[Noisebridge-discuss] Re: Draft Finance Policy

[jim]

at top a note. in line a couple of comments. 

   note: i put the draft and jake's comments on 
the wiki. there are a few points in the email 
discussion that probably should go up on the 
wiki too. i plan to clip out comments and 
intersperce them in the wiki page. 
https://www.noisebridge.net/index.php/FinancialPolicy


On Wed, 2008-10-01 at 00:51 -0700, Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
> Meredith L. Patterson wrote:
> > Jacob Appelbaum wrote:
> >> jim wrote:
> >>> Noisebridge corporate account checks should require two signatures,
> >>> any two of four Noisebridge members may sign checks (or all board
> >>> members or all officers may sign checks: the important point is to
> >>> require two signatures for a check). Those who can sign checks should
> >>> also have the responsibility for reporting current financial status
> >>> at regular times.
> >>
> >> It's possible that we'll implement something like this. I suspect the
> >> limiting factor is two-fold:
> >>
> >>     1) Banks are probably not going to like this very much.
> > 
> > Requiring two-of-N board signatures is fairly normal for corporate
> > accounts, actually; it's handled on our account's side. Usually it's
> > only applied to checks over a certain amount (e.g., checks for <$X can
> > be signed by one of N, checks over $X must be signed by two of N) but
> > you can set N to whatever you like.
> 
> 
> He suggested "any two of four Noisebridge members" and not merely two of
> N board memebers. That's what I was responding to...

clarification: 
my suggestion was two of a group of four _or_ two of 
the board of directors _or_ two of the officers. "N" 
would be four, the number of directors, or the number 
of officers, but not the number of all members of 
NoiseBridge. 
>From a bank's point of view, "N" is the number of 
signatures the bank must look at to verify check 
signatures. a number like four seems reasonable to 
cover vaguaries of peoples' lives (sick, out of 
town, etc.). 

> 
> > 
> >>> Consider a second short-term CD or other interest-bearing account as
> >>> a complement to the checking account. Such an account should have a
> >>> restriction to control release of funds, perhaps funds can only be
> >>> released to the checking account.
> >>
> >> This is a great idea. If you have some suggestions for a bank that can
> >> handle all of the above, that would be wonderful! We've put up a lot of
> >> banking stuff on the finances page. Do you have any preference?
> > 
> > Most banks do this. As an additional suggestion: take the amount you
> > want to place into an interest-bearing instrument and divide it by 3.
> > Purchase one 3-month CD the first month, a second 3-month CD the second
> > month and a third the third month. This way, there's a CD maturing every
> > month, so if it's not needed, its value+interest can be rolled over into
> > a new CD; if it is needed, there's money available every month.
> 
> That sounds like a nice idea. Someone should do that research and bring
> a proposal forward.

Comment: 
   Meredith's explanation is pretty complete, and the 
technique is well-known. the term for this is "CD 
ladder". you can divide by 12 and purchase one CD 
of that amount each month for a year then hopefully 
roll over each CD as it comes due. 
   In NoiseBridge's case, the minimum amount required 
for the smallest available CD (this varies by bank 
and through time) probably limits the number of CDs 
to two to four. 
   This is another item to put on the list of questions 
to ask when shopping for banks: what are their CD 
offerings and terms. 

> 
> > 
> >> We do not need _anything_ currently. Loaning things is probably a very
> >> bad idea. If you're burdened with something and Noisebridge could use it
> >> or would want it, please by all means donate it. When we're a 501c3,
> >> this will especially be great. With that said, we're probably going to
> >> destroy or consume a lot of things. It's unrealistic to want it back and
> >> it may even create personal drama when someone brings in "their"
> >> do-hickey that is "misused" or otherwise not available to them on their
> >> personal whims.
> > 
> > Did we ever talk much about how we're going to handle reusable items
> > that get broken? I have a fairly absurd amount of lab glassware that I'm
> > willing to bring in to bootstrap bio- and chem-hacking. Glassware
> > breaks; this kind of stuff just happens. However, I am a little worried
> > about what happens if someone breaks the $150 Liebig condenser and
> > doesn't have the money to replace it. (It's a meter-long *piece of
> > glass* that gets exposed to temperature gradients. Someday, it will break.)
> > 
> > Though I suppose one way around that would be to build less-breakable
> > equipment where possible; it's pretty easy to make a condenser from
> > copper or pvc pipe, though non-glass equipment is harder to clean.
> > 
> > I can't make the meeting tonight, unfortunately, but if this does come
> > up, I'd like to hear how people feel about it.
> 
> We're going to break everything at some point. We'll probably not have
> insurance and so we'll have to consider some things simply consumable.
> Those things will hopefully have a budget and we can ensure we're never
> out of Liebig condensers.

Comment: 
My point as a matter of financial policy was to disinclude donations and
loans of stuff from membership dues, mainly as an effort to keep the
bank account up. of course exceptions may apply. 

as an example of loans: it may be that we would like to paint the room.
i have a lot of tarps and painting equipment that i'd be willing to
loan. i'd want the stuff back. i'd make a big noise about proper care
and feeding of paint brushes and other equipment and hope to be present
enough during the work to enforce my wishes. if things got away from me,
i'd have to eat it as is: it makes no sense that i'd try to seek redress
from the group (in the form of dues credit or recompense or anything
else). 

> 
> Best,
> Jake
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>