Sorry I couldn't make it to the meeting tonight - I was on bedtime duty. Thanks Matt for calling and letting me explain in more detail and not in writing the parts of my conversation with George that took place but are not relevant the issue of Sudo Room's lease status. As has been mentioned on the list before, talking with George sometimes feels like being on a roller-coaster. Due to our need to maintain a positive relationship with our landlord if this unique intersection of communities is going to remain at 2141 Broadway, I thought it better to try and minimize openly hostile discussion about George on our public mailing list.

Something I tried to communicate to George that I now appreciate would have been the wiser course - was that it was not OK to blow up like that and especially in front of kids. I reported to him that there was a lot of discussion on our mailing list about this incident and that many people were seriously upset about it. Though a terribly awkward and defensive conversation - the conversation moved to re-visiting the lease terms so that everyone was clear on what they're responsible for and that everyone's needs and concerns are addressed.

I suggested that the overlapping spheres would need a while to coordinate on what terms everyone feels comfortable with and understands their rights and obligations. The fact that George and Laurie are not just the owners, but also the superintendents and the managers, and the janitorial staff makes some of the demands being made more difficult to navigate. For example, the issue of barring the landlord from entering the common areas of a community organization that is otherwise open to the public is tricky, to say the least. That being a condition of our lease, though technically within the rights of the tenants, is beyond impracticable.

Thankfully, the conversation moved to ways of making people feel like they were a part of something that they had a stake in - a sense of ownership. While we agreed in principle, the conversation was then set off on a strange course that was both difficult to comprehend and challenging in its logic. It was then that the subject of equity crowd-funding came up. George, who seems to be wired like a stock market man - found the notion of selling shares in the building intriguing. He did not seem interested in selling the whole building, but suddenly became very lucid at the prospects of offering shares in a wing of the building in exchange for a proportional distribution in profits and decision-making stake in the management of the building.

Then his wife Laurie, who's "Rent-A-CFO" business also has an office in the building, called him and it initially sounded like they were fighting about something but then seemingly veered to some coherence in the exchange of practical logistical information. I wouldn't necessarily call it endearing, nor a mode of communication I would be interested in engaging in for any length of time, but somewhere in there was the sweetness of an unlikely happy marriage. Though I tried to wait for their phone conversation to end, it was already past the time I'd said I'd be home.

Hopefully this email will shed more light than heat, but you never know with this crowd. At least the government of the United States hasn't shut down in the meantime or anything.

On Oct 2, 2013, at 9:31 PM, Matthew Senate <mattsenate@gmail.com> wrote:

    Just to clarify, Eddan's original email was a little misleading. Sudo Room has an opportunity to renew its lease at the end of December, or to change it, including purchasing a portion of the building as a co-op, potentially using the JOBS act or some such. Eddan will be getting off the lease by his own preference. Terms are not exactly clear, we need to check whether the lease can remain exactly as-is (will confirm with Eddan) or if certain terms need to be changed.

    There were some heated discussions on- and off-list, I hope everyone gets this message and realizes the situation was ambiguous and is actually copacetic.

// Matt
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