[Noisebridge-discuss] Club Mate?

[Jeffrey Malone]

> We can certainly afford the money at this point, especially assuming that
> we'll make the money back from sales.

I'm sorry to say that that assumption is unfounded.  Our returns from
drink sales are below the suggested donation amounts.  I purchased
approx $373 of drinks and similar from Costco in late June, and have
been skimming the donations tin to recover the amount.  At the moment,
with almost all of it gone, I am still $26 short.  In the end, there
will definitely be left over money to either donate to Noisebridge or
help to cycle for another Costco run, but FAR less than what should
have been collected.
This is an old item that has been silent for a long while, and we've
kinda ignored it because we were recovering our costs for it.. just
not making any notable amounts of money as we had intended.

I would truly fear how much would actually be recovered for a drink we
tried to sell at $4/bottle.  Additionally, we've side-stepped the
sellers permit issue by simply paying taxes and CRV on the soda at
Costco, and keeping it vague as to whether Noisebridge owns the drinks
or the person who went out and got them.  With an 800 bottle shipment
that Noisebridge officially purchased, we'd definitely need to look
into sales tax, CRV and the sellers permit to do this.

Also, where would we store 800 bottles?


Without these concerns being addressed, I see Noisebridge's official
participation in purchasing a pallet as a bad idea.  It could result
in a loss of money, and unwanted attention from state and local
agencies.
Note that I'm not against it all in principle, and would like to work
out a way where it would be practical... but especially if there is a
short amount of time where we have to give 2600 our decision, people
would need to move very quickly to get a consensus on it.

Jeffrey

btw, those interested in what I bought and how much it cost from
Costco can refer to the receipt in the cabinet where the collection
tin is.  It's on the shelf right above the tin, to the left of
glasses.  Each time I've removed money from the tin, I've noted the
amounts.  The purchase also included a couple other things like toilet
paper... everything on the receipt was for Noisebridge.