Mark your calendars. Clockworks Cafe has put out its roster of classes (PDF) for its free summer session.
I’ve had a lot of interest in my blogging class — we’ll be doing the same intro to blogging at the cafe on July 12 at 6:00 p.m.
See you there!
Just to be clear, I won’t be there to walk you through the nitty gritty of working with WordPress or blogger. This class is all about engaging an audience and conceiving a successful blog project. If there is enough interest, I’ll likely be offering a four-week class on the same subject next fall (for a fee, of course).
Now that I’m done with self-promotion, time to rant. I’ve been hearing through some sources that some of these free classes have been woefully under-attended.
How under-attended?
Some classes have had zero people show up.
ZERO!
Now, you can look at this a few ways. You could blame the gorgeous sunny weather for enticing people to barbecues and late days at the pool with the kids. You could say you didn’t know — but then, if you’re reading this, you probably did. You could also guess that in the marketplace of ideas, not all of the classes are as in-demand as others.
Or, you could be as cynical and say, as we heard last night, “That place might actually be too cool to fly in Salem.”
So I’d like to suggest something. If there is something you want to learn — say, SEO, from Rob McGuire! — get in touch with the people at Clockworks and let them know where your interest lies. That way, the class offerings can be more market-driven and we can have a packed cultural center.
In other words, Blogging: Yes! Kazoos… maybe not?
Lots of expertise in Salem, but there’s no need to be an autodidact.
I think you might be jumping to some unjustified conclusions about Salem’s lack of coolth here. I suspect that your big turnout had a lot to do with your much higher public profile and self-promotion of your class. The typical person offering a free class does no promotion on their own, counting on the venue to do it. The venue thinks “We’re providing free space, they should want to fill it” and does little. The public thinks “Free — is that like a free weekend stay offer from a timeshare developer?”
Also, Clockworks does not, shall we say, necessarily run like clockwork yet. The ED contacted me about two weeks ago to inquire about putting on a chess tournament, saying that they were VERY interested in putting one on in July or August. I shot back a reply saying “Sounds great! What did you have in mind?” and heard nothing back. After a week or so I sent another note to follow up, and didn’t hear back for a couple days, then got a note saying that he was busy with a family emergency thing. Haven’t heard anything further. I suspect that there are just a lot more strings, levers, and moving parts involved in running such an operation than they realized going in and are having some growing pains.
P.S. A one-screen website (clockworkscafe.com) with nothing but the logo further encourages me to think that they are struggling a little bit with organization . . .
Yes, flippant comments about coolness are one thing… but I agree with all of your statements. I’m not so sure about my high profile other than on the web. The only person who ever recognized me in public chided me for a blog post about scrapbooking… but I do self-promote. I don’t want to show up to my own party and have no one there! I haven’t really put myself out there physically in the public realm, but I like what they are trying and I hope they do well.
But back to Clockworks. Coincidentally, I just sent an email to the class coordinator about the website and the need to get the info out there on the web instead of just on flyers just this morning. She works a full-time job and does the class coordination as a volunteer. Yes, growing pains I imagine. I hope this doesn’t become another one of those things where great ideas get bogged down by too much work and not enough (paid) hands.
Chess match! I’ll tell my husband, who can throw down. Hope it happens. Will you post to LoveSalem?
Oh yeah, if we get it together, it will be noted at LOVESalem. Meanwhile, chessplayers gather at The Ike Box on Monday nights at 6 p.m. until close (also West Salem Library on Saturdays at 1 p.m.).
I’ve gained a new respect for things run sloppily. As a person tending toward precision, I’ve been recently stunned & amazed to ‘look in the back office’ of a few relatively successful places and see just how half-hazard things are. Things kind of like seeing keys to the vault left laying out, running the business and household out of same account, angry & incomprehensible salesmen, sharp/heavy things precariously balanced in the aisle, storefront with no sign out front, misc things in that level of goofiness, and the businesses still made a go of it.
While I haven’t seen anything remotely on that scale at Clockworks, I did find the process of figuring out how the free classes worked to be rather frustrating. If you didn’t happen to be in the room when Ryan announced the classes and grab one of the schedules, the only online place I’ve found a copy is here on Emily’s blog… Not just a link to the schedule, the actual pdf is hosted here.
Thinking that (of course) even a free class would require some sort of registration to prevent the serious problem of too many (or worse, too few) people from showing up, I tried the website listed on the schedule.
To make a long story short, the website for the classes (c4academy.org) just served up a database error (still does at the time of this post), the phone number on the pdf/paper brochure went to a fax machine, and the correct phone number was missing from the Clockworks webpage, the facebook page, and google phone listings in general.
