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Summer Skills Training

May 8, 2015 By Wowser Leave a Comment

The purpose of Wowser is to provide, for the interested people of the Greater Willits Area, a transformed ability to use experiential learning as a pathway for a personal life that works.

In support of that purpose, Wowser is developing a summer program and we want you!

  • Starting June 15th, and for eight continuous weeks we’ll offer different choices for introductory classes as listed below. Each week will have adventures in making, building, learning, and growing.
  • Doors open each day at 11:00 am with opening circle starting at 11:30 am.
  • Each day starts with an hour of ideas and suggestions for what will happen and how to do it today.
  • Badge forms must be signed by a parent or guardian for all under 18 years of age.
  • We are also working with Mendocino Community College and may have college credit courses available this summer.
  • Classes are Free for all Wowser Members (College classes would be separate.)
  • We’re offering a special from now through June 15th for half-off our normal membership fee. You can become a member for just $50 or $4.44 a month for twelve months. Sign up for this special promo by clicking here.

Each class is one week long. Summer offerings so far are:

  1. Welding – MIG, drilling, cutting, grinding, & Plasma cutter. Items that we’ll be making include: tool boxes, name-plates, treasure chests and more.
  1. Wood-working – Drilling, cutting, sanding, gluing and router. We’ll make tool boxes, small clever wood boxes, treasure chest, rubber band guns, puzzle boards, wooden ladder toys, and more.
  1. Costuming- clothes – Sewing, grommets, patterns, hot-glue, laces. In this class we’ll be make hats, sashes, vests, capes, masks, pouches, and gloves.
  1. Costuming- props – Small wood-working, grommets, hot-glue, sheet metal work, laces. Items made will include steampunk goggles, ray guns, sonic screwdrivers, time-benders, and watches.
  1. Circus arts – Juggling, acrobats, German wheel, poi-spinning practice (no fire). We’ll make practice Poi sets, Juggling balls, and juggling boxes.
  1. Blinky lights – LED wearables, EL wire signs, EL Wire wearable, Programmable LED. In this engaging class we’ll make ear-rings, necklaces, broaches, tiaras, vests, signs
  1. Computer building – From parts to a PC.
  2. Bike-making – Pick one of our frames and build a bike.
  1. Lost wax casting – Small wax designs into silver. We’ll make ring, ear-rings, necklaces, broaches, and art pieces.
  1. Story-telling & improv. Just for fun. :)

Plus we’ll offer a block of Digging with a Kubota KX-91 Mini-Excavator.

Classes will be limited to six students each. Class schedule and registration will be available starting on May 28th.

As a special treat, every evening at 6PM Espresso Yourself at Wowser offers, a member only coffee shop.

You choose which class you want to go to, all or none, and one week or all eight.  This is up to you!  You schedule your time this summer!  Or, just hang out at Espresso Yourself coffee shop for Wowser members in the evenings. You may take each subject only once over the summer.  We will have a firm schedule out by May 28th on our website.

In the meantime, be sure to sign up as a member by June 15th for a special discounted rate of $4.44 per month (for twelve months). Your membership will allow you to attend any of the summer classes for Free! Enroll as a member by clicking here. If you are already a member or live outside of the area but would love to support Wowser please click here. 

Filed Under: blog Tagged With: wood-working

Participate

April 8, 2015 By Wowser Leave a Comment

We’ve secured a private contribution of $50,000 contingent on a match of the same amount. Your donation will go towards the match.

Please consider a huge contribution. At the same time, the irony is small contributions always add up to be more than the larger contributions.

Click “I’m in” to participate today.

im-in

Filed Under: blog

Wowser’s New Era

April 3, 2015 By Wowser 1 Comment

Be part of creating more opportunities in Mendocino County. If we $50,000 in donations from our local community we will receive another $50,000 from a private grant. This money will go towards creating jobs and opportunities for our community.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Wowser is something special. It’s a playground for innovators and makers. It’s like a temple for creatives. It’s a place we can all go to think, to learn, to share our knowledge with others.

By gathering local innovators, inventors, creatives, and entrepreneurs in one location, we harness and enhance existing skill sets to create locally made products, which provide a unique jobs skills training opportunity for our young and underemployed community. Through our community-wide support network for members, we connect with local resources on a case-by-case basis creating a community-based business incubator. The results are new products and services that lead to new businesses, jobs, and skills development.

One of Wowser’s many perspectives…certainly not its only one…is it is a business incubator for start-ups to thrive independently. It’s also an incubator for personal start-ups and restarts.

It would be a lot easier to run the makerspace solely as a non-profit. However, what makes Wowser a quantum leap better is that we run Wowser as an entity that is self-supporting through separate revenue producing modules, which may or may not be spun off as separate for-profit businesses that continue to support Wowser into the future. This is how Wowser is self-sustaining and supports its community with both jobs skills and revenue production, hiring local people, and increasing the tax basis of our community. This makes sense financially.

We’ve secured a private grant of $50,000 contingent on a match of the same amount. Your flat or recurring donation will go towards the match. Your support will provide the bridge needed as we launch our revenue producing activities.

If everyone reading this donated, our fundraising would be done within an hour. But not everyone can or will donate. And that’s fine. We’re confident that just enough people will decide to give.

