Ever since I visited Noisebridge in San Fransisco back in November of 2010, Â I had burned into my head how amazing it was, and how great it’d be when we finally had a space of our own in Omaha. Â What I didn’t see in my brief visit was all the work that someone’s doing behind the scenes. At the Makery, there’s always something to be cleaned up, fixed up or otherwise looked after, and as a Doocracy, those things tend to fall to whoever cares the most (Did I mention, I’m sort of a neat freak?)
Sometimes, I get lost in the maintenance and wonder why we collectively go to the effort of maintaining an actual space, especially after working on robot arms in Dave’s pretty slick basement workshop.  Last night, a few visitors to the Makery reminded me, with phrases like “This place is magic” and “I never thought Omaha could have a  hackerspace”.  That right there sums up what went through my head when I walked in the door at Noisebridge just a year ago.
I’ve said it before (at the Makery’s Founding Day Celebration), but I’ll paraphrase it again here because it bears repeating: Â A Makerspace is just a lens that focuses the energy and talents of a creative community. Â The people are what makes the Makery great. Â Our people collaborate on art projects, build impromptu electric vehicles, entertain out-of-town guests, have Nerf-modding contests, provide material and technical resources for individual projects and are just a generally great group of friends.