Update from André

André, a member of the BRCP, introduced already in Leipzig his plans of quitting academia and building himself a place to work and live. He actually proceeded in his plan and updated per skype call.

• After the meeting in Leipzig last year August, where André's idea was presented, André went back to Spain to put his plan into practice. He informed his Colleagues about his decision to quit academia after his fellowship will end by October this year. Relieved from the hunt after a permanent position in academia, André did use the free capacities he gained by that to organize a space for his project.
• By luck he got introduced to the local squatting scene where he was warmly welcome with his idea of a table-football workshop and a space was made available for him in an abandoned but recently occupied truck-repair workshop (FIRESTONE). As he does not need to pay any rent he can avoid the financial risk related to it.
• André went on to integrate himself in the structures of the squat. His handyman skills were valuable for the repair of the building and he took part in community events like marked days and people kitchens in order to get to know the people active in the squat. He took part in assemblies to understand the functioning of the squat and to inform the people about his project and his needs for it. In this way André became an appreciated member of the community. Below you see a picture of the workshop at Andrés arrival and the current status of it.

• André went on with the first experiments in the workshop trying out different types of constructions for the football tables. A supply chain was established for the individual parts for the tables, some local wood suppliers were visited to get an overview of the available wood, and professional tools were bought where needed. In Jan17 André was ready to start to build a first prototype. Below you can see the almost final result, only the finishing of the surface is missing.

• Leo was visiting me in Jan17
• With the first “Kicker” ready to present to public he will see in the coming month how well his tables are received and if he can make a living out of it after his post-doc contract finishes. Already before he will set up a production process to produce up to 5 tables in parallel to cover eventual demand.
• A nice site result of André's efforts is that he can host events in the squat such that he is happy to offer the space to the BRCP. A community meeting sometimes in 2018 would be a great option to let the scientific spirit of the BRCP thrive in the FIRESTONE squat.
• When asked about possible educational plans André mentioned the non-trivial task of planning and building a kicker table, which already includes basic maths, physics and engineering etc.; education is thus provided through work in a direct inclusive manner