[hackerspaces] treasurer stuff [was: June conference call]

Wed Jun 17 21:35:39 CEST 2009

I'm the treasurer of Noisebridge (in San Francicso).  I feel comfortable if we have 3 months worth of operating expenses in the bank.  Our average monthly expenses (since we started in October) have been $3,900 (rent, internet, electricity, lawyer fees for setting up our non-profit, setting-up construction, green cleaning service, insurance, fees for incorporating).  This monthly average will go down now that we don't have start-up fees, but on the other hand, they will go up, because we have out-grown our space, and our rent will be higher in our new space, and we will have another round of starting-up costs.  We currently have close to $16,000 in the bank.

At Noisebridge, when we found our current space at the end of September, everyone was way excited about the space.  So, even though we did not yet have a legal corporation, 5 of us rented it under our names.  We then put out a call for donations, and within 24 hours had $12,000, which paid for the required:  first month's rent, last month's rent, and a month's deposit (our rent is $1,975/month), plus a good cushion that got us through the first two months, after which we had enough members paying monthly dues to bring in more than our monthly expenses.

Our income is now one to two thousand more each month than our expenses.  And that is growing, since we grow by one to four new members at each of our weekly Tuesday night meetings.  (Which makes it all the more important to find a bigger space soon!)

Our monthly membership rate is $80 for Standard membership, and since that is a lot of money we have a $40 Starving Hacker membership (with all the responsibilities and priviledges of a Standard membership).  Members can switch back and forth as much as they like.  Since $40 is a lot for many people at Noisebridge, we allow anyone to come to Noisebridge -- we are always open to the public -- as long as the person follows our one and only rule:  Be excellent to one another.  Members have one priviledge that non-members do not have:  they can block in our consensus decision-making process.  Members also know that they are supporting Noisebridge financially.  We also have a category of "membership" that is technically, legally, not a member (under California law), but gives people who want to be involved, and feel involved, and feel supportive, an opportunity to help us financially:  we have Affiliate Membership available for $20/month or $10/month.  We have several people who have PayPal subscriptions at all of the above rates (everyone hates PayPal, including me, but it makes dues payments way easier on treasurers, who otherwise need to remind people every month to pay their dues -- and I have to do that a lot as it is, since only some percentage of people have subscription payments on PayPal, or automatic bank transfer, or pay their dues regularly with cash or check).  

Anyway, the bottom line is:  this anarchy works very well for us!

Mitch.

--------------------

> Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:34:11 +0200
> From: zoombat at runbox.com
> To: discuss at lists.hackerspaces.org
> Subject: Re: [hackerspaces] June conference call
> 
> Til, Raymond,
> 
> thanks a lot for your replies. It would be great if you could share some
> more wisdoms :)
> 
> * How did you manage to pay for the deposits (if any) for your spaces?
> 
> * Do you keep an emergency account? If so, how was that financed and how
> much money do you keep in it in relation to your running costs?
> 
> * How do you finance procurement of more expensive equipment? Case by
> case financing or do you take it from the budget you get from pledges?
> 
> Thanks a lot.
> 
> -Bartek
> 
> 
> Tilman Frosch wrote:
> > A "pledge" is just as good as anything. Every membership fee you
> > receive, you receive because people want to pay, not because people have
> > to. Most of our members are students at the one or the other university
> > in real life, which limits the amount of money available. The inhibition
> > threshold to become a member is much lower, when the
> > yet-to-become-member is free to decide what the hackerspace is worth to
> > him/her and what fee he/she can afford.
> > Til
> 
> strages wrote:
> > Hi, I believe you're referring to Makers Local 256. We started out by
> > the original ten members pledging what they think they could afford a
> > month, added all of it up, and found a place that fit within that
> > budget. Our first place was small but we made due and after a year we
> > now have a place three times the size and have more than doubled
> > membership. We decided to take this original idea for funding and
> > extend it to new members. It's been working out pretty well for us so
> > far. We get our bills paid. We're in a college town with a lot of
> > students from out of state and so this way we don't exclude anyone and
> > we have a pretty wide degree of skillsets because of it. People for the
> > most part are good, and so they'll pay what they feel is reasonable.
> > We've actually had several members increase the amount they're
> > contributing due to getting a better job. Really shows the dedication
> > of our members for keeping the place and the idea alive.
> >
> > Raymond (strages)
> > Makers Local 256
> 
> 
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