Hobby Society - Woodworkers in Sydney who love sharing their skills with others

[stirlsilver]

Hello everyone,
I am in the process of building up a website called Hobby Society (Hobby Society - Where hobbies grow...) where the mission is to reduce the barriers people face (younger generations in particular) in getting started in a hobby like Woodworking.

One of the objectives is to connect someone who wants to learn some basic skills (or needs help half way through an ambitious project!) with someone nearby who has the skills and time to assist them.

I'm wondering if there might be someone here who is based in or around Sydney who might be interested in taking part in this? I'm not specifically looking for professional woodworkers, you can be someone who has played with wood as a hobby for some time and you are keen to help others in your neighbourhood get up and going.

Does this sound interesting to anyone?

Thanks,
Stirling

[stirlsilver]

I forgot to add -here is an example of what I am referring to: https://hobbysociety.com/en/listings...nce-on-request

[Midnight Man]

What an incredibly brilliant idea! I can only begin to imagine how much hard work this would be to get going, so thank you for all your hard work so far

As a question if I may, are you planning on expanding the geographic scope at some point? Whilst I know there will be a demand for this in Sydney, it would also appeal to people right across the country I feel!

[BobL]

Perhaps folks should be made aware of the following from their website ?

How much does it cost to be part of Hobby Society?
Becoming a Hobby Society member is absolutely free. Beyond that, the platform has a mixture of free and paid elements. Users are able to both upload and see content posted by Hobby Society members for free (coming soon). Free content which is accessible on the platform includes photos, videos and access to the forum. To take up a class or hire space and equipment, you will need to pay the price set by Hobby Society teachers or by the space or equipment owners (coming soon).

Hobby Society charges a minimum of $1 or an 8% fee (whichever greater) on all paid transactions to cover the costs of keeping this platform running for everyone to enjoy. The 8% includes the credit card processing fee that we pay to Stripe, our card processing service. This total fee is included in the final price when making a booking.

It would be interesting to know the liability aspects of these arrangements?

[Pac man]

It would also be good to know what the fee for the instructor would be ?

i wish you well with your venture and hope that it provides a platform for people. Other similar platforms in operation in Sydney are weteachme that connects people with courses without the membership platform.

I understand that you have permission from Neil to advertise your commercial venture on the forum. The reason for mentioning this it helps folks by knowing that your advertising is sanctioned.

[BobL]

It would also be good to know what the fee for the instructor would be ?

It looks like there's no fee for the instructor (just the student) but the instructor would need to take out insurance as it's a pay for service which means Worksafe could become involved.
The Strip CC payment service takes 1.75% +30c from every transaction out of the 8%
WeTeachme charges 4% +30c inclusive of CC fees
I don't have any problem with these costs but presumably if the student wishes to maintain ongoing contact/instruction with the instructor they can subsequently make private arrangements.

[stirlsilver]

What an incredibly brilliant idea! I can only begin to imagine how much hard work this would be to get going, so thank you for all your hard work so far

Thanks Midnight Man, this is something we have been working on for over a year now and still a long way to go.

As a question if I may, are you planning on expanding the geographic scope at some point? Whilst I know there will be a demand for this in Sydney, it would also appeal to people right across the country I feel!

Yes we do want this to cover other geographic areas, absolutely, but at this stage all we can manage is to get this going in Sydney at this stage.

Perhaps folks should be made aware of the following from their website ?

It would be interesting to know the liability aspects of these arrangements?

Hi Bob, thanks for pointing this out, we want Hobby Society to be financially sustainable, out of the 8% fee on transactions, 2.9% + 30c goes to stripe and the remaining 5% we put back in to contribute to the costs of development. It's been a pretty expensive exercise so far which we are paying for out of our own pockets. The liability question is something that comes up a lot and we are working on a solution to eliminate that risk for people who graciously provide access to their skills and experience to others. For the moment though, there are two options:
1- Waivers of liability on attendance
2- Becoming a member of the Victorian Wood Workers Association to access their fantastic insurance policy which covers up to 10 students and equipment (Public and Product Liability Insurance), the association accepts members that aren't based in Victoria.

The VWWA option above is by far the best.

It would also be good to know what the fee for the instructor would be ?

I do want to clarify one thing here, we aren't really about getting instructors running classes. I know that right now we do have some classes because for some people it is the best way to make learning affordable, but what we are ultimately about about is getting individuals (not necessarily companies) to help each other to get into these amazing crafts. For your question - this is similar to what BobL pointed out, when a payment is made to someone 8% it deducted to cover the fee for the credit card processing and to help with the development costs.

i wish you well with your venture and hope that it provides a platform for people. Other similar platforms in operation in Sydney are weteachme that connects people with courses without the membership platform.

