Hello all - I thought it’d be nice to have a 1 stop shop for all our members and visitors to understand where we’re at with our journey to be an open makerspace again, so here is this page:
I would suggest adding something about our financial situation. That we have been unable to have classes while moving and while complying with stay-at-home orders. That we had longer time of paying for two places than expected, rent+mortgage, insurance on two places, utilities two places. That we are having the raffle to make up some of the difference. That we always can use help with grant prospecting and applications. That we appreciate people continuing to renew membership and continue to have no plans to increase the cost of membership. That gift memberships can be purchased as a way to help us financially now and are an excellent way to provide a way for future members to start out with no financial obligation once we re-open in our bigger and better facility.
I THINK (correct me if I’m wrong) we actually did have to pay double location expenses for the months we did - our lease at 1500 wasn’t up until April 1 so we were obligated to pay for it through March. Correct me if I’m wrong. I am very thankful for the volunteers who jumped in so we didn’t have to pay for any longer than that, kind of a miracle actually!
You are entirely correct about the lease. Although, in theory, if we had vacated 1500 E Douglas sooner we could have reduced or eliminated double utility and insurance expenses. And the lease itself could have been negotiated, probably.
Mainly I meant that our original fiscal year budgeting had not anticipated the double expenses, and the revised budget underestimated some of them once we approved buying the new building.
Some anticipated financial losses did not manifest (yet), because nearly all of our membership has continued renewing even while their is limited or no making within either location.
We are not in financial distress currently, because of prudent financial planning. We do have a relatively thin reserve for future unexpected expenses and it would be nice to rebuild our financial situation as the economic downturn from the corona virus pandemic is likely to last a while and we cannot and should not count on membership, classes, or grant funding to be as reliable as previously thought.