Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who can participate?
2. Am I a homeschooler if I […fill-in-the-blank…]?
3. Can I participate if I’m not homeschooled?
4. What is a cooperative event?
5. How many shoppers do you expect to get?
6. How do I help promote the Makers Market?
7. What time should I show up?
8. What does a booth look like?
• Flight Control counter booths
• Corner booths
9. Which table is assigned to my booth and what size table will I have?
10. May I reserve two booth spaces for my booth?
11. May I share my booth with a friend or sibling?
12. Do I need to bring a chair?
13. What sort of products are sold at the Makers Market?
14. Can I sell food at the Makers Market?
15. How do I price my creations?
16. Will there be a central cash register?
17. Is WiFi available?
18. What should I do if I sell out of products before the Makers Market ends?
19. Can I bring a bag lunch or snack?
20. Can I leave before the Makers Market ends?
21. Where should I park?
22. What sort of help am I expected to provide for set up?
23. What sort of help am I expected to provide for clean up?
24. Why isn’t there an image other than the logo in the marketing materials?
25. Shouldn’t there be an apostrophe?
26. Will the organizers be providing name badges?
27. Will the organizers be providing booth signs?
28. What supplies should I bring?
29. What supplies are the organizers bringing for the Makers Market?
30. What is mobile phone reception like?
31. What is Homeschool Adventures’ relationship to the Makers Market?
32. What is HomeschoolRecess’s relationship to the Makers Market?

 
Who can participate?

Maker registration is open to homeschooled students of all ages.

Makers Market is an all-volunteer zero-profit inclusive secular homeschool event. Makers Market does not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, neurodiversity, disability or handicap, veteran status, economic status, religion, or homeschooling philosophy or style.

Makers Market is serious about inclusivity. All homeschooled children are welcome to participate. In particular, the Makers Market welcomes neurodiversity, all genders, LGBTQ+ attendees, people of all races and ethnicities, and recent immigrants. Makers Market is a secular event and welcomes people of all faiths and people of no faith, however they choose to identify (but no proselytizing, please).

Makers Market does discriminate based on age. Makers must be children. 18-year-old and 19-year-old high-school-eligible students and students who graduated last spring may also participate.

Shoppers of all ages and walks of life are welcome!

 
Am I a homeschooler if I […fill-in-the-blank…]?

If you consider yourself a homeschooler, we consider you a homeschooler. We will not be checking for homeschool credentials.

Minnesota has a legal definition of homeschooling, and you need to know if your kid is legally homeschooled or legally a public school student (or private school student) because your responsibilities vary based on that. For the purposes of Makers Market, your legal standing isn’t important. We recognize that many online, charter-school, alternative-school, and PSEO students lead a homeschooling-like lifestyle. That’s good enough for Makers Market.

 
Can I participate if I’m not homeschooled?

We will not be checking for homeschool credentials, but your school and/or your school district probably offers a craft fair event, and you should support your school by participating in that. If your school doesn’t offer a craft fair, you should work with your school to help make one happen.

 
What is a cooperative event?

If a maker sees something to be done, the maker should volunteer to do it!

This event exists only because the homeschool families who participate make it happen.

 
How many shoppers do you expect to get?

That depends on you — how hard are you willing to work to help spread the word and bring in your friends, family, and neighbors to shop?

This is the fourth year for the Makers Market. The organizers did not tally visitors to prior events, but prior years’ markets were well attended. Our belief is that the move to Fantasy Flight Games Center will bring in even more foot traffic, but YOUR EFFORTS remain the most important factor in how many people come to shop!

As an all-volunteer cooperative event, every maker there is depending on every other maker to do their part to help market the Makers Market.

 
How do I help promote the Makers Market?

Marketing is now addressed in more detail at Maker Marketing. All makers are expected to help promote the Makers Market to their family, friends, and community to help ensure a successful event for everyone!

 
What time should I show up?

12:30pm. All makers should plan to arrive by 12:30pm in order to have plenty of time to unload your wares and supplies, move your car, set up your booth, visit the restrooms, and otherwise be prepared for our market to open on time at 1pm. Please plan to be early to avoid being late due to inadequate maps, confusing road signs, road construction, heavy traffic, parking difficulties, inclement weather, or uncooperative children.

