Just to clarify a point so it does not go misinterpreted.
Makeict is a community of people that have a shared workspace.
Sometimes people think the workspaces are the makerspace, but Makeict has been around longer than the workspaces. Even without a building, without the labs, without the 3d printers. If it was all torn apart by sentiant robots from the past⌠there would still be us.
Unless you were in the building when it was destroyed by sentiant robots from the past.
My replies to most of the comments in this thread are below.
@David, I am not accusing the board of not following the bylaws. Iâm calling into question the boardâs methodology for selecting who they appointed to fill the vacant board position.
Please remember that I am one ofthe members one who brought to light that appointing a person to fill the vacancy was permittable per the bylaws.
With all the concerns with the most recent election results, it does not seem prudent to offhandedly use who you remember to be the next person on the ballot without consulting with the entire counting committee (@Kip @Christian @curt.gridley). We had an entire counting committee for a reason and I believe that the methodology used during the board meeting this week was wrong.
I do believe that an election for the vacant position would have yielded a more accurate understanding of what the members want. Considering how many surveys this administration likes to send out on a regular basis, I think it is an absolutely despicable and a complete contradiction to say that we would hate to âbotherâ the members with a vote. Voting, in our organization, is another survey. Whoop de doo.
@tom.bloom your summary is not exactly accurate. The board was not forced to appoint someone Tuesday night. We could either appoint someone or call for an election from the membership. The board decided not to bother the membership with a trivial thing like the election of their leadership, so we appointed someone.
The board arbitrarily decided that Rustin would have been elected if JB hadnât been. So thatâs why they appointed him. The fact is, we donât know if Rustin would have been the next in line once JBâs votes were redistributed. Maybe he would have, maybe not. We donât know. What we do know is that the board used a flawed methodology to appoint a Director At Large to fill the vacancy.
I do agree that we got some very sour lemonade out of that meeting.
@ScottS The timing of the new builiding is more than a little rushed. The board has been discussing and meeting about this building since July 16, 2018. Yet, the membership is just hearing about it this past week. The board has been aware of a rough draft timeline since July 16th, but the membership is unaware that we are discussing this building move with an anticipated lease signing date of October 2018 and move date of January 2019.
Yes, the membership should be kept apprised of proposals, but the membership should also be aware that the board intends this to be the only proposal they present to the membership.
Many votes havenât gone the way I voted. Many votes have. My decision was not based on the results of a vote. Let me be very clear, Scott, I did not rage quit. 6 months of consideration went into my resignation. 6 months of doing everything I could to stay and support the Board of Directors of MakeICT. 3 months of trying to reconcile the inconsistencies and tunnel vision that most of the board seems to have. I resigned, but donât think it was without thorough consideration.
@rglazapple The board didnât pick the next person. The board didnât know off the top of their heads who would have been the next choice. Thatâs not how the vote counting system that we used in June works.
What the board did was handpick a person to fill a spot, which is not against policy and is permittable per the bylaws.
To-ma-to, to-mah-toe. What you see as drama, I see as transparency. As a member, I model what I would like to see from my leadership.
That being said, I did not send individual complaints. I sent the reasoning behind my decision. As an elected leader, I am accountable to the membership for my votes and my decisions. As a community member, I would hope that you would be interested in the decisions that the board, which you elected, is making.
Glad you donât feel the email is necessary. Feel free to delete it.
@kthutch Thanks for being interested! It looks like all your questions were answered. The only thing Iâm going to add is that the quarterly member meeting is currently scheduled before the next board meeting is scheduled. (it doesnât matter, itâs just a random thought). 
@Malissa @devin @ScottS Thanks for answering questions.
@paul have the details been shared with the membership yet, or just the admin list??
@kim People arenât going to step up and just take over doing things. You keep a pretty tight rein on communication, therefore, I speak for myself, but as you were setting the example, there was no way I was going to send anything out about the vacancy. With the whole building thing being hush hush, I didnât know if JBâs resignation was hush hush too. Remember, we lead by example and our teams follow our example.
