[Noisebridge-discuss] meeting tonight and treasureryness

[Danny O'Brien]

So it looks like I'm not going to be able to get back from Toronto in
time for the meeting tonight, where we'll be consensing on the new
officers; I mentioned last week my Secret Agenda if I'm consensed for
treasurer:

1) Laziness -- I'm going to try and get as many people to help me work
on the accounts as possible. I don't think the treasury job is really
doable by one person, and so I'd like to commandeer help. I know we've
had at least three people offer to be treasurer and work on the
accounts, but for various reasons they've not felt confident or prepared
to do it on their own. I feel the same way, but I am confident that
together we can do it.

2) Impatience -- Kelly is an *awesome* treasurer, and has done a lot to
improve our accounts and our systems. But she's also in Boston, and
working hard on a Ph.D., and has to fit her treasurering between all
that. I think we need to start getting more pro-active about
understanding our finances (and being transparent and public about them)
very quickly, because we're currently burning through money faster* than
previously, and I think that means (again) more people working on the
problem.


3) Hubris -- I got asked by a few people (including a journalist) about
the tweet from the last week's meeting that we Noisebridge would be bust
by August. This is technically true, because right now our average
income is about $2K more than our average outgoings. But I believe
that's not quite as horrifying as it sounds, because we traditionally
don't cover our costs by our regular predicted income, and instead we
top up our finances with the occasional high-value donation or
fundraising run. Again, more info is useful!

I'm pretty sure that the world isn't going to end, and that Noisebridge
is loved enough by the hundreds of people who use it every month that we
can not only get back to our $15K-$18K reserve (we're at $11K right
now), but actually stabilise things so we don't have to panic about
money every 18 months or so. We just need to be able to sort out the
easiest ways of having people pay, and more opportunities for people to
remember to donate. Kelly (and also Tom) have done an amazing job fixing
one of our perennial problems, which is reconnecting with current
members when they forget (or Paypal cancels) their donations. I just
think we have to give more chances for others to give us their beautiful
shiny dollars, pennies and shiny shiny bitcoins.

Anyway, that's the theory. I think a lot of this can be done by me and
others even without being treasurer, but it'd be useful to have access
to all the stats.

Best,


d.