HI Everyone, I’d like to make a few points here. In order to apply for a grant you need to have a plan on what you want to do with the money. Generally, grant’s are not given to organizations in our case a private “club”, without a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic and Time Based) objective of what were going to do with the grant. SkullSpace has always been challenged with planning – it is not in the nature of an organic Hackerspace to agree on a direction. People join, contribute, particpate and ultimately leave for a variety of reasons. Our diversity gives us membership resiliency however, it makes it difficult to “row” in a specific direction. A brief review of discuss will easily identify a wide variety of opinion.
What all of you may be interested in is the level of effort required to apply for grants, and I will add government grants are extremely risk adverse. If you have significant corporate support the government may “match” this; it is very unlikely a government will be first in with grant money. Assent works success in this regard (getting grant money) was due in a large part by significant contributions of the Board of Directors companies and relationships coveted over years at the federal and provincial level with the “right” people in the halls of power. This takes a significant amount of time, research and meetings – especially on the ground in Ottawa for federal grants. Lastly, private grants are given for projects (very rarely operational expenses) which further the objectives of the granting body. An example would be a corporate investor who wants to do something specific with education of youth at risk. In order to apply for the grant you have to put in details, a lot of details about what your going to do and frequently the organization also wants to see broader support from industry and government – truly a catch 22 scenario. This is what I believe the “strings” are that folks were talking about – private grants have reporting requirements with in many cases “significant” consequences for failure to use the money appropriatly. Grants and external funding are a lot of work – I believe the limited bandwidth of the volunteer board is better suited to dealing with the immediate operational concerns. Ian From: Justin Lacko <jus...@takaji.ca<mailto:jus...@takaji.ca>> Reply-To: Discuss SkullSpace <discuss@lists.skullspace.ca<mailto:discuss@lists.skullspace.ca>> Date: Saturday, March 1, 2014 at 11:23 To: Discuss SkullSpace <discuss@lists.skullspace.ca<mailto:discuss@lists.skullspace.ca>> Subject: Re: [SkullSpace-Discuss] Grants and funding Siu, I think it is important to refute a few of the points you made concerning grants and SkSp in general. Not all grants require the applicant to be an entrepreneurship or traditional business offering a service. I think SkSp falls under the category of a community organization in the best way possible - we offer services to the community and support our basic operating costs through a membership program that offers additional benefits. I'm not aware of any specific grants, but I'm sure our organization would be eligible for at least a few, if we can root them out. I don't really think it matters that our most popular events may be the gaming events; we are still providing programming for the community at large through public events. It is worth mentioning that we also have a number of technology-related events that help fill an important niche in Winnipeg - notably programming groups. We are very much a "serious" group, as you doubted. As an organization, SkSp is dedicated to bringing together like-minded people in the pursuit of collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Some aspects of SkSp are private, but our public face is more prominent, which is how it should be. I would propose that there be an internal member list available with a name and an email address - with additional information available if a member wishes to provide it. I don't think it is a good idea as an organization to not keep a "members directory" - it serves to allow people to contact each other and work together. The idea of someone joining our organization under the condition that their name be withheld from such a directory goes against the organization's goal of promoting connections between individuals, in my opinion. I think your characterization of the organization not accepting donations/help from corporate sources (this is how I interpret your "strings attached" comment) is untrue. It's not that we have turned down such offers; I think it's more a case that we haven't really seen serious offers before. I know a long time ago I proposed contacting DigiKey and Mouser, etc. to ask about sponsorship through parts/discounts/etc. in return for a logo or banner placed in the space. We never really got far enough to debate situations like that because nobody ever offered us anything because myself/others didn't write to said organizations. It wouldn't hurt to find out what we can get, and then go to the membership with the choice of accepting or not. I'm hoping you or someone else can provide some further information as to why we couldn't apply for grants due to our bylaws. I'm not completely familiar with them. Anyways, I think the right attitude is to see what is available to us, apply to them, and then go to our membership with the results and ask for feedback/approval. I wish I could volunteer further to look into this, but I'm not close enough to do the calls and put the footwork into this. I hope either way that something fruitful comes from any research into this! -Justin On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 10:08 AM, Roswyne <rosw...@gmail.com<mailto:rosw...@gmail.com>> wrote: While AssentWorks has had great success with grants, I do not believe SkullSpace should pursue them. 1) We have different goals, which are not "public oriented". We are not "growing entrepreneurs" or "improving industry". We are a private club that offers space to work in projects (mainly tables and chairs) and offer a venue where like-minded people can meet and work together. However, many of the most popular group activities are games: we are not entirely a serious group, by any means. 