Iâll say it again, I thought I was pretty clear in my resignation letter but, I did not resign because I was outvoted. I resigned because I do not agree with the lack of transparency of the board and the general feeling that if you donât agree with the majority, your opinion doesnât matter. This stems from all of last year and this year. The secrecy around the board pursuing the Printerâs Inc building lease from Curt and the methodology for filling JBâs vacant position on the board were the âstraw that broke the camelâs back.â You bother the membership with surveys all the time. Itâs ridiculous that you wouldnât want to bother them with another survey. Thatâs all voting is here, another survey. Again, absolutely ridiculous.
This is me letting you know that I am concerned that we didnât send the vacant position to the membership for an election.
Thank you @michelle for your comments.
@David Itâs not too early for any of this. In fact, this is grossly late considering that every timeline discussion in which Iâve been apart of has consisted of us signing a lease in October 2018 and moving in January 2019. These discussion need to happen and they need to happen now if you want an informed membership voting in September. But I donât know, maybe the board doesnât want an informed membership voting. If so, then youâre right, itâs âtoo early for to start with this.â
Also, it should be sent out to the members way before September 16th if you expect people to vote on it.
@curt.gridley The area in question and the minutes from the last board meeting have been shared with the membership. Using that information is not making premature judgments. Valid concerns about safety have been raised. Concerns, that you brushed off when I said them, are now being said by other people. When I said I wouldnât feel safe in the area in question and that the location was less than ideal, you acted as if I was too young and inexperienced to understand a business deal. Iâm so glad that Iâm not the only one who has concerns about the location and safety. I hope you donât brush them off as well. I am so glad that members are looking at the location and building. That seems like a very prudent thing to do for a business deal, wouldnât you think?
@kim we are sticking to facts. People live facts. Iâm pretty sure that I havenât seen anything in this thread yet that doesnât have some experience off fact to back it up. Passion does not equal a lack of fact or experience. Please remember that.
@heathenfire79 Thank you so much for your comments, your experience, and your willingness share on this thread. I sincerely appreciate it and feel validated that you share some extremely similar concerns about the area as I do.
@ladeana How many town hall meetings and surveys of the membership do you think you can get done before Curt wants the lease signed in October? Just curious.
Also, you and I discussed security the other night. Not only did you not see any security concerns when you toured the area, you also didnât acknowledge that there were valid security concerns when I raised issues. If youâre not seeing or acknowledging that there are security concerns, why would I think that as my board member, you will vote in such a manner as to address very real security concerns?
In conclusion, thank you to all the members who have commented on this thread. I hope that you continue to stay involved and vocal about your opinions and needs as makers and members of MakeICT.
Thanks for being my tribe and my community.
-Kez
@Kez
If we cannot make a decision up or down on a property in a month and a half, we will never move.
Most deals will be a lot faster and, frankly, I appreciate being given the time to allow the Makerspace to be in on the decision rather than shouldering the entire responsibility as could happen with some deals.
I believe in the Makerspace.
I know we can get the relevant data together (Jens will start putting out data sometime this weekend, I believe.)
We could not tell the Makerspace about the building because it could ruin Curtâs deal to buy the building. It was nice of him to trust us with that information and give us a head start on looking at the building. We held his trust. Kim did not even tell her husband Marc. I am proud of our board for doing that.
I did not understand you voting against the allowing the members of the space to decide if we move forward on the proposal, but I respect your right to do so.
@ladeana I see allowing the membership to vote to decide, as the fact that we trust the membership to do whatâs best for MakeICT.
Nowhere in our bylaws does it require us to get membership approval for moving the space or changing the rate we charge. We do have to review our membership fee yearly, at the annual meeting, but there is nothing that prevents the Board from changing it at any time. I believe it is out of respect of our membership that we include them in the decision making process. I voted for that because I wanted to respect and include our membership in the decision making process.
