Bringing Down Walls

We have updates on the progress of the renovation, building the co-op community, and opening up membership!

Quick Welcome

Hey folks,

First off, welcome to a monthly update on the progress of raising this co-op.

If you don't want to be on this email list please reply with a No Thanks and we'll try not to judge ;)

We’re thrilled with the early interest in MaybeItsFate. 262 people have expressed interest at this point. That seems like a lot.

We officially have our first member paying dues: David Conrad — who discovered our website was ready for sign-ups last week (more on that below). He even beat me, Rebecca, and Clare!

Keep sending us your feedback and ideas. We’ve got a bunch of updates below, including an exciting change to the cost to join.

ASK: Please forward this update to a friend that you think should be involved in the co-op!

We hope you'll join us,
Charley Miller

Get Involved

Frankly, MaybeItsFate has more in common with an inclusive community center like a YMCA than an exclusive social club like a country club, so we reevaluated our initiation fee.

Instead of a one-time fee of $480 for a standard membership, MaybeItsFate initiation will be a one-time commitment of $97 (and $19.50 a month). These numbers work in the financial model with the assumption that the lower pricing helps accelerate membership.

For those where the above is still too steep, we’re happy to share that the pay-what-you-can plan is activated on the website where there is no initiation fee, and a member can pay a monthly due amount that fits their budget. For those joining on this plan, we’ll track commitment to the co-op in terms showing up and pitching in.

There’s a plan on the website to pay more to help sponsor artists — and we’ve had two people ask about doing just that already. Amazing!

Did I mention the website is ready for sign-ups?

Spread the Word

We're starting to pull back the curtain.

Thank you to those who joined us at Ten20 in Butchertown on Sept 12 to hear me (Charley, above) share information. We’ve read through all the feedback, which is incredibly helpful. We are planning another session for early November.

Rebecca, Clare, and Charley joined Startup Week to share more about cooperatives, MaybeItsFate, and ran a panel for other local art communities and organizations to spread awareness. We were joined by Sharon Scott (ArtFM), Mark Roberts (The Monarch), Katy Delhanty (Portland Museum), Allie Fireel (Fringe Festival), and Grant Johnson (LVA).

MaybeItsFate Alert: 2 people (of the roughly 50) who attended the event at Ten20 discovered that they knew each other from a pandemic-period online photography course that was run out of Sante Fe Workshops. You can’t make this up!

1425 Story Ave

We* finished gutting the 3 story building. Now that floors are more open, it’s much easier to imagine the possibilities for the space and we’re even more excited.

Our architect Chris Manzo is about to finish all of the designs, including the new elevator shaft for an external addition to the back of the building.

Speaking of the elevator, the deposit was paid for the elevator and we hope to take delivery to install the elevator by late winter.

April remains our target opening and we know that’s ambitious. Our goal is to get our certificate of occupancy by then, even if the building and parking lot are still a bit raw.

• "We" in this case references the women in the pictures, along with a professional demo team led by our GC Eric May.

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