[Noisebridge-discuss] Space viewing report: 2169 Mission

[Josh Myer]

This place sounds excellent!  If you guys are all enthused, I'm
totally on board.

But, moneytalk: I finally found my green visor and adding machine, and
dug into the budget dmolnar sent out last month.  Disclaimer: my
numbers are pretty conservative and cautious, but realistic.  Also, I
ain't yo' treas'rer, so these are not official numbers, and I defer to
Mitch on any factual issues with my projections.

First, the good news: even with minimal membership growth, we can
afford this place within six months, no sweat.  If we like the space,
we should definitely take it!  Once we're at 120 members, we're in
like flynn.

Now for the better news: this is a great opportunity show how much you
love noisebridge!  One of our goals has been to keep three months of
operating expenses in the bank at all times.  Based on my model of our
income and expenses, this will require a serious cash infusion.  When
we almost moved before, people stepped up with 6,000$ in donations
on-the-spot.  With that much in the kitty up front, we'll get down to
two months of cash on hand before we start breaking even and saving
money again.  It will take us 12 months to get back to 3 months'
expenses.

So, to make this move happen comfortably, we need to both increase
membership a bit and pad up our savings.  If we can get another 2,000$
donated (plus the 6,000$ pledged already), and roll in everyone in the
binder, we don't even have to think about this move.  Or, we could get
another few grand and keep rolling people in as we have been.

It seems like we ought to do both: I'll be emailing the people I've
signed for who are still in the binder, to see if they're in a place
to join in the near future.  If you've signed for someone in there who
hasn't yet joined, I'd encourage you to do the same.  At the same
time, consider if you can afford to donate a bit for one-time moving
costs.  It doesn't have to be one of the 1,000$ or 500$ donations that
made up the 6,000$ pledges last time.  If every member kicked in just
50$, we'd be totally set on this move, and not have to think about it
any further.

-=-=-

If you want to play with the model, check out
  http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=tKV4aFj7pWMubjSuaMaPhKQ&hl=en

(Please be kind and restore the parameters at the top after you're
done, so the next person finds a sheet that jives with this email.)

Here are my key assumptions:

 * 3600 $/mo rent
 * 1525 $/mo other expenses (our average with one-time costs removed)
 * 7500 $ one-time moving cost (deposit, build-out, etc)

 *  150 $/mo donations
 *   90 members now
 *    5 members/mo growth rate

 * 15,000$ cash on hand

I also assumed that dues continue to have the same starving/regular
mix, so we have the same $/mo/member rate.
-- 
Josh Myer   650.248.3796
  josh at joshisanerd.com