[sudoroom] Meeting Minutes Tonight
Matthew Senate
mattsenate at gmail.com
Thu May 24 20:57:38 CEST 2012
Seems to me redundancy is a good thing and the purposes are becoming
clearer:
1. WePay will be yet another way we can engage in transactions, which can
be valuable. (Have we figured out how to accept bitcoin yet?)
2. A local Credit Union will be a valuable stake in the local community,
though most of them simply offer car loans and other small loans, sometimes
for housing, not often for businesses ;(. It will also keep us transparent
in the interim before we spend or move the money to some other place.
If you're interested in moving your money to a Credit Union, check out this
site: http://bankmigration.org
// Matt
On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 11:50 AM, Eddan Katz <eddan at oaklandlocal.com> wrote:
> Thanks for anthropologicizing the situation, Sudo Agent! No reason why we
> can't do both.
> We'll open a local credit union account, and use WePay for online
> transactions.
> Any credit union recommendations?
>
> WePay, by the way, is associated with mid-size banks in order to qualify
> to be FDIC insured. Otherwise, if you lose your .02c, you'd have no hope of
> getting it back. The fact that the banks they are associated with are based
> in Delaware only tells you that Delaware's corporate laws are the most
> predictable for resolving disputes.
>
> As far as I understand it, WePay is basically serving as an intermediary
> enabling a wider population to be able to make transactions. They've
> figured out how to extend the assurance they can guarantee; so that people
> and organizations could make transactions they otherwise couldn't.
>
> You're absolutely right though, that WePay is not based in Oakland.
> They're in Palo Alto. Maybe we should offer to build one of the local
> credit union's web interface? I think the combination of WePay and Flattr
> for online transactions would probably be a good idea.
>
> -Eddan
> [self-appointed Exchequer]
>
>
> On 5/24/12 10:40 AM, Eddie A Tejeda wrote:
>
> Great research Micheal.
>
> I think keeping money in the local economy is definitely a higher priority
> than friendly web interface.
>
> --
> Eddie A Tejeda
>
>
> On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 10:34 AM, Michael Scroggins <
> michaeljscroggins at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> WePay is essentially a user friendly front end pasted onto a medium sized
>> business bank in Delaware. Their back end is Bancorp (rhymes with Newscorp)
>> which specializes in white label banking solutions for their mid-sized
>> "affinity partners", of whom WePay is one. That Occupy uses WePay because
>> of flexibility and convenience says something about Occupy, but not
>> something I find encouraging.
>>
>> A local credit union is..local. It is possible a Sudo Agent could run for
>> and possibly be elected to the board of directors and have real input over
>> how money is used and the money is more likely to be reinvested in Oakland,
>> and so forth...
>>
>> My .02c - which I would like to stay in Oakland:)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Matthew Senate <mattsenate at gmail.com>
>> Thursday, May 24, 2012 12:13 AM
>>
>> ** Please Read Voting + Motions at bottom of minutes **
>>
>> In short, tonight at the meeting we decided that all who are present at
>> our weekly meeting are welcome to vote on making non-binding decisions for
>> Sudo Room during this interim period, with the requirement to report back
>> via email and record these motions on the wiki. This is a great way to move
>> forward in this period before we figure out the exact terms of
>> decision-making (who, how, etc) which we can now figure out as we actually
>> move forward to opening a room.
>>
>> I'll move this over to the wiki tomorrow, must sleep.
>>
>> ----
>>
>> *5/23/2012 - Meeting Minute**s*
>>
>> *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: *
>>
>> 1. Space. (Before end of June = negotiation w/ EBALC; space would be
>> ~November)
>>
>>
>> 1. Banking Structure (i.e. what to do w/ our donations collected)
>>
>>
>> 1. 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?
>>
>>
>> 1. Membership Structure/ Pricing/ When Begin to Pay
>>
>>
>> 1. Decision Making (once have paying members)
>>
>>
>> 1. 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:
>>
>> 1. Become a non-profit?
>>
>>
>> 1. Can't do lobbying (too much), supporting candidates, other
>> reporting requirements. Potential for pigeon-holing.
>>
>>
>> 1. Could be advantages to being forced to foreclose, be
>> transparent--but that can also be a choice to be transparent.
>>
>>
>> 1. Keep going, loosely bound collective, move forward without
>> worrying about other things?
>>
>>
>> 1. Options include all the way to a Super PAC
>>
>>
>> 1. LLC - $900 / year
>>
>>
>> 1. *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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>
>
> --
> Eddie A Tejeda
>
>
>
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