Fwd: [biocurious] BioCurious Cash Crisis - I need YOUR help

[Justin Dormandy]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Kristina Hathaway <kris...@biocurious.org>
Date: Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 6:29 PM
Subject: [biocurious] BioCurious Cash Crisis - I need YOUR help
To: biocurious <biocu...@googlegroups.com>

Folks, 

The cash crisis I talked about earlier this year isn’t better.  Unless things chance, we may have to close BioCurious.

The lab stays busy. People are in during all hours, working on fantastic projects. Our volunteer staff pulls together beautifully. Community, personal, and commercial projects are coming out of the lab like the bioprinter, the bioluminescence work, the Glowing Plant effort, DNA sequencing and prep products. More people are being introduced to these technologies than ever before.

But we’re dangerously low on money.

Most of the projects at the space and the attention that we get for our work don't net us any revenues.  We need at least $5000-$6000 each month just to pay our rent, keep the lights on, have an Internet connection, and restock basics like gloves and pipette tips. That also doesn’t account for other expenses like new equipment, expanding capabilities, or replacing broken stuff.

This is the trend we've talked about in our member meetings - and it's gotten worse. Although lots of people show up for community projects, membership is flat, and paid classes are scarce. If we don't fix this right now, we run out of money in 30-60 days. 

We're missing 3 things:

* Money

* More Classes

* More Members

What We Are Doing: I'm calling an emergency member meeting on Wednesday, June 12^th at 7pm  to discuss 2 plans.

Plan A: Immediately increase the number of paid classes, consistently enforce rules already in place about lab work, and recruit hands on help to execute both of these.

·         We need more hands-on classes and lectures where people are paying to attend. Let's fill that schedule together and get more people in classes.

·         We must start consistently enforce lab rules. Only members may work in the lab.  Guests may not do any work in the lab. Visitors must attend safety orientation and pay day visit fee before doing any hands on work. 

·         Community projects are now the most recurring item on the calendar. They are crowding out paying classes, and attendees get the benefits of BioCurious without paying to support it.

·         Community projects must continue to give way to paid classes. 

·         Members may sponsor one free gathering in the classroom space per month.

·         Each member may have only one guest in the lab with them at a time.

 

None of these are new policies, but exceptions have been made, and the honor system has broken down.

We have some new equipment that doesn't have to live in the lab (3D printer, lab automation projects, etc.).  We can either require this work be done in the lab (not preferred, due to space constraints), or have non-members pay to do hands-on work on these projects, or use this equipment. We need to set a price for this activity. The suggestion is $10 donation per non-member, per project night

Plan B: Close down the lab, store the equipment, and search for free space or a benefactor where we can re-open the lab without the burden of paying commercial rent. This is NOT the Plan I want for us.

What You Can Do:

·         Donate money. Now. We really need it. http://biocurious.org/donate/

·         Help us find instructors for quality classes.

·         Attend the classes and lectures we hold, and bring a friend.

·       Get the word out about BioCurious, so we can increase membership and class attendance. 

This is your space. The only way it can continue to run is if you work to keep it open. We are doing things no one has ever done here. We are changing the world. Please help us keep doing it. 

 

Thanks,

 

 

Kristina Hathaway

Worried Co-founder, and Emergency Plan Coordinator

Kristina Hathaway

Co-Founder/COO

BioCurious

kris...@biocurious.org

@sytype

BioCurious.org

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[SC]

Hi Kritsina,

Curiously, where did the initial finances come from to open the lab?

Stacy

[Bryan Bishop]

On Sun, Jun 9, 2013 at 3:53 PM, SC <stac...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Curiously, where did the initial finances come from to open the lab?

Kickstarter. But it wasn't enough to support a space indefinitely.

- Bryan
http://heybryan.org/
1 512 203 0507

[Steven Stowell]

Kristina

Hopefully not too touchy

1. It would appear  that some of that $484,000 raised for the glowing plant project should go to Biocurious, if for no other reason than the affiliation was used to market the project. (not sure of the value of this marketing)  What's  up with this?

2.  Are you a 501C3 yet?  This might be an avenue to get more donations, if that is the model for funding.

I guess that I am worried about an organization whose participants do such  good work in the name of Biocurious, that is really quite valuable for the programming alone, with participants who have a demonstrated capacity for raising a lot of awareness, with projects that would appear to have raised a lot of money . . .  is having a tough time with cash.    I am worried about other organizations. 

Steve Stowell

BUGSS

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[Cathal Garvey (Android)]

Agreed. My opinion is that calling the Glowing Plant project a "community" project, however potentially misleading, was a critical factor in its success. Biocurious' reputation was critical: I feel some recognition and support is due in return.

