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New space meeting 2017 12 09
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== Business Model, Funding, Fundraising == * (Mitch) Hackerspaces around the world have coworking spaces, to help make money. Desk, room rentals. * Classes, workshops, for a fee. Noisebridge is one of the few spaces that does not charge for classes, because we want to make it easy for everyone to attend. * Suggested donation, sliding scale, pay more to provide scholarships. * Some folks can afford to pay more, leverage that. * Experiment: running paid classes, soon, now. We'd provide access to everybody via scholarship, for those who send in an email explaining their need case. * Data science and web programming are popular topics, let's take advantage (Dawn) * Help a person with their project - paid technical advisors (Ryan) People who don't have time to learn everything themselves, that would be willing to pay. * Noisebridge has always been a place where classes are free. It's easy to stay in that habit, but consider why we're opposed to things in life, like always having free classes. What would that mean? Maybe we should try it out and see how it goes. (Steve) * We don't have to pay instructors (Scotty), we should consider that. * Precedent: $20 suggested donation for Laser Cutter class. (Jarrod) Not required, but many people contribute (Trent) * Formalize class donations by selling tickets (Scotty) * If we want to move ahead with making Noisebridge sustainable, while keeping classes accessible to all income levels, try this: Noisebridge Community Credit Program. People can donate for classes, but people can earn credits by doing things around the space. Cleaning, teaching classes, etc. A local currency, Noisecoin. (J) * Mitch has been in orgs where local currency was used but didn't work out. * Some people lvoe the space and take efforts to care for the space, regardless of the money (J). Jarrod is wary of putting monetary value on what heretofore has been donated labor. * To be welcome here, to both benefit from and contribute to Noisebridge, not just money works, doing physical things also works. (Mitch) * Can we simplify recurring donations? Can we make an internal version for non-members, non-philanthropists? (Ryan) Yes, it's already in place (Drew). This would be a good thing to hand out to people. * Amazon Smile program for Noisebridge exists. Mitch is wary of having the Amazon logo on the website. * ICO: Noisecoin. Many people have had this idea. Victoria when she worked for Ripple created a Noisecoin, years ago. No regulations, currently, so it should be easy. People can donate as much as they want! (Mitch) Needs a huge PR event (Scotty) Tell our story, big PR move, a YouTube outreach (J) * Patreon: Ryan wants to host one of the classes he's been planning. There's equipment and expenses involved. A class like "laser cut coasters" for example. Getting a donation system for this. A live-streamed class people could host. People who can't come to NB space could still donate, watch online, and get a product of the class (coasters etc). Would get their name mentioned during the video. So instead of Patreon getting the money, Noisebridge would get it all. * Noisebridge's YT channel is not currently monetized. Prob. because we don't get enough views. * How about running a trial paid class, with a base cost, 100% of the money goes to Noisebridge. (Scotty) How is this different from other classes NB runs? (Jeremy) There would be more to it than existing classes. (Scotty) Manish has offered to do more in-depth laser cutter class, for NB pay. Jarrod has an uneasy feeling about this. * J: When we do a class like this, there needs to be a certain value gotten by attendees, a take-home thing for example. A sign that lights up! * Jarrod: this reminds him of the Crucible. They teach welding, fabrication, in West Oakland. They're non-profit but have pricey classes. The Cruicible doesn't have much way to use their facility outside of classes. Noisebridge potentially has broader subject matter (Scotty) * There's a line at which Noisebridge loses it's soul (Jeremy), but we need to experiment (Kevin) in order to find out what brings in more money, but lets NB keep its integrity and ethics in supporting the community. * If people want an expedited learning experience they can pay more (Ryan). You can continue to learn free-of-charge, but on your own time, or at free classes. Expedited == money. Time vs money. * Noisebridge needs to evolve, so we can move on to the next step. We're hackers, we look at things, poke at them, solve problems. We should be confident that our current community is strong enough to say that if something doesn't feel right, we can say "no." * Noisebridge is good for self-starters. But people who aren't, who like a something-for-something deal (a class for $) might not recognize or feel comfortable being here. We should consider presenting a more recognizable surface for those people, and the proposed experiments offer that (Kevin) * Having a way to keep equipment repaired and functional would make NB more attractive (Kevin) * Mitch has seen paid coworking areas at hackerspaces around the world. It's a problem, though, when those spaces are not separate. If they're shared with the non-paying public it's a problem for the paying people. So, separate coworking spaces is a thing to consider