First of all apologies for everyone that has been eagerly awaiting news of when/how LMN is planning to reopen. We’re committed to getting the space open again as soon as it makes sense, but we’re being necessarily cautious. We’ve been paying close attention to numbers, guidance, and executive orders to make the best decisions for public health, our volunteers and our members.
I’ve got a few documents to share that will hopefully give some context as to the type of work we’re doing right now. All the links have suggesting/commenting enabled so please feel free to add comments or questions in the document or here in this thread.
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the update. I’m glad that you are proceeding with great caution. You didn’t address the matter of membership fees, which I haven’t been paying because I haven’t been getting reminders and I keep forgetting.
To my knowledge, all memberships and associated fees have been put “on hold” until the space is able to open again. This is why the reminders have not been sent out recently. Once the space is back open, I believe (though I am not 100% sure) that previously active memberships will resume where they left off.
@Jimmy is 100% correct. Memberships are currently on hold and renewal reminders have been stopped as well. We’re still working on the exact details of how we’ll restart memberships, but the current plan involves starting with a “trial” re-opening where we wouldn’t be restarting the clock on memberships right away. Once we’re more comfortable that we’re providing the membership experience we’d be willing to pay for, we’ll start the process of restarting the membership clock for everyone (we have no idea when this one would happen).
Other recent questions
(answers subject to change… everything is evolving day by day):
Will all memberships restart at once or will I be able to keep my membership on hold if I don't feel comfortable coming into the makerspace?
Once we’re out of the “trial” phase and with plenty of notice we’ll probably start with restarting your membership the next time you check-in. Eventually, once we’re operating with some “normalcy” we’ll restart all on hold memberships. This is all dependent on some technical changes to the membership system. On the plus side, we’ll probably end up with a way to put memberships on-hold as a matter of course. (Neat!)
What if I want to continue to support LMN by paying my dues?
You can always go to https://members.lansingmakersnetwork.org/ and pay membership dues. What we’d love is members to make donations to the makerspace if they’re able. You can do that here: https://store.lansingmakersnetwork.org. Memberships are a liability on our books (we owe you something for your membership). Either way, we welcome your support however you’re comfortable and able to provide it.
How is LMN financially? (Is that why we're not reopening yet?)
Our Board and leadership team have worked hard to create a cushion to help LMN absorb hard times if they came. We’d never have known this is what we were preparing for, but we have money in the bank to keep the utilities, rent, and the like paid until we’re able to reopen. We can’t stay closed forever, and we’re certainly working toward reopening as soon as we’re able to do it safely and responsibly.
How can I help?
Comment and provide feedback on all the documents at the top of this post.
Look at the Todo lists above and volunteer to help if you’re able
The reopening plans seem stable enough for now that we’re moving forward with the big lists of todo items to reopen the makerspace for Phase 1 of the plan.
I’ll post a separate thread for ways y’all can help out!