The Geek Group dreams of 'Avalon'

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A Kalamazoo non-profit is trying to go really big, and 'The Geek Group'  hopes it will help them attract new members and new followers while also doing something the region really needs, create jobs. The head of the group, Chris Boden, really wants people to learn and think their way to a new and better economy.

Established in 1994, the group is currently headquartered in an old machine shop on Kalamazoo's industrial north side. The 'Geek's' shop is filled with machinery and experimental gadgets that have been gathered over the years through donations, and collection from various industries. But now West Michigan's mad scientist, Boden, wants to expand and allow the group and anyone who wants to get involved to experiment, and work on a much grander scale.

"We're a place where you can walk in the door with something in your head and walk out with something in your hand," said Boden.

To be around Boden is to realize that the president of the group is also the president of having fun, but he's deadly serious about people experimenting with no strings, because if that creates a product that creates jobs, all the better.

"I don't want to make 100-thousand of anything, I want to make 5 of something, I want to help people like you take your idea, make your prototype and you can take your prototype and go make a million of them," said Boden.  

Boden and his colleagues are already helping people by letting them come in, tinker and learn on the machines the group has at its disposal, including auto-lathes that can make nearly anything. He hopes to take that concept and apply it to an open resource research campus that he has dubbed 'Avalon,' which would be centered in West Michigan.

"Imagine you had a large scale research environment like MIT or something like that, but throw away the tuition and the exams and the grades and it's just about people with a sincere and passionate desire to learn," said Boden.  

Boden also emphasizes that what the group does with minimal cost, and often for free is something that just doesn't happen in most places.

"There's nowhere in the world where guys like you can just walk in the door and here's the machine and you can use it and we'll teach you how, and you can make your thing, and this allows you to come in here and make your prototype," said Boden.

Boden has fielded offers to move his entire group and operation elsewhere, but he won't budge, because he believes Michigan, and West Michigan in particular needs the Geek Group.

"To do this in silicon valley would be easy, you go out to California and it's easy. We're here in the silicon backwater of Michigan, where companies are running away and the economy's circling the drain. They don't need it in California, we need it here, here's where we have a 20-percent unemployment rate," said Boden.

The Geek Group's Executive Director also believes in the Mission. Lis Bokt moved to Kalamazoo from her native Canada just because she felt the group lined up with a teaching mission she'd always dreamt about.

"We believe there shouldn't be anything preventing you from learning about something you want to know about. If you're an adult and you want to work on a project, you know you can make something, but there's no way you could buy the tools required to do it.  We're here for you to learn how to use them, we'll teach you how to use them if you don't know, we'll help you make whatever it is you want to do," said Bokt.

Boden says 24 hours after his group was profiled on National Public Radio, it gained almost 1,000 new members. He appreciates that nationally many people are interested in the group, but he really wishes people in West Michigan would support him, instead of dubbing them as weird experimental geeks. Still, he believes that his mission is meant to take place here, and he wants to keep doing it an hopefully bring a new mentality to people, while helping them innovate and hopefully create new industries.

"I don't want to be rich, I don't want to do any of that, I want to play with really cool toys, I want to share these toys with a million people," said Boden.

Boden says he has a site in mind for Avalon on 40 acres of land that's 5 minutes from Kalamazoo, but he wouldn't tell Newschannel 3 exactly where that land is since he hasn't sealed the deal yet.

The Geek Group can be found online at www.thegeekgroup.org.