2022 was another incredible year at Asmbly with many new additions and firsts. We’ll have the major highlights and numbers compiled in our annual report coming out later this month, so be sure to watch for that! In the meantime, I wanted to share some upcoming changes for the new year and give advance notice on new opportunities to get involved in 2023.
As we give a quick update on leadership changes to start the year, we must first give thanks to leaders who served in 2022! A lot goes into keeping Asmbly running and it’s done almost entirely through volunteer efforts. Thank you to all the leaders and community members who help keep the lights on and the machines running.
Big thanks to Randall Ward who served as Director of Development in 2022. @Devmani was our top Fundraising Champion for ILHIGH in 2022 and stepped into the Director of Development role as the first to serve in a very broad role. He took it in stride and pursued sponsorships and partnerships with a range of companies. As we continue working on our partner and sponsor programs in 2023, we’re taking a step back to redefine and further develop the roles within this realm. This is an area of the space we’ll be putting a lot of focus into this year and we hope to build a solid committee to work as a team to achieve our goals. Stay tuned for more on this and reach out to leadership@asmbly.org if you are interested in getting involved in this area!
Another huge area of the space this past year has been the education department with immense gratitude to David Disko who served as Director of Education in 2022. We’ve seen incredible growth in our class offerings this year after @David began working with the Education Team at Asmbly. More details and numbers will be included in the annual report, but we’ve had over a dozen new teachers and several new specialty classes added to the schedule this year with a continued focus on adding more project-based classes. As education continues to grow and expand at Asmbly, we’re evolving along with it and adjusting roles to better suit the needs of the space. Along these lines, David will be transitioning to Lead Instructor and shift his primary focus to helping instructors further develop their classes as well as developing and teaching his own classes. As you may recall, David has decades of adult teaching experience in several different domains as both a teacher and a coach/mentor/trainer to teachers. He is passionate about helping teachers find their stride and ensuring students receive good hands-on experiences in classes. By shifting his focus to instructor and course development, David will have more time to work with instructors to ensure classes at Asmbly are among the best in town. He’s also excited to get more of his own classes on the schedule such as segmented bowl turning and electronics classes.
In the month ahead, we’ll be working on better outlining areas where members can get involved. If you have an interest, please don’t hesitate to reach out to leadership@asmbly.org. Otherwise, stay tuned for more to see if something sparks your interest!