<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">What I’m going to say comes from experiences as a former co-ownership co-op board member (eight years), treasurer both at that co-op apartment building in Toronto and (later) the Red Mountain Makers space in Birmingham AL<div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Doing something like this has existing financial models that you need to follow for financial soundness. You need cash flow to ensure that the bills are paid, and as soon as possible, develop some sort of float reserve in the bank to even out cash flows for when bad things happen and you lose members, or when you need to plan for growth.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Look to condominium and/or co-operative governance, art studio/technical studio models, religious community/community institutions for existing financial models that can be adapted to this use case.</div><div class="">The longer answer need to be specific to your country/state or province/region/city laws and govnernance.</div><div class="">The financial soundness is important because nothing is sustainable in the long term unless there is a cash flow. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Recommend that you look to have at least one person on your initial board with condo/community institution background, one person with a local real estate law background, one person with local marketing experience, one with fundraising experience, and one with connections in your local government, especially if your community is going to be an edge case for what they dealt with before. Having people who are familiar with the way things “need to be done” to get through your local regulatory environment is extremely important when you are introducing something new. </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="">
Shirley Hicks<br class="">-----------------------------------------------<br class="">Email: <a href="mailto:shirley@velochicdesign.comTH" class="">shirley@velochicdesign.com</a><br class="">Cell: 205-503-3870<br class=""><br class=""><a href="http://www.velochicdesign.com" class="">www.velochicdesign.com</a>
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<div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Oct 7, 2020, at 2:44 PM, Sparr <<a href="mailto:sparr0@gmail.com" class="">sparr0@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class="">On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 12:05 PM Jeff Cotten <<a href="mailto:omegix@gmail.com" class="">omegix@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr" class="">Holy crap. It's been so long since I've seen anything but spam on this list I almost didn't see this :)</div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Thanks for keeping an eye out! I don't see the spam in the archives, so I guess it's doing a good job of filtering on that end.<br class=""></div><div class=""> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class="">I don't have any insight into lenders, grant programs, etc, but I bet this contact would:</div><div class=""><a href="https://www.nationofmakers.us/" target="_blank" class="">https://www.nationofmakers.us/</a><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Just a heads up, they will want you to join that organization, but if you meet with her over video chat she'll explain that there is a pay-what-you-can system available.</div><div class="">I did this with her once and I came away with the impression that she had a lot of contacts in the makerspace arena, and probably knows who the potential investors are. </div><div class="">I believe she said that NationOfMakers came out of an Obama administration initiative to prop up STEM education. </div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">I will reach out to her. Thank you!<br class=""></div><div class=""> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr" class=""><div class="">I'm excited for your initiative. It makes me want to sell my house and move to Portland.</div></div></blockquote><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If you decide to go that route, we'd love to have you! Especially if you want to take some of the proceeds of the sale and invest them ;)<br class=""></div></div></div>
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