[Noisebridge-discuss] Noisebridge: Death and Taxes

[Patrick Keys]

With no exact figures, there's no way of knowing how bad the situation 
is exactly.

I spoke with Kelly a couple weeks ago after the Tuesday meeting...

My conversation with Kelly was ultimately that she lives in Berkeley, 
rarely visits Noisebridge, and that she has little motivation to do much 
with Noisebridge because of her busy graduate-school plans and living in 
Berkeley.

I'm sure there's a competent amount of oversight or accounting, but 
without any exact figures there's no way to know how much existing 
visitors can evenly contribute to make up the difference and get us 
through another month.


Patrick



On 12/20/2010 3:26 PM, Shannon Lee wrote:
> Patrick,
>
> Please take my word for it that the problem here is not lack of
> oversight or accounting.  This drive to fix our financial situation is
> *post* a detailed review by the treasurer, which revealed that we are
> desperately cash-flow negative.
>
> I'm sure Kelly could use all the help she can get, though, so if you're
> interested in helping out with treasurer duties, send her an email at
> treasurer at noisebridge.net <mailto:treasurer at noisebridge.net>.
>
> I'm also sure she'll be happy to answer questions about numbers as soon
> as she's not snowed into Heathrow.
>
> To reiterate:  What is needed is for people to donate money to support
> the space.
>
> Thanks,
>
> --S
>
> On Mon, Dec 20, 2010 at 3:18 PM, Patrick Keys <citizenkeys at gmail.com
> <mailto:citizenkeys at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Okay...
>     * How much money do we have in the bank?
>     * Have we already paid January's bills?
>
>
>     Patrick
>
>
>     On 12/20/2010 1:34 PM, Shannon Lee wrote:
>      > Hi All,
>      >
>      > We have a problem.
>      >
>      > Actually, I think we have several problems, but we have one major
>      > manifestation of our problem:  We are broke.  We are not going to be
>      > able to pay February's rent at the current rate of input/output.
>       We're
>      > currently taking in about $2500/month in dues & donations, and we're
>      > spending about $5000 in rent and utilities and whatnot.  This is a
>      > dramatic drop-off from this summer, when we were doing a little
>     better
>      > than breaking even.
>      >
>      > So, no joke, Noisebridge may close its doors in February, unless
>     we can
>      > solve our problem.  This is way past the time for "let's have a party
>      > and charge money!" -- the thing we need is for people who don't want
>      > Noisebridge to close to reach into their wallets and shell out some
>      > cash.  Some of you will have noticed the new donation box with a sign
>      > that says "It costs $165 per day to keep us open" -- this is
>     true, $165
>      > per day is our burn rate; this means we need roughly two full
>     members,
>      > or four "starving hacker" members, to pay for every day we're
>     open; this
>      > works out to 60 "full" members or 120 "starving hacker" members,
>     or some
>      > combination thereof.
>      >
>      > Ways to donate are spelled out on the wiki here:
>      >
>      > https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Donate_or_Pay_Dues
>      >
>      > They come down to: we take cash, checks, paypal and straight up
>      > bank-transfer.
>      >
>      > If you are not sure about having a committed relationship with
>      > Noisebridge (I know, commitment is scary) consider sponsoring a day:
>      >
>      > https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/SponsorADay
>      >
>      > For those of you who are confused about the membership process --
>     being
>      > a member of Noisebridge costs $80 per month.  If you're a regular
>     user
>      > of the space, you should become a member.  Membership can be either
>      > formal (in which case you have a voice in political processes) or
>      > informal (wherein you simply donate money to the space, but don't
>      > participate in decision making); if you are only interested in
>      > supporting the space, simply start donating $80 per month; if you
>     want
>      > to be a formal member, ask a member for details, or attend a Tuesday
>      > meeting.
>      >
>      > Please support us or we will be gone, and soon.
>      >
>      > Thanks for your time,
>      >
>      > --S
>      >
>      > --
>      > Shannon Lee
>      > (503) 539-3700
>      >
>      > "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."
>      >
>      >
>      >
>      > _______________________________________________
>      > Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>      > Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>     <mailto:Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net>
>      > https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>     _______________________________________________
>     Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>     Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>     <mailto:Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net>
>     https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>
>
>
>
> --
> Shannon Lee
> (503) 539-3700
>
> "Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."