We’re Open! What’s Next?
Our Hub is officially OPEN! Keeping it open is our next big step.
Whether you’re a long-time MotH or recently joined the eclipse, your reasons for being part of this community of resilient, supportive mums are as diverse as our 6,000+ members. Sometimes we come together to laugh, often for a shoulder to cry on, but every day we are building a stronger, more interconnected community here in the hills.
In the hubbub and chaos of our daily lives and social media circuses, it’s easy to scroll on by the details of what goes into maintaining and supporting our MotHs community. But, grab a cuppa and take a moment to understand what goes on behind the screen:
Online
First and foremost, our broad array of private online groups is run by an army of volunteers. Moderators perform the critical job of setting the supportive and inclusive tone for which MotHs is known, keeping members safe, and putting out spot fires before they burn down the group.
Likewise, the MotHs incorporated association has a volunteer steering committee with the overarching responsibility as the public face of our service organisation. This small cadre of dedicated volunteers manages grant applications and deliverables, acts as a conduit between researchers and the MotHs community, identifies opportunities to better support mums, and ensures we meet our legal obligations. Many other MotHs also routinely step up to share their talents and resources to do whatever is needed from fundraising to legal advice and beyond. (Figure 1 shows the structure of the various public and private branches of this beautiful beast.)
Our website is a vital link between social media and face-to-face communities. This voluntarily maintained and updated website, populated with news, resources, and business promotion, mitigates the risks of social media issues that would spell the end of our important online community. From this space, the Business Directory funds the current MotHs running costs. The small fees businesses pay to promote themselves to our online community covers our Public Liability and Volunteers Insurance, website hosting and consumer affairs expenses.
Figure 1: The MotHs structure illustrating the vast and various ways we connect to our community.
Advocacy
Every week, emails, letters, meetings, phone calls and interviews are conducted on behalf of the MotHs community to ensure our collective issues are heard and acted upon. As a result, MotHs is regularly lauded in local, state, and federal government for our advocacy work.
Help and support for MotHs members is coordinated privately between volunteers and our network of individuals, charities, not-for-profit organisations and social services.
Exciting event ideas and collaborative opportunities are floated and considered weekly. While we run with as many of these as are manageable, having a strictly volunteer workforce means many wonderful initiatives can’t be enacted. Simply recruiting more volunteers isn’t a viable solution without a central point of contact to manage and coordinate all individuals and their activities.
Events & Workshops
Finally, getting a great many grants. We have worked our bums off to secure grant funding to create events and workshops identified or requested by our online community. Grant funds typically cover big-ticket items such as expert facilitator fees, venue hire, catering, and entertainment. Funding is rarely allowed to cover staffing beyond a token of appreciation for the substantial time actually required to organise successful events or run a community group. This is understandable as grant funds should go back into the community, not pay for running costs.
The Hub
Achieving the improbable goal of opening a beautiful MotHs space took extraordinary leaps of faith, dogged determination, countless hours of brainstorming, favour calling, emails, phone calls, endless meetings, and unbelievable levels of frugality. Again, the volunteer army worked themselves to exhaustion bringing an extraordinary dream to fruition.
Sustaining the MotHs Hub and maximising the benefits delivered to our community via that space requires hiring a dedicated clerk. Having someone onsite to coordinate Hub activities (site access for practitioners, working/studying, group meet-ups, ski-gear and maternity wear loans, etc.) and manage the business directory and subscriptions is critical to meet the broad range of needs. This position must be paid. Relying strictly on volunteerism for such a role is unsustainable, goes against our mission statement to support the wellbeing of mothers in the hills … in which mothers connect and thrive, and fails to duly recognise and reward mums for the work they do.
Additionally, there are the basic, unavoidable ongoing costs of keeping the lights on, water flowing, covering our assets, waste removal, rates, cleaning, etc. Our rent and Wifi were covered for this year by Fletchers Real Estate and Telstra, respectively, but need to be self-funded in the future. While we will continue fundraising efforts and see income from space hire increase with time, neither is a reliable or sustainable way to run a community service centre.
With all this in mind, we are asking you to subscribe to keep MotHs going and growing. A subscription model allows us to provide more value for everyone without limiting access to those who can afford an extra expense. As with radio station subscriptions, everyone can still “tune in”, but subscribers will receive a few perks: discounts on non-grant-funded events and Hub space hire, and an early release newsletter. Subscription rates are $5.60 /month ($3 concession) or $62 /year.
By introducing subscriptions, we open a world of opportunities through a responsive, coordinated online and place-based not-for-profit organisation dedicated to advocacy and supporting all mothers in the hills and surrounds. Supporting one another, we all thrive together.
