To: College of Architecture Faculty, and Staff                                 August 17, 2007
From: Nick Thomas

Facility location: The Model Shop's street address is1425 George Ave. and phone numbers are 325-0383 and 307-0856
Facility Usage: Due to the high use demands of the Model Shop it is important for faculty to schedule projects and due dates so they do not conflict with each other. Faculty should contact the Model Shop for scheduling before assigning student projects that require Model Shop usage. Priority will be given to the studios groups that have previously scheduled their projects with the Model Shop management.
Student numbers: For safe equipment use and staff monitoring, no more than 20 student users will be permitted in the wood-shop area at any time.
Shop Hours: The shop is frequently open extended hours to accommodate the needs of approaching deadlines, and to prevent overcrowding. This requires additional staffing, and with budget limitations all overtime must be approved in advance. Please encourage your students to utilize the shop during regular working hours (8:00 am-5:00 pm), and to avoid waiting until project deadlines to initiate their work.
Safety Orientation: All individual and studio group Safety Orientations must be scheduled in advance (325-0382, or 307-0856). Students and faculty must complete Level I Orientation before any shop use. I would encourage the instructors to assign new students to design and build a wood box for their own personal safety gear, with compartments, for eye protection, hearing protection, dust mask, rubber/latex gloves etc. for their first Model Shop project.
Laser Orientation: Laser safety/operation training must be scheduled in advance. No more than six students per session. The Model Shop has only one laser, so priority for laser training and usage will be given to grad-students, and seniors. Students should have already acquired good AutoCAD skills before they request laser training.
Special Projects: The Model Shop and its staff exist to serve the needs of the instructors and students in pursuit of an academic objective. While we may be willing to assist with other "facility" projects as time and resources allow, this must be subsidiary to our primary mission and will be only when prior approval of the Dean has been obtained.
Communications: Check the events calendar on the COA Model Shop web page at http://modelshop.coa.ou.edu/ for posted shop closures, scheduled Model Shop sessions and events

I look forward to meeting all of the new faculty members. It has been a pleasure to be a part of the College of Architecture, and I look forward to another successful semester.

Nick Thomas
Shop Manager