About Makerspace Launchpad

Makerspace Launchpad is a practical, experience-driven blog about how to start, operate, manage, and sustain a community makerspace.

This site exists because running a makerspace is harder than most guides admit.

There are plenty of high-level articles about “innovation” and “creative communities.” There are far fewer resources that talk honestly about governance, safety, liability, budgets, membership models, volunteer burnout, tool decisions, and the tradeoffs that show up after the excitement wears off.

Makerspace Launchpad focuses on the second category.

Who This Is For

This site is written for people who are actually responsible for making a makerspace work, including:

  • Makerspace founders and operators
  • Board members and nonprofit leaders
  • Librarians and educators running shared shops
  • City staff and community organizers
  • Anyone tasked with building something sustainable, not just exciting

If you’re trying to avoid costly mistakes, unclear policies, or reinventing the wheel, you’re in the right place.

How This Site Is Written

Everything here is grounded in real experience running a community makerspace.

Posts prioritize:

  • What we tried
  • What failed
  • What worked
  • What we’d do differently

You’ll find fewer “best practices” and more postmortems. Fewer buzzwords and more specifics. When there are tradeoffs, they’re called out directly.

Most content is evergreen and meant to be useful months or years after it’s published.

What You’ll Find Here

Topics covered include:

  • Starting a makerspace and choosing a legal structure
  • Governance and board operations
  • Membership models and pricing decisions
  • Tool selection, training, and access control
  • Safety policies and liability considerations
  • Volunteer and staff dynamics
  • Sustainability and long-term planning

When possible, posts include real examples, templates, and lessons learned the hard way.

About the Author

Makerspace Launchpad is written by the operators behind a community makerspace in Wisconsin. The lessons shared here come from day-to-day operation: running orientations, managing tools, working with boards, handling policies, and keeping the doors open.

This site is not theoretical. It’s documentation from the field.

Subscribe (Optional, But Useful)

If you’d like:

  • New posts delivered by email
  • Occasional templates or checklists
  • Long-form guides as they’re published

You can subscribe using the form on this site. There’s no fixed publishing schedule — content goes out when it’s worth sending.

Thanks for reading, and welcome to Makerspace Launchpad.