Memberships

I’m thinking about dropping some cash on a few memberships in the new year.  Nope, not gym memberships – I have enough in my basement and at my Krav class to keep me close enough to something resembling in shape.  Instead, I am thinking about memberships to Platform53 and/or The Manufactory.
I heard about Platform53 a few months ago and thought about joining then, but was too busy.  I started working from home about 6 months ago and while I still maintain an office in the closest Siemens building, there is hardly anyone ever there (or at least that was the case 6 months ago when I made my decision to rebase to my home office), so I hardly ever go in unless I have scheduled meetings (which of course may be a self-fulfilling prophecy…).  Anyway, one thing I miss (both when I was in the office office and certainly since I have been in my home office) is the random discussions that can lead to a great new idea, a solution to a long term problem, or just a new bit of news that I wasn’t aware of.  Looking at the design of the space at Platform53 and list of people that are members there, I think a membership there might fill that void.
As for The Manufactory, I had toyed with the idea a few years ago of taking some courses at a local community college on the use of manufacturing tools – mills, lathes, CNC, etc.  Although I went as far as actually registering at the CC, I never actually signed up for a course – it was just too big of a time and money commitment for me at the time (and still).  Then there was the question of what would I do with my new found knowledge and no tools to use it on.  The Manufactory seems to solve both of these issues – they offer very basic “how to” classes on the machines in their shop (available to non members even) and then access to the shop itself so you can actually use that knowledge on your projects.  There are a few things I would like to know how to do and a few things I would like to get made.  There may also be some cool things I could tie in with my son’s homeschool curriculum here as well.  Even better, they offer simple day passes, which is where I will probably start, since they are a little bit of a hike for me and distance alone may make my trips there fewer and far between.
What are you thinking about joining / trying / doing in the new year?