Blog

So you know when you hit a speed bump, and then you’re on the other side, how you step on the gas to make up for lost time?  Yeah, that’s kind of how this week was.  Full speed ahead, after a few speed bumps!

We’ve done a little housekeeping on the site, and added a main Workshops and Classes page.  You can click here to see that.  We’re also really excited to announce two additional classes: Learn to Knit and Traditional Darkroom.

For those who are interested in classes, as well as those who’ve signed up already, stay tuned.  We may have some kind-of exciting news, which meant we had to hold off a bit before announcing dates and times.  A little tease?  Yeah, you bet, but you just wait.  This could be amazing.

Keep building, keep making!  Play nice and clean up after yourselves.

We’ve got a big week coming up, starting today!

This afternoon we are having our first official Board meeting.  We are registered with Massachusetts and have our EIN (Employer Identification Number) from the IRS.  The one thing we’re waiting on is our letter of “Special Status” from the IRS granting us our Non-Profit status, which should be coming in a few weeks.  The first order of business for the Board is to discuss and consider our provisional Bylaws, and formalize out roles and duties.  Oh, and a toast to our incredible venture!  (Is a toast covered under Robert’s Rules of Order?)

Through the generous donation of an esteemed member, we’ve been invited to not only join the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce, but to serve on the Chamber’s Workforce and Economic Development Committee.  We’ll get a chance to talk to the committee’s members about what’s happening, the opportunities we see on the horizon, and how we can work together to make it happen.  That meeting will be on Tuesday morning.  Very exciting, and quite an honor!

Finally, on Tuesday, the big day.  We have the public hearing for our application for the HUD “Block Grants”, under the CDBG Grant program.  Read more about that here.   We should be getting a fairly good read on our chances, though it’s the first time we’ve been to a hearing like this, and don’t really know what to expect.  That’s a public hearing, at 6:00PM at the LHAND offices at 10 Church Street.

Look for an update and report towards the end of the week!

 

Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.

One of the most exciting events so far has been the Stakeholders Meeting in January at the Lynn Museum.  There we had a room full of the leaders in the community – from University Presidents to City Councillors to successful and influential entrepreneurs and businesses from the entire North Shore community.

We met, talked, traded ideas and forged alliances to build this project to reflect the needs and wants of everyone in the Lynn area and beyond.  Mayor Tom McGee spoke, and Amanda Hill (Beyond Walls), Michael Satterwhite (Lynn School Committee) and Rick Starbard (Lynn City Council) all shared their perspectives and excitement for the project, and for Lynn’s future.

Enjoy the video!

 

We’ve said all along we have to reflect the needs and interests of the community.  One thread that keeps coming up is BioTech, and, to be honest, it’s a field we don’t know a whole lot about.  Almost every meeting and event we have at some points rolls around to the question, “Are you considering BioTech?”  So we’re trying to get a little smarter on the subject.

There are two groups in the Boston area that we’ve reached out to – one is based out of MIT and appears to be a student-run club, called MIT DIYbio.  Learn more about them here.  Another group in Boston seems to be a little more on the typical makerspace model, called BosLab.  See more about that here.  These two come from a list on Makezine: Find a Biohacking Makerspace Near You , which is a great resource for anyone anywhere trying to find one of these things in their neighborhood.

One of the first BioTech hackspaces was Genspace in Brooklyn, NY, and they have a great video that really gets to the heart of what they’re actually doing and how it works.  Here’s that:

There are several articles online, but probably the most useful story we’ve found is on The Economist: Biohackers of the World, Unite.  Watch the video, then read that story…  you’ll get a good taste of what it’s all about, in general, but also in specific detail.  For example:

“Our goal is not only to advance biology, but democratise it,” explains Ellen Jorgensen, president of Genspace. Founded in 2010, the community laboratory in Brooklyn is the model for the two dozen others that have since opened around the world. Genspace hosts all sorts of events, including “biohacker boot camps”, as well as projects such as “barcoding” in Alaska, an attempt to catalogue plants.

More about the tooling…

If 3D printers are the tool of choice for makers, PCR machines are de rigueur in amateur labs. Using a biochemical technology called polymerase chain reaction (hence PCR), the machines are used to identify a specific segment of DNA and make multiple copies of it. “You can now build these in a garage,” says Josh Perfetto, who is one of the founders of OpenPCR, a group which has developed a simple PCR machine that costs only $600.

DIYbio also benefits from the organisational infrastructure of the maker movement. Many laboratories start in hackerspaces, which serve as clubhouses for makers. Amsterdam’s Open Wetlab, for instance, is part of the Waag Society, an organisation which also runs a shop for makers. Moreover, many tinkerers have started dabbling in biology.

We’re following the trail of breadcrumbs…  we have a small team of people who are deeply involved in BioTech, and we’re forming an advisory committee, both to learn what it takes to set this up properly, as well as going after funding sources.

Stay tuned!