[Noisebridge-discuss] [Noisebridge-announce] Noisebridge: Death and Taxes

[-]

Hi All,

Please consider reading and re-reading Patrick Keys' apparently-prescient note from Yesterday on the subject of Noisebridge (non)-management and money matters generally.

I've tried to belong. I want to. There is no entry vector other than sheer force and willpower.

This may work for some die-hards. I don't want to work that hard to fit in, and i think many others do not, either. 

Anarchy is fun as long as someone else is paying the bills, but a little bit of order and organization can be extremely useful, at least in reducing the amount of thinking and re-thinking that seem to go on here. 

I've had some exposure to the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View. It costs money to get in the door there. But it costs way less than most other comparable "spaces" and it's not run by some nasty corporate thingy. In exchange for that, the members seem to spend all or most of their time there, doing their own projects, not fussing about "managing" the place. 

As an outsider (and now probably, outcast), it appears that noisebridge spends a lot of time managing noisebridge... 

You want to kill that burn rate, make a few policies that stick, and create a coherent and actually-operating means of joining. I think i wrote my name on a piece of paper in a little binder three or more months ago... then what? I have no clue.

- jim


On Dec 20, 2010, at 5:39 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-announce mailing list
> Noisebridge-announce at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-announce

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/attachments/20101221/936f2c7d/attachment-0003.html>