I had to walk downtown, get the correct phone number from a clerk, call back when the academy person was around, at which point I found out that the classes were on a drop-in basis.
That said, the fact that they were able to find enough teachers to have 1 or 2 classes every day is amazing. That anyone showed up under the current conditions is very encouraging. There’s obviously a great hunger for what they’re trying to do, and that’s good to know before putting too much time into the organizational part.
It’s hard to address the obstacles I encountered without sounding slam-ish, but it’s just a little bitter-sweet element to my overall admiration. They left for last the things I would have done first, and as a result they are actually *DOING* something while my long-time intent to start a place like Clockworks remained on the drawing board.
Good going guys. I wish I knew you well enough to know if/how I could join in and help improve the things where I have relative strength.
David — how about helping their website!? I have no talent for these things myself… I be they would be thrilled to have your expertise on board, especially in the online marketing. One sad little blog (mine) does not a marketing campaign make.
I’m willing, as long as people don’t make it too hard for me to help them. I get this secretive vibe, and I’m into open communications. How is Clockworks structured? Who runs what? Who can submit ideas, who has to support them, who has the veto? Do they have any non-PR-ish online discussions/blogs/tweets about what they’re doing, or is it all face-to-face closed-door meetings?
Welcome to the world of the non-profit. As someone who has worked full time for one for 10 years, I can tell you that this is par for the course – which is not a bad thing! It does take some time for things to come together. There are basically 2 schools of thought that we work with at our place:
a.) we hire someone on to coordinate that department, or as is many the case, multiple department. You have to pay this person, so there needs to be a revenue stream someplace. I’m sure the coffee shop isn’t paying for all of this entirely. That’s why space rental and class fees is a good model – more on this later.
b.) someone in the community rises up and volunteers their time to take on a position like this. We’ve seen lots of gaps filled here from people who just have a desire to see it happen, and so they rise up to the challenge. We encourage it.
I’m not a espresso purist, but I do like to enjoy my drink and I think there’s a respectable art to doing it right. That being said, Salem’s Latte is still the best shot in Salem. Next up would be The Gov Cup with Kevin pulling the shots. C4 has the tools, and the bean, but I feel like there’s a lack of pride in the craft, and every time I’ve had espresso there, it’s varied WITH the exception of the dark haired barista (her name slips my mind). She pulls a great shot every time.
All that to say, that if they’re banking on their coffee and trying to build brand loyalty, then I feel like they should really focus on the craft more.
The conversation here made me decide I had to drop into Clockworks for the first time to check it out — there’s definitely potential . . . . but some discordant notes.
Like there are no hours posted — anywhere. Not on front door or windows, not where you get food, not on the website, not on the flier for the classes. Nowhere. Big mistake — when your hours are hidden, people worry that they are loose and flexible, meaning that they won’t go out of their way to drop by at odd hours because they assume you’ll be closed. In a drop-in business, being there is 80% of success — it doesn’t matter so much exactly what your hours are, but let everyone know what they are, and then stick to them. Religiously.
BTW, for the commenter above, the “Culture Shock Community Project” appears to be the owner/operator of Clockworks.
Oh, and btw, the barista said that they were open 7 am – 10 pm seven days a week. If so, definitely something to trumpet far and wide.
We went in at eight in the morning on a Sunday once with the baby.
Chris Hahn! I love that you’ve turned this into a discussion about espresso quality, and that you’ve trained your palate all around town. I got to go to Salem’s Latte for the first time in a while this week… DELICIOUS! As for Clockworks, anyone pulling espressos with Stumptown beans is supposed to have gone through Stumptown training in PDX, so not sure what the problem is there.
I’ve also spent my whole career working for nonprofits and can offer a few suggestions for working the kinks out when funding is scarce.
An Americorps volunteer might be an option to coordinate communications/programming. I know that other groups locally have made use of this resource. There is an application process and paperwork involved, but it’s worth it if you get a savvy candidate.
Also, reach out to the local schools (Willamette, WOU, Chemeketa, etc) for interns…stress the great learning opportunity of really making an impact and gaining valuable hands-on experience.
Lastly, it’s not clear if they have a board of directors, but there is a wealth of talent in the community and at the very least, they should be working to harness that energy and entice the local brain trust to get involved.
That’s my answer always (thought a little less nuanced and with less experience to draw from than Rachel). Get an intern!
[...] first free class there became an exercise in the limits pushed by the new journalism as we all struggled with the presence of one silent camera (thanks, [...]