18 Apr
2014
18 Apr
'14
9:22 p.m.
On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 6:42 PM, Matthew Senate <mattsenate(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
Thanks for sharing Danny, but do I want to clarify
something, for everyone:
*Nothing is certain.*
As I suggested at the last sudo room meeting, discussing with David Keenan
about some topics the rest of the group had discussed during the sudo
meeting prior to his arrival, the primary focus of the Omni collective
should be:
*to build consensus among the member collectives.*
Yeah.
I think it is incredibly important to celebrate this
primary activity at
every pass.
For instance, I don't think taking a loan, of any sort, from anyone (even
friends) is a good thing. I would only consider a loan as a compromise, if
absolutely necessary. However, I don't believe it is absolutely necessary
to take a loan if we truly have enough collectives and momentum.
It depends on the nature of the loan. The Copenhagen hackerspace was
started by getting loans of $200 to $2000 from various people in the
community, with the stipulation that they would be paid back when the
hackerspace could pay them back. I personally signed tiny loan agreements
for each of these individuals. The hackerspace ended up paying everyone
within 2-3 years. I don't know why we'd be opposed to friendly loans for
the Omni, as long as everyone is on the same page and as long as we are
confident that we can pay the monthly costs.
Secondarily, I believe it is integral to verify our
own commitments by
putting money on the table starting May 1 (to assemble a deposit), as Danny
suggested based on the bookkeeper's advice. Further, I am not inclined to
consent to sudo room agreeing to sign a lease for The Omni without having
each member collective put some substantial contributions together prior to
signing.
If the existing delegates of the Omni collective think that the only
viable/feasible way to make this work is through a loan, then what The Omni
Collective delegates should say is:
*Our current proposal includes taking a loan, for $XX,XXX in order to
couple with member-contributions $YY,YYY, which doesn't look very feasible
otherwise.*
Note: enough confusion has been generated so far through this discussion
about a potential June 1st agreement about the Omni that I do not think my
statements above are about semantics or language, but about the very basis
of what we are doing and how we are doing it: building a trusting community
seeking to engage in hefty agreements (in some cases severing old ones
along the way) with shared vision and values at heart.
// Matt
On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 5:36 PM, Danny Spitzberg <stationaery(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
It's almost certainly a no-interest loan
(David K can confirm). Loans
like these will likely be our best friend for the near term.
Donations are great, too, and ideal except that we can't promise donors
any tax-deductible benefits until we have either a confirmation letter from
the IRS acknowledging receipt of our 501(c)3 application for Omni (6-8
weeks reply since they just layed off 30k employees...) or a fiscal
sponsorship (doable with a 1-page form and effective within a day).
A quick note about initial funding/financing: I want to also suggest
that the immediate goal of $30-45k floated as necessary to get us in the
door might need a nudge upwards to $60-90k to make the move safely and
securely. I met with someone yesterday who is interested in pro-bono
bookkeeping for Omni (hurray!!) and she recommended having 3 months worth
of expenses (rent, etc) in cash reserves from Day 1; she also
recommended souricng the majority of that from the collectives for reasons
of commitment... but depending on options from capable supporters, loans
might suffice.
Finally, a note about fundraising prospects. Once we are in the door and
the dust has settled someway, literally filling the calendar with all
collectives events and programming will make a credible demonstration to
more donors/lenders/contributors of all kinds. As well, this kind of
exposure is perfectly amendable in media assets for a crowdfunding
campaign. I've done research on a dozen development projects similar to
Omni and found that they raised a maximum of 10% via Kickstarter-style
crowdfunding; at least 90% of their funding came directly from investors.
What's more, they launched campaigns two-thirds of the way into 2- and
3-year fundraising raising timelines, no sooner than 1 year into their
effort and after having their financial model built from the ground up and
vetted by accountants.
I'm looking forward to catching up on other discussions from this week!
Have a great Friday evening, all!
On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 3:21 PM, Hol Gaskill <hol(a)gaskill.com> wrote:
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so it's a donation and not a loan we're
talking about for that amount?
on Apr 18, 2014, Andrew <andrew(a)roshambomedia.com> wrote:
tl;dr: The Omni is happening.>
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mailing list> sudo-discuss(a)lists.sudoroom.org>
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Some clarity on The Omni. We are still in
negotiations, but the deposit
is about $30,000>(twice rent) the extra $20,000
are to cover first month
rent and have some standing>funds. Also, more importantly, last I heard we
do have donors who are willing to>cover this cost. We are currently dotting
our I's and crossing our T's Including>gaining fiscal sponsorship so
donations will be tax deductible.> >On Fri, Apr 18, 2014 at 7:29 AM, Hol Gaskill
<hol(a)gaskill.com>
wrote:>>food and furniture? but isn't the common
area where we are supposed
to keep our receptionists???> this is seriously getting more off the wall
every week to week and a half. the place>was seriously empty before sudo
came in and he claims we are hurting his ability>to rent the space? if he
were more reasonable then we would've already filled the>space with other
likeminded groups! don't you see what's happening, george?> > we should be
hedging our bets with a backup plan in case enough support for omni>plan
doesn't materialize - i am generally optimistic about collective of
collectives>but the $50,000 dollar deposit and the location are huge
barriers to moving into>the omni. couldn't make it to the meeting this
week, but are there any other leads>beside 8th and alice? recently came
upon the term 'hackbase'
http://hackerspaces.org/wiki/Cyberhippietotalism which could offer up
some more viable venues. what if
we had a cluster of hackbases>each with its own flavor? i've always seen
this as something that would grow beyond>a single building. could have the
shop along with a bike co-op operating out of>the basement of one house, a
2D and 3D print shop w/cafe in another, all networked>and uniformly
autonomous.> > i don't know if this was discussed at the meeting, but i've
in the past advocated>going on a 'space diet' - no not astronaut ice cream,
just dispersing our infrastructure>to various ad hoc facilities for a month
to accumulate reserves between spaces if>necessary in our metamorphosis. it
has its own problems but is worth considering>if we see a space we love
that has a prohibitive deposit.> >>-- >-------Andrew Lowe
Cell:
831-332-2507
http://roshambomedia.com