DC: Promising venue, raising funds

[at...@atrus.org]

I went by The DC Center Wednesday and, in short, it seems like a fantastic place to have KFA DC 2. A more detailed outline follows, but I first wanted to note that we need to start collecting donations again. Normal calculation for the rooms is: $25 per room hour * 3 rooms * 7.5 hours = $562.50 . The nice folks at the center are willing to give us a price break, but I expect it will still be $450+.

There's a donation button on the wiki page
http://kinkforall.pbworks.com/KinkForAllWashingtonDC2#Needslist
shortened: http://bit.ly/kfadc2
Direct ink to the donate form thing:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=ZG2E44B9ZZY34
shortened: http://bit.ly/kfadc2give

The Center is located about three blocks from the U St Metro station, with numerous eateries nearby. The building is only one story (or at least the center is on the ground floor); so it should be reasonably handicap accessible. I didn't notice if there was parking nearby.

There are quite a few rooms in the building. Most are small offices. The relevant ones are a large (about 10x20'?) conference room, the cyber center (about 10x15'?), and the activity room (about 15x25'?). I'd guess the activity room could seat 50 people, conference room 25, and cyber center 15. Wifi is available and they have insurance that should cover us (or at least don't require any additional insurance).

The DC Center's website:
http://www.thedccenter.org/

I'd like to thank Amy/aelphaba for the reminding and encouraging about this space, and Molly Ren for making the initial contact via e-mail.

Cheers,
-Nikolas

[maymay]

No one's seemed to reply to this in a few weeks so I just wanted to chime in and say that it sounds totally awesome. And it's even more awesome that the DC Center is wiling to give you a break! You must have some kind of superhero sweet-talking talent, Nikolas! ;)

How are you doing with funds now? I mentioned in another thread that I couldn't find any public info about how much money was raised versus what is needed, a budget, or similar. Having that information visible and transparent would help me convince folks to give.

Cheers,
-maymay
Blog: http://maybemaimed.com
Talk show: http://KinkOnTap.com
Community: http://KinkForAll.org
Volunteering: http://ConversioVirium.org/author/maymay

[Nikolas Coukouma]

Sorry, I haven't set up a spreadsheet simply because I have no data to
put into it. No donations have been made and no reasonably accurate
info about costs is available. I've been extremely busy (e.g. not home
before 10pm most nights and up before 7am) and only recently learned
that Molly's internet troubles continue :( I'll try write the DC
center to get a real quote and setup a spreadhseet with initial
estimates.

Cheers,
-Nikolas

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[maymay]

On Feb 20, 2010, at 12:42 AM, Nikolas Coukouma wrote:

> Sorry, I haven't set up a spreadsheet simply because I have no data to
> put into it. No donations have been made and no reasonably accurate
> info about costs is available. I've been extremely busy (e.g. not home
> before 10pm most nights and up before 7am) and only recently learned
> that Molly's internet troubles continue :( I'll try write the DC
> center to get a real quote and setup a spreadhseet with initial
> estimates.
>
> Cheers,
> -Nikolas

Ah, okay! Good to know. Thanks for the update, Nikolas. :)

I'll keep my fingers crossed for a sweet discount for you.

[Nikolas Coukouma]

On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 3:52 AM, maymay <bitethea...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 20, 2010, at 12:42 AM, Nikolas Coukouma wrote:
>
>> Sorry, I haven't set up a spreadsheet simply because I have no data to
>> put into it. No donations have been made and no reasonably accurate
>> info about costs is available.

...

I've found a few hours to work on this, so here's an update:
* On Feb 24th, I sent an e-mail to The DC Center asking for a quote
for using their rooms. I haven't received a reply, so I'll try calling
tomorrow.
* Earlier today, I sent an e-mail to Stephen Beach at the CUPF
inquiring about the $100 damage deposit we paid for the last KFA DC.
He sent a reply to the effect of "I'll look into it"
* Finance spreadsheets are now up and a very generous person has donated $225.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tgaTlEKDQVlAgTf8iwfThww&output=html

Relevant links again:

http://kinkforall.pbworks.com/KinkForAllWashingtonDC2#Needslist
shortened: http://bit.ly/kfadc2

Direct link to the donate form thing:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=ZG2E44B9ZZY34
shortened: http://bit.ly/kfadc2give

Cheers,
-Nikolas

[David Phillips]

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 7:17 PM, Nikolas Coukouma <at...@atrus.org> wrote

I've found a few hours to work on this, so here's an update:
* On Feb 24th, I sent an e-mail to The DC Center asking for a quote
for using their rooms. I haven't received a reply, so I'll try calling
tomorrow.

I just poked David at The Center for ya.  I'm sure he's still overwhelmed with activity in the newish digs.  "David, I'm participating in KinkForAll DC in June and wanted to see how things are going with the organizers.  Excited by this opportunity to broaden The Center's reach, and they are a great group!"

* Earlier today, I sent an e-mail to Stephen Beach at the CUPF
inquiring about the $100 damage deposit we paid for the last KFA DC.
He sent a reply to the effect of "I'll look into it"
* Finance spreadsheets are now up and a very generous person has donated $225.
 http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tgaTlEKDQVlAgTf8iwfThww&output=html

Relevant links again:

 http://kinkforall.pbworks.com/KinkForAllWashingtonDC2#Needslist
 shortened: http://bit.ly/kfadc2

Direct link to the donate form thing:

 https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=ZG2E44B9ZZY34
 shortened: http://bit.ly/kfadc2give

Cheers,
-Nikolas

[Nikolas Coukouma]

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 7:17 PM, Nikolas Coukouma <at...@atrus.org> wrote:
...
> I've found a few hours to work on this, so here's an update:
> * On Feb 24th, I sent an e-mail to The DC Center asking for a quote
> for using their rooms. I haven't received a reply, so I'll try calling
> tomorrow.

I called and spoke to David Mariner Wednesday. The bad news is that we
can't reserve the rooms without payment. The incredibly good news is
that he said we can have the three rooms for about 7 hours for $250.

> * Finance spreadsheets are now up and a very generous person has donated $225.

I've updated the spreadsheets and the wiki with the information and
have made arrangements to receive the anonymous donation on Monday.
Maymay contributed $25, so we have all the donations we need for the
moment.

If all goes well, we'll have a reservation on Tuesday!

> * Earlier today, I sent an e-mail to Stephen Beach at the CUPF
> inquiring about the $100 damage deposit we paid for the last KFA DC.
> He sent a reply to the effect of "I'll look into it"

I haven't heard back about this. I figure I'll give him another poke
on Monday (one week after my last one).

Cheers,
-Nikolas

[Nikolas Coukouma]

On Fri, Mar 5, 2010 at 10:42 AM, Nikolas Coukouma <at...@atrus.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 7:17 PM, Nikolas Coukouma <at...@atrus.org> wrote:
> ...

> If all goes well, we'll have a reservation on Tuesday!

As announced on Twitter, and updated on the wiki: The reservation at
The DC Center is confirmed. While dropping off the funds and
finalizing the reservation, David Mariner (executive director)
mentioned that he hopes to attend and sounded enthusiastic about it.

>> * Earlier today, I sent an e-mail to Stephen Beach at the CUPF
>> inquiring about the $100 damage deposit we paid for the last KFA DC.
>> He sent a reply to the effect of "I'll look into it"
>
> I haven't heard back about this. I figure I'll give him another poke
> on Monday (one week after my last one).

Still haven't heard back. I just got around to sending my poke today, though.

Cheers,
-Nikolas