Their enthusiasm is infectious

I’ve been thinking a lot about community-building around organisations and other groups recently. Well, for a long time really – it keeps cropping up in different forms.

This Don’t bring your 3D printer to MakerFaire post from the Hack a Day blog seems to resonate with a few things:

I’ll tell you what you need to bring. Listen close, because this is very important. Think about the people at your hackerspace. You’ve got a person or a few people who are very excited about something. It may not look particularly special to you. It may not be in the headlines of Make Magainze (yet), and you probably haven’t seen it for sale online with a fancy web page. This person/people may seem like the fringe to you. Some oddball that just happens to get really excited at the thought of some peculiar laser or a specific type of leather working . Bring that person. Have them go on and on about their peculiar project. Their enthusiasm is infectious. Your hackerspace will be remembered. Hackerspace’s power lies in the diversity of their people and what they do with the space. Don’t show up thinking about what your hackerspace supplies to your members, but show off what your members have supplied your hackerspace.[original emphasis]