Author: ted@thebrickyard.org

Yes.  We’ve been pretty quiet.

We were told back in September that we were awarded $5000 from the CDBG program, and again, about a week ago, by the Mayor’s office.  This funding is usually made available by the end of the summer, but it’s been held up…  by Congress.  Let that sink in for a minute – not only for us, but for the 20 or 30 organizations in this city that depend on the money to help out on everything from homeless shelters to meals-on-wheels.  …and all the organizations that rely on this funding, nationwide.

That’s money that we were counting on to continue our progress and repay some expenses that have come out of personal pockets.  That work has to be on hold for the moment.

We’ve been waiting for word on our Mass DEP grant, which would get us rolling with our recycling/upcycling/reuse programs, repair clinics and other important work.  That decision was supposed to be made in the end of September, and as yet, there’s no word.  Emails have been sent, no responses have been received.

Finally, as you have probably heard, we were awarded a $56,000 grant from MassDevelopment, which is awesome…  however, as you can imagine (or probably know), actually receiving the funds requires stringent review and a whole lot of coordination.  We thought we’d been through the hoops, but we learned quickly that there are many more hoops to hop.  Currently we’re trying to negotiate a lease – and if you’ve ever dealt with commercial real estate, you maybe have an idea of what that’s like.  (eg: “PLEASE.  I BEG OF YOU.  Just ANSWER YOUR EMAIL.” – edit: Persistence pays off – got through to the building owners today! – )

In the Department of Stuff We Have Control Over Dept., one thing we’re working on is putting together Workshop Gift Certificates for you and yours for the Holiday Season!  Nobody has time for extracurricular activities this time of year, so you can give the gift of Making in advance – either a Gift Certificate for any workshop, or for specific classes.  We were hoping to be able to announce that along with an announcement that we’d locked in a location, but, by Thanksgiving, you’ll see the Gift Certificates announced, either way.

Never fear, don’t despair!  A good friend of ours likes to say, “95% is only half-way there!”  To be honest, we never really appreciated the truth of this, until the last few weeks…  but we’re not discouraged – only all the more determined to make this happen!

Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.

Yes, folks, our first major grant just came in!  We’d been asked to attend an event out at the Umbrella Community Arts Center in Concord (which some of us remember as The Emerson Umbrella from back in the ’80s, an effort by several “hippie artists” that was, for us, an inspiration for what a community can achieve in the arts!), by the people at Mass Development, and we were told it was good news, but they couldn’t tell us how good.

Well, it was the best.

We were awarded the full amount of our proposal – $56,000 – to “… secure and buildout a space…  to establish a facility for the Brickyard Collaborative, including providing financial stability strengthening our position negotiating with potential landlords, site design and buildout.”  This program is aimed squarely at efforts in “Gateway Cities” to start makerspaces and co-working spaces, and we hit a bullseye.

This is the Mass Development Collaborative Workspace program, the same one that we launched a Patronicity campaign for this summer with matching donations and were able to leverage those, along with the donated work and equipment we already own, to meet their 50/50 matching requirement.  That is to say, this was all possible because or your support.

We’ve been spending the last month or so planning out our next steps, and thanks to this grant, it’s time to put those into action.  As soon as we get the contracts and information on accessing the funds, we’ll be signing a lease on a space we’ve been working on, and then the fun starts.  Stay tuned, it’s going to be a great ride!

Thanks again for your support!

Ted

Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.

When we first started talking about this makerspace idea, just about a year ago, it was really just a handful of people.  One thing led to another, and now we have a group of people who’ve come to see us, learned about what we’re doing, joined in, taken on some of the heavy lifting, taught classes, provided leadership…  you get the idea.  The thing is, we haven’t really had a chance to all get together in one place.

This month we are looking at our final awards letter from one grant, and decisions on two more that could enable us to pull the trigger and sign a space.  We’re looking at a few spaces, and talking with some landlords and brokers.  We’re accumulating equipment that we’re storing (and using if we can), and we’ve got a growing list of people who are excited about joining us.

We’ve also formed some pretty interesting and fairly powerful alliances – groups in Lynn, and groups up and down the North Shore as well – and they’re all interested in how they can be a part of what we’re doing.

So, the time has come to get everybody together, shake hands and dive in!

We need to put some faces to names, get off Facebook for a bit and put together some solid plans for the coming months.  I’ll be putting a slideshow together of the past year, and some teases for some spaces we may be calling home, along with some peeks at what we’ve got for you to use.  You will meet our Board, meet our instructors, meet our volunteers…  meet the people who have kept the momentum and enthusiasm growing!

We’re having this on the 29th of September, at Land of a Thousand Hills, 61 Monroe Street, from 11-2pm.  We’ll be putting together the Facebook Event, probably an Eventbrite too, just so we can keep track, but stay tuned and keep an eye out for the announcements.  Share with anyone who you think may be interested, this is open to everybody and for newcomers too!

(UPDATE: Registration – free – and more info on the Eventbrite page, here.)

Thanks for all that you’ve contributed, thanks for your help and involvement, and mark the date – see you then!

Ted

Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.