On being a trustee

Discussion
1

Hello @members,

Shortly after I first moved to London nearly 5 years ago I became involved in what we now know as South London Makerspace.

Back then the project was little more than a meeting in the back room of the Dogstar in Brixton, a lot of talk happened (no change there!) but nothing much happened, a few meet ups but the project became stagnant, it needed some lunatics to push it forwards to happen.

Countless meet ups, thousands of posts and hundreds of hours later, we’ve been through three spaces, seen hundreds of members through the doors, taken part in various events, spend loads of money and made an amazing resource for makers in South London.

I am incredibly proud to have co-founded this space and been a member and trustee through it’s formative years.

Occasionally people ask why I wanted to be involved and what I want to make when it is finished, but I have no answer. For me seeing this happen is what I wanted, if anything the most valuable thing is having a group of like minded people to call friends around me.

It’s been a great run, but I feel now that Makerspace is in a good place and members are starting to take ownership of the space, now is a good time to step down as trustee of South London Makerspace and let someone else hold the fort for a while.

I’ve thought about this a lot, and talked to various people about this, and I feel it’s the right decision for me now.

Being a trustee is somewhat of a thankless task, members hold the trustees to incredibly high standards, often without considering the pressures and realities of what it is to be a trustee, from the legal responsibilities of running the business, to signing contracts, managing finances, and having ultimate responsibility for accidents. There is a lot of responsibility on the plate of the trustees, and it is often very easy for people to criticise the trustees or stand back and leave them to pick up the pieces when things go wrong.

I am a worrier, I always have been and I can’t help it. Contrary to what some might believe I am not a trustee for some sense of power, I genuinely am involved because I want to see this happen, but now I feel that I can be of more use leading the various projects I also happen to be involved in and let someone more able to deal with the worry take over.

Being a trustee has never been about having control, and as we look to rewrite the articles of association in the coming months I imagine the role of trustee will be written to be more of an administrative caretaker role, than the leadership role it once might have been perceived as.

Thanks for all the gates, and I look forward to many more as one of those vocal members in future.

Kind Regards

Tom Lynch

p.s. My last official day as trustee will be the 30th June if @tomnewsom and @dermot accept this, however I’ll do my best to help with the transition where needed, we need more than two trustees.

2

Dear Tom,

Thank you for being a trustee and for being welcoming when I first joined the space.

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3

Tom,

Thanks for all you have done. I’m not sure that it comes across well or nearly enough, but there are a large many of us who deeply appreciate all the work and effort that has gone in from all trustees and your own personal commitment to get us to this point.

Whatever the future brings will bring, but I’m hoping we can all move there together

With the kindest of regards

Pete

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4

Hey Tom
Sorry to hear this.
Thanks for everything!
H

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5

We have thrown a few buns at each other over the last year and all in all we have come to good discussions I think that you have been a inporant part of making SLMS Wat it is and will be missed as A trustee.

A good job well done .

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6

Ild like to echo the comments made so far.
Thanks for all you’ve done.
You’re contribution (understatement of the year?) has made this place a real success.
You have been the glue that stuck all these odd balls together.

[Don’t do it!]

7

Without you, this wouldn’t have happened :slight_smile:
Massive thanks, and I look forward to all the gates to come.

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8

Definitely would be no such thing as South London Makerspace without you.

That in itself is quite something.

But you’ve also put in over a thousand hours of work.

Huge thanks from me too.

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9

I don’t suppose there’s anything we can say that might make you change your mind?

Obviously the Makerspace wouldn’t exist without you, and I think you can also take a huge amount of the credit for the high quality of design that differentiates us from the ‘competition’.

If you do decide to go through with your decision, then thank you thank you for everything you’ve done.

10

Thanks for all the kind words.

I said to @joeatkin2 I was pretty set on this, I still am.

This doesn’t mean that I am not going to be involved in the space, and I hope that my views and experience will be leaned on still.

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11

I think that we need more trustees, two is definitely not enough, more like ten or eleven.

And I think that you should stay on . The trustee role is almost a full time job at the moment.

12

Actually being a trustee requires very little in some ways.

What it does mean is a shift in personal priorities however, something very few members have taken on in my mind.

The reality is that trustees actual responsibility/role isn’t the same as their actions, i.e. I really actually do very little beyond card payments, and a few other bits.

The main thing is trying to ensure some level of responsibility around the space (level headedness), because I don’t want to see accidents happen or be responsible for not preventing them.

All the other stuff like systems and what not is just stuff I’ve taken on because someone has to and as a trustee if you can fix something and no one else comes forward it ends up on your plate.

It’s not fair but it’s the reality of a organisation like this. Most people would rather someone else looked after stuff than do it themselves.

13

It was a essential and very hard role that you took on , and I don’t know who is going to fill it .and as our resent worrier with some experience in a big organisation .

14

You are a smart cookie with a sharp view of the world. Makerspace will be the worse without your leadership, but there is more to the world than Makerspace.

Good luck with the future, I hope you can enjoy making things in the Makerspace whose existence you’re so central to.