The Ethos of Make Santa Fe
What Make Is
Make Santa Fe is not just an organization. It is not just a facility. It is not just a schedule of classes or a collection of equipment.
Make Santa Fe is community.
Make is a shared space where people learn, build, experiment, fail forward, collaborate, start businesses, teach each other, and create lives that are more connected, capable, and creative. It is part workshop, part classroom, part social commons, part small-business incubator, part cultural movement.
We believe its institutional structure should reflect this reality.
What We Believe
- Community is not just something we offer. It is something we practice.
The people who build and sustain Make — members, staff, instructors, volunteers, and supporters — should not be treated as passive recipients of decisions made elsewhere. Community means relationship, participation, trust, and shared stewardship.
- Human-centered organizations are stronger organizations
The way Make is governed and operated should reflect human dignity, sustainability, and trust. If creativity, experimentation, and support are central to the member experience, they should also shape the internal culture of the organization.
- Sustainability applies to people, not just budgets
A sustainable organization is not one that survives by overextending the people who care most. Real sustainability means role clarity, rest, transparency, accountability, and systems that do not depend on burnout or guilt to function.
- The people closest to the mission deserve meaningful voice
Those who teach classes, run programs, maintain the space, build businesses, volunteer their time, and participate in the life of Make hold real knowledge about what the organization needs. That knowledge should have value.
- Creativity and experimentation should shape the organization itself
The maker movement is not only about what we create with our hands. It is also about how we design systems, relationships, and institutions. Make should be willing to rethink structures that no longer fit its reality.
- Transparency builds trust
Healthy organizations do not rely on single individuals, secrecy, confusion, or distance from the people they serve. Transparency is not a luxury. It is part of stewardship.
- Shared stewardship should define the future of Make
The long-term future of Make should reflect the truth of what it already is: a collective effort sustained by many people whose contributions deserve recognition, participation, and meaningful influence.
The Future of Make Santa Fe
A Practical Guide to Shared Stewardship, Member Voice, and What Comes Next
Hard problems require creative solutions.
Make Santa Fe has proven something important: this organization works. It works as a creative community. It works as a place of learning. It works as a local economic engine. It works as a gathering place for artists, makers, small business owners, teachers, tinkerers, and builders.
Over the years, members, staff, instructors, volunteers, and supporters have built one of the most unique creative ecosystems in Santa Fe. We have grown membership, expanded programming, supported entrepreneurship, and created a place that matters deeply to many people.
The question in front of us is no longer whether Make can succeed.
The question now is: how should Make be structured so that its future reflects the people who actually build and sustain it?
The Core Problem
Right now, Make is legally and structurally organized in a way that does not match the reality of how it functions.
- Members build businesses and livelihoods in the space, but have no formal voice in governance.
- Staff carry the daily responsibility of sustaining the organization, but have no ownership stake in what they help create.
- Instructors, volunteers, and active community participants contribute immense value, but are structurally distant from decision-making.
- The board detrimentally holds formal authority, but too often operates without deep alignment to the day-to-day reality of the organization.
This creates friction, not simply because of individual failures, but because the structure itself is increasingly out of step with what Make has become.
Make is no longer a small startup nonprofit finding its footing. It is a thriving, community-powered institution. And yet its structure has not evolved to match that reality.
A Better Direction
We believe Make should move toward a more participatory, community-rooted model of governance and stewardship.
That means:
- real member voice
- meaningful staff participation
- stronger transparency
- more accountability
- and a long-term structure in which the people who build Make have a real stake in its future
This transition cannot happen overnight. It will require careful planning, legal review, organizational design, and community conversation.
But we are saying:
The future of Make should be built with the people who sustain it, not merely around them.
A Long-Term Structural Vision
A Future We Want to Explore
We believe Make should seriously explore a future governance and ownership model that is more democratic, participatory, and aligned with the community that sustains it.
That future may include:
- a membership-based governance structure
- formal member voting rights
- staff participation in governance
- reserved representation for key stakeholder groups
- a cooperative-inspired or multi-stakeholder governance model
- a structure that gives the people closest to the mission a real and lasting stake in the organization
We are proposing a serious and deliberate exploration of a model that better reflects what Make already is: a shared community institution created by many hands.
Guiding Principles for Any Future Structure
Any future model should be guided by these principles:
- Human-centered design
- Radical transparency
- Maker-first governance
- Shared stewardship
- Economic dignity for creative workers
- Accessibility, inclusivity, and anti-gatekeeping
- Sustainable growth
- Protection of the long-term health of the community
Anticipated Questions
Because recent events have made visible deeper structural problems that many people have been feeling for some time. Make is at a turning point, and this is a moment that requires honesty, clarity, and direction.
No. The recent conflict was a trigger, not the whole issue. The larger issue is a mismatch between Make’s mission, its governance, and the lived reality of the people who sustain it.
No. The opposite. This effort exists because we care deeply about Make and want to strengthen it.
No. We are calling for accountability, transparency, and a more community-rooted future. We believe the people closest to the mission (members, instructors, volunteers, and staff) should have a meaningful voice in the organization’s direction.
No. We are proposing that Make begin seriously exploring what a more democratic, participatory, and cooperative-inspired future could look like. That process will require legal, financial, and community review. We want to include the community in this process.
The immediate asks are governance accountability, board engagement, transparency, member town halls, and a serious review of how Make’s structure should evolve.
No. The goal is to protect and strengthen the Make community, not disrupt it. We want continuity in programs and operations while building a healthier future.
Because Make is sustained by its members. Your trust, participation, labor, businesses, and presence are part of what gives Make value. You deserve transparency and a meaningful role in shaping its future.
We will continue organizing members, instructors, volunteers, and stakeholders around a broader effort to secure accountability, reform governance, and build a more aligned future for Make.
You can support by:
- signing the petition
- reading and sharing this packet
- asking questions
- attending town halls or meetings
- staying engaged in the future of Make
- helping shape a healthier and more accountable organization
Proposed Transition Phases
Spring / Summer 2026
- Deliver petition and packet to the board
- Request written response within 14 days
- Organize community communication and member support
- Establish immediate governance reforms
Phase 2: Governance Review and Community Design Process
Summer / Fall 2026
- Review bylaws and articles of incorporation
- Assess paths toward greater member and staff participation
- Form a transition working group or design committee
- Engage legal counsel with nonprofit and cooperative governance experience
- Hold member town halls and collect structured community feedback
Phase 3: Structural Exploration and Organizational Design
Fall 2026 / Winter 2027
- Define what a more participatory Make model could realistically look like
- Evaluate options including membership nonprofit, hybrid governance, or cooperative-inspired structures
- Assess legal, financial, and operational implications
- Draft possible governance models for community review
Phase 4: Implementation
2027 and beyond
- Advance the most viable and community-supported structure
- Implement governance changes through appropriate legal and organizational processes
- Build new systems for participation, transparency, and sustainable operations
- Continue aligning Make’s structure with its mission and community
