Justin,
Just a few notes.
1) If we do have $900 of promised donations for electrical work we need
more concrete commitments from these members, the promise of money is not
enough to go on.
2) As brought up in the meeting, the $2500/$3000 is still up in the air,
AssentWorks said they can float it for a brief while but never made any
monthly payback deal.
3) Please do not diminish or discredit other members proposals in your own.
G Mike
On Wed, Oct 24, 2012 at 2:57 PM, Justin Lacko <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> First of all, I apologise for the length of this email but there's a
> lot of important information in here to digest. Mark Jenkins was my
> consultant for this email and told me it's important to be detailed
> and verbose.... kidding! I kid. :) But really, this is an important
> email with information for people who either weren't at the meeting
> yesterday or need more information.
>
> Attached is the proposal made last night for two options of downsizing
> in order to reduce our overall costs, as well as the survey results
> (the results have been verified by Mak).
>
> Introduction and notes:
> - Currently operating without using all of our space
> - Held back by cost of electrical renovations, providing
> heating/cooling to all spaces, finding
> an agreed purpose for unused spaces
> - Large cost anticipated with providing proper lighting and electrical
> to all spaces - current
> wiring is unsafe/degraded/impossible to work with, requiring running
> our own cabling
> - New lease will require us to pay our share of electrical and water
> bill - we will now be
> responsible for gas heating, electrical, water and base rent
> - Recent budget meeting, using conservative numbers, puts our monthly
> surplus of funds
> somewhere between $300-$400, which does not include any monies to
> cover renovations,
> events, advertising, unanticipated repairs, or future electrical costs
> - Survey results indicate that of the seven choices, support for a
> paint room, woodworking room, and arcade room were the lowest-ranked
> choices. Combined with the many comments from the survey talking about
> the desire for a better electronics workshop space, more classes, and
> a quiet focus-like space, it makes sense that we should focus on our
> core priorities, which are the classroom, workshop, and lounge.
> - Games have already been occuring on Friday nights in the classroom
> and parts of the lounge without issue, so it makes sense that we
> incorporate the games room into the classroom. There is no renovation
> required for this and we could move the games into the black storage
> cabinet anyways, or leave them in the lounge. We could also use a
> canvas curtain that could be drawn to bisect the lounge and create a
> space for the projector/movies, and a game.
>
> Conclusion:
> It is obvious that given our slim monthly surplus, combined with some
> loss of membership, we
> must increase our income in order to continue with our plan to finish
> the space and provide
> usable electrical for our members.
> By reducing our space, we can save money through our rent and the cost
> of maintaining these
> rooms, and focus on our core priorities of providing useful space to
> our members.
> The following proposals show how we can achieve this.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Proposal 1 is that we cede the two back rooms and the elevator room to
> AssentWorks. Refer to the presentation pdf for floor plans and space
> layouts.
> Pros:
> - Ability to focus on core rooms and improve
> them: classroom/games room, light workshop,
> lounge, additional room
> - Rent reduced by $152.77 to $587.48/month
> - Increased budget surplus at the end of the
> month - could be applied to projects/materials/
> events/advertising/Hackathons/etc.
> - Reduction in assumed future electrical cost
> since we no longer need to equip these rooms
> - Minor reduction in current electrical bills
> - Smaller area to heat/cool (walls would be
> insulated)
> - Low benches could be provided in the
> workshop for terminals/desktop stations
>
> Cons:
> - Loss of potential dedicated workshop,
> gaming room, computer room, spray booth
> and/or dark room
> - Potential loss of a few existing members/
> potential members who may want these
> spaces
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Proposal 2 is that we cede the two back rooms, the elevator room and
> the assembly room area to AssentWorks. Refer to the presentation pdf
> for floor plans and space layouts.
> Pros:
> - Ability to focus on core rooms and improve
> them: classroom/games room, workshop,
> lounge
> - Rent reduced by $236.25 to $504/month
> - Increased budget surplus at the end of the
> month - could be applied to projects/materials/
> events/advertising/Hackathons/etc.
> - Reduction in assumed future electrical cost
> since we no longer need to equip these rooms
> - Minor reduction in current electrical bills
> - Smaller area to heat/cool (walls would be
> insulated)
> - Low benches could be provided in the
> workshop for terminals/desktop stations
>
> Cons:
> - Loss of potential dedicated workshop,
> gaming room, computer room, spray booth/
> dark room
> - Potential loss of a few existing members/
> potential members who may want these
> spaces
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Post-amble: Given talk of the $5000 for electrical right now that is
> floating around, we could reduce this number if we have four less
> spaces to worry about. Additionally, our utilities would decrease
> slightly. I believe if we insulate the walls (we already have some
> material, I've had a $500 offer to supply us with whatever else is
> needed) we'll use heating/cooling more efficiently, further reducing
> our electrical bills.
>
> Concerning the cost of electrical, through informal commitments from
> certain members I have already raised $900, which would cover the
> first cost of our electrical work that needs to be done (a subpanel
> into the storage room). Despite the claims of some, the electrician I
> spoke with said we could do our electrical room-by-room, so it
> wouldn't be a gigantic cost up-front. We also have 20 or so light
> fixtures that we bought a while ago that can be installed anytime.
>
> Our space is the biggest in Canada right now and it doesn't have to be
> - most hackerspaces are the size of our classroom! Let's drop this
> extra baggage and give it to a group who can properly use the space,
> which will save us money immediately.
>
> Even the concept of renting the space to externals/externals who
> become members is not a proven method, especially if we treat this as
> a month-to-month thing. We can't really consider musicians because
> that will add noise to the space and interfere with our lounge. There
> was talk of members renting shelf space/storage space - I say we keep
> our storage space area how it is currently and see how we can
> accomodate the members who want more space - I think it can be done!
>
> A move would be hurtful to SkullSpace. Members who already see issue
> with the lack of programming at our space may opt to leave rather than
> stay on. There will be downtime during the transition along with
> everything that comes with moving into a new space. While we discuss
> the new space, approve it, do the move, get settled, and smooth out
> all other issues, SkullSpace will be in "flounder" mode where not much
> will happen. It could be hard to solicit new donations when people see
> that we couldn't make it work out the first time. And a move would
> require a dedicated move "team" that would have to transport a lot of
> stuff. ***The new space could be a wide open space for all we know,
> and then we'd have to go through the whole renovation plan AGAIN and
> build walls and still run electrical. Even if there's heating
> included, who's to say that we wouldn't have to move heaters, or
> install ductwork? There are a TON of unforeseen costs/tasks that come
> with moving to a new place and I don't think it's worth the risk when
> we're struggling to be useful and functional. It will be months before
> the new space is useful again, despite what anyone says about having
> dedicated people to do this stuff. I like to think we were dedicated
> when we first started at SkullSpace, and even then it took quite a
> number of months.
>
> If we stay, we will be required to pay $2500 at the minimum and $3000
> at the maximum (this is to cover back electrical bills that the
> landlord has decided to stick to us). If we can pay this over 3 years,
> it won't be much per month, $80something a month. It's unfortunate
> that we are forced to pay it if we stay, but I don't think it's worth
> moving SkullSpace and losing all the time and effort we've put into
> developing our current space.
>
> Let's focus on our core priorities, focus on the spaces we use and
> streamline our tasks so we can start using SkullSpace for how it was
> envisioned and start attracting more people to our group.
>
> Thanks for reading all this, and thanks for your support.
>
> ~Justin
>
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