It’s been a very long time for some of our supporters, but we will be completing on the lease for our space in 16 Mill Lane on Monday. We are incredibly grateful for your support, enthusiasm, and patience. We wouldn’t have got this far without you.
We’re now getting ready for our bootstrap period, which is where Founder Members in particular will be involved in planning and setting up the space. We’ve put together a rough set of next steps that we’re keen to discuss with the Founder Members – these can be seen on our timeline. The first step will be on Monday evening, when there will be a chance for Founders to have a look at the space, and to share a celebratory drink. (If you were planning to go to the Cambridge Science Centre making event on Monday, then we strongly encourage you to still go to that – there will be other chances to see Mill Lane soon.)
Following on from this, we’re planning an event for Founder Members, ‘Madespace’, to initiate our bootstrapping period. We’ve been calling this the “bring-a-chair” event – beacuse that’s what the Founder Members are going to need to do – the space is empty at the moment. It will be a chance to see what’s happened so far, and to work out how we make Makespace. This will be the first time we pull together the enthusiasm and knowledge of our Founding members, so it should be a really great event.
After that, we’ll be taking Founder Membership payments. During the bootstrap period the space will be fitted out, and initial kit and furniture acquired and installed. There will be weekly events (probably Thursday evenings) for Founder Members to meet in the space and plan/discuss/build/make. We’ll work out how the community should operate and prioritise what kit to secure first. There will be a couple of bigger events too once we have a few key bits and piece in place (like fire detection), which will help us raise our profile and secure sponsorship and so on.
When we’ve got all the necessary parts in place, we’ll have a Grand Opening, at which point the bootstrapping period ends, normal members can join, and Makespace will be making things.
We need to work out how we’re going to handle donations of tools, furniture and so on, so please hold off bringing other items for now; if you have something you urgently need to clear out of your shed/garage/newborn child’s bedroom, please get in touch.
If you’ve not been tracking things closely, you can find out what’s been happening and why it’s all taken so long here on the blog. You might find our Guiding Principles interesting too. You can still become a Founder Member: sign up today if you can support us with £250 upfront for 6 months of membership and early involvement. If you sign up before lunchtime on Monday 10th, you’ll be in time to come and visit the space with us on Monday night! We’ll take the very last Founder Member sign-ups on the door at the Madespace event.
Many thanks again for your support!