Hi Pine,
If the Foundation decides to move, the cost of making the space usable for
our staff is not a recoverable cost from the building owner.
At this point, WMF is not planning on moving out of the San Francisco
market area. We will be doing our best to manage cost when we renew our
lease or move. The advantages of having good access to talented people and
organizations WMF interacts with far outweigh any advantages to moving to a
lower cost location outside of the San Francisco market area.
Regards,
Garfield
On Tue, Apr 7, 2015 at 9:58 PM, Pine W <wiki.pine(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Garfield,
I'm asking this on Wikimedia-l because a number of Wikimedians have noted
the expensiveness of the San Francisco area including its high cost of
living for staff, employer competition for engineering talent, and
associated high salaries for WMF employees.
I see on
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/foundation/8/8a/RFP_for_Real_Estate_S…
that WMF is considering relocating its offices when its current main office
lease expires.
Questions:
What happens to the remodel expenses that WMF is paying for at its current
location? If WMF vacates the premesis, will it be compensated for the
remodel by the building owner?
I hope that WMF is contemplating fully exiting the San Francisco market
area in order to economize, get better value for our donors' funds, have
less competition for talent, and lower costs of living for staff. Is this
being considered?
Thanks very much,
Pine
--
Garfield Byrd
Chief of Finance and Administration
Wikimedia Foundation
415.839.6885 ext 6787
415.882.0495 (fax)
www.wikimediafoundation.org
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