FHB-Hackerbus
The first and main objective of FHB-Hackerbus project at the moment (17/7/2016) is to get a reliable transportation option for Food Hacking Base (fhb) project. If you like what we do, this is number one thing to support during summer and autumn of 2016, the reasons why are below.
"The Story Why"
Since the beginning of fhb in 2011 we have been attending hacker events around the Europe, we have done variety of tours around the region and events of our own. For all these years transportation/logistics was the main thing to take care of, both from the point of view of time, energy and money. We got plenty of help from people (for example Bigmac) and organizations (for example OpenLab Augsburg) but still major issues and disturbances happened and not only once. Also since 2015 CCC camp we have a trailer which however needs to be licensed to a certain car in order to use it around EU legally. We came to conclusion that now the time is ripe to get our own transport, car or minibus and we started to gather resources to make it happen.
What to get, how to to get it and who gets it
- Who gets it
There are several things which we need to consider. FHB so far is not legal entity yet, therefore the car needs to be either registered on some other legal entity or more likely on a person. As a person Frantisek Algoldor Apfelbeck is more than happy to be the one, in most cases it will be him doing the logistic duties and tours anyway. The car needs to be insured of course, road taxes needs to be payed, all of this has to be taken car by the "owner". Since this autumn 2016, I Algoldor will be moving back to Europe and I want to focus on fhb activities on regular bases for which I need a car, also I will need a car for personal purposes. I would like to combine my personal funds with money coming from variety of other sources to buy the vehicle and insure it at least for the first year. In this way the car would be officially "my = registered" on my name, but it will be public knowledge that it is also fhb property designated to fhb projects. Clearly it is wise to expect that from time to time there may be conflict of interests however I believe things can be sorted out properly.
- What to get
I would personally suggest to get a minivan. The advantages would be numerous from larger number of people who can take a trip with us, amount of things which we transport and option of sleeping in the car during the tours if needed. The minuses would be higher cost to buy the car, increased cost of insurance and taxes and higher cost of fuel per kilometer. I would strongly suggest the minivan because when we consider the weight of things which we generally take around this is most likely the only legal option. The cost of the minivan, even some old very beaten up version will be around €2000 minimum, another €500 in payments for insurance and taxes etc. So €2500 will be the minimum cost.
- How to get it.
The upcoming autumn tour will start at the beginning of September. Algoldor will have some personal funds to invest into the vehicle, how much is not certain yet, hopefully around €1000, not more than €1500 that is quite for sure. We will need to gather at least €1500 or hopefully more. There will be crowdsourcing campaign run during August to gather resources for the autumn tour and part of the car cost will be included in the budget. People and organizations who supported us in past will be contacted and asked if they can support either directly or through the campaign. Very important part will be organizing events by fhb people like barbecues, workshops, tasting events etc. to bring people together and get funds through donations to the cause again this should be happening during the August.
What after
We need to think about possible future issues like car repairs, car crash, selling the car eventually etc. This needs to be discussed and considered making some guidelines before we start to gather the funds, so the things are nice and clear and there are no misunderstandings later on.