[D-Space] Introduction and a few thoughts

[Alex King]

On 06/12/10 17:17, Chris Baxter wrote:
> Hi everyone, i'm Chris. I'm a small-time computer programmer, working on a
> project called Loaded Reports.
>
>    
Hi Chris, and welcome.
> I've been lurking on this list for about a week, trying to get an idea of
> how people see this going forward, so i thought i'd pitch in with a few
> thoughts.
>
> My first though is that we should be aiming to get more people financially
> involved before moving ahead. I think we need to get a bank account and be
>    
...

Yes, absolutely, we want to include as many people as we can from the 
start, and we're certainly hoping to sign up as many financially as we 
can.  The bank account will be opened I guess as soon as we can gather 
some signatures on a form, and if we do the signing Wednesday night we 
can probably open the bank a/c Thursday.

I also agree there is no critical need to incorporate immediately, and 
it's likely to take a little longer because the paperwork needs to be 
done and people signed up formally.  But the advantage of getting 
charitable status is that contributors could get tax benefits, or 
contribute under payroll giving and get a rebate. 
(http://www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax-individual/tax-credits/payroll-giving/)  
This could be a significant for some people (myself included), so from 
that point of view I'd like to get charitable status as soon as possible.

We want to have as flat a structure as possible right from the 
beginning, with everyone invited to all meetings, and all business done 
in the open.

One thought regarding a few people putting in a lot of extra up-front - 
maybe we want to structure those contributions as loans, so that there 
is an expectation that they could be payed back in the future if we 
attract enough members and become financially successful.  We won't be a 
for-profit organisation though, so once our debts are paid, if we have 
excess income (a long way off at this stage) we would reduce our 
membership fees.

My second thought is that there are a heap of community buildings that might
> be used. There's community house, which can be used for meetings. The Corso
> building on Moray place (although it does smell strongly of weed), and
> probably a dozens other buildings that i've never heard of. Not to mention
> that we're still in a recession, so there's a heap of buildings for lease
> around town that could be used.
> If we work at trying to get other community groups involved, or at least
> passing the word along to their members, then there's a good chance that
> other buildings will show up - like they say, it's not what you know, but
> who you know".
>
>    
True, if anyone knows of a better building, let us know.  I happen to 
know the space at CORSO pretty well, and there isn't any spare space 
there at the moment.  Paul has been looking for a while, and this is the 
best that has come up so far.  That doesn't mean there isn't something 
else out there, but it's the best we know of.

I think we need to hire a space soon though for a couple of reasons... 
It would be great to have a space set up so we could start and catch 
secondary and tertiary students starting next year.  Also, personally, I 
need a workspace in town I can use from February next year when I 
move... so I'm keen.

I also think there are some people who won't hand over money until they 
see the space in action, another reason to get going with it.

One thing I think we maybe should explore would be whether the landlord 
would be prepared to let us have free rent for the first month, or 
discounted rent for an initial period while we build our membership.

Cheers,
Alex