FAQS

We love new class ideas at CoLab and welcome anyone interested in sharing their time and skills with the community. The first step is to fill out this form that will give us the details about your class idea (Colab Course Description).

Our education lead will reach out to you to discuss your class and work out the finer details including scheduling. Class material costs come from the class fees paid by the students. CoLab is entirely volunteer run from top to bottom. As such, our instructors are donating their time. We all do it for the love of art and the community.

If you have any questions about the form or need to discuss/vet your idea ahead of time, feel free to email us at info@sdcolab.org. Thank you so much in advance!

There’s always something to do or ways to help out at CoLab! There are three excellent pathways to focus that volunteer energy burning in your pants. 

1. Join a department: If you’ve got expertise in any of our tool departments (CNC routing, Electronics, Events, Laser Cutting, Screenprinting, Sewing, Social Media, 3D printing,  and/or Woodshop) we are always looking for people to join those departments to help maintain and contribute to them! If you’re interested in helping but don’t have the skills yet, take one of our classes in that department and get trained up! As we grow, we need more hands to help care and feed each department.
   
   
2. Join the Volunteer Core: The Volunteer Core are a group of dedicated volunteers that help generally staff CoLab and help out when special projects arise. Volunteer core members dedicate a few hours per week to hang out at CoLab and keep the doors open, talk to interested folks that drop in and generally watch over the space. Many of our core members use CoLab as a co-working space. Additionally, core members get ready access to the space and tools (as long as they are trained and cleared) for their own special projects.
   
   
3. Apply to one of our open positions: Visit the CoLab website and you’ll find a menu item for Open Positions. These are dedicated roles focused on specific duties at CoLab. We’re looking for a few special volunteers to fill these roles. That contribution can not be understated as these duties really help the space and community grow and thrive. Take a look and see if something vibes with you!

If you have interest in any of these or want more information, please email us at info@sdcolab.org

Community events are welcome at CoLab! Obviously, we have a great space to host events but we are very careful about what events happen at CoLab. We consider whether events are in line with CoLab’s ethos, art related, in service to the community and do not have a negative impace on CoLab or the community. We carefully consider each request that comes in to make sure it’s a good fit for CoLab. Scheduling priority goes to our classes, active art builds and CoLab hosted events but we do try to work with event organizers to help things fit.

To get started, there’s a handy form to fill out: CoLab Event and Meeting Space Request - Google Forms. Our events coordinator will reach out to you to get more information and work with you on the details and requirements.

As we work to build out our Volunteer Core, CoLab doesn’t have dedicated open hours. When one of our staff or volunteers is at CoLab for a class, work on the space, special projects or co-working CoLab is open and welcomes folks dropping in.

You can always check the community calendar to see when things are scheduled at CoLab. If you’d like to schedule a tour, work on an art project or talk to us further about your interest in CoLab feel free to email us at info@sdcolab.org!

It’s actually not hard to get involved in CoLab! You just have to show up! There are several ways to volunteer at CoLab: Join a department, Join the Volunteer Core or Apply to one of our open positions. These are mentioned previously but we are always happy to talk to folks looking to volunteer. Email us at info@sdcolab.org

While we absolutely love and thrive off of community donations, we have to be careful about what we accept. Many times, what may seem useful for CoLab doesn’t actually find a home. We aren’t set up to store possibly useful things or materials indefinitely. So, if we don’t have a near term use for something, things tend to accumulate and crowd the space (you’d be amazed how quickly that adds up!). Unfortunately that means it then becomes our problem to find a new home or dispose (we really try not to add to the landfill!) for these things.

That said, we do super appreciate and love things and equipment that help level up the space!! To get started, please email us at info@sdcolab.org. We’ll start a conversation with you and see if your donation works for us! You can also consider a monetary donation. We definitely won’t say no to help paying the bills at CoLab! Details are on our website at https://sdcolab.org