited to share that we’re working hand-in-hand with City Hall to explore free, broadband WIFI access to the entire downtown area.  It’s a great partnership – we’re leveraging our considerable skills in sourcing and evaluating systems, designing tech solutions, business and development to bring the city a bunch of potential options and solutions, and we have the resources to implement them and test them.  City Hall can then evaluate ideas to implement the best long-term plan for bringing broadband to the city.

HUGE thanks to the City of Lynn Planning, especially Lauren Drago and Aaron Clausen for their outreach and enthusiasm – not to mention Mayor Thomas McGee and his vision and support for our version of innovation in the city!

Right now we have two access points up, covering Central Square and the new Frederick Douglass Park, thanks to the support of Lynn Museum, GALA, Cultura Latina Dance Academy and the Union Cafe for their patience and willingness to let us use their sites.  For all the latest information, see our site: FreeLynn.com on the web, and on Facebook, FreeLynnWIFI.  These are using one wired access point, and one “meshed” point, which doubles our reach for a minimal investment.  With this mesh tech, we have drawn out a system that cuts the costs of our original city-wide design in half.

Try it out!  Just head over there and look for FreeLynnWIFI on your mobile device, and join the network.  No fees, no signup simple as that!

Do you have a business location in Central Square, Monroe Street, Union Street or Market Street and want to join the fun?  Shoot us a note, and we’ll make it happen.

OK, there’s more…  but we’re going to tease it out.  That’s it for now.  We’re working on a really fun project to buildout our space without the usual constraints of a buildout, but that’s all we’re going to dish for now…

As always, keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.

Tools.  We got ’em, we use ’em, and we get to know them pretty good.  In the last few years have had some interesting experiences picking up stuff for the shop.  Want to know what we’ve bought, we’ve tested and we like?  Read on…

This was the big purchase of the Spring – the Lincoln  TIG 200.  Honestly, we didn’t choose this because of price, but because of several recommendations from accomplished pros who know welders.  Suffice to say, it meets and exceeds all of our expectations.  It’s easy for beginners to get started, with simple-to-use controls, but very capable in the hands of an experienced welder.

Not too sexy, but you need it for your new welder – an argon tank with regulator and valves…  you can get this from your local welding supply shop, but you can also get it online, here, with good pricing even including shipping.  

You’re also going to need rods, and again, online is a good source, here.  Welding City seems like they have stuff pretty well dialed, great service and fast delivery.

OK, we can’t say enough about this next little trinket.  Over at Welding Tips and Tricks, Jody has this little invention of his called TIG Fingers.  Simple little things, really, but they allow you to get your little pinkies really close to the torch, giving you a solid guide for working on that perfect bead.  Want to learn more about how they work?  Don’t miss his videos and newsletter!

Let’s see…  That covers it for now, for our recent welding purchases…  stay tuned for some of our more miscellaneous stuff, including electronics, and more!

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(Disclaimer: Yes, we’ve become an Amazon Affiliate.  This means if you buy through our links on Amazon, not only do you get a really good price, but you support The Brickyard Collaborative through their affiliate program.  Please consider supporting us in this way, and have fun with your new tools!)

We’ve had some slightly over-enthusiastic, well-intentioned but misleading posts made on social media that, unfortunately, are misrepresenting the MGCC grant we were awarded in December.  Here are the facts:

We were awarded $100,000 to work with various partners in the city to help small businesses in Lynn cope with the challenges of COVID.  Details of that grant are here: The MGCC Small Business Technical Assistance Grant Program

We originally worked with Lynn Main Streets to put the proposal together and have included several other Lynn organizations to implement the project.  To date, we’ve had an amazing amount of support and interest from the small businesses in Lynn, especially the target group: businesses owned by women, minorities and veterans in low-and moderate-income and underserved communities.

The program was intended to start in August of 2020, but the inevitable delays within MGCC led to it launching in December.  It’s slated for final wrap-up on June 24th.  A second round of awards was announced in March of 2021, and we’re waiting to hear how we did.  That program would reach into December of 2021.

As with most grants, there is a very specific project proposal which was created last year by the team, and accepted by MGCC.  There’s not a lot of room for changes or re-direction – in fact, that would put the entire program at risk.  We’ve got to do what we said we’d do.  That said, we’ve been enormously successful implementing our project, and hope we can continue.

To read more, here’s a story on the Daily Item: BRICKYARD COLLABORATING WITH LYNN BUSINESSES

We also posted about it back in January: Time to Get to Work!   To see what we’ve done, see this post: The Brickyard COVID Response: The Project List

Thanks for all the support and help, and we encourage anyone with suggestions or ideas to contact us!