Not to be a stick in the mud...
TL;DR
Spend in g money on a bill that is not ours is a bad move.
This definitely needs a vote to pass.
The gas bill has not verified yet. It may be more than we
budgeted for.
When we signed the lease the landlord was aware that we would be
using some average amount power and included it in the lease anyway. While
being the nice people we are, if we start paying an extra $250 /mo for rent
it will start to affect everything we do, renovations, events, projects,
etc. The lease is only for 3 years and if we start paying now then if we
renew the rent will be much higher and the power will not be included
anymore. We have all done the calculations to death and determined we are
not using 'too much' power but we are closer to the average for the floor
area. Remco is not a new company, they probably have charts of typical
power usage based on floor space vs function ( office, warehouse, etc) and
they still convinced Marvin to sign it.
If they did not do their homework on the deal then why should we be
paying for their mistake? I agree with reducing our usage as best we can by
putting timers on the A/C units to reduce the ON time but I think the
lights on Assent Works side have to be on for the insurance policy to be in
place (Mike please correct me if I am wrong) Currently we are using a
minimum of power and in the winter as the space gets more active, the power
bill will simply increase and we will be back at the table with the same
problem again. Also we need to anticipate the gas bill in the coming months
before promising any other payments.
I know we have the 6 month clause and it was decided not to put any
provisos in place to prevent this exact thing from happening. They have all
the power in this situation. I don't want to see us lose the space over
this ( I put a lot of blood sweat and tears into it! ) But bending to the
landlord over a problem that is 100% on them ( and Remco ) will just keep
us on the short end of the stick for at least the next 3 years.
I know time is short before the meeting with the landlord but I don't
think we can simply have an quick executive decision on this one as it is
not an emergency. Agreeing to pay more will extend our time to completion
on renovations for sure and set a bad precedence for future situations.
All that said, I know Assent Works has much, much more invested than
we do and to maintain a partnership with them we need to be supportive.
G Mike
On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 3:40 PM, Jay Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
> Sounds good. $250, or 60% of the bill, is a sane maximum in my opinion. If
> 60% of our bill ever turns out to be more than $250, we're doing something
> wrong.
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 3:37 PM, Justin Lacko <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> We will be arguing for a percentage. $250 extra is the max we will go
>> if it comes to it.
>>
>> This is an excellent observation and will work well in the
>> discussions. Yes, 800-850 is combined.
>>
>> On 24 August 2012 15:34, Jay Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
>> > We can afford it.
>> >
>> > Am I correct in assuming $800-$850/mo is skullspace's and assentworks's
>> > combined charge?
>> > Have you and Mike considered offering to pay a percentage of the bill
>> rather
>> > than a fixed rate?
>> >
>> > If my assumptions are correct, we're now offering to pay 60% of our
>> usage.
>> > If we go through with our 1/3 reduction plans, we will be paying 90% of
>> the
>> > bill. This seems high.
>> >
>> >
>> > On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 3:11 PM, Andrew Orr <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> How many members do we even have? I know there's been a few people who
>> >> have left recently. Can we even afford this with our current
>> membership and
>> >> the budget we worked out?
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> On Fri, Aug 24, 2012 at 3:06 PM, Ron <[email protected]> wrote:
>> >>>
>> >>> I personally have no problem with you making the offer, provided Jay
>> >>> says it's a reasonable commitment financially.
>> >>>
>> >>> Ron
>> >>>
>> >>> On 2012-08-24 14:24, Justin Lacko wrote:
>> >>> > This is an important follow-up to earlier discussions involving the
>> >>> > cost of electrical on our floor.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > As you may know, Mike Legary and myself are meeting with Marvin, our
>> >>> > landlord on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the electrical bills.
>> Today I
>> >>> > received the most recent electrical bill (we are billed monthly)
>> which
>> >>> > came in at around $1100. This bill includes cre8ery's usage, plus
>> >>> > public building usage (garage lights, etc). Today Mike Legary also
>> had
>> >>> > an electrician come and accurately measure our power usage on the
>> >>> > floor. The results are that with AW running its lights always and
>> >>> > regular use of their equipment, they are consuming roughly the same
>> >>> > amount of electricity as SkullSpace is, which is 36A per group (36A
>> >>> > SkSp, 36A AW). Our rough estimated electrical bills has been
>> >>> > calculated at $800-$850/mo. at peak use.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > What all of this means in the simplest terms is that the landlord is
>> >>> > losing money on our lease, which is not good. This would very easily
>> >>> > be a good reason to terminate our lease. Mike Legary estimated the
>> >>> > landlord currently making $0.50/sq. ft. on the space, and with taxes
>> >>> > at $0.70/sq. ft., which results in negative profit. In the upcoming
>> >>> > meeting, the landlord will almost certainly be asking for a
>> reduction
>> >>> > of our usage.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > The suggestion that we will be making on Tuesday's meeting is that
>> >>> > SkSp & AW will pay for a certain portion of the electrical in order
>> to
>> >>> > alleviate the problem of the landlord losing money. Don't forget
>> that
>> >>> > our lease has a 6-month clause which means that the landlord could
>> >>> > terminate on us at any time. Our max offered contribution towards
>> the
>> >>> > electrical bill will be $250/mo. per group, meaning a $500
>> >>> > contribution from the floor. Again, we are doing this so that we
>> >>> > appear as the "good guys" who are recognising that the landlord is
>> not
>> >>> > making money on us, and primarily we are doing this so that we don't
>> >>> > lose our lease. AssentWorks has already agreed to this amount, and
>> we
>> >>> > need SkullSpace to be on board by Monday so that we can take this
>> >>> > offer to the meeting on Tuesday. If SkullSpace does not agree to
>> this
>> >>> > and AssentWorks does, not only will it look bad on our part when
>> >>> > talking to the landlord, but it will almost certainly result in the
>> >>> > loss of our lease. The other added part to this agreement is for
>> both
>> >>> > sides to reduce electrical consumption by 1/3 (the amount we will
>> >>> > bring to the table). This isn't as hard as it sounds; we have old
>> >>> > lighting taking up double the power of new lights; and lighting
>> could
>> >>> > be put on motion sensors as AssentWorks will be doing. We could also
>> >>> > properly ventilate our server room which will result in reduced
>> >>> > workload on the machines and save us money.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Unfortunately this issue is not one that can wait for a formal
>> meeting
>> >>> > vote by members; Mike Legary and I need to go into this as being on
>> >>> > the same page in order to present a concerted response. Part of our
>> >>> > discussions will also focus on increased electrical due to the
>> >>> > landlord's decision to install space heaters, bad windows, etc. etc.
>> >>> > Mike and I will work hard for SkSp and AW to bargain as best as we
>> can
>> >>> > in this process and also ensure that our upcoming electrical plans
>> do
>> >>> > not render these discussions moot.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > I will try my best to answer all questions pertaining to this as
>> best
>> >>> > as I can.
>> >>> >
>> >>> > Thanks,
>> >>> > Justin
>> >>> > _______________________________________________
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>> >>
>> >>
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