3. The Situation
The Dayton Metro area has a widely dispersