[Noisebridge-discuss] meeting notes 2010-11-23 (SHOW ME THE MONEY edition)

Wed Nov 24 10:27:16 UTC 2010

This sounds like possibly the most productive meeting ever!  I am sorry
to have missed it.  I've signed up to sponsor a day in December, and I'm
picking December 1 FIRST POST WOOOOOOO

Rachel

Andy Isaacson wrote:
> Al ran our meeting, and Andy took notes.
> 
> Kelly gave our treasurer's report:
> 
> treasurer's report : balance $8679
> about to pay rent, so down by $3600.  So, $5000 in the bank.
> 
> Shannon pointed out we want to have 3 months expenses in the bank.
> 
> Our data for recent months:
> 
> august: 4500 dues paid, 1400 donations
> september: 2600 dues paid, 325 donations
> october: 2500 dues paid
> november: 2500 dues paid
> 
> Shannon makes the point:  the space is full, every night.  But we don't
> have much money coming in.  People should be paying their dues.
> 
> Jof: there's not much incentive to become a member other than joy of
>      supporting a thing.  What is the incentive?
> 
> Shannon:  "shame!"
> 
> [ At this point an open floor discussion commenced, with many ideas some
>   of them very good.  I am sure I missed some; my apologies.  Replies
>   are sometimes included in square brackets. ]
> 
> Frantisek: has discussed money with many people:  Why do we not have new
>     members coming in, and why do we not have donations coming in?
>     Conclusion:  people (the core) are not happy, are becoming detached.
>     Frantisek tried to develop more social connection, for example with
>     food; that didn't work out as well as he had hoped.
> 
> Jake:  Relates his previous experience, with another space that was open
>     to people coming in off the street.  He found that people tended to
>     come in and take advantage of the space, but remain anonymous (not
>     become engaged in the community).  He found that a "census" worked
>     well to help keep track of people.  Their implementation was a
>     simple notebook in the space; anyone interested can take a census at
>     any time, just walk around and ask people "a few simple questions":
>     "What's your name?"  "How many times have you been here in the last
>     month?"  "Would you like to continue coming here?"  He made
>     suggestions for defusing hostile encounters and intransigence.
> 
> Al suggested a few ideas:  He'd like to find a car and someone with a
>     Costco membership so that he can restock sodas.  Al also stated that
>     he wants a locking, clear, box for donations at the space; he is
>     pretty sure that cash has disappeared from the donation bin, and
>     that a significant number of people don't donate because they think
>     donations are insecure.
> 
> Patrick: thinks problem is, no official announcement or bulletin board
>     for people coming into the space.  Suggests a weekly printed
>     calendar with notifications to people.  Specifically finds the wiki
>     hard to find information on.
> 
> Kelly: A subset of our populace -- people who are here a lot -- get
>     indoctrinated in "how we do things"; but a lot of people aren't
>     interfacing with that culture and don't get indoctrinated.
>     Remembers when she was doing "new people indoctrination" after the
>     meetings.  Would like to see more people step up to help introduce
>     newbies to the Noisebridge way.
> 
> Frantisek:  suggests his homebrew as a fundraiser; it's cheaper than
>     soda and mostly organic.  also suggests outreach, bringing new
>     people in.
> 
> John:  suggests guestbook like at hackerdojo -- people should sign in
>     when they come in, using an alias or pseudonym if they prefer.  He'd
>     also like to solicit donations from people who come to events.  He
>     also suggests a new event -- a "Fix your PC" night.
> 
> Shannon:  wants to know if anyone disagrees with statement "if you're
>     here a lot, you should be paying dues".  General agreement.
> 
> Alison: agrees with statement, but genuinely can't afford $40 per month.
>     says it feels bad to not be able to.
> 
> Al: suggests a front desk, a place for a scheduled volunteer to sit and
>     interact with people, request donations, etc.
> 
> Jay: new here, no background.  Not likely to be a hanger-on, but here
>     for one day.  Says it would be great to have an explicit suggestion
>     at the door, "suggested donation for day use $X", plus a clear way
>     to make the donation.  We asked "how would you feel about a sign
>     that said "suggested donation $5"?  and he responded "I'd think
>     'whew, I was considering giving $10 or $20'."
> 
> Kelly:  affiliate donation is too low; suggests benevolent sponsor at
>     $40 for person who wants to be a supporter but not be closely
>     affiliated or involved in governance.
> 
> Carl: asked what the actual run rate numbers are.  Rather than letting
>     Kelly answer precisely, we all barged in and said "about $5k per
>     month".  Carl then asked about income; we estimated "about $3k
>     coming in".
> 
> Patrick: is there a link to paypal on the site?  [yes]
>     do the usergroups pay?  [no].  we should get the user groups to pay.
>     even just $5 per person for a 20 person member group is $100.
