[hackerspaces] Finding Donors

[M]

On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 5:19 AM, Ron Bean
<makerspace at rbean.users.panix.com> wrote:
> Will Bradley <will at heatsynclabs.org> writes:
>
>>One last perk is that only a real bastard would slight a 501c3
>>educational nonprofit; various people have threatened to sue us and
>>the whole community just stares at them like they're insane.
>
> What kinds of issues have you had that would lead people to threaten a
> lawsuit?
>
> BTW MilwaukeeMakerspace does not own any assets, all of our equipment is
> leased from members for $1/year. A lawsuit might put us out of business,
> but the plaintif wouldn't get anything out of it.

That'a an interesting notion... I've seen single asset companies do
that... Like "WeDrillHoles, Inc" will lease a multi million dollar
drill from "BigAssDrills, Inc" which may or may not be a related
company for a very small monthly and completely finance it so WDH, Inc
doesn't have any real assets just debt/liabilities.  And WDH, Inc
takes out an insurance policy for the drill listing BAD, Inc in case
of shit.

So with 2 parties and one piece of equipment.. not so bad.

But for your space do you list every member who has equipment at the
space on your insurance policy?  Do you just keep updating it real
time, or for just equipment over x dollars?  Do you have paper work to
indemnify the lessor(member)?  I mean leasing an oscilloscope is
probably different from let's say.. a multi axis plasma cutter.   If
the former came in improperly maintained you get a bad trace, whereas
the later could cut a hole in your floor.

Also its interesting to think that a hacker space might be the target
of a lawsuit, where the plaintiff would be trying to get a significant
amount above and beyond what the space's insurance would payout.

The people reading this outside the US are thinking, "WTF!?"  I hear ya.

Cheers,

 -M

Null Space Labs
http://032.la