Make Salt Lake

07/07/2026

Good morning everyone. We wanted to release one more document, this is the response to the letter received from the Board of Directors in response to the original open letter. This response was written by the former staff members who actually oversaw and executed on all the points the board attempted to claim credit for.

This will be our last communication here, as the board has threatened to "release information that could be potentially damaging to certain individuals". We suspect this is manufactured, however, we've come to some other conclusions and decisions of our own and have decided to move on. To all the remaining members of Make Salt Lake, best of luck. Signing off.

03/07/2026

Good morning everyone, as we mentioned, here's the response we received from the board. We'll leave this here without much comment for now, but we would draw your attention to the statement on slide 4 that begins with:

"An immediate mass resignation of the board would cause..."

If you've ever been part of a non-profit at the governance or legal level, this one probably has you scratching your head a bit, we'll dive into that when we post the rebuttals from the operations staff a bit later.

02/07/2026

Good morning everyone, as mentioned yesterday, we'd like to give a bit of context to the situation. Understandably, things are a bit confusing, so let's start at the beginning.

What follows is an open letter that was sent to the Make Salt Lake board of directors on June 15th of this year. The crux of this is that back in September of 2025, Make Salt Lake entered into an agreement with the Salt Lake City CRA to acquire a new building that would serve as the new home for Make Salt Lake, which is referred to in the letter as "Folsom". It's now July of 2026, and up until recently, that is, until the board felt like they HAD to take action as a result of this letter, no movement had really been made on that effort.

This is just one grievance, the rest are outlined herein. I don't want to overwhelm folks with a huge wall of text, so I'll leave this here and be open for questions, but the a few question that I know people will have I'm going to answer now:

YES, we tried all other options and at each turn, the board either stonewalled us or pushed back. We did not choose this path lightly, because based on how we'd seen the board move, we knew it would put jobs at risk.

YES, we will also be posting the responses we received from the board, as well as some rebuttals.

01/07/2026

A sad farewell from one of our former members, leaving because of this whole debacle with the board:

"I had a few last minute things to finish up in the Woodshop today but it will most likely be the last day I am here. It’s is such a sad place now. No one else in the Woodshop all day, and of course I cleaned up everyone’s messes one last time. Heartbreaking. I turned off the lights on my way out …."

This is what Make Salt Lake is losing. Not just the opportunity to move into an amazing new facility, but an even more amazing community of Makers.

01/07/2026

Everyone, thank you for all the support on the picket line and cancellation of memberships to save Make Salt Lake. we reached a new number of 130 cancellations last count with the number still climbing. Please join us today from 4-7pm, we will be here to answer questions. This is day 9, Cancel your membership here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfM1gJOVx_12TR-tsLero2v1B392fg1g0_PB06IhXVgncmZ1Q/viewform?

Please review the cancellation policy below and fill out the form if you would like to cancel your membership. Eligibility for Cancellation: New members must complete their three month commitment before eligible to cancel. Only the primary member on an account can request cancellation. Cancellations...

30/06/2026

The makers of Make Salt Lake are sad to share that the board of directors have taken the extreme steps below in the last 24 hours against the staff, instructors and members of the organization.

Board President Reid Rouse locked the staff out of their offices and prevented them from accessing their personal belongings until the board was informed the police would be contacted.
Board President Reid Rouse brought in a group of friends from outside the makerspace to attempt to undermine the efforts of striking staff, instructors and volunteers. Some stayed in the space to approach makers asking them to support Reid.
The board has suspended the makerspace Slack, preventing member communications. While Slack was coming down it appears they made attempts to delete channels, messages and ban members who speak out.

As you may know, our Slack was the heart of Make Salt Lake’s community with nearly 3000 makers and 15 years of history. It is now gone. This action shows the board's utmost distance for our freedom to communicate and work together. We now know the board is willing to silence individuals and now they are willing to silence the community. The image in this message says it all. Those four vs everyone else. They have lost the confidence and good will of the community.

Our demand is simple: ELECT A NEW BOARD AND STEP DOWN!

So far 125 members have cancelled their memberships in solidarity with the staff. To cancel your membership click the link below.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfM1gJOVx_12TR-tsLero2v1B392fg1g0_PB06IhXVgncmZ1Q/viewform?

13/06/2026

Sign up today for our Manual Mill Class!
https://www.meetup.com/makesaltlake/events/calendar/

12/06/2026

Plan your week of certifications and classes at Make Salt Lake.
https://www.meetup.com/makesaltlake/events/calendar/