for the future. Hacking cubicle rental. * What about the people who have used Noisebridge for coworking in the past, what benefit have they provided? Money or maintenance. * For example Kyle, who started a successful company. * Uncomfortable with the word "Cowork" at Noisebridge (Scotty) But having a space with a door to rent for the Kyles. There's potentially awesome synergy, so long as we get people we're comfortable with, who bring good positive energy. People who fit well within Noisebridge. Scotty would be willing to rent space like that. We might've kept Type A Machines if that sort of deal was available. * Mitch: with a bigger space this would be possible. When he said coworking that's what he meant. Need to come up with a new term, due to baggage around "cowork." * Ryan: lockers. Can they be for pay? He'd happily pay $40 to be able to store his tools here, rather than transport them or not have access. Different than a tool donation. * Let's start building an endowment (Kevin). We will need much money. * Jarrod: proposes to label for-pay classes "Fundraising classes." Kevin thinks that's confusing, that we need a label with the same meaning. It's a solid idea, to make clear that a class is for pay, benefits the community, funds NB. * Jeremy: with a big enough space, what's the downside to cordoning it off for coworking, physically adjacent but separate? Not mixing with Noisebridgers. * Dawn: how would that affect NB's 501(c)3 status? Consensus is it's manageable. * Mitch: might need a paid position for managing the building. * Jarrod: the heart of our community is that we share tools and space. Those tools exist for people that make profit, as well as those learning for free. It's important that special tools remain accessible to all, and not be held under lock and key. * Ryan: there's a chance one of the groups we're working with will take on the coworking portion of the space, and would help pay for the building. * Kevin: the idea of Noisebridge as Master Tenant, subletting space to coworkers and NPOs, was to make our rent more manageable. * Jay: those subtenants would be separate entities with their own doors. It's an exciting possibility. What "flavor" is Noisebridge going to give to rental spaces, to the donation-required classes? How would we be different from other orgs offering similar? * Mitch: we don't have the wherwithal to manage a building by ourselves, we might want to hire a building manager, who would be under our direction. * J: working with a fundraiser and other advisors from Foundation Center might get us this knowledge and enable us to continue hacking, what we do best. * Mitch: Frameline collectively bought a building on 9th Street. How do they manage the building? * Project Arto (Kevin) might be worth looking in to. * Scott: what about Noisebridge's logo, how can we monetize that? Cafe Press mugs and T-shirts, for example. Easy to set up, hands-off, easy money. * Mitch, Lizzie: is our logo free from IP encumberances? Appears to be. * Trent: we could do the licensing thing, setting a price. * Mitch: Dreamworks wanted permission to use NB's logo. Story on Boingboing about this. They used it, we washed our hands of it. Fair use (Jarrod). We refused to sign their rights waiver (Scotty). This was in Jan 2013. Unicorn rainbow-peeing on Dreamworks logo. They wanted it to be "real as possible." * Jarrod: how can we get a million people to donate a dollar apiece? There was an indiegogo campaign for the reboot (Mitch). What about all the geeks out there who would appreciate our story? (Kevin/Jeremy) * Kevin: we need to leverage the drama of our situation, that we're about to become victims of the success of the startup culture in SF because we're being priced out of the market. We've benefitted the tech community tremendously. We need them to see us as a victims that need help. That can compel donations. * Mitch: we're victims of the alt-right, that we're listed as a "liberal DIY space." * Trent: on the same thread we were regarded as "alright," maybe because we're seen as libertarian / anarcho-capitalist or something. But continue the drumbeat of we're being priced out. * Gamenest's rent went up (Ryan), they want to reemerge. They're another group pushed out due to gentrification and rents increasing. We can contact as many of these as possible - "How are you guys dealing in the bay area?" Can we get stories out there to get us coverage, start a local cause. * J: John Shutt would be good for writing something like this. * Dawn: We should get a fundraising website set up before sending out the story. * Trent: donate.noisebridge.net is on the Noisebridge github account: https://github.com/noisebridge/donate.noisebridge.net * Mitch: Hilary Ronin is coming to NB on January 25th. She's our City supervisor. We should prepare a horse and pony show for her to tell Noisebridge's story. She led the Presidio Terrace tax sale rescindment at Board of Supes. * Ryan: we want SOMA, downtown etc landlords fighting over us. Supervisors can help with this. * Kevin: how can we tell our story so that people absolutely want us in their building, their neighborhood? * Become our own country. The Principality of Noisebridge, e.g. There is an atoll in the Pacific to which a friend of Mitch's holds the deed. We just need to get a number of countries to recognize us as a country.
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