Dear Maintainers,
We hope this quarterly-ish newsletter finds you well!
Defining what maintenance means is often complex. It's not just about repairing objects or cleaning; it includes elements of care, yearnings for supportive social relationships, committed efforts toward policy change, functioning digital infrastructures, healthy physical surroundings and more.
We at The Maintainers welcome the complexity of your relationships and perspectives on maintenance. Over the years, the enrichment of your understanding of these practices layer onto our collective vision for a more well-maintained and cared for world. Our goal is to hold space for this comprehensive interpretation of maintenance, and welcome the range of experiences and expertise that guides it.
In this newsletter, you’ll learn more about our network updates, invitations for opportunities to connect, and ways that the movement for maintenance thinking and action keeps expanding.
Thank you all for being here, and helping make this effort possible!
With care,
The Maintainers
UPCOMING VIRTUAL EVENTS
Maintainers Meet Up
Thursday March 21st | 9am ET | Zoom
The Maintainers Meet Ups aim to elevate a dynamic virtual space that fosters collaboration, knowledge sharing, and advocacy among maintenance, repair, and care-centered practitioners. Here you will be able to:
Showcase your initiative related to maintenance, repair, and care.
Tap into The Maintainers network! Recruit volunteers, inquire on resourcing, collect feedback, or draw from our collective knowledge to advance your work or interest!
Offer cross-collaborative opportunities and connect with like-minded individuals to build a stronger community centered around maintenance, sustainability and care practices.
Learn and be inspired on what work other members of the community are working on,
Connect with an international community based on knowledge share and mutual support to advance maintenance, repair and care in our societies.
March Maintenance Session
Wednesday, March 27 | 11 am ET | Zoom
Invitation:
Join The Maintainers for a monthly, no-cost, self-guided maintenance accountability session as we invite you to set aside time for maintenance each month with us! During these monthly maintenance sessions, we join together in the community to spend time dedicated to maintenance. Think of it as a study hall, or accountability group.
Choose what maintenance project requires your attention. This can be time dedicated to maintaining your work, your home, your body, your relationships, your physical belongings, your mind, your community.
We encourage organizations to also hold space for maintenance within their teams, perhaps you can utilize this time for maintaining the projects you’re working on together!
Maintainers Network Updates
New book out this month from our Advisory Committee member, Guru Madhavan: Wicked Problems: How to Engineer a Better World. Check it out here!
We're grateful to @SolidarityHall for their shoutout of The Maintainers in their newsletter: Dust, Cracks, Corruption: Why "broken world thinking" is more important than fetishized innovation. Take a read, and subscribe to their newsletter today!
Our friends at Right to Repair just celebrated their efforts, as an Oregon State right-to-repair law just passed and more– Read all about it!
Do you have a maintainer you’d like to interview? A maintenance project that you’d like to highlight? Musings on maintenance? Learn how to pitch a guest blog post:
Submit your idea for a #MaintainersSpotlight or Guest Blog post using this form, and learn more about the project by clicking the button below. If you have any questions, do not hesitate in reaching out to liliana@themaintainers.org.
2023 Fellowship Landscape Scans and Directories
The 2023 Fellowship Deliverables included a Landscape Scan and Directory. Both Himani Kulkarni and Mathew Lubari have presented their work, which you can learn more about by clicking each photo!
Movement Builders
We’re excited to formally announce that we’ve been working with the cohort of former Fellows as an alumni network of thought-partners for The Maintainers. Continuing the movement for maintenance thinking and action requires effort from us all, and we’re grateful to continue to work with past fellows who have been instrumental in guiding the networks vision and topical priorities including degrowth, repair collectives, upkeep, public health infrastructures, environmental protection, just transition and more.
In a similar vein, we’re casting a wide net to build connection within this community. So if you, or someone you know of is working on a maintenance related project, we’d love to learn about your you and your work! Reach out for a casual coffee chat where we can share more about The Maintainers, and to learn more about your maintenance, repair and care efforts. Email laurendf@themaintainers.org to schedule a time to meet!