Post Bot Comp, and News about the Reuseum!

After this first Inaugural Boise Bot Competition I hope that you had as
much fun as I did.  This was the right time to start a tradition like this
that is our own hometown flavor.  This year we built bots, each one being
as unique as its maker despite having the same simple core parts.  We also
managed to show quite a few examples of different facets of the world of
robotics.  Next year we can only hope to do the same, with expansion on our
ideas and more detail in what makes this the fun and exciting community
activity from the start.
I would like to thank everyone that turned out to the event and gave in
their curiosity to see what the Bot Comp is all about, braving the abnormal
heat and keeping an open mind.  Your feedback and suggestions are already
working well to make the next time we have this event even more fun.  Ideas
like a morning "Breakfast Build" and an idea called the Zoo have already
made it to the drawing board for Bot Comp 02.  To aid us all in providing
input, I have opened the comment thread on page "Past Workshops and
Events".  

In the near future, you can expect a lot of changes from us here at the
Reuseum, we are moving our shop to a new space in Garden City.  Here we
will really have a chance to display to you and the world what sort of
resource and environment we are, and hopefully give the Treasure Valley a
new landmark that holds our community and culture for everyone to share and
benefit from. We will also be expanding our hours dramatically in order to
be able to serve you better and will be opening on evenings our worktables
for other workshops and meetings for other geeks, like craft geeks,
software geeks, gaming geeks, etc.
We will also strive to build relationships with other businesses in the
community that are interested in finding what advantages they can develop
by using their excess and updated material as a means of revenue and
support for our local commerce.

This Fall David will be teaching a Technology elective at Anser Charter
School, and will be making kits from past workshops a part of the
curriculum.  Projects will include Joule Thief flashlights, simple musical
instruments, and (of course) robots.  These kits will also be available in
the store for anyone who would like to tackle a homemade project.  In this
way we can try to provide the opportunity to learn anywhere and on any
one's terms.  We will also be developing new activities and workshops based
on using the most common and inexpensive pieces and components that we
have, illuminating the fact that from seemingly useless and obsolete parts,
priceless things can be created and learned.

Please visit us at the store, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday and mention
this article to receive an extended discount during our Moving Sale through October.

-D