Depending upon the clean-up quality of the last event, you may need to wipe down your own table top before you begin your booth set up.

If unforeseeable circumstances cause you to arrive late, please be aware that the process of setting up may negatively impact the sales of other makers. Please be respectful of the other makers and take a great deal of care to minimize both noise and visual distraction and to stay out of the way of shoppers at other booths.

If you know in advance that you will be arriving late, because the presence of empty booths may negatively impact the other makers, please recruit a trusted friend to set-up and staff your booth until you can arrive.

Because we changed the date and time, if you need to arrive late this year, please just set up your booth as unobtrusively as possible! (Although it's still best if you can recruit a friend to set-up and staff your booth until you can arrive.)

Please let me know as soon as you know that you will be arriving late. Otherwise, I may ask the maker in the booth next to yours to spread out into your space to decrease the visual impact of an empty booth.

 
What does a booth look like?

It’s one half or one third of an 8x2½-foot table, which means either a 30x48-inch space or 30x32-inch space. Tables are a standard 29 inch height. How you transform that space into your booth is up to you!

a 2 booth table

a 3 booth table

While Makers Market 2019 is at a new location this year, you can get a general idea of the look and feel of the Makers Market by checking out the photos from 2018, photos from 2017, and photos from 2016.

Makers Market 2018

Makers Market 2017

Makers Market 2016

While the volunteer organizers might come up with a better room layout that lets us add even more booths, at this point, the move to Fantasy Flight Games Center means that we've increased the number of Maker Booths from 42 booths to 62 booths to 82 booths, allowing us to sign up 40 more young makers.

Flight Control counter booths

Four of those new booth spaces come from permission to make use of Fantasy Flight Games Center’s Flight Control counter in the southwest corner of the Event Space. Makers using this counter booth space must be mature enough to leave Flight Control’s computer and supplies untouched. Makers may make use of the glass display cases in three of these four booth spaces. (One of the four does not have a glass display case.) If you're interested in being assigned one of these counter booth spaces for your Maker Booth, let the volunteer organizers know.

• 1 stand-alone glass-display-case booth: 17x48-inches countertop + 18x18x25½-inch triangular corner shelf claimed
• 1 wood counter booth: 18x48-inches countertop + 24-inch wide wire rack claimed
• 1 half glass-display-case booth: 17x35-inch countertop
• 1 half glass-display-case booth: 17x35-inch countertop + 18x18x25½-inch triangular corner shelf. claimed
• Countertop height is 38 inches.
• Glass-display-case height is about 17 inches (16 inches visible)

In the unlikely event that all 4 counter spaces are not filled by request, they will be assigned to older teen makers by the volunteer organizers.

Corner Booths

The new layout also means the re-introduction of “corner-booths” which are ideal for 3-maker and 4-maker families. These are either 1½ 8-foot tables (for 3 makers) or 2 8-foot tables (for 4 makers) in the shape of an L at the corners of the interior loops.

Two of the eight available corner booths are highlighted in orange in the room layout map below.

In the unlikely event that all eight corner booths are not filled by request, they will be assigned to 3-person or 4-person families by the volunteer organizers.

While corner booths have proven popular in the past for keeping families together in a way that makes it easier for parents to monitor and assist all 3 or 4 of their young makers, the volunteer organizers recognize the reduction in floor space by reducing the requested contribution from $15 for a 3 maker booths to $12.50 for a 3-maker corner booth and from $20 for 4 makers booths to $15 for 4-maker corner booth. However, HomeschoolRecess won't calculate this reduced requested contribution, so should you forget and send more than the requested amount, the volunteer organizers will return the additional funds to you (using the method you used to make your contribution).

 
Which table is assigned to my booth?

The organizers will email a room layout map the week of the Makers Market, with the subject line “Makers Market 2019 Maker Booth assignments”. The organizers will also bring printed copies of the room layout map to the Makers Market.

Booth location will be assigned by preference and availability, with the date of request deciding any conflicts. Families will be kept together (unless you ask that organizers separate siblings). Friendship requests should be noted in the comments when registering and will be honored if at all possible.

Volunteer organizers will strive to honor all booth requests, but necessity may require that some preferences cannot be accommodated.

Our new space means that we may need to make adjustments to our plans when we arrive, so be prepared to be flexible.

 
May I reserve two booth spaces for my booth?

