Hello members and supporters! I just wanted to check in with you on how things are going now the SVFDF grant has ended. It’s all [invisibly] going on!

Compulsory membership fees

If you’re already a member I’m sure you’ve received some emails about our new sliding scale of membership fees starting at £1, which we think should make it affordable for everyone. If you’re struggling with the lower tier, please do get in touch, because we’d rather find a way to make sure you can stay a member if you would like to.

Funding changes

The SVFDF grant was truly a godsend, it made it possible for us to have premises at all and we are so proud of everything we have been able to provide with it, powered by volunteers. The SVFDF grant ended on 31st March, and the directors and many members worked their socks off to bring everything to fruition for the full 1.5 year term. It’s been an incredible experience!

We have been awarded another grant, this time from the National Lottery Community Fund, to keep us going for another three years. This one will enable part-time employees to lighten the load on the directors, who’ve been acting as de facto managers when they had capacity in their spare time. This grant will start to come through once our new employees are officially on board. Which takes me tidily into…

New space managers

After a very competitive recruitment process with some incredibly difficult decisions, we’ve chosen two people to take on the space manager position as a job share. They’ve got lots of relevant experience already, and some new energy and ideas to bring in while they keep Machspace on an even keel.

We’ve never employed anyone before, so this is all extremely new for us. We are pacing ourselves and taking our time, drawing in support from available organisations to make sure we do everything properly and legally. This means it will probably be at least a couple of weeks until we’re able to introduce you all.

In the mean time…

We’re a bit short-staffed!

One of our directors is on leave, and another just moved away. The remaining directors have day jobs and disabilities, so we’ve got a lot on our plate.

Since there’s a lot of difficult work going on behind the scenes and fewer people than usual to do it, the result is that it is a challenge to keep up with the more visible stuff. It might be harder than usual to book a new member induction or some equipment training at the moment if it needs a director to do it. We’re doing our best and it should only be temporary.

Our volunteers are the BEST

Having said all of that, volunteer Rachel is in the neighbourhood for a week and is able to provide some overlocker training, and Theo is now qualified to train members on the laser cutter! And Tanya is keeping the kitchen stocked with snacks as usual, what a legend. Kaan kindly gave some of their free time to assemble our new workbench, which is more space-efficient and mobile than the old one. Matt continues to be on-hand for any woodworking questions. Pat keeps enthusiastically sharing her decades of experience with macramé, lino printing and related arts, and her reliability and expertise is so incredibly supportive for us.

Our directors are also still volunteering in member-facing and public-facing ways when they can. Altaea is hosting several upcoming group induction sessions for new members, and Ruth is newly hosting a regular “Crafting in Cymraeg” session for Welsh speakers and learners.

And then there’s YOU. While we’re swamped with stuff behind the scenes, anything you can do to keep the workshop pleasant and useful to other members is incredibly helpful for us. When you do something small that someone else hasn’t thought of, that’s what keeps Machspace going! Keep the kitchen clean, write the date on the milk when you open it, throw out old stuff in the fridge, wipe the tables down when you’re done, sweep up your sewing threads and sawdust, empty the bin and take the bag round the back when it gets too full, turn the lights off when you’re not using them, take the label off your member storage box when you don’t need it anymore, post the full sign-in sheets into the filing cabinet, let us know when something important has almost run out, and put stuff back where it belongs – honestly, every little helps and you’re all so considerate and thoughtful. Thank you for everything you do to keep Machspace a wholesome community hang-out.

~

It makes us so happy when we walk into Machspace and see people in there just spending time with friends, getting a bit of work done, drinking tea and sewing, playing board games, shooting lasers at stuff [in a well-trained, controlled way], etc. We’re so chuffed that you like spending time in Machspace.

Thank you for your patience while we invisibly deal with all this admin and legal stuff!

— Cassian

[Image credit: Easter lino prints by Rachel Millington.]