Association Information
Frequently Asked Questions
If I become a member, what do I get?
You will be part of an awesome community, in which people support each other and you'll find help for your challenges! You get discounted or free admission to Octanis courses or workshops. You get instant access to shared tools, online ressources and promotion platforms. With Octanis, your project is going to grow on the best possible soil, or you are joining another project to develop your personal hard and soft skills!
Why is the membership fee so high?
Octanis Association is a large ecosystem with an uncountable amount of ressources and promotion platforms: website, wiki, Poodle, servers, meetup.com, facebook ads, posters & flyers, goodies (like notebooks)… all of this costs money! Additionally, we have a small budget for Open Night apéros and member events & activities (like Glacier excursions, …). Why we do this: To grow the community and attract more skilled people who can help each other.
Why do you look for sponsorships and donations?
Projects within the association are NOT financed by membership fees. Every project is therefore funded by the project owners and to reduce their financial burden, they are encouraged to look for sponsoring, donations and partnerships. The association is also striving to be able to offer mini-grants to their members, which help them to get started with a first prototype. To achieve this, members are looking for sponsors in the name of the entire association.
Why do I have to be a member to work on a project?
Every project is carried by the association, and projects carry the association in turn. To keep the ecosystem alive in which all these moonshot goals can thrive, we want to build a solid and supportive community. By becoming a member, you also show your clear commitment to the project and the people involved know they can count on your steady support.
What do you do on open nights?
Work! Yes, we actually take the opportunity where everyone is sitting together to make progress on the various projects and get everyone in synch. Additionally, there may be presentations from members or external people with similar goals, and some other common activities (for example a show-and-tell session where one member every time brings a project and talks about it).
For newcommers, a member of the association who is carrying the yellow T-shirt welcomes them and introduces them to the association's activities, projects and principles.
How do you spend money?
We spend it first on things that are essential, like the website hosting, banking fees, but also advertisements and very small Apéros for our events open to all members and external invitees. As mentioned above, this helps to keep the community alive and growing, which is to the benefit of everyone involved.
Furthermore, we invest it in things that make it easyer for *everyone* to advance on their projects, be it prototyping boards, another 3D printer if needed, or other common components and materials. We do this only if we believe that it is cheaper to share the costs instead of having every individual project/member pay for it themselves.
Events
Where We Work
We are at Route de Crochy 20, 1024 Ecublens, where we set up a small lab with a soldering station, electronic components, laptop, 3D printer, laser cutter and much more. Come by and visit us during a Happy Hour event (last Wednesday evenings of the month) to learn more.
Support Us
As a non-profit, we are dependant on funding from our own pockets and any support you can give. If you like our mission and would like to support it, you can donate to our PayPal: paypal@octanis.org and we'll send you some stickers!
You will be listed as a donor on our website and your logo/name will appear on our website if you wish.