01/06/12

Attendance (partial list: not all who were present are listed) Richard krushnic city know skills Alie bu involved first sp mtg relevant freez I;mpo to have communy Ravi Lisa Jay Gregeson Gunner Glenn Randy Sage Cherie Liam Nelson Eric Martin

Meeting roles

Monica archiving facilitations

Randy allan guz inflatry cosmology

Monica declines to do notes

Greg: whos chairing, facilitating?

J I did it last tine

Greg: and I did it a couple of times ago

Greg: agenda item that I know about is left over when we agreed that the first item wd be donations etc

Rich: that kind of meand that yr faciing

Greg: lets get an agenda

Part 1: Fundraising/money

Greg: Could be controversial;

Lisa: Looking for temporary, in-kind donation of space

Richard: We should talk about money after we have space desired

Randy: Ask donors if they want their money to go to spaces for the movement

Greg: Find a way to make money

Liam: Fundraising group is forming next week – people from this group should join that group because there is some overlap. Fundraising meeting is next Friday, week from today.

Paul: We need to accept all money. We need to go full force and try to raise money from public or individual sources. Also, we need to have pitch, involving track record and use of funds. They’re going to want to know our story.

Richard: Add institutions to one-time potential donor list

Greg: There are some people who don’t need a large story to give us money.

Gunner: My organization struggles to get funding. Something to be said for having a c3 so people can write off donations. Worker-owned collective. We need research about what would be a good working group model. Does spark fizzle out if we don’t get goals or do something.

Lisa: Share space with other groups and use that as a form of income. For grants, we should approach directly. Could be good sources of income.

Ravi: How to incorporate autonomous fundraising – tough question, might want to think about answer

Liam: We could not know about bigger problems with spaces if we co-rent. Regarding autonomous funding, there are ideas out there (Gunner and I have been talking about a media center) that we could do and incorporate into movement.

Cherie: Silent auction as a way to raise money, lots of talent in OB

Monica: We do not have to be a non-profit that bleeds money. We can raise start up capital for projects. If we go to donors with compelling and urgent vision, our pitch is “make this happen” and “this is an investment”. Serious pitch will yield much more money.

Sage: We already do have some money, we can and should use it. The donations money, for which i am grateful, and find miraculous, is a sign of our support among the populace and they would expect us to use it for this purpose.

Part 2: Partnerships/e5

Charngchi: Mass Global started e5, but they’re leaving, so we’re forming a collective to keep it going. Proposal is to enter into partnership with OB to make e5 headquarters for OB. Two conversations need to happen: between MassGlobal and e5, and what OB wants to do.

Lisa: Financial stuff is a big part of this, we need some numbers.

Charngchi: space will be walled off. $3k for rent, $2k for upkeep (both are per month). This is for small space only. Overall, $5-6k per month. Take in $2k in rent from organizations currently using the space. Overall, below market rent.

Lisa: So there is shortfall of $3-4k/month

Charngchi: If OB and e5 come up with proposal, the union that owns the building could make a deal with us.

Greg: Private donor wants to set up an activist center, and they could use this to catalyze that vision. But they want all sorts of activist groups to be able to use the space.

Richard: A few groups not carrying weight, they could be encouraged to move to other spaces in building. That would free up some space in the remaining portion that we would be renting. Partnership would be ideal if we could release the space that would be taken over by other people.

Liam: Talked to some guy in charge, absolutely everything is on the table. We need to make sure we have space for other activists groups. Could do a bigger space and

Gunner: Odd hours in building, owned by a union, etc. Do we have a list of priorities in a space?

Charngchi: Wall being put up soon, but it’s my opinion that if OB comes up with a reasonable proposal, people could be flexible about the entire space (not just the space that’s not already rented out)

Liam: We heard space was already spoken for/rented

Monica: Need to talk more about 501c3. Strong concern about e5: they’ve been good to us, but if we’re interested in creating a space for outreach, where people can come in, where people can benefit and interact directly, where we are financially sustainable, e5 is not the space to make that happen.

Richard: People don’t want e5 because it’s not storefront

Ravi: e5 is still good for meeting and office space

Greg: Closure is that we need to decide on next steps

Charngchi: Space could be used for other purposes

Part 3: reports and strategy on other spaces

Paul: commercial space market is difficult, only one company. Most leases are long term – 5ish years. About 24 total spaces that are interesting. Best one is 24 Bromfeld St (old city sports). $30/sq ft. Size of spaces are b/w 2500-5000 sq feet. Range from $5k-8k. Space in Chinatown, 110 Chauncy, 4k sq ft, about $8k/month. These are ready to go. Places that are interesting but need tenant improvement – we need to bring it up to code. 457 Washington St. Need to bring it up to code ourselves. They want $300k per year. 38 Chauncy, next to Macy’s, needs work. $6700/month for 3k sq ft.

Two more ready to go now but not same street traffic, next to Dewey: First one next to Biddy’s. 139 Pearl st. 1200 sq feet at street level and 1200 more in basement. $5k/month. 110 South St, 4500 sq ft, $8k/month (actually wants $10k but we can get them down). He wants to be able to kick us out if they find a buyer within 3 months.

Summary: 4 nice pieces of property, 2 up to landlord, 2 needs infrastructure upgrades. Spend between $5-8k per month.

Some have 2nd story and basement space as well.

Martin: Co-working spaces don’t really look like e5. Might want a better space. Would get many more groups willing to co-rent with nicer spaces.

Paul: I say the space is for a group of non-profits

Liam: Been working on stuff autonomously, feel free to help. Want a place that is sustainable financially – makes money. Talking to different café and restaurant owners. Restaurant owner has given great advice for all the steps necessary to start a place. Lots of task oriented stuff we need to do if we can get a cohesive vision in place. I think we’re at the place where we can do this now. Total process will take 2- 3 months to get off the ground (if not longer). Housing Works people are going to come talk about what they’ve done down in NYC.

Martin: Group in SF has only a small part of their overall activist space

Bil: Confused about what we’re talking about

Monica: Talking about how the different pieces fit together – can use the space for multiple reasons

Paul: I like this idea – need to create social space, and good things happen in small conversations. We need to start pitching this and doing stuff. Start making deals with owners of buildings to work out details. Then we need to start pitching it internally and building support.

Sage: Don't let better be the enemy of good. Let's do something even if it doesn't match the whole grand scheme. On Winterization working group, we made the error of trying to make a grand plan and do it all at once with a top down plan, and in the end Dewey Square got swept away before we could do anything.