RED MOUNTAIN MAKERS

We want to unlock the creativity and innovation that is inside each of us. We want to provide the opportunity for people to be exposed to a wide variety of possibilities in art and technology, to explore and learn new things, and to find an interest that motivates them to grow.

We want to be able to provide the equipment, knowledge, and skills needed to enable this growth, this exploration. We believe that Making fundamentally changes the way you view the world. You no longer have to settle for the way things are; you can change things, you can make them work better. This viewpoint empowers you, motivates you to grow and learn more.

We are building a community with a wide range of interests, knowledge, and skills. We are all different, with divergent views on the societal, religious, political, and economic issues that divide our country, yet we have established a culture where we all work together, united by our common love for making and creating.

We want to grow that community to allow us to have more impact on our community and on the next generation.

We want to continue to add new capabilities and bring people with varied interests together, to cross-pollinate ideas and approaches, to create opportunities for people to learn from each other.

To meet our potential requires growth - adding more people, more equipment, more space, more resources.

Adding and upgrading equipment brings in new people. Our $4,000 laser cutter provided capabilities that brought in people. The $3,000 we invested in blacksmithing equipment brought in more people. The $2,000 we invested in a used SawStop tablesaw upgraded the safety of our woodshop and gives us much more credibility with potential members interested in woodworking. More people mean a wider variety of knowledge and skills, and a larger pool of volunteers for our community programs.

Adding more people increases our available resources, which allows us to add and upgrade equipment. We are upgrading our social media presence by utilizing a professional rather than relying on volunteers. We are actively promoting our classes on social media, and maintaining a constant series of classes to increase our visibility.

Adding more space will give us room for more equipment, larger classes, more people. We are actively seeking a larger facility that will provide kid-safe classroom areas, larger workshops, and more studio space for artists and artisans. We are currently in a 4,100 square foot facility that is absolutely full.

Adding more resources means reaching out beyond our membership for fundraising.

Ultimately, we want to move to having a paid staff to manage the space.

A makerspace is defined by three factors: people, resources, and location.

The most important factor is people. They provide the knowledge, the skills, the mentoring, the assistance, the training - and the learning and growth. The culture - the way these people interact with each other - is critical to success.

RMM has a very strong core group with a broad array of skills, and a very healthy culture. RMM is an entirely volunteer-led organization with no paid staff, so our ultimate impact will be determined by how well we can grow our membership. We have artists, artisans, engineers, tinkerers, hobbyists, and entrepreneurs - people who can make pretty much anything.

Resources are the equipment and supplies needed to create. On the artistic side, RMM offers the opportunity to create using wood, metal (welding, forging, casting), ceramics, fibers, plastics, dyes, painting supplies, and other materials. On the technology side, RMM lets you create using 3D design software, electronics, microcontrollers, robotics, custom PCBs, advanced networking, internet of things, and more. The impact over the past eighteen months of the addition of our laser cutter, industrial metal lathe, and professional SawStop table saw and router show that investments that seem trivial in the grantmaking world can have profound effects on our capabilities and desirability for potential members. The laser cutter provided essential capabilities for our COVID-19 response.

Location, Location, Location. It determines your capabilities; it determines your constraints; it determines who you can serve. RMM is currently in a 4,100 square foot facility in Woodlawn, Alabama - a neighborhood on the east side of the city of Birmingham. It offers low rent, but in a scruffy neighborhood away from the major commuting routes. While we have over 1,100 members in our group on the Meetup application (https://www.meetup.com/RedMountainMakers/), our location in Woodlawn has kept them from actually becoming a part of our community.

Because it is full, adding new equipment, new capabilities means performing triage - losing one capability to gain another. We need more space, and we need a location that is more convenient to more people and able to safely accommodate youth.

RMM was started in 2012 by a group of people who had been members of makerspaces in other cities and weren't willing to live in a city without one. They organized, started paying dues and meeting together, and in October 2013 moved into our current location in Woodlawn.

It was a mess. It was a former medical clinic, so 4,100 square feet was broken up into 38 rooms. The group invested lots of sweat equity tearing out walls to make usable space. And the group grew.

2016 was both the high point and low point for RMM. By mid-2016, RMM had over 70 members. A group of RMM members mentored the Woodlawn High School Robotics team and took them to the semifinals of the First Robotics Huntsville Regionals. They were a rookie team, but were selected to compete in an alliance in the playoffs.

The low point came when one of our founding members was shot at the makerspace by two fourteen year old kids who attempted to rob a young lady in our back lot. They followed her to the back door; he walked into the room from the opposite side and was shot. He survived, but was no longer willing to spend time in Woodlawn. Membership dropped precipitously.

Yet, RMM survived and stayed financially stable even through the darkest days. Over time, it slowly grew, attracting Makers who could see the vision through the grunge.

Then came COVID-19...

It is said that every cloud has a silver lining. The pandemic - and our response to it - was a catalyst for RMM. We shifted from making things for fun to the very serious purpose of making face shields to protect healthcare workers and first responders and coordinating the distribution of personal protective equipment statewide. We connected with more Makers, got more attention, and gained more members.

RMM finished 2020 with a 33.7% increase in revenue over 2019, with a 38.3% increase in membership dues and a 23.9% increase in donations. 2021 has started even stronger, with a new series of blacksmithing classes and more classes planned for the summer in leatherworking, stained glass, and woodworking.

This success in the face of adversity has given us confidence to take the next step in the evolution of our organization. Our fundraising to date has been dominated by contributions from our members; we need to reach out and draw on a broader source of funding to reach our full potential. We have received our first major pledge - $20,000 from one of our existing donors to assist us in our move to a new location.

We are currently partnering with another nonprofit, HUB Worldwide, in our search for a new location. HUB collects surplus medical equipment and distributes it to under-resourced areas in the US and abroad. We are also in discussions with the Alabama Woodturners Association about possibly hosting them. While they don’t have the financial resources to help with rent, they do have equipment and a wealth of knowledge that can help bring in the next generation of woodturners.