FAQ
What | Who | When/Where | Miscellaneous
What
What exactly is Side Projects Club? I’m still confused.
Basically you show up and work on whatever side projects you want. Every 4 weeks we talk about where we’re at in our side projects and make goals that we would like to achieve in the following 4 weeks.
Side Projects Club is primarily self-driven work time, so we try to keep any “meeting” portions short and sweet. The format is pretty loose so people can just work, but we want there to be some sort of occasional critical thinking in place to make sure you aren’t just goofing off.
Who
Who runs Side Projects Club?
Side Projects Club was founded in Omaha, Nebraska, by Cara Heacock in September 2015. Since then, Wendy Holley is now helping co-organize the Omaha chapter. As of February 2016, there is also a Kansas City chapter of Side Projects Club run by John Rake.
Who attends Side Projects Club?
When Side Projects Club was still new, I liked to joke that the attendees were all 1 or 2 degrees of separation from me, haha. Since I am a web developer at my day job, most attendees in the beginning were developers/programmers.
Now that Side Projects Club has had time to grow, there’s a good mix of people coding, writing, drawing, crafting, sewing, etc. As long as you have a portable side project that you can work on quietly, you’re welcome at Side Projects Club.
How many people come to Side Projects Club?
There are over 80 members in the Omaha Facebook group, over 450 on the Omaha Meetup, and over 350 on the Kansas City Meetup. Realistically, in the Omaha chapter at least, about 4–6 people attend on the slower days and around 10–12 attend when everyone simultaneously decides to be productive.
Can I team up with others to work on a side project?
Sure! But forming pairs/groups will be at your discretion. Most people at Side Projects Club already have a project in mind that they’re working on, so the format is mostly self-driven. If you want to team up with others, the meetings themselves are not the place to form them. Try posting to the Omaha Facebook group, or the Omaha Meetup forum, or the Kansas City Meetup forum.
How much does it cost to become a member?
Side Projects Club is free! Yay! Thankfully there aren’t a lot of costs to running Side Project Club, but there are some, such as Meetup fees, webhosting fees, domain name cost, etc. If you’d like to help, I’ve set up the Omaha Meetup to accept contributions. But there is totally no obligation.
When/Where
When and where does Side Projects Club meet?
Side Projects Club meets every other Saturday. The Omaha chapter meets in the early afternoon at Do Space. Do Space is around 72nd and Dodge. Check out the Side Projects Club Events page to see when we’re meeting for the next couple months.
It's my first time! What should I do to get ready?
Come prepared to work on your side projects! The meeting portion of Side Projects Club is either very short or non-existent depending on what we’re doing that day, so bring the materials you need (laptop? books? art stuff? sewing stuff?) and be ready to spend most of your time making progress on your project.
How can I keep up with Side Projects Club events?
For the Omaha chapter, you can join the Meetup and/or the Facebook group and/or keep an eye on the Events page. I keep all these calendars updated on a regular basis. On Facebook I just make the events one at a time as they come closer, so the most comprehensive calendars are the Events page on this website or the Meetup page.
For the Kansas City chapter, you can join the Meetup.
Please RSVP on either Meetup or Facebook so we have a better idea of how many people are coming.
When will a Side Projects Club chapter come to my city?
Side Projects Club was founded in Omaha in September 2015, and there is a Kansas City chapter as of February 2016. If you’d like to start a chapter of Side Projects Club in your city, get in touch with Cara for more details! Also keep in mind that the creation of Side Projects Club chapters is still a very new thing, so we would be figuring this out together.
Miscellaneous
How did Side Projects Club start?
Well, long, long ago, in about 2007 when I was a freshman in college, I made friends with this girl Joanna. Honestly besides both being art majors and some overlaps in our nerddom (we both liked Harry Potter and old school video games), we didn’t have a ton in common. One thing we did have in common was a desire to create things, but lack of self discipline to do it on our own. Joanna left our college in the middle of our sophomore year, but we have stayed friends through weekly (or near weekly) video chats where we catch up on each other’s lives and then get to work on our side projects.
I found that I was getting way more done during our video chats than I was on my own, and I wanted to bring this concept to a large group setting. It’s easier to get work done when you schedule time to do it and have other people expecting you to be there.
I had the idea for Side Projects Club spinning around in my head for months before I decided to just do it. The first meeting was September 5th, 2015, and it’s been drifting along ever since.
How serious is the “work quietly” thing?
I don’t mind people chatting at indoor voices level. Just be respectful of the people around you that are trying to focus. Basically the “quietly” bit is in there because I don’t want people, like…playing instruments or…using power tools or something.
Also, if you’re finding that you’re not getting work done because you’re chatting too much, uh…you should probably apply some self control but I’m not going to crack down on people that are talking a lot (as long as you’re not too loud).
You didn’t answer my question here! ):
Oh noes! Fill out the form on the Contact page or email me at sideprojectsclub@gmail.com, and I’ll get back to you soon. If enough people keep asking me the same question, I’ll plug it in here.