Just to clarify a few important issues:
I personally asked board members not to talk about this building opportunity before I had a signed agreement to purchase the building. Until about a week ago, I still didnât have a purchase agreement signed by the sellers as we were still negotiating terms. Anyone who has purchased real estate before such probably knows that until you have a signed offer for a property, someone else can hear about the deal and submit a better offer, leaving you out in the cold. I am grateful that the board was able to keep this quiet and I now have a signed agreement for the building. But being involved this early also means that many of the details of how I will ultimately develop this property and how I can structure a potential lease agreement with MakeICT are still very fluid. This has made it harder for the board to put together a useful set of information to share with the membership. This is why we have asked for a little patience and understanding as we work to provide more information about this property.
If all goes well during these final stages, I will take possession of the building sometime in October. At that point, if MakeICT is still interested, we can start negotiating the final details of a potential lease. Until a lease is signed, MakeICT is under no obligation to do anything regarding this property. The vote that is being planned for the quarterly meeting in September will be to let the membership decide, based on the best information available at that time, if they would like the board to pursue negotiations towards a potential lease agreement. MakeICT will also need to demonstrate at that time that it can afford the terms of the lease. This is why the issue of potentially raising dues has come up.
My purchase of this building is not in any way dependent on MakeICT signing a lease for space. If you feel MakeICT should not pursue this opportunity further, you can simply vote no in September. If a majority votes no in September, I will proceed with my other plans for this property. Even if a majority votes yes in September, it will still require the board to negotiate and approve the final terms of a lease agreement before a deal would be final.
My current plans are to arrange for a non-profit to own and manage this property, so I donât personally expect to make anything off this property. Also, I am offering MakeICT a lease rate that is significantly below what I expect to charge anyone else in the building. But in the end, only MakeICT can decide if it makes sense for MakeICT, all things considered.
If you ultimately donât feel this opportunity is the right one, I see no reason to be rude or crude or belittle anyone during the discussion. All you have to do is vote your preference in September after hearing and evaluating all available information. All I would ask is that you try to hold a civil discussion and keep an open mind until itâs time to vote in September.
Curt Gridley
I can verify what Curt has said in this thread is what I witnessed at the board meeting. Obviously as I am not on the board, the meeting was the first time I had heard about the property or future proposal.
this was a long winded read for 6am Sunday morning. some of it came off as constructive some of it read as snark. with that said here are my thoughts on all of this.
You will have to check and see how you feel about the area. There have been drug users in the alley behind our current building at least one night (they scattered as I went around the corner) and there are beggars up and down Douglas. I would probably expect the same anywhere in the Downtown area. The new building is just across the railroad tracks from the Warren downtown. I did see one tent in the alley as I drove down Santa Fe the first time. It is currently blocked from traffic as the Wave will make that alley an entrance for the band buses.
Here are a couple of the online resources I scanned for crime data:
In this one, the crimes looked about the same
http://communitycrimemap.com/
Also true in this one⌠about the same⌠maybe a little better at the new location, but still close enough to a high crime area that I judge them the same.
https://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Wichita-Kansas/crime/
I know Kez thinks we can rearrange the building to be competitive with a change of location. I told her I would help on the CAD end since I already have our current building in CAD. If you wanted to be in on that analysis, we are meeting on Mon. Sept. 3rd.
The things that will be hard to change at the current location (or cost big money) would be parking, space and electrical. Those would be my target items. Also the lease will run out eventually (4 years I think) and we will likely have to move at that time.
@Kez you were elected to be able to confront issues that arise. In this thread you did in fact rage quit. You saw an issue, then quit. You raised the concern (possibly to prove your point to the rest of the board?) And then quit. You effectively stated that you cannot continue in leadership and have left it to the rest of the board to make decisions for you. By raising a concern to membership and then telling them that you are unwilling to see their wishes through and that you hope the rest of leadership will do it, you basically stated you canât lead. I voted for you. I think you can lead. You let your emotions get the best of you. You rage quit. You donât get the moral high ground there.
The dramatics of your post has generated some less than helpful replies here.
