04/03/2020
To our local Maker community,
The Novel Coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on all aspects of our lives, and our growing community is no exception to this.
As we observed the growing threats of the pandemic, it became clear that we would no longer be able to host community events, workshops, and user groups. It then became clear that even allowing members to access the space would be placing their health and safety at a risk that we felt was unacceptable.
At the same time that we were coming to terms with the steps needed to protect our community members, the financial aspect of this crisis was hitting our landlords. They were looking to continue increasing our rent on the schedule that we had previously agreed upon while also cutting off our air conditioning in order to save on power. Even without the pandemic, a non-air-conditioned space would become unusable for our membership very quickly.
With all of this in mind, we have reached the unfortunate decision to cease operations as they have been, and hibernate the organization. We will wait for the pandemic to pass its peak and for our state & city to give the all-clear on nonessential movement, and then we will be working to move our community assets into a safe place for storage, getting any member-owned property returned to its respective owner, and spinning down our physical presence at Project 3810.
Member payments have all been suspended. Some of our members have asked if they can continue paying into the organization during this time in order to help us be able to establish our next physical presence. We cannot say how much we appreciate these offers, and anyone wishing to do this can sign back up for a subscription via our website.
We will, once it is safe to do so, continue operations in some form or another while we are seeking our next step as far as establishing another physical location. This may be in the form of a partnership with another facility or simply facilitating community organization. We are open to ideas on how to proceed with this, and welcome any suggestions.
This is not the end of our organization by any means. We will continue to operate, and we will have another facility. We're a community who uses a building, not the other way around.
Stay safe, and be there for each other. We'll keep you posted.
