Membership

Members have access to tools, equipment, and space to bring projects to life. But more importantly, you'll be part of a passionate community that thrives on sharing knowledge, exchanging ideas, and working together.

As a volunteer-run space, members are expected to contribute through space maintenance, upkeep, and planning events. Everyone contributes in different ways, but we try to make sure everyone finds a way that they can help keep the space up and running. Expect to spend 2-4 hours monthly volunteering for the organization.

We are not a pay-to-play facility.

Membership Process

Each member must go through a few steps before being fully approved.

1. Applicant submits their application (available here).
2. Weekly, The board of directors meets or asynchronously reviews applications and places them in a “Pending” or “Declined” Status. Member applications may be declined for a variety of reasons, most often this happens if we don't have enough information about an applicant to make a decision. Sequoia Fabrica will not comment on the reasons a particular application was declined.
3. Applicant schedules an orientation. Check our events platform for "Member Applicant Orientation" times. Your application process will continue after the orientation. These are usually held on the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month and are run by an existing member. To respect the time our members volunteer, we ask you try to make this time work. If there is no way you can attend this time, contact us about scheduling at a different time.
4. If an application moves forward we will follow up asking the applicant to set up their membership dues. This is done typically through Open Collective, our donations platform.
5. After membership dues are set up the application is complete, and marked as “Approved.” All memberships start out as provisional.
6. Before receiving a key, members need to join our Slack chat in order to stay up to date with organization announcements. You will receive an invite via Email.

Membership Cancellation

Members can cancel at any time on Open Collective. If you choose to cancel your membership, there are a few things you need to take care of.

1. Email or Slack message a board member to let them know you have or are cancelling your membership
2. Collect any personal items from your member storage. If your membership has already ended, and you have not retrieved these items, send an email to the info@sequoiafabrica.org inbox letting someone know you need help with this. If you have loaned any equipment to the space, make sure you follow the Equipment loan policy.
3. Remove yourself from any Sequoia Fabrica online accounts that are specific to members. On the last day of membership, your accounts will be disabled.
4. Return your key to a board member. If you cannot directly hand over your key, for example if you have moved across the country, mail your key to our current address with your name and number, or have a trusted contact pass over the key.

Sequoia Fabrica would love to keep all members in good standing from cancelling, but understands there are numerous reasons why this might come about. Please do not use cancellation as a way to receive access seasonally, or if you plan on taking an extended vacation. If you have a special case for leaving and know you will be returning, try talking to a board member before cancelling to see if any arrangements can be made. Anyone in good standing who has cancelled their membership and would like to return is welcome to reapply.

Membership is paid at the beginning of each month, and cancellation is complete at the end of the month in which the dues were cancelled. If you cancel on the first of the month, it's no different than cancelling on the 31st of the month. We are not able to reimburse for time not used or pro-rate memberships.