Fwd: [Noisebridge-discuss] lease text - Draft Finance Policy

jim jim at well.com
Tue Sep 30 16:59:44 UTC 2008


   seems doing something quickly is better than taking 
longer to do a better job. 

----------------------------------

NoiseBridge Finance Policy (and related considerations) 
Draft for Discussion 


Minimum Reserve 

A NoiseBridge bank account should have at least six months' 
expenses to pay rent, insurance, ISP, power, and various 
supplies. 

NoiseBridge should run a funding drive if balance falls 
below five months, to continue until balance exceeds 
seven months. 

Consider having parties as part of funding drives. What 
other events and efforts? 


Bank Account Access 

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. 

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. 


Member Dues 

Two-tier membership plan: higher tier pays a higher 
monthly dues for unrestricted use; lower tier pays a 
lower monthly dues but must also pay a per-use fee. All 
payments must be by check. 

Consider a vetting process for new members. SF Gem and 
Mineral Society's vetting consists of prospective 
members getting two current members to vouch for them 
(first step is a short chat with each of the existing 
members, second step has two members okaying the 
prospect at a meeting, third step consists of new member 
payment and receipt of a card. 

Consider issuing a NoiseBridge member card with a 
member number and a date. Possible to barcode or 
otherwise enable electronic verification (alternate 
possibilities could be fun). 

Consider requiring higher tier members to maintain at 
least two or three months' paid-ahead status. 

Consider releasing keys only to higher tier members. 
This idea suggests regular hours and some set of 
persons willing to open the place for those without 
keys. 

Some small group should share managing and tracking 
this stuff. 


Physical Supplies 

Donations of equipment and other physical goods do 
not count as member dues. Consider loaning or giving 
things for NoiseBridge use. 

Supplies to be paid for as part of ongoing expenses 
could include cleaning chemicals (to be determined) 
along with one good quality broom, one good quality 
mop, up to four various-sized sponges, supplies of 
paper towels, toilet paper, toilet seat sanitary 
covers, plumber's friend, toilet bowl brush and 
holder, two five-gallon plastic buckets, two 
two-gallon plastic buckets, up to four other 
various-sized buckets or containers. 

Consider drinks to be personal items. Or consider 
purchasing a vending machine. Having an honor bar 
with a cash jar and the responsibility of getting 
the cash and stocking contents seems too much 
hassle for the possible rewards. 


Other 

What's missing? 

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On Sun, 2008-09-28 at 11:20 -0700, Rachel McConnell wrote:
> We're beginning to understand that with a group of this size, decisions 
> are best made by this kind of process:
> 
> * someone, or a small group of someones, makes a fairly detailed 
> proposal and presents it to the group
> * people who have opinions make changes to the proposal
> * the group chooses from a small set of proposals
> 
> Free-form discussion is excellent for getting a general sense of what 
> people want to do, but it's hard to a) know when the discussion is done, 
> and b) turn it into specific tasks.
> 
> Jim, it looks like you're taking the lead on drafting a monetary policy 
> :) Manage it in whatever way seems best to you - but my suggestion would 
> be, write one first, since there aren't a lot of people jumping into the 
> discussion yet.  I bet that number would increase if you gave us some 
> more specifics.  The 3-month vs 6-month buffer goal is a good piece of 
> specificity, what others do you think are necessary?
> 
> Rachel
> 
> jim wrote:
> >    seems first a matter of group discussion, 
> > don't you think? 
> >    rachel already answered the question of 
> > paul's risk and landlord's understanding. 
> >    how do people feel about noisebridge 
> > building a reserve of three months' rent as 
> > opposed to six month's or even more? are 
> > there other anticipated costs that a cash 
> > reserve should cover? 
> >    as to the timeframe, seems a very quick 
> > job to update after group understanding is 
> > determined. 
> > 
> > 
> > On Sat, 2008-09-27 at 12:20 -0700, Paul Böhm wrote:
> >> hi jim,
> >>
> >> great you're taking the time to write such policies - can you give us
> >> a timeframe within you'll complete the documents?
> >>
> >> cheers
> >> paul
> >>
> >> On Sat, Sep 27, 2008 at 9:01 AM, jim <jim at well.com> wrote:
> >>>   thank you, thank you for using RTF!
> >>>
> >>>   it seems strange that the premise address and
> >>> description isn't specified. other than that, terms
> >>> seem okay.
> >>>   what is Noisebridge from a legal point of view?
> >>> not a corporation yet, it seems from the wiki and
> >>> email history. and not a sole proprietorship or
> >>> other formal organization. it may be that jacob,
> >>> as signer, is the default holding-the-bag person
> >>> in case of funding disaster. if so, how to cover
> >>> him/us better?
> >>>   wiki (could stand a bit of updating, yes?)
> >>> shows money policy as spend it all. i think one
> >>> update would be to specify some kind of holding
> >>> tank amount to be held for emergencies ("don't
> >>> spend it all right away").
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Fri, 2008-09-26 at 18:09 -0700, Rachel McConnell wrote:
> >>>> Attached is an RTF of the lease for everyone's review.  We plan to
> >>>> attach an exhibit (as described in pgh 22) to the effect that the floor
> >>>> tiles will be fixed by October 1st as promised, and something similar
> >>>> with regards to the wiring but we haven't had a chance to fully evaluate
> >>>> that yet.
> >>>>
> >>>> Read it over and comment if you have the inclination.  It's a pretty
> >>>> standard lease, actually simpler than many I've signed in the past.
> >>>>
> >>>> Rachel
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> >>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> >>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> >>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> >>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >>>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> >> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> >>
> > 
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> > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
> 




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