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Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

[SC]

It seems that non-university labs that need annual funding to keep the lights on either write a series of federal grants, do contract work to bring in income, or have a "front-company" in an unrelated field to generate cash.   Writing grants is time-consuming and far from guaranteed, but maybe either of the last two might work.   Could the lab do contract DNA bar-coding, shotgun library construction, plasmid preps?  Is there a sequencer available?  Obviously any of these options would require someone's time and skill, and that person would either have to be paid or be a very generous volunteer. 

 

I think what isn't going to work is asking for donations on Google groups, or asking the Glowing Plant folks to fork over a hefty donation when there was no previous agreement to do so.  Note: I think it would be appropriate of them to make such a donation, but they certainly aren't required to.

 

 

 

[Steven Stowell]

I believe that one of the premises I have assumed during my albeit limited involvement in the DIYbio movement is that people, when left more or less alone  (without requirements or agreements to do the right thing), will do the right thing.  I know that nothing compels them to do the right thing, but thankfully, other lovers of freedom will (and have) made life a little more uncomfortable for those not doing the right thing. I hate it when an organization has to actually pay, rather than reap huge benefits, for the amount of freedom they give their participants and members.  I really don't want to let the glowing plant people off the hook, particularly when it would likely take so little (as a percentage)  of their take to make a big difference at Biocurious. 

Also, one must wonder about Biocurious internal policies.  They have been such a model to us (such as we are) with their activities, projects, and marketing , and I'd like to understand better how we can avoid the condition they are in now.  Of course, I understand that it may be quite difficult to be completely transparent on all on funding or governance issues, but any information that they feel they can share would be appreciated.

While I agree that members, participants, and well-wishers should be solicited to pay, this kind of money seems picayune compared to the value of some of their projects.  The participants there seem to be leaving very valuable information.  Some may argue that this information and marketing is worth far more than any dues or donations that could be collected  I think they have shrewdly marketed themselves through their projects, (essentially done things, rather than just talked about them) and it distresses me that they have this condition while generating such valuable work.  I am finding it hard to make sense out of it.

Steve

On Mon, Jun 10, 2013 at 1:01 PM, SC <stac...@yahoo.com> wrote:

It seems that non-university labs that need annual funding to keep the lights on either write a series of federal grants, do contract work to bring in income, or have a "front-company" in an unrelated field to generate cash.   Writing grants is time-consuming and far from guaranteed, but maybe either of the last two might work.   Could the lab do contract DNA bar-coding, shotgun library construction, plasmid preps?  Is there a sequencer available?  Obviously any of these options would require someone's time and skill, and that person would either have to be paid or be a very generous volunteer. 

 

I think what isn't going to work is asking for donations on Google groups, or asking the Glowing Plant folks to fork over a hefty donation when there was no previous agreement to do so.  Note: I think it would be appropriate of them to make such a donation, but they certainly aren't required to.

 

 

 

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[Jenney Choi - McNaughton]

Hmmm... not sure if directing questions to Kristina here is going to work when the original post was is a forwarded cross-posting (not from the original poster) from the BioCurious Google Group. 

[Patrik D'haeseleer]

Just to be clear: the Glowing Plant project *did* come out of the bioluminescence community project at BioCurious - nothing misleading about that.

Patrik

[4phl...@gmail.com]

I do remember someone associated with the project saying the project has nothing to do with diybio community, though I don't think he mentioned biocurious specifically. 

-sung

On Jun 11, 2013, at 3:13 PM, Patrik D'haeseleer <pat...@gmail.com> wrote:

Just to be clear: the Glowing Plant project *did* come out of the bioluminescence community project at BioCurious - nothing misleading about that.

Patrik

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[Patrik D'haeseleer]

 
On Tuesday, June 11, 2013 1:31:37 PM UTC-7, sung wrote:

I do remember someone associated with the project saying the project has nothing to do with diybio community, though I don't think he mentioned biocurious specifically.

No, that is wrong. Kyle is leading the science side, and he has been running the plant biology group at BioCurious for a while. Mega here on the list has been coming up with some great designs as well - I believe that's the ones that are now available through Genome Compiler as well.

Patrik

[Jenney Choi - McNaughton]

All the individuals in Glowing Plant have been supportive to BioCurious, most of all Kyle. Kyle has been exceptionally generous with his time, expertise, and patience. He's a key person in our BioCurious community who has instructed both wetlab and lecture classes. He's mentored many of the active members. He brings incredible value to the community not just abstractly with his charm, but also in revenue. Maybe it's not my place to say anything, but Kyle has been critical to sustaining BioCurious. I am writing here, because I feel some recognition and support is due in return to Kyle. 

You may have varying opinions on the merits/value of the Glowing Plant project, but to me it looks like bad form to use the current circumstances of BioCurious to malign a project you may not support. The running of a financially sustainable community lab is a difficult proposition with a great deal of complexity built in, as many of you are familiar with. What are the exact dollars it would take to save BioCurious? What about the commitments Glowing Plant has to its own backers? With all due respect, there are many considerations and it's easy for outsiders to make a judgment or cast aspersions without all the data.

