[Noisebridge-discuss] Noisebridge Meeting 10/10/2017

[John Shutt]

A concern the landlord is likely to raise is that none of us are licensed elevator repair technicians. I can’t see a scenario where they agree to pay us for our labor fixing the elevator, but can see a scenario where they sue us for messing with it.

The current set-asides in our finances are from donations that the donors earmarked for specific projects, so money donated to an elevator fund could work the same way. There isn’t any earmarked money that was directed out of the general fund towards a specific purpose by the treasurer or the consensus of the membership, so having a dedicated elevator fund with money coming out of the general fund would be unprecedented. Paying for labor and time (besides outside professionals for legally complicated tasks) would also be unprecedented, and strongly opposed by lots of people.

If it’s a cheap fix (< $1,000), I would support paying an outside professional to fix the elevator, even though it’s the landlord’s responsibility. If it’s more expensive than that we have some thinking to do about how much we want to invest in fixing a building we don’t own when our lease is up in (I think) less than a year.

I think the next step is to get some hard numbers about how much it would cost to pay a licensed professional to fix the elevator or to get parts to fix it ourselves.

Best,
John Shutt

> On Oct 12, 2017, at 4:19 PM, kprichard <kprichard at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> If the landlord has sole responsibility for keeping the elevator running, under the lease, consider sending them a bill for the parts/labor.  Zach, Henner & Co did the thing, where the landlord's people were unable.
> 
> On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 3:20 PM, jim <jim at well.com <mailto:jim at well.com>> wrote:
> 
> seems right to me
> 
> 
> 
> On 10/12/2017 10:02 PM, Revolt wrote:
> Sending replies from my other emails since my hotmail address is
> bouncing on the discuss (I cannot figure out who NB Discuss Admin is,
> can someone put me into contact with them?)
> ------
> 
> John makes some good points about re: ownership of building.  The
> landlord should pay, but they are not going to and the laws do not
> make it easy for us to "force" them.  This just isn't going to happen,
> or it would have happened a long time ago.  Like most all things at
> NB, this issue needs to be solved collectively by members of the
> community.
> 
> so we should be judicious in how we spend general fund money on the elevator.>
> Agreed.  That is why I am suggesting a modest $400/year or less budget
> for repairs
> 
> our lease ends next year>
> This is good to know, I wasn't aware of this.
> 
> I would like to avoid investing thousands more into common area repairs>
> I don't see how this applies.  $400/year or less would not amount to
> spending anywhere near thousands of dollars if we move in 1 year...
> 
> -Zach
> ---
> Here's what I sent earlier today (bounced from list so far):
> 
> RE: [Noisebridge-discuss] Noisebridge Meeting 10/10/2017
> Zach R
> jim (jim at well.com <mailto:jim at well.com>);noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net <mailto:noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net>
> I think Trent makes a good point about member work at NB not being
> something funds are for.  i.e. the Treasure is a good example of
> something necessary for NB to function as well.
> 
> To clarify, could we agree to at least one  or both of the following
> uses of an Elevator Fund?
> 
> 1) to hire /outside/ professional help with elevator repair (from a
> private company or union that would issue a receipt)
> 2) to purchase parts for the elevator (with receipts)
> 
> I understand the perspective of fundraising, but this requires work
> and I have tried this already appealing to lots of people with
> literally zero results.  When something as necessary as the elevator
> is broken it shouldn't require months of fundraising efforts to get
> basic funds to make it run again...
> 
> The landlord hasn't just done a poor job, they haven't done a job at
> all.  The elevator would still be broken if myself and others hadn't
> spent the hours repairing it.  This was hard to do with my
> disabilities and I was not able to attempt it for months.  I had to
> injure myself and take the full initiative on this, no one else setup
> time to repair it.  This situation was unexcellent and I am trying to
> avoid it in the future not if, but /when/ the elevator breaks again.
> 
> Lastly, we have NB funds put aside for things less crucial than the
> elevator.  It seems reasonable to have a small fund for this.  It
> could be literally any amount.  I thought $400/year was a reasonable
> place to start the conversation.
> 
> -Zach
> _______________________________________________
> 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 <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 <https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss>
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.noisebridge.net/pipermail/noisebridge-discuss/attachments/20171012/fa9254fb/attachment-0003.html>