[Noisebridge-discuss] State of the Noisebridge Non-Panic (n+1 of 2(n+1))

[Danny O'Brien]

On Mon, Apr 08, 2013 at 12:21:14AM -0400, Scott Arciszewski wrote:
> Do you have a paypal subscription thingy setup?
> 

Try:
http://nburl.net/save
(You can also choose your own montly donation here:
https://www.noisebridge.net/wiki/Donate_or_Pay_Dues )


> 
> On Sun, Apr 7, 2013 at 11:18 PM, Danny O'Brien <danny at spesh.com> wrote:
> 
>     Hello, Noisebridge Saviours!
> 
>     You're getting this note either because you signed up for a $10 a month
>     saviour donation to Noisebridge, or else you pledged you would, or else
>     you upped your existing donation in the last month, or you're a
>     Noisebridge member, or you're just reading this on nb-discuss or
>     announce. I think that just about covers everyone.
> 
>     Quick update: Two weeks ago, Noisebridge was running out of money, so I
>     asked people who liked us to pledge $10 a month, either through PayPal:
>     http://nburl.net/save or by credit card at WePay
>     https://www.wepay.com/donations/noisebridge or BitCoins
>     1B5sJQ6Wu6AmK9xG5YTic4Nszw4PS7UMAM or giant cowrie shells or any way you
>     could.
> 
>     Thank you! The last couple of weeks have been amazing. Hundreds of
>     people from the South Bay and beyond -- from Brazil to Austria, Berkeley
>     to Bernal --  sent us kind wishes, and with their pledges and donations,
>     hard filthy lucre. James Sundquist also organized an awesome fundraiser
>     last Saturday at the space, with bands, 3D printfests and vinyl and
>     laser cutter free-for-alls, food and drink, raffles and auctions and
>     start-ups and art shows, robots and LED rooms which brought new friends
>     and over $4000 for the space.
> 
>     We pause now for some cute pictures of people with soldering irons
>     and/or hats at the fundraiser and beyond:
>     https://secure.flickr.com/groups/noisebridge/pool/
> 
>     Although my favourite depiction of what happened is still:
>     http://simplytheguest.tumblr.com/post/46720265110/
>     contributed-to-noisebridge-so-they-may-continue-to
> 
>     So, the results: two weeks ago had only $7K in the bank, with $2K
>     bleeding away from us every month. Now, thanks to everyone, Noisebridge
>     has $15K, and is not only breaking even, but putting a little away for
>     the future. With our pledges soon it'll reach the three month expenses
>     (or $18K) reserve that all good hackerspaces should have.
> 
>     I've been scrabbling a little to find something to give you all by way
>     of thanks back. I still hope to some mails out to the saviours (and
>     other donors and members) later this week with some goodies, but I
>     thought everyone should know before then they should stop panicking, and
>     start DANCING.
> 
>     Really though the best gift (I think!) is to work on making Noisebridge
>     friendly for everyone who is potentially part of our community. We're
>     going to have another party during the weekend of the Bay Area maker
>     faire, May 18th and 19th. We'd love it if you could come. We're going to
>     mess with a few things in the space to make it more welcoming. Not sure
>     how it will work out, but, again thanks to you, we'll keep
>     experimenting.
> 
>     Thanks again!
> 
>     All hail Discordia!
> 
>     Your much reassured treasurer manque,
> 
>     Danny
> 
>     </panic>
> 
>     PS Just to let you know the kind of thing we'll continue to be up to:
> 
>     * This Tuesday, a crowd of Noisebridgers gave a tours to forty high
>     school kids, who went on to spend three hours learning to solder,
>     lasercut, and circuit bend, in front of their amazed teacher and school
>     district rep.
> 
>     * On Wednesday, the SF Weekly included us in their front page story,
>       with the Internet Archive and EFF as one of the pillars of the city's
>       free culture, with interviews of some of the people hacking on the
>       future in our space.
> 
>     * On Friday, we had a free talk by Phil Lapsley, the author of Exploding
>       the Phone...
> 
>     * ...plus the usual free circuit-hacking, Web, Linux, Ruby, Python
>       lessons, Tahoe-LAFS and sysadmin meet-ups, and more.
> 
>     And that was just this week!
> 
>     Here's that SF Weekly piece URL, so SEO-enhanced it doesn't actually fit on
>     a line:
>     http://www.sfweekly.com/2013-04-03/news/
>     aaron-swartz-brewster-kahle-internet-archive-electronic-frontier-foundation-noisebridge
>     /full/
> 
>