No. One booth per maker. Makers Market is very popular and we want to ensure that every child who wants to participate may participate.

 
May I share my booth with a friend or sibling?

Yes. Just keep in mind how much floor space is available behind your booth so that you don’t become too crowded.

 
Do I need to bring a chair?

No, Fantasy Flight Games Center has plenty of chairs for everyone.

 
What sort of products are sold at the Makers Market?

We discover what the other Makers are selling when they create their Maker Booth previews. If you haven’t created yours yet, please do so ASAP. You revise your Maker Booth preview as often as you wish, so don't think that you need to know everything before you create your own Maker Booth preview.

You can also check out the 2018 Maker Booth previews, 2017 Maker Booth previews, and 2016 Maker Booth previews to see what has been sold at previous Makers Markets

Makers and their parents are responsible for ensuring that their maker booths are in compliance with any applicable local, state, or federal laws.

 
Can I sell food at the Makers Market?

Food sales must be in compliance with Minnesota’s Cottage Food Law.

You are responsible for reading and understanding this law. The following is not legal advice but merely the volunteer organizers best attempt to summarize the most important part of the law:

1. You and your parents must work through the “Cottage Food Producer Registration Training” course, which is a 34-slide Powerpoint in PDF format that ends with a 15-question quiz.
2. You may only sell foods that do not require refrigeration to stay fresh, which generally means canned or baked foods that are …
• acidic (pH of 4.6 or below)
• dry (water activity of 0.85 or less)
• sweet (water activity of 0.85 or less)
• salty (water activity of 0.85 or less)
3. Your booth must display a sign that states: “These foods are homemade and not subject to state inspection.”
4. You must label your food with:
1. the full name of the food preparer
2. a complete contact address for the food preparer
3. the date that the food was made
4. complete list of ingredients
5. a list of any allergens used if the food contains milk, eggs, wheat, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, and/or shellfish
5. If selling food is something you rarely do, then you don’t need to register with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA). If you do so sell food regularly, then you need to register with the MDA. Registration is free unless you earn more than $5000/year from food sales.

 
How do I price my creations?

Some options are …

• 2 to 4 times your materials cost — multiplier should reflect the time needed to produce the product (that is, your labor).

• Check Etsy or similar resources to see how similar products are priced.

• Determine how long it takes you to create each item, decide how much you want to be paid per hour, and then do the math.

Lower-priced products sell at higher volumes than higher-priced ones, but that doesn’t mean you should sell yourself short. Just be aware that higher value items will have lower sales numbers.

 
Will there be a central cash register?

No. Each maker is responsible for their own sales.

• You should be prepared to make change — including breaking lots of twenties.

• You might want to set up to accept payments via Square or PayPal Hereon your smartphone.
  • You can pick up a Square Reader for $10 at Target, Apple Store, Staples, Best Buy, Walmart, Walgreens, Sprint or Verizon and be set up to accept payments 20 minutes later.
  • Square will reimburse you for the cost of the Square Reader, so it is free in the end.
  • There are no set-up or subscription fees — instead Square or PayPal Here will claim about 3% of each transaction.

 
Is WiFi available?

Yes, but expect it to get a bit overwhelmed and thus sluggish.

 
What should I do if I sell out of products before the Makers Market ends?

First, congratulations! The organizers recommend is that you have a plan for taking orders for future deliveries and/or make handouts about your creations that will allow people to contact you to order additional items after the Makers Market.

 
Can I bring a bag lunch or snack?

NO. Fantasy Flight Games Center has a lovely café offering a variety of appetizers, soups, salads, sandwiches, espresso drinks, and more so NO OUTSIDE FOOD OR BEVERAGES ARE PERMITTED.

Please plan to support Fantasy Flight Games Center and show appreciation for their generosity in providing us with this space by purchasing any meals, snacks, or beverages from the café.

For your convenience, you may start a tab at the café. You will need to leave a credit card with the café staff and all members of your family will need to know the name on that credit card to charge their purchases toward your tab.

Food sales at Maker Booths are allowed, provided the maker is in compliance with Minnesota’s Cottage Food Law.

 
Can I leave before the Makers Market ends?

Please be aware that both the process of packing up and the presence of empty booths may negatively impact the other makers. If you know that you must leave early, the best option is to recruit a trusted friend to staff your booth until the end of Makers Market and pack it up for you.

