Breakfast With Champions
Submitted by Caesandra Seawell at Buffalo ReUSe:
Hello Buffalo ReUse supporters. Many of you have already seen the blog post regarding our invitation to serve you pancakes December 1st from 9-noon, but we wanted to also let you know we're glad to do it because we want to meet our neighbors. We hope you'll want to meet our neighbors too because strengthening the community where we work is a main goal of Buffalo ReUse.
Having said that, I suspect many of you can make a sweet pancake batter. I dare you to make Michael Gainer sweat - his oatmeal pancakes are good, but I bet there's a mom with a secret ingredient or a grampa with some serious spatula SHOWMANSHIP! If your batter has a secret weapon - bring it.
Free Flapjacks and Fixins' from Buffalo ReUse. We'll provide a little of everything, but more is always welcome.
p.s. I tried those clam pancakes w/sour cream at the Original Pancake House - not bad. Not exactly breakfast, but not bad.
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bradon
Reuse must have more volunteers than they know what to do with because I still haven't heard from them.
I found out yesterday that Reuse charges homeowners to deconstruct the homes. Up until now I thought that this service was funded from selling parts from the houses and from grants and special events. I wonder if someone is making money off this? Maybe this is why they want to limit volunteers? Or maybe it is because my age and ethnicity don't quite fit the mold of a reuse volunteer. No sweat off my back because there are a lot more worthy causes out there that aren't trying to take money from desperate home owners in the name of charity and community good.
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buffaloreuse
i'll take a second to address brandon's questions because they are good ones... 1. volunteering...certainly we don't have more volunteers than we need...we have great volunteers like Dan and Jessica who just completed the first issue of our newsletter; ian, rafi, amanda, rod, neil and others that have gave a hand recently during our move...even a group of service learning students last weekend from Daemon College...but we always need more...i think we do a lot to advertise these experiences, but maybe we should do more...we list opportunities on our website and our blog, we send out opportunities in our e-newsletter, we respond to inquiries at our email address and voicemail...we're doing our best...but i'm sure someone could fall through the cracks...for those folks i say...take the bull by the horns and come out, we get drop in volunteers all the time and in particular at our store on Saturdays from 9-4 p.m. lots of opportunities...
2. as for our mission and organizational structure...it as never been our mission that we would perform deconstruction services for free...we do work with some struggling homeowners on occasion and we go out of way to support them in doing what has to be done to make it an economically feasible project...we also work for people that definitely have the means to pay, but want to "do the right thing"...soon we'll be contracting with the city...which has always been our goal...we would like to see money currently spent on demolition diverted to the community through job training, a low cost building materials store, and green space development efforts...we're doing a lot and creating good from what otherwise would be thrown away...
we have a fee for service model, but we also make tremendous accommodations for those with limited means...all the money we "make" goes into supporting our operation and mission.
i'm constantly thinking about ways to make what we do more affordable, or better yet ways to not have to tear down houses...i think you will see some of these ideas in action in the next year...but for now we need to get started...we're working hard and i believe we've accomplished a lot...one way we get better is by listening to those that have concerns or feedback, we constantly reflect and reevaluate, and we are working hard to create a solid organization... we welcome your questions, concerns, or feedback...if you don't feel like your requests are being responded to, or if you need more clarification, contact me directly at buffaloreuse@gmail.com, i'll make time to call you or even schedule an appointment....
onward, michael gainer buffalo reuse
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bradon
Michell - I was spammed by your listserv for a couple of weeks and then I stopped receiving messages from Reuse. As I said before, I am volunteering somewhere else and letting people know about the REUSE's profiteering from the neglected housing stock. You are asking $10k - $15k per home from the homeowner and more from the city, as far as I have been told. BTW, if you are wondering who I am my email address is similar to my screen name; both are a combination of my first and last name and both should be somewhere in your computer.
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Colin
There's no such thing as a non-profit "profiteering" from anything. All sorts of non-profits charge for their services. The money goes back into providing the service.
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chiknlil
This is by no means an allegation or statement against Buffalo Reuse, I've been to their warehouse shop a few times and believe that they have built a great organization. This is a counter to Colin's last post.
I had the distinct misfortune of being stuck in my Doctor's office with only an outdated Reader's Digest to keep me company before my exam and tests last week. In this Reader's Digest, there was an article about Non-profit organizations that pay their CEO or President outrageous salaries from donations and revenue. The Executive Director of one not-for-profit in Maryland paid himself a $250,000 salary, plus bonuses for himself and his staff. They operated a community thrift store and took donations for immigrant and minority families, everything was documented and "above-board" per the Maryland laws. The Executive Director took home more than $1 million dollars in just 6 years, then decided to demise the organization claiming that they couldn't continue to fund services and couldn't find a suitable organization to combine with. The salary issue was discovered after the demise, and after the Executive Director had moved out of state. So there is profiteering in the non-profit sector, I hope that this is not the case with any not-for-profit in Buffalo.
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Charger
Just because something is a not-for-profit doesn't mean that it has to provide its services for free. Some organizations operate that way, but as long as the money isn't benefiting members of the Board of Directors, and everything is transparent then it's ok not to.
While 10K to 15K may sound like a lot of money for demolition it's the going rate for a building of the size and scale Buffalo ReUse works on. There are significant disposal costs, even when all reusable materials are saved, equipment costs, insurance, etc. I'm sure there's not a lot of excess revenue coming out of each individual property.
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Colin
chik -- sure, there are cases where non-profits are essentially scams run for the benefit of staff or board members. These are the very rare exception, and have no bearing on the question of whether charging for non-profit services is ok. Beyond that, there has been no actual evidence to support the bradon's claim of profiteering by ReUse. In fact, from what little I know of Mike Gainer, the idea that he's living high off the hog is pretty laughable. So unless bradon has some actual evidence, I think he owes the folks at ReUse an apology.
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chiknlil
Colin - I agree with your follow-up and I have no problem with Buffalo Reuse charging for services. It is no different than so many other organizations that use a sliding fee scale based on finances and ability to pay. There are cases where profits (and fortunes) are made in the non-profit sector and there is no proof that Buffalo Reuse is one of these organizations. I was just proving that there is such a thing as profiteering in the not-for-profit sector. I have no comment on Bradon's posts.
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