I have been a member for close to 6 years. In that time, I have witnessed 3 big blow ups including this one. After reading everything, there is not an argument, snarky comment, or question that I have not made myself in the past. I accused the Board of the exact same things that everyone one else has lately. I was mad and upset because people I liked who were ALWAYS good to me were being suspended or removed from the space. I did not understand why such a good person was being removed. I fought tooth and nail with the Board over it. I was very Salty for a long time. As time passed, I heard more and more of the details as the drama died down. In each and EVERY case I realized I ONLY saw my version of the picture. After hearing more of the story from other people I felt embarrassed for getting so worked up because the people I had liked were victimizing others in a variety of ways. I felt a variety of things after learning all the details. After that I apologized to everyone. The Board member I was the most accusatory towards I apologized to them in person. I didn’t expect forgiveness or to be liked by them because I was unpleasant. However, I was in the wrong and I wanted to keep peace in the makerspace by trying to be excellent. Over the years I come to realize we are an “Odd Bunch” of creative and diverse people who try to be Excellent to each other. I’ve come to know many of the people who keep the space going and I have found them to be honest hard working people with a Moral-Compass. These are the people I trust to run things, these are the people who step up when no one else does time after time after time. It is a Crap-Job filled with stress and BS. I sure AF wouldn’t want the job and most of you wouldn’t either if we are honest. This is why we vote certain people into these positions, because we have learned to trust them. I have learned the hard way to have faith in makerspace and the people we vote to run it. I don’t always like or understand things, but over time I do. I understand people are upset over recent events, it is upsetting to lose a person you liked. I felt Gaye did a great job in many ways with ceramics, but I also observed and experienced a different side to her that was anything but excellent. I “NEVER” made any type of formal or anonymous complaint about Gaye or anyone else for the record. Not my style,I’m to confrontational. I’m vocal and I live in the moment, then move on. My gripe with Gaye was my stuff getting constantly broken AFTER being fired. After I brought the issue to the forum my stuff NEVER got broken again. After the forum incident “THAT’S” when I experienced a different side of Gaye. I had already seen a rudeness from her directed towards other members including Malissa. I personally didn’t care about the whole “Mean Girl” treatment and the attempts to public shame me with the dozens of “IF IT"S NOT YOURS DON"T TOUCH” signs plastered across makerspace. I thought the attempt was stupid and the ONLY thing I cared about was my stuff CONSTANTLY getting broken. After making the issue public on the Forum my stuff stopped getting broken. Mission Accomplished!! If plastering posters helps the situation then okie dokie by me. I work from home 90% of the time so that BS didn’t work on me. I drop off and pick up. That whole “BEE KIND” thing where the signs were plastered all over makerspace was also meant to publicly shame another person. If some of you are HONEST, you know this. You might not of seen it that way at the time but it was meant to shame a person. This is NOT being excellent to anyone. I admit, I have a temper, I have opinions and beliefs that conflict with a lot of people but while I’m at makerspace I honestly do try to be a better person because makeict has taught me to be a better person by observing OTHERS being excellent to each other, even those they may not like still get common courtesy. There has always been a level of common courtesy extended to each other. I have witnessed leads who didn’t care for a particular individual yet still treated that person with respect, they never shunned them, publicly humiliate them or threatened them. They conducted themselves in a way that gained my respect and caused my respect and love for the space to grow as well. Makeict is an Excellent Place, we are not perfect but we are a Odd-Bunch of wonderfully diverse people trying to create a wonderful place for creative people. It hurts my heart to see so many of us at each others throats like this. I learned to let go and trust, that’s a big deal to me. I have Compound PTSD and letting go to TRUST is not easy for me, but it is something that I’ve Gained from makeict. It means more to me than anyone can know; it helped to restore my belief in good people are out there. I’ve seen it over the years at makerict. The ability to trust in others again is a big deal to me. Trust in the space. Trust in the people you’ve come to know to do the right thing even when it hurts or you don’t understand it.
There’s SOOO much drama here! I’m about done. I’m seeing some very passive aggressive things being said and really not so nice people. I would not refer ANYONE to this place at this time. Just sayin.
Your comment about people only seeing a part of a person’s personality etc is spot on. Remember when people couldn’t believe that BTK was who he was?
@Smasterson Michelle provided a balanced view with compliments as well.
Y’all asked for details but you don’t want to hear the person you’re defending had another side.
Michelle also admitted her own faults, which is pretty danged impressive IMO.
And so it continues!
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I am so happy to start using the space again. My family and I felt really targeted and unwelcome since the new ceramic’s lead took over. This is truly a great space and it’s nice to see that things have worked themselves out. Question though: what happened to all of the stuff in the ceramic’s room?! Was that all her personal property?
Debi, there ARE good people here, give it a chance. Time will show you how many cool people are makers. It took me a few years to see it. I was new when something JUST like this happened, I had similar feelings and thoughts but I decided to stay and I got to know people and Im glad I did
@mlefavor thanks for speaking your truth. I know that puting this out here was a long and thought through process. I really have enjoyed watching you and your work evolve over the last 6 years. Thanks for letting me in, I am better because of you and this community as well.