WeteachMe have a great product, and they are great for those who run businesses to deliver classes and events. Our objective is different, we are here to bring the Master/Apprentice relationship back - by enabling individuals to help each other within their neighbourhoods to get going in something like Woodwork. Hopefully, when we get a bit further down the line someone, no matter where they are can log on and find someone just down the road to help them and get started.

I understand that you have permission from Neil to advertise your commercial venture on the forum. The reason for mentioning this it helps folks by knowing that your advertising is sanctioned.

Yes, I probably should have mentioned that in the Opening Post, I had a nice friendly chat with him to let him know what we are doing and how it aligns with what he hoped to do with this forum

It looks like there's no fee for the instructor (just the student) but the instructor would need to take out insurance as it's a pay for service which means Worksafe could become involved.

Ultimately we need people to stay safe, and we have procedures which can help someone ensure they set up a space which is safe for use. Generally, a number of power tools are out of the question due to the danger posed. Ultimately insurance is required which is why I mentioned the VWWA option earlier.

The Strip CC payment service takes 1.75% +30c from every transaction out of the 8%
WeTeachme charges 4% +30c inclusive of CC fees

Just to clarify stripe is actually 2.9% + 30c, and as for WeTeachMe, we are different solutions to two different problems. If a comparison must be made, the 4% +30c fee on WeTeachMe is just for integration of their booking and payment system, if bookings come from their website or their marketing efforts, it is 20%. As for us, we can basically do everything for you, we visit you, get to know you, take professional photos for you (if needed) and assist with drafting up the listing.

I don't have any problem with these costs but presumably if the student wishes to maintain ongoing contact/instruction with the instructor they can subsequently make private arrangements.

You are correct, this could happen, but then it would be a cash in hand, EFT transactions which can be a hassle. Also, we hope that people that do come early understand that we are new and depend on their support to keep Hobby Society going. Later on we will implement an innovative solutions for this, but at this stage we are just going to have to stick with keeping it simple

If anyone has any other questions, let me know!

Thanks,
Stirling

[BobL]

The liability question is something that comes up a lot and we are working on a solution to eliminate that risk for people who graciously provide access to their skills and experience to others. For the moment though, there are two options:
1- Waivers of liability on attendance
2- Becoming a member of the Victorian Wood Workers Association to access their fantastic insurance policy which covers up to 10 students and equipment (Public and Product Liability Insurance), the association accepts members that aren't based in Victoria.

Good to hear you are thinking about this. A liability waiver is unlikely to hold up in court for a mentor/instructor. Thanks for the info on the VWWA.

Just to clarify stripe is actually 2.9% + 30c

According to the Strip website (https://stripe.com/au/pricing) 2.9% is the fee for international transactions.

[stirlsilver]

Good to hear you are thinking about this. A liability waiver is unlikely to hold up in court for a mentor/instructor. Thanks for the info on the VWWA.


According to the Strip website (https://stripe.com/au/pricing) 2.9% is the fee for international transactions.

You are right, they have reduced the fee since we last setup the account! There was only the single option when we set up of 2.9% + 30c. Going to need to ensure that we are on this new pricing!

Ok, back to my original question, is any one in Sydney interested in possibly taking part?

Thanks,
Stirling

[stirlsilver]

Hi Everyone,
We are just doing some security updates to the page at the moment, if you try to go to the page you may get a "Page is not secure message" while we do the changes. It should be back to normal in a few hours

[stirlsilver]

Hello again everyone,
I just wanted to share some photos of an introduction to woodturning event we ran recently for the Bankstown Woodturners. Everyone started with a piece of rough cut pine and they worked it down to a rolling pin. Everyone loved it. We will be starting something similar for the Northern Beaches soon!

If you want to give something like this a go, we also have another session happening on the 21st of October in Chester Hill.







Thanks,
Stirling

[BobL]

Good to see the woodturner wearing a full face shield - even better would be to see the instructor who should be modelling for the student wearing one when that close to a newby turner.


Also can't see any dust extraction happening? Wood turning being one of the dustiest wood turning activities.

[stirlsilver]

Welcome to Steve from Styro Pyrography! He's just joined Hobby Society to teach people in Sydney how to burn some amazing images onto the surface of timber. Until I met Steve, I didn't even know Pyrography actually existed, needless to say, it produces some stunning results!! The images below are some of Steve's work.

[stirlsilver]

Hello everyone,
Bungonia Woodcutters are running a 'Make your own Greenstick Stool' class on the 17th of December in Smithfield NSW. There are 3 spots left if anyone is interested?

Thanks,
Stirling

[stirlsilver]

Hi Everyone,
We are looking for some additional members willing to open up their shops or share their expertise with others in the community. For details, please have a look at the page below:

https://hobbysociety.com/home/woodwo...ipment-sydney/

Any questions, feel free to drop me a line!

Thanks,
Stirling