Today we’d like to introduce you to Terri Willingham.
Hi Terri, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
My husband Steve and I were the architects, in 2013, of the 10,000 sq. ft. HIVE maker space at John F. Germany Library, the flagship of the Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library Cooperation (THPLC).
Developed in coordination with THPLC administrators, and the professional and dedicated partnership of Sumo Software and PLuGHiTz Corporation, the HIVE was the first large-scale public library maker space in the Tampa Bay area and was one of the largest in Florida, helping set other libraries on the path to public creative spaces.
We worked with library systems across four counties helping libraries create community-focused spaces that meet the needs of patrons and neighborhoods. One of the most successful spaces we helped launch is the Foundry at the Land O’Lakes Public Library, which hosts a full-scale woodworking machine shop, an arts facility and was also home to the nation’s first FIRST Robotics Competition high school level robotics team, the Edgar Allan Ohms, which as of 2020, moved to AMRoC Fab Lab.
I’ve written two books on the topic of public library maker spaces, Makerspaces in Libraries (2015) and Library Makerspaces: The Complete Guide (2017), for Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, both of which are used as texts in Information Sciences programs nationwide. I also worked as a Regional Director for FIRST robotics in Florida for over 6 years, and Steve served as Judge Adviser for FIRST Tech Challenge middle and high school programs in Florida for several years. Our combined expertise in engineering, the development of public maker spaces, and first-hand experience with the positive impact of competitive youth STEM programs inspired us to create the Foundation for Community-Driven Innovation to bring these experiences and opportunities to more people.
After convening a diverse Board of Directors with equal expertise and a strong community-focused ethic, and working with dedicated community partners, FCDI created several avenues of creative self-expression in Tampa Bay, including Gulf Coast MakerCon, the oldest and largest maker festival in Tampa, and ROBOTICON Tampa Bay, a youth STEM education showcase which annually draws thousands of students and guests to cheer student tech sports athletes to success.
AMRoC Fab Lab, an 8000 sq. ft. public creative space located in University Mall in Tampa, is a direct outgrowth of the success of ROBOTICON and MakerCon, and the obvious hunger of local communities for an engaging platform, and a safe and welcoming community space, that gives people an opportunity to learn 21st-century skills and develop self-confidence, self-reliance, and agency in a world where those things can be hard to come by.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road- few things worth doing are reached without negotiating obstacles and challenges along the way – but it’s been well paved with passion and dedication. The impetus for AMRoC was a 2016 Argosy Foundation grant for a FIRST Robotics Competition field and related equipment to anchor a youth robotics center, and then a grant from the Lightning Foundation in 2017 when I was named a Lightning Community Hero. But finding a suitable place to set up a shop with a 26’ x 54’ competitive robotics field, other competition fields and equipment, and space for classrooms and a machine shop was definitely challenging!
With the help of then University Mall manager Patrice Gingras, who immediately understood the vision, scope, and potential of a facility like AMRoC Fab Lab in the University Area, and the support of mall ownership, RD Management, we shoehorned AMRoC into an old Champs store in 2018. We opened our doors to the public in June 2019. Over the next couple of years, we learned how to run a machine shop out of what was formerly a stock room, and also dealt with the challenges of helping people understand what we even were and gaining the trust of local residents and organizations.
Then came COVID. During the initial shutdown, we pivoted to producing PPE for first responders and others, in partnership with MRG3D Labs, and continued providing programming to youth and adults through a combination of socially distanced on-site programming and virtual programming. In late 2021 we learned we needed to relocate AMRoC elsewhere in the Mall because of construction and by the spring of 2022, we undertook the arduous task of packing up the Fab Lab – including shop equipment, tools, robot team gear, and fields – and moving to a new space across the hall.
Fortunately, the new space is much bigger – 8000 sq. ft. – and more appropriately configurable for the Fab Lab. In June 2022, we celebrated our 3rd anniversary in our new location. Perseverance, a can-do spirit with a can-do team, and a healthy long-view have helped us provide continual programming to the University area community since our founding, despite the challenges we’ve encountered along the way- and often because of those challenges. The whole message of a Fab Lab is that self-reliance, resiliency, and practical problem-solving are within everyone’s reach, especially if you have the right tools and the skills to use them. AMRoC Fab Lab is a living example of that message.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Writing remains my first love. As a young writer, like so many others I wanted to write “the Great American novel”. Over time, I discovered we are all Great American novels. Everyone has a story, is a story in progress. Each day is a new page, a new opportunity.
That’s what I love about what we do with AMRoC Fab Lab – it’s a blank canvas for anyone who walks through our doors. Within the parameters of a simple Code of Conduct that urges everyone to be decent and helpful to one another, anyone can use the space and resources to learn how to become any version of themselves that they like or that brings value and purpose to their lives. I love connecting people with resources, and with one another. People often say that I’m a connector, which I take as a high compliment. Gatekeepers don’t have a place in the work we do, which is all about opening doors to possibilities and new ideas. Taking credit is less important than giving value.
While nonprofit management might seem clinically academic to some, my experience with FCDI and AMRoC Fab Lab, at its most enjoyable is a creative one. Each day I learn something new, about myself and others, and the story continues.
Any big plans?
We believe in the power of the Long Game. There’s plenty of work still to be done in the short term as we continue to improve and refine our existing programs to make AMRoC Fab Lab strong, resilient, and durable.
In the near future, we’re looking forward to building out a TechSports Center, adding new equipment, resources and staff and making our programs even more accessible to the University Area community. Ultimately, we’d like to scale AMRoC Fab Lab to more under-estimated communities around Tampa Bay and Florida, and so we’re working now to create documentation and infrastructure to make it easier for those who come after us to keep AMRoC growing and reaching more people and continuing to doing Work that Matters for many years to come.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://AMROCTampaBay.com
- Instagram: @AMROCFabLab
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AMRoCFabLab/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AMROCFabLab
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPx8n1Os7X3INY4GKZMGANg
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/amroc-fab-lab-tampa