> 
> Jof: do we need to encourage members to pay?  or do we need to induct
>     new members?  [we need to get members to pay, but also to get new
>     members.]
> 
> Kelly: re user groups, tries not to raise it, but finds it really
>     annoying that regular groups hosted here don't interface with the
>     membership AT ALL.  Thinks that we need to outreach to those groups.
>     suggests a regular volunteer group show up for the next month to
>     conduct a census of what groups are *actually* using Noisebridge.
> 
> Carl: re user groups, wants a suggested minimum donation per user group.
> 
> Jay: how many members?  [kelly: 105, including hiatus].  "sounds like
>     there are enough members if everyone was paying"
> 
> Frantisek: what were expenses of previous place?  and, is noisebridge
>     too big to support itself at the current size in SFBA?  should we
>     move somewhere smaller?
> 
>     [it cost $20k to move last time, so we can't afford to move.  no
>     actual answer to his question]
> 
> Kelly:  I don't know how to say this nicely, so I'll just say it:  last
>     treasurer wasn't actually tracking who paid dues.  kelly is going
>     back through 2010 data to find out who's actually paid their dues.
>     another problem:  paypal randomly cancels recurring payments,
>     doesn't notify payer.
> 
> [ at some point earlier, Shannon mentioned that it costs $137 per day for
>   Noisebridge to operate. ]
> 
> Meredith: really likes the math we did, of $ per day.  Helps set a goal.
> 
> Alison: is there a need for a group that operates at Noisebridge to have
>     a sponsor member?  [no.  but we have always suggested that there be
>     a member involved, but that's not enforced; Shannon points out that
>     we should make sure they pay at least even if not members. ]
> 
> Laura: suggesting numbers to people who use the space would be good.
> 
> Grey: suggest that people with popular blogs encourage the larger
>     community to support us.  [hey, we should ask laughingsquid to drive
>     people to our affiliate membership]
> 
> shannon: "I'll raise the stakes:  I'm going to sponsor a day of
>     December.  $137 in addition to my dues for December."
> 
> Andy: sponsoring decmeber 13
> Al: sponsoring december 26
> Jof: sponsoring december 1
> 
> John: some events have money involved (for kits, etc).  is there
>     interest to have people donate money at an event such as "fix my
>     computer day"
> 
> Kelly:  The theme of being treasurer:  lots of work, awful
>     recordkeeping.  perhaps we could nominate a new secretary who's not
>     burned out.
> 
> Jay: actually, the day costs more like $165, not $137.  Shannon made a
>     arithmetic error.
> 
> [ oops.  The day-sponsors agreed (I think) to raise their amounts. ]
> 
> Meredith: sewing area is one of the most busy areas at noisebridge.
>     wants to raise funds for sewing area specifically.  wants to have a
>     few sewing days to get people introduced to the sewing area and get
>     people involved.  people who are interested in helping should
>     contact her.
> 
> Steve suggests a light in the space, that turns red as we are going into
>     the red.  kelly wants a data pipe out of our accounting website.
>     frantisek wants to display the number of members who've paid and
>     haven't paid.
> 
> John: how about putting a speaker at the door, to play a recording
>     saying "please donate; it costs $XXX to run this space"
> 
> Laura: if people don't pay their dues, do they lose membership?  [no, we
>     haven't been giving members nag feedback since mitch was doing it,
>     long ago.  Soon Kelly will implement her scheme:  a single friendly
>     nagging email "pay your dues", then after another week, go on hiatus
>     list until dues are paid. ]  Should we terminate members when they
>     don't pay?  [ Kelly thinks it'd be good to terminate people who
>     don't pay, but doesn't think that's the consensus. ]  Grey points
>     out that process for getting off hiatus is unclear.
> 
> Jay: getting money from people, we should get money from people however
>     much we can.
> 
> Jof: we could use the signs, the one that's been running life could say
>     something useful, like "here's how much we need to get this month"
>     and "here's how many members have paid dues"
> 
> Steve: the signs should say "hey, we're $X below target, please give money"
> 
> Andy: will start about 15 threads on -discuss
> 
> 
> Finally we were done discussing money pains and plans.  A few other
> discussion items came up:
> 
> bikes:  There are a lot of bikes that have been around for a long time,
> taking up space on the bike parking.  Andy and Shannon masking-taped
> them all to the wall; if the masking tape is unbroken in a week, they'll
> go away (to the Bike Kitchen).
> 
> skylights:  need to be plasticked for winterizing.  Andy will order
> plastic.  Costs about $80, donations towards cost (to Andy directly)
> appreciated.  Plasticking party after it arrives.
> 
> 
> We had one candidate for membership, John (present); he asked to wait
> until next week.
> 
> -andy
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss