Sudo room/05-23-2012 Meetup

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Attendees: Patrik, Timon, Marina, Phil, Eddie, Victoria, Michael, Michel, Angela, Rick, Eddan, Patrick, Matt

Marginalia: Space and Time form a curved surface - and our new business. - Nerd Night Bay Area happening near last week of October talk to Rick

Old Business

1. Model + Budget + Income investigations (e.g Noisebridge, other) - Jenny (ping via email)

2. Tax Structure Options: Eddan, Matt, Eddie

  • Eddan and Timon (zoning) have done research, neither as Lawyers (see below)

3. Distilling Decision Maker/Community Options (Matt, Marina, Rachel, Jenny, Timon)

  • This is translated into future decision-making options (once we open a space), since we have an interim solution for now

4. Most transparent process for making decisions

  • This is also touched on below

5. Determining important deadlines

  • Done, please expect an email to be directed to a space on the wiki for this!

6. Clean up listing of table of properties

  • Begun, needs more love, more listings, etc.

Break-out Groups

1. Note-cleaning and -posting 2. Notable date / deadline / calendar comprehension (initiated, will be posted for editing on wiki)

Decisions That Need Deadlines:

  • Space. (Before end of June = negotiation w/ EBALC; space would be ~November)
  • Banking Structure (i.e. what to do w/ our donations collected)
  • Interim/ Long-Term Tax Structure (interim vs permanent) (501c3, fiscal sponsor, LLC, B Corp)-- how long does it take to apply for each one of these?
  • Membership Structure/ Pricing/ When Begin to Pay
  • Decision Making (once have paying members)
  • Revenue Models

3. Sudo Room option listings (begun, on wiki)

New Business + Focus on concrete goals and deadlines

Space and Time

  • Update from Timon about Zoning
  • @TODO investigate zoning laws esp in Oakland. Learned much from oakland city website "CBD Central Business District Zone Regulations"
  • Eddie suggests that "playing as we go" is not the way to go.
  • Update from Eddan about Tax Structure
  • @TODO fill out wiki with all options and comparative analysis for both tax structure and organization structure
  • Eddan wants some feedback--but it would be wise to have an environment that enables different types of innovation funding. Fixing computers, teaching classes, etc.
  • The diversity here is how you could fund publicly-minded projects. This could be beneficial, we should consider ways of fostering this.
  • Eddan is not acting as a lawyer. Looking at tax structure, ways to organize it - 501(c)3. Also have the jobs act and crowdfunding, very new. Comparing to different structures of organizations. Wants to ask everyone a question:
  • Become a non-profit?
  • Can't do lobbying (too much), supporting candidates, other reporting requirements. Potential for pigeon-holing.
  • Could be advantages to being forced to foreclose, be transparent--but that can also be a choice to be transparent.
  • Keep going, loosely bound collective, move forward without worrying about other things?
    • Options include all the way to a Super PAC
    • LLC - $900 / year
    • Pop-up lease opportunity. Oakollective + Popup Hood are great examples of this.

Voting

The group recognizes that we have critical decisions to make, and everyone wants to move forward with making decisions. Further, the group points out that we need an interim decision-making process and that this should (and will) change once we have a room [the ultimate goal]. It is also recognized that we must make a leap of faith in order to begin with interim decision-making.

Motion: In this interim period, non-binding decisions will be voted on at Sudo Room meetings by those attending and interested in voting, these will then be shared with the email list and recorded on the Wiki.

  • 11 Vote in Favor (2 abstain, for sociological and journalistic reasons respectively ;)

Motion: To aim to find an initial location, a Sudo Room (rather than a full-fledged Sudo Space), targeted for the end of July

  • 10 in Favor - One dissenter, Patrik's offers that Techliminal is a sufficient platform and that it is not necessary to strive to open another space. There are advantages and disadvantages to this position, it is good this position is visible for thought and moving forward. (Again 2 abstain for obvious reasons).

Strawpoll (not a vote, just ): Willing to pay on a regular interval for Sudo Room as a hackerspace (no discussion of membership, responsibilities, benefits, etc.)

  • 10 - One dissenter, Patrick based on the lack of an option to contribute without financial payment. A valuable sentiment, and brings up that one topic from the last meeting included strategies for allowing folks without funds to contribute and participate in the space. This is on our radar as we move forward! (2 abstain ' ' ' )

Motion: To create an interim solution for storing our current donations by (a) using WePay on the condition that it acts just like a bank and won't charge us any fees! (WePay is encouraging since its used by Occupy for its flexibility.) If this fails to qualify such conditions, then (b) the alternative is to have Matt and Eddan sign a Doing-Business-As and sign up at a local Credit Union for a free account to store this money. The caveat is that this can be changed easily, we can always move money to some other bank, or under different names or a corporation, but our current situation is non-ideal.

  • 10 - (One abstains ' ' ' ) The emphasis behind this motion is to (1) deal with the fact that we have donations from our fundraiser in three locations and it would be good to consolidate them (2) this makes things more transparent for everyone and (3) it allows us to easily start adding more income to the coffer at the apporpirate times, and (4) spend money easily when that is appropriate.
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