I admire your zeal for active citizenship.
I believe making signage or some other participation device in the shops may be appropriate within established and agreed limits.
I don’t believe our organization should engage in election events, nor would I support use of our funds for such participation in any way
Our local civic community has other, more appropriate, organizations for such a desired activity.
I’ll weigh in here. Anything even remotely political has become so extremely polarized and heated these days. Erring on the side of caution and staying away from it entirely sounds kind of wise to me.
That being said I am registered as non-affiliated with any party and I would have completely stayed away from the primaries if someone hadn’t explained to me some of the nuances of things coming up and that it’s not just about choosing party candidates. I had to Google to even know that I could vote on non-party things not being registered. So it can be good to simply be informed of what’s going on. There’s probably others like me who are clueless…
Do with that what you will. I have no answers/solutions. It’s certainly a tricky area. But having recently experienced my own gratefulness at having simply been informed I thought I’d share my story.
That’s what I’m afraid of and I want them to be aware.
I don’t support MakeICT engaging in political advocacy, even neutral advocacy such as a registration drive.
There is a great deal of work being done by political organizations in the Wichita area to inform citizens of the vote on August 2nd. Leave it to them or join in their efforts but do it outside of MakeICT. People need a place in their life free from political discourse. I understand the urgency but I believe that MakeICT is about making and should remain vigilantly neutral.
This thread has been an interesting lesson is how folks at makeICT see politics.
I can understand the worry, especially as it may alienate some members/potential members but true neutrality in politics is impossible.
In my experience folks tend to keep their values in line with their politics and we act our values daily.
Not to mention folks such as myself exist. Tho I try to stay away from politics, it feels like politics has a lot to say about my body, my color and whether or not I have bodily autonomy.
(If we don’t own ourselves, we own nothing.)
There is no neutrality in that.
I’m not saying we go buck wild and post 50/11 signs supporting sides but…no way in h🤬ll are we truly nuetral.
People at the makerspace are allowed to express politics and even make things for causes: Churches, Vegan posters, etc. The makerspace has to be apolitical because it is a 501c3 and that is part of the regulations that go along with that tax classification.
That’s why sometimes you see a disclaimer 'these are opinions expressed by such n such and are not endorsed by the the whatever ’ reporting churches to the IRS for telling people how to vote on this topic is a thing now.
The actual regulations prohibit endorsing a candidate. Constitutional amendments are allowable topics for 501(c)(3) so reporting churches for signs about the amendment will go nowhere.
This is a good resource on IRS and 501c3
The larger problem is bringing politics into a group that isn’t about politics. It isn’t difficult to create an atmosphere of division, which is the last thing a makerspace needs. We need to focus on those areas where we agree, and avoid making reasons to take sides on any issue that has nothing to do with making. There are lots of places to express our opinions, but I’m not at MakeICT to debate, I’m there to make things, learn things, and teach things.
Me either.
But the amount of times I’ve had to excuse myself from conversations leaning towards non-makeICT politics has been surprising.
Politics are gonna find us, we should be prepared for that.