Please consider making a monthly donation of $3, $20, $50 or whatever you can to protect and sustain Wowser as we move into our revenue producing activities: CLICK HERE TO DONATE

Filed Under: blog

Wowser Works: Jump Starting Willits

April 2, 2015 By Wowser Leave a Comment

The purpose of Wowser is to provide for the interested people of Greater Willits Area a transformed ability to use experiential learning as a pathway for a personal life that works.

We’ve secured a private grant of $50,000 contingent on a match of the same amount. Your flat or recurring donation will go towards the match.Your support will provide the bridge needed as we launch our revenue producing activities. Make your donation HERE.

Thank you for participating in Wilits’ future.

Filed Under: blog

The New Era of Wowser

March 27, 2015 By Wowser Leave a Comment

Lets BuildWowser started with a dream and an old vacant warehouse.

Now there’s life.

Wowser has over 200 members. We’ve hosted open houses, initiated Mondays at Wowser, and been blessed with numerous media stories. We have the tools and supplies needed to get things done, including the business of our business.

In February, we hosted a local economic summit that included government officials, entrepreneurs, business people, members and educators. We have listened, and spent the last several weeks assessing feedback.

We’ve come to a lot of realizations. One of those realizations is that this isn’t “our” company. This is big, big deal. What’s proven to be self-evident is that this is Willits’ company.

So, what is the community going to do with the company?

We’ve experienced the dream with clarity. We can see with clear vision that tons of these things we’re working on are going to work. Not all of them. Many of them of will.

We’re putting together the management and leadership structure necessary to get the job done. This way we can vet and manage all the great ideas that have come forward, and include the professional management and structure to bring them forward as revenue producing activities that will support Wowser long term.

We have moved from the dream stage to the practicalities of implementation stage. We need money to bring this forward. This is where our community can help us help them. We’re launching a $500,000 seed funding campaign to initiate our revenue producing activities.

We’re researching different ways of raising this money. We have several mechanisms we’re exploring, including crowdfunding. To get to that, however, the seed funding needs to come first. And we’re raising $50,000 of it now.

A question that comes up often in our conversations is, how is Wowser going to stay open and sustain itself?

We do it by addressing key community challenges by:

– Increasing tax revenue for Willits
– Providing skills training and vocational training
– Creating Jobs [Read more…]

Filed Under: blog

Accepting Applications for a Marketing Manager

March 18, 2015 By Wowser Leave a Comment

FBLogoIf you’re an outstanding Digital Marketing Manager with experience optimizing campaigns and looking to join a great team, look no further. We’re looking for someone to match our high energy, drive, and integrity while working with us through our steep growth curve. The ideal candidate will be a disciplined, organized, and project management oriented.

Responsibilities:

  • Drive and execute large scale product campaigns
  • Work with the Office of the Chief Executive (OCE) for ongoing management and optimization of these campaigns with a heavy emphasis on tracking and reporting
  • Coordinate appropriately across other channels to ensure smooth integration of multi-media advertising campaigns
  • Develop and tactically execute crowd funding campaigns
  • Lead customer experience testing and optimizations throughout the customer journey (ad creative, ad placement, landing page experience, conversion forms, post-conversion relationship, A/B and multivariate testing, etc)

Desired  Candidate has:

  • At least 4 years of experience with a strong performance history and demonstrated success.
  • Experience with Crowd funding a plus
  • Knowledge of Ad Servers, campaign optimization tools, or online tracking technology desirable
  • Exceptional ability to communicate cross-functionally within a highly energetic team
  • Demonstrated ability to think strategically about complex issues, leading to thoughtful recommendations, action plans, and campaigns that drive high ROI
  • Comfortable speaking about and presenting data

Salary range:  Market

Deadline for applicants March 30, 2015.

Please send a letter to:

Office of the Chief Executive:
Roger Wilson, Cyndee Logan, Ian Fitzpatrick
330 E. Commercial St.
Willits, CA 95490

For more information come to our event on Saturday, March 21 at noon. Learn more HERE. 

Filed Under: blog

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Donate

Wowser is a federally recognized 501(c)3 non-profit makerspace. If you want to donate, click the button below.

Contact Us:

Address:
Wowser
330 E. Commercial St
Willits, CA 95490

phone: (707) 459-9697

e-mail : Click Here

Workshops

Wowser offers a range of workshops covering all sorts of topics. You can see what we are currently offering by downloading our current Workshops PDF (Click Here).

Membership Application Forms

Download our membership application form for adults by clicking here.

Download application and minor release form here for people under 18 by clicking here.

About Wowser

FBLogo
Wowser is a non-profit makerspace located in Willits, California. Our mission is to provide an industrial/arts build facility where people learn, make, and teach.

Wowser is a federally recognized 501(c)3 non-profit makerspace.

Contact Info & Hours

Hours
7 Days a Week: Noon till 6pm
Contact
phone: (707) 459-9697
e-mail : Contact Form
Address
Wowser
330 E. Commercial St
Willits, CA 95490

Copyright © 2025 · Wowser · 330 E. Commercial St Willits, CA 95490 · (707) 459-9697 · Site By: Radiant Tribes

Wowser is a federally recognized 501(c)3 non-profit makerspace.