2) By design, SkSp is very private - to the extent that even members cannot view a list of members. Historically we've been very independent, and refused to consider taking anything that might have "strings" attached to it. Gifts usually have conditions attached - most commonly that the facilities be available to the public. Disclosure of our financial information is also likely required, as may membership information. Please do investigate what we might be eligible for, if you're so inclined. That's very kind of you to volunteer! But we may not be able to (by our bylaws) apply, or our membership may choose not to accept the conditions. On Feb 28, 2014 8:53 AM, "Brittany Postnikoff" <bpostnik...@gmail.com<mailto:bpostnik...@gmail.com>> wrote: Thank you Justin. I will certainly do my best. I have added grants and funding to the list of things to pursue. I appreciate you reminding me of that avenue. I will keep each of these contacts in mind! On Feb 28, 2014 1:59 AM, "Justin Lacko" <jus...@takaji.ca<mailto:jus...@takaji.ca>> wrote: A great, positive response Britt! I get the feeling SkSp is in good hands... I only wish I could be there to participate and help our group in whatever way I can. I think a really good idea to explore that wasn't on your list is funding through grants. I tried to kinda get the ball moving on this a while ago, but we needed a written organization plan, which never materialized. I think there's untapped resources we can take advantage of, and I would suggest talking directly to Mike Legary or the folks at RampUp Manitoba for ideas and support. Robert at AW is a great guy to talk with, or even Marnie. I'm looking forward to another year of our great organization flourishing and growing! Best, Justin On 28 February 2014 02:38, Brittany Postnikoff <bpostnik...@gmail.com<mailto:bpostnik...@gmail.com>> wrote: Hello everyone, As requested by some people in the membership I would like to present my goals and expectations for SkullSpace, and myself, this year. I want to start by thanking those that voted for me for doing so, and for those that didn’t, I hope my actions and representation of you this year will convince you to vote differently in the future. My goals for this year directly align with our motto of “knowledge, community, and technology”. I believe these ideas really are the cornerstone of who we are. When I think of SkullSpace or explain it to those interested, the first thought I try to convey is “community”. The idea of community in this sense is not only the great connections available within SkullSpace and the things we offer, but also the outreach we have done with the businesses and other groups around us. I believe this is vital to SkullSpace’s identity and sustainability. It is wonderful to see groups such as Winnipeg.rb, PHPUG, Winnipeg Android, and others in our space and enjoying their experience. This shows that we can be welcoming, supportive, and above all else a good resource for many in our community. We are doing well with this, but I would really like to see more engagement with new faces when they walk in, more support for our community groups and businesses, and more activities with the members we already have. I hope to achieve these community goals by holding more socials and group outings/fundraisers, increasing the amount of small services we offer or make them more apparent, make booking our space easier, and help everyone learn different ways to engage new members. Learning and knowledge is also a big part of why SkullSpace is important in our community. It is impressive how many amazing people we have in our membership, the type of skills spread over each of these people, and the resources we have in the space for anyone to use. Part of our identity can be expressed through our hack-a-thons, CTFs, books, projects, and conversation (even if it is off-topic, raunchy, or completely silly). At our present point we do not have as many hack-a-thons, talks, projects, or other events compared to when I joined a little over a year ago. To solve this issue I hope to focus on engaging the people in our membership to be more involved with setting these types of events up. In order to do this I will be willing to help plan, organize, and come up with ideas for future events. The last point to highlight is technology. SkullSpace has many different technologies all in one place. We have every type of user ranging from inexperienced and only one device to those with years and years of knowledge and so many devices that we could have an impressive technology collection with each piece being completely different. This is supported by the gaming consoles, projects, 3D printer, public use computers, and a variety of other devices available at the space. This is a great start. In the next year I would like to improve the number of projects we have to display at conventions, the infrastructure we have available to members, and invest in new devices for all to enjoy. To achieve this I am hoping to talk to members to find out what wants are, hold fundraising events to buy items the membership has expressed interest in, and improve our current infrastructure. If anyone has any suggestions for things I can do to help make their experience with SkullSpace more enjoyable or have projects for me to tackle, email me directly, or the board at ad...@lists.skullspace.ca<mailto:ad...@lists.skullspace.ca>. In closing, SkullSpace has allowed me to become friends with a variety of people that I probably would never have met any other way. I hope to meet many more people this year and can only wish that we have the same positive effect on them as SkullSpace has had on me. --Brittany Postnikoff _______________________________________________ SkullSpace Announce Mailing List Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Announce Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-announce-archive/ _______________________________________________ SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/ _______________________________________________ SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/ _______________________________________________ SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/ _______________________________________________ SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/ _______________________________________________ SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/
_______________________________________________ SkullSpace Discuss Mailing List Help: http://www.skullspace.ca/wiki/index.php/Mailing_List#Discuss Archive: https://groups.google.com/group/skullspace-discuss-archive/