If you do find that you simply must leave before the end of the Makers Market, please be respectful of the other makers and take a great deal of care to minimize both noise and visual distraction and to stay out of the way of shoppers at other booths.

Since you will not be around to assist with clean-up at the end of the event, please also take care to ensure that your table top and the space around your booth, including the floor underneath and around your table, are sparkling clean. Do not fold up or move your booth’s table as this breaks the pathway for our shoppers.

Because we changed the date and time, if you need to leave early this year, please just pack your booth as unobtrusively as possible, and then invite the maker next to your booth to spread out their wares into the empty booth space (Although it's still best if you can recruit a friend to staff and pack-up your booth at the end of Makers Market.)

 
Where should I park?

Fantasy Flight Games Center has a medium-sized parking lot. Overflow parking is across the street in the Salvation Army Division offices’ parking lot. Please only park in the areas shown in orange on the map.

We want to encourage shoppers, so please unload at the door and then move your car to the Salvation Army Division offices’ parking lot.. Leave the parking spaces closest to the Makers Market for our all-important shoppers!

Please pay attention to signage when parking. if you park where you are not permitted, you will get towed.

Please be cautious crossing Country Road B2 W!

 
What sort of help am I expected to provide for set up?

Pre-booth set up: Tables and chairs must be rearranged and any allowed event-related signage needs to be hung up or otherwise placed.

The organizers ask that no booth set-up start until pre-booth set up is complete as it slows down the pre-booth set-up process.

Depending upon the clean-up quality of the last event, you may need to wipe down your own table top before you begin your booth set up.

 
What sort of help am I expected to provide for clean up?

All makers (and their families) are expected to stay and help clean up the space until the work is done or they are dismissed.

Table tops should be wiped down, any and all event-related signage needs to be collected, tables and chairs must be returned to their usual locations, any and all other relocated furniture or accessories need to be returned to their usual locations, and the lights should be turned off and the door closed behind us.

 
Why isn’t there an image other than the logo in the marketing materials?

The all-volunteer organizing team wants the Makers Market to be welcoming of all the tremendous variety of local homeschool student makers and felt that adding an image would skew the makers who signed up towards whatever the image represented.

It is assumed that each booth will be making their own marketing materials that will highlight their own products.

Makers may use the Makers Market logo in their own marketing materials.

 
Shouldn’t there be an apostrophe?

No. Makers is used as an attributive noun or adjective not as a possessive. Makers describes the kind of market it is rather than telling you whose market it is.

 
Will the organizers be providing name badges?

No. You should create a name badge that reflects your booth’s branding.

 
Will the organizers be providing booth signs?

No. You should create booth signage that reflects your booth’s branding.

 
What supplies should I bring?

Each maker is responsible for determining what their booth needs to succeed. Things to consider bringing include …

• name badges
• booth signage
• price tags or pricing signage
• cash for making change — and breaking lots of twenties
• a cash box or other secure storage system for your cash
• a table cloth if desired
• a receipt system
• receipts should include your contact information
• cash (or credit card) to buy food and beverages from the café
• you can set up a café tab using a credit card
• your products!
• you!

 
What supplies are the organizers bringing for the Makers Market?

This may change with the new location, but in past year’s the organizers have supplied …

• sidewalk sign
• door signs
• restroom signs
• a roll of paper towels for table top cleanup
• a spray bottle of all-purpose cleaner for table top cleanup.

 
What is mobile phone reception like?

The signal at Fantasy Flight Games Center is usually just fine, but be aware that lots of people in an area can reduce signal quality and availability.

 
What is Homeschool Adventures’ relationship to the Makers Market?

Homeschool Adventures does not organize, host or sponsor events. Instead, it provides the structure to assist individuals in doing so. The volunteers organizing the Makers Market are members of Homeschool Adventures and rely heavily on that support structure and community to ensure a successful event.

 
What is HomeschoolRecess’s relationship to the Makers Market?

HomeschoolRecess does not organize, host or sponsor events. Instead, it is a free online event registration system that any homeschooler can put to use, as the organizers of Makers Market have done.

 

Fantasy Flight Games Center’s Event Space as seen from the southwest entrance and Flight Control counter.

 

Maker Registration

Maker Booths

Maker FAQ

Maker Marketing