Truckee Roundhouse

The Truckee Roundhouse Community Makerspace supports the teaching, learning, and practicing of a wide variety of crafts, skills, technologies, and arts in the Truckee Tahoe community. Founded in 2015, we achieve this by providing accessible resources -- tools and teachers and programs -- in a collaborative environment. We are a community-run, community-benefiting organization enriching lives with professional and recreational education programs for adults and youth. The Truckee Roundhouse Community Makerspace actualizes our mission in our 4,600-square-foot renovated hangar at Truckee Tahoe Airport, where we have five shops -- Wood, Metal, Textiles, Ceramics, and Technology -- equipped with high-quality and cutting-edge tools. We offer a safe and welcoming space where professionals and experienced users work alongside members and students. At the end of 2022, our membership totaled 280 persons ranging in age from 8 to 82. We serve hundreds more through our Education and Community Enrichment Program.There are four ways for the public to engage with us:1. As self-directed members who work independently or in collaboration with others2. Taking a group class or workshop that teaches tool usage and inspires creativity3. Participating in our Education and Community Enrichment Program4. Attending one of our FREE public making eventsOur successes for 2022 included:- We continued to improve our operations and capacity to serve our community through our Curriculum Development project. We entered into a contract with our Educational Consultant for Phase Two, focusing on the development of curricula for advanced-level, multi-session classes and completed curricula for 5 of those 7 classes, including the supplemental video content and instruction manuals. - We advanced our goal to improve accessibility and outreach to underserved communities. New for summer 2022, we launched a scholarship program for our Summer Enrichment Kids Camp. This public program hosts students ages 8 - 11 for a week of Ceramics, Sewing, or Upcycled projects. We are proud that in Summer 2022, we could offer scholarships to 9% of our campers, thus creating a pathway of access for those who would not otherwise have the financial resources to attend our public programs. - We continue to build sustainable systems and resources. We are happy to report that we purchased our new state-of-the-art CNC Boss laser engraver in December. As the most widely used tool at the Roundhouse, the new laser benefits our 300+ active members creative endeavors and the hundreds who participate in our Education and Community Enrichment program. The laser is used in STEAM programs every year, more than 300 students from local schools participate in these enrichment workshops, many of which teach students to design, cut, engrave, and build with the laser, exposing them to possibilities of careers in engineering and computer-aided design.- We improved our organizational sustainability through increased staffing. In strategic planning sessions, our Board identified additional paid staffing as the key tactic to ensure our continued growth and success to match community need and demand. We are happy to report in June of 2022, we were finally able to hire a second full-time staff position, a Community Manager. This hire frees the Executive Director position to focus on functions that will drive the institution's growth, resulting in the transformation of the Roundhouse in terms of increased financial stability and improved programmatic excellence. - We created our Volunteer Training Fund, which is improving our programming in many ways. Launched in the Fall, our volunteers have taken classes to improve their skills and bring what they learned back to teach our courses. For example, in December, three woodshop volunteers went to the Curious Forge Art Center and Makerspace in Nevada City for advanced training on the wood lathe, a highly sought-after tool in our wood shop, for which we did not have instructors since our former skilled instructor moved from Truckee in 2020. These volunteers, with their new skills, helped us launch the new Wood Lathe curriculum, and after a three-year hiatus, we are now offering woodturning workshops. There are also plans for more high-level training for these loyal volunteers, a reward for their dedicated service to the Roundhouse, and the best way to improve our capacity to offer meaningful enrichment and educational opportunities to our community. We were thrilled to bring back our Maker Show on June 26, 2022 50 artists showcased their projects and processes for over 800 attendees. It was a fantastic day of interactive workshops, craft panel talks, large-scale art, and the celebration of the creativity of our community.Volunteer Hours Contributed:The Roundhouse is a safe, clean, welcoming space thanks to our team of 42 skilled and dedicated volunteers who embody a true community spirit. Each commits at least four hours per week, whether staffing the front desk, serving as shop leaders and assistants, participating in shop clean-ups, working our annual Maker Show fundraiser, or providing professional services such as the construction of storage and shelving, electrical work, and CPR and first-aid training. Members of our Board of Directors, a broad cross-section of the community, devote an average of four hours a week to monthly board meetings, community outreach, relationship building, committee service, and pro bono professional services. We have an additional 75 volunteers who help us day-of for events. Operating the space took over 9,236 volunteer hours in 2022.