[Blackpool] The Future of our Club

[Mike Hull]

Hi All

Our application to the Craft Council for participation in
their nationwide “Open Day” campaign for craft organisations (and funding from
them) has brought to light certain issues which we may have to address.

The first is “who are we”

The current collection of associates who occasionally meet
together on a Saturday call themselves various things.  The original LUG decided to widen their
appeal and become a makerspace to encourage new members, among other things.
Indeed it was through the search for a makerspace that I found the club. Officially
we are currently “Blackpool LUG and Makerspace” (or Makerspace and LUG) we are
variously listed on the internet and by various organisations as:

Blackpool LUG and Makerspace

Blackpool Makerspace and LUG

Blackpool Makerspace

MakerspaceFY1

Towerlug

The UK Hackspace Foundation says 

Hackspaces are places you can visit to meet people, learn,
socialise and collaborate. A place to make your own projects a reality or help
others with theirs.

In my opinion that covers “us”. We have moved on from being just
a LUG to something more.

We have perhaps come to a crossroads, we have an opportunity
to move forward but how do we do that.

We are soon going to have available a new club room.  We have an opportunity to get funding from a
National Government organisation, the Craft Council. We will have an
opportunity to put ourselves on show, show off our new meeting/workshop
facilities and encourage new members.

However, we may run into problems that the Craft Council may
only want to make payment to a properly organised club. We currently don’t have
a club constitution, don’t have defined membership rules, don’t have a bank
account for the Craft Council to pay money into. We are getting to the stage of
owning equipment and perhaps needing insurance and our own internet line, all
of which is a lot more difficult if we are not a formally organised club.

So, the members need to decide:

Do we become a formal club with a constitution?

If we do then:

What do we call ourselves?

What are the aims of the club?

Who will run the club?

All are invited to voice their opinions via this mailing
list. Please let your thoughts be known, even if you normally don’t communicate
through the mailing list. We may have to make decisions quickly if the Open Day
necessitates this.

This is your club, what do you, the members, want to do?

I have attached a proposed draft constitution for the club
for consideration.  Please give these
matters some thought.

Please post your opinions to the mailing list. I hope most
of the current members can attend this Saturday 19th September where
we can discuss things, but if you can’t make it we will take into consideration
any comments sent to the mailing list.

Apologies if anything I have said above upsets any
individual. Sorry if I have made any mistakes or omitted any important matters,
please correct me or bring it up at the meeting on Saturday.

Regards,

Mike Hull