[Alex Murer]

Errr...seriously..6000$ every month basicly just for the rent? No wonder that they got financial problems..

[William Heath]

Hi All,

When I had a diybio group in Palo Alto, Tech Shop was not opposed to allowing me to put a refrigerator with live cells etc... in Tech Shop.  Perhaps they would be willing to host Biocurious?  Just a weird idea :>  I LOVE BIOCURIOUS!  I want to hire a tutor to teach me how to make a bioprinter that is inexpensive and simple yesterday.  Contact me if you want to do that :>

-Tim

On Tue, Jun 11, 2013 at 1:32 PM, Alex Murer <openbio...@gmail.com> wrote:

Errr...seriously..6000$ every month basicly just for the rent? No wonder that they got financial problems..

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[Patrik D'haeseleer]

On Tuesday, June 11, 2013 4:32:18 PM UTC-7, Alex Murer wrote:

Errr...seriously..6000$ every month basicly just for the rent? No wonder that they got financial problems..

That's the total - not just the rent, but also insurance, supplies, replacing essential equipment, and everything else. Off the top of my head, I believe rent is around half of that - not bad for a 2500sqft space in the center of Silicon Valley!

Patrik

[Jonathan Cline]

Congratulations on proving once again that communism does not work, although the experiment wasn't really necessary.  The world does not run on flower power.  Surprising that this would take place in a biology forum, when biology itself does not work in this way.
For a nice review of how this has all happened before, refer to Hackers by Steven Levy.  The divergence between "let's all share!" and "we need to be secret and backstab the others because our intellectual property has to win" is also due to hit diybio groups in the future.
 
BTW, I easily have six figures invested in biohacking from my own pocket.  So-called open source projects are not free, they are often paid for knowingly or unknowingly by corporations or universities (via salaried time of the inventors, or physical resources). 

[Bryan Bishop]

On Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 9:21 AM, Jonathan Cline <jnc...@gmail.com> wrote:
> BTW, I easily have six figures invested in biohacking from my own pocket.
> So-called open source projects are not free, they are often paid for
> knowingly or unknowingly by corporations or universities (via salaried time
> of the inventors, or physical resources).

That's the way to do it. I am also worried because jojack never liked
the membership model, but he seems to be voting for that now. What
gives!

[Mega]

> congratulations on proving once again that communism does not work, although the experiment wasn't really necessary.  The world does not run on flower power. 

But it is necessary to educate the pulic, thus government would be in turn now to give subsidies. Or some company investing in public education (making fear of GM smaller)

By the way, it should run on flower power - biofuel :D 

If the space is really that expensive, a cheaper one may be to consider though... 

[Cathal Garvey (Android)]

What a bizarre attack. Biocurious isn't 'communist', it's a 'commons'. And it was never meant to run on 'flower power', it was meant to run on money like a good little capitalist commons.

If anything this shows that capitalisms are poor systems in which to run non-profit-driven enterprises. If you're on of those kooks who insists profit is the only form of social good, then I guess I salute you for having such an excellent filter bubble.

[Bryan Bishop]

On Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 11:11 AM, Cathal Garvey (Android)
<cathal...@cathalgarvey.me> wrote:
> What a bizarre attack. Biocurious isn't 'communist', it's a 'commons'. And
> it was never meant to run on 'flower power', it was meant to run on money
> like a good little capitalist commons.

Just because there were membership fees doesn't mean that membership
fees are a good idea. I don't see your point.

[Cathal Garvey (Android)]

My point is that a "communist" system would imply communal ownership of the lab, including the building. Communism is a societal thing, you can't just accuse a club-like affair of being "a communism". It simply doesn't parse.

Whether or not memberships are a good idea isn't my point, rather that a system requiring them is indicative of a system entirely unlike communism.

Shouldn't take that as an endorsement of Communism on my part. Doesn't seem to work any better than Capitalism as a viable way to build long-lived societies.

[Bryan Bishop]

(see attachment)

From: Jason Euren <jason...@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jun 13, 2013 at 10:35 PM
Subject: Re: [biocurious] BioCurious Cash Crisis - I need YOUR help
To: Kristina Hathaway <kris...@biocurious.org>
Cc: biocurious <biocu...@googlegroups.com>

Hi everyone,

There were a few requests for notes during and after last night's meeting.  I put together a summary of the meeting's various sections (see attached) from the notes that I took.  

Best,

Jason

On Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 6:29 PM, Kristina Hathaway <kris...@biocurious.org> wrote:

Folks, 

The cash crisis I talked about earlier this year isn’t better.  Unless things chance, we may have to close BioCurious.

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