Anyone can point out problems. Thatâs easy. I can do it all day long just sitting in my chair and pointing my finger. Location is a big concern, donât get me wrong. - A lot of people love to join in complaining, especially when someone else is leading the way. Itâs the productive ones who are looking for solutions and who donât have time for the bullshit that make a difference.
Edit: I donât mean to be harsh. I think you are very bright and capable. Youâve likely experienced and accomplished way more than I had at your age. People spend their entire lives learning about leadership. Just from what I know about you I think you are capable of very high quality leadership. So please donât take what I said to be as harsh as I feel I may have been. I didnât intend that at all.
I donât know how well he knows you, but I feel I know you fairly well, remember what we talked about in Koln? About how a thing seems grand in theory, then you start climbing the steps. And it sucks. But then at the at the top the clock and the view makes it all better.
Actually that probably wasnât you, but if it had been you would have been inspired just now. And thinking about that huge chocolate fountain.
That pretty lady just kept feeding me, I felt like the fudge boy in Charlie and the chocolate factoryâŚ
it seems like you are taking a 6 of one half a dozen of the other approach to things. its bad here its bad there its bad everywhere. perhaps so, but based off of what i have read in the thread it may be bad here, it sounds worse at the printing inc location. i find it odd you chose to select just the crime concern of my post but seem to have missed the other concern about exposure to the general public insofar as ease of finding us and any potential foor traffic we might pick up. perhaps not today- tomorrow or in a month but i have noticed landscape appearance improvements by our fair city clear down to hydraulic at the least. 24/7 access is still another big concern, why would i want to pay $25 if not more for a locked building? i ran into this about 25 yrs ago with the late bart ewonus in which i paid him $50 a month and he seemed delighted to take my money yet never let me use the studio space that was given to him. im a solid No vote on the move to printing inc location. it seems like a very bad idea.
Would also like to point out that sometimes we just need a break. Thatâs ok.
As for this building thing this is what it sounds like the plan was.
Curt buys a building
Board convinces everyone to move
We move in Jan. (Four months)
From what Iâve seen on this thread about the new building⌠there are multiple unsavory people there on a regular basis, but thatâs ok because we saw some unsavory people here once too. But we really shouldnât think about all of that because the board is truly looking out for our best interest and we should just go along with it?
Yes. I think that open streets is a really good advertisement for MakeICT. I think being in the design district is an asset. I guess I didnât addressi that aspect because I am still sorting out in my own mind wether being around the corner from the Warren and being right next door to the Wave will be a good thing or a bad thing. Here is what I am debating in my mind:
The Wave being right next door could generate quite a bit of business since there will be quite a few people visiting the venue on the weekends.
Will it be bothersome to have that many people nearby on the weekends with music and alcohol.
It would be nice to be so close to city arts⌠maybe we could do some projects together
One of the guys from the wave just joined MakeICT. Jerod Parson. Seemed really nice. He is thinking about installing some sort of lite brute wall into the place if it is not too costly. He seemed to be a genuine maker. He was also very open to the questions I had about the venue. He says it will be open for lunch and dinner which would be super convenient.
There are a lot of nearby apartments⌠if I was in an apartment, I would love a Makerspace next doorâŚ
Lots of food places in walking distance
I would miss being able to walk to spice merchant
In any case, this is what I have been looking at to weigh that aspect for myself. You will want to come up with your unowned thoughts⌠these are just the ones I am sorting throughâŚ
Close to the yard, close to the looney bin, close to the nifty nuthouse. All of those have pros and cons.
What district is that in. Have we contacted the developers. They may help significantly.
Excellent. I get the need to be quiet about it during negotiations. Once the email went out that publicized the events, I appreciate that everyone was forthcoming about where we were. Iâve had this happen in other organizations, and you all have handled it how it should be handled. You werenât quite ready for this to be out yet, but here we are.
Growing pains are awful sometimes, but at least weâre growing.
Edit: Corrected image to show the right locations
Yeah, but you could replace it with the Nifty Nut House 
