Editing Meeting Notes 2020 03 03 (section)

= Consensus =
'''Consensus is how the Noisebridge Membership may change how Noisebridge works.'''

== [[ Consensus Items History | Proposals from last week ]] ==
''(Add any items which are consensed upon or someone has raised a principle objection for to the [[Consensus Items History]] page.)''

== [[ Current Consensus Items | Proposals for next week ]] ==
''(Add any new items for consensus to the [[Current Consensus Items]] page.)''

From
| February 28, 2020
| Tyler Maran
| Setting Hold positions for crypto currency 
| Noisebridge will never maintain more than 20% of it's total liquid assets (cash and equivalents) in crypto currency. 

I am suggesting this in light of the $156,000 BTC donation from Kraken. Which brings our BTC to more than 50% of our current assets. 

This check will be assessed quarterly (in line with fiscal quarters) and balances greater than 20% would be liquidated.

20% will be a maximum number, and not a target number. i.e. if we increase cash balances we will not buy crypto to maintain that ratio. It is just a measurement of our maximum acceptable risk.  
| Tyler Maran


Ryan: this can actually affect 501c3, because it's...

Tyler: ...called "speculative investments".  If we receive it as a donation that might be ok, but we're supposed to be a relatively safe financial store, NOT for risking that money for investments.

Lemons: Was 20% the legal maximum or the level of acceptable risk for NB as a commnunity?

Tyler: No hard legal % I am aware of.  Thats just a starting talking pt number.  I'm ok with 10-15% (lower risk) and ok with higher.  Want to hear from the crypto folk in the community.  ppl have noted 

Sophia: would the KRaken folks be mad if we cahsed it to $$?

Tyler: Nah they actually tried to give us $$ first!

Tyler: You can write off the value of what you donated in taxes, so if you donate BTC you can write off for the amount you evaluated it.

John: Huge valuable insight. Fact that a crypto org can avoid a big tax event and donate to a nonprofit, and be able to write off the difference, that's huge for fundraising.

Lemons: anyone want to play with the %s here?

Ryan: since btc fluctuates so much, might be better to say a certain SCALAR number of bitcoin.  TRansaction fees might get racked up for keeping things at a particular %.

Tyler: that's why i put Assessed Quarterly in the consensus proposal.  Wouldn't just keep selling it, we'd check it each quarter.

K: so do we worry about cap gains tax?

Tyler: nope, nonprofits can invest.  Has to be a well-researched investment.  E.g. std mutual funds.

Steve: I disagree with what Ryan said about it being a fixed amount, I think it should be a fixed %.  We can afford to risk great # of crypto if we have a greater amt of $$.

John: we could do a dollar-cost-avg sell as a check against the volatility. 

Ryan: OK sounds like % is better than scalar.

J: Worth considering broadening this from just crypto all the way to securities?  

Tyler: Yeah i think that's a good idea.  We can call it markable securities, including crypto.

Wheezy: What should be the % be?  IMHO, 20%? 

Tyler: Wait i wannt restate. the first thing i threw out was 20%... but i don't think we should do the same for all securities. if we end up 6 mos from now break-even on cash and $200k not being touched, then we should invest that with a reasonable return (3-5%, something safe).  Could pay a month of rent on interest alone. Don't want to keep us from that option in the future. Would say focus on a single security or cryptocurrency.

Naomi: So we shouldn't rewrite this to broaden the scope?

Tyler: yes or if we do rewrite, make it crypto plus a single security.

Ryan: We want to be able to quickly figure out what to do with donations like [the one from Kraken] so we don't have to do a full consensus item with it.  So like "at mtg after large donation, we talk about what percentage we leave as security."

Lemons: anybody have more-informed opinions on the topic of investments?

Tyler: I did investment management, soooooo......

Tyler: I would recommend and be most comfortable with 15%.  I was expecting more pushback.

Naomi: We are not knowledgeable to push back (This is why you are treasurer).

Lemons: anybody have a principled objection to 20%?

John: <long sigh>

Lemons: Explain your long sigh!

John: I dunno, why 15%?

Tyler: Not a big reason.  We could try and math it, look at what long-term risk/reward we want.  It's likely if we sold down to 20% right now, we'd end up 15% naturally (cash would grow faster than crypto)

John: what's NB's annual?

Tyler: cash burn last year was $45k (a lot of that was paying Scandiuzzi-Krebs).  Financial sponsorship of Roguelike.

Wheezy: How about 15%, because according to Biztechmagazine.com, 13% of nonprofit income goes to investment.

Naomi: that's income tho, not holdings...??

Tyler: I'll change it up and we'll have 2 more weeks of consensus on this (since it'll be changed).



Lemons tries to end the meeting early.

Loud protests! We still have discussion items to do!!