[Noisebridge-discuss] New space?

[jim]

   I think this is likely a bad idea. pull in horns, 
clean up act, get creative with sharing space, save 
more money. 
jim 


On Wed, 2009-04-01 at 19:56 -0700, Andy Isaacson wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 01, 2009 at 07:30:42PM -0700, Jonathan Foote wrote:
> > Hey, for folks who couldn't make the meeting last night, can someone
> > summarize what happened, specifically regarding a new space?
> 
> At the meeting 2009-03-31 we discussed the possibility of renting
> additional space at 83 Wiese.  Currently 83A is available.  We would
> prefer to expand into 83D but the tenant there is still present.
> 
> Our most excellent treasurer, Mitch, pointed out that we have
> approximately $9k in the bank after paying April rent (but before the
> rest of our April expenses).  This is approximately 3 months of
> operating expenses at our current run rate, which meets his minimum
> comfort level.  If we double our space it will approximately double our
> rent, electricity, and cleaning, but won't affect our other expenses
> much (Internet primarily).  So we estimate that we'd need about $15k in
> the bank for Mitch to be comfortable increasing our burn rate.
> 
> Several people took this as an opportunity for an impromptu fund drive,
> and offered to make lump sum donations to meet this $15k goal.  I
> believe we came very close, the last number I heard was $5400 in
> commitments leaving us around $600 short.
> 
> As a result of this fundraising Jake and I are contacting the landlord
> to explore our options.  The options under consideration include
> 
>  * discounted rent due to economic conditions
>  * free months of rent
>  * coterminating leases at 83C and 83A (either 6mo or 12mo from now)
>  * offering to move the tenants currently in 83D to 83A so that we can
>    have contiguous space
> 
> We could also move to another space elsewhere than 83 Wiese, but for the
> moment expanding at 83 seems like our best bet.  (We do have a lease on
> 83C running through September 2009 and given that the landlord has an
> open unit she's probably not going to be very happy to agree to break
> the lease -- and getting taken to small claims court for breaking the
> lease is neither excellent nor fun.)
> 
> Finally, can we actually afford another $2500/mo in burn rate?  Assume
> that we start paying $2500 extra in April 2009 and we do not increase
> our income at all (so we continue to take in $3000/mo as we did in
> February and March).  Then we'll burn through our $15k nest egg in 6
> months.
> 
> In order for this to work, we need to raise our input by $2500/mo before
> that line hits 0.  The sooner we can start getting more income, the
> slower we burn through the nest egg.  To that end, we signed up 8 (!)
> new members last night.  There are 20 (!) prospective new members in our
> Membership Binder.  Depending on the mix of Starving to Employed
> hackers, that's an additional $640 to $2240 per month, so call it $1200
> round numbers -- not all of those 20 will materialize.
> 
> So on top of those, we need another 20-odd members to break even.  At
> these rates, that doesn't seem unlikely.  Remember, it was only 6 months
> ago that we *rented* 83C, and look where we are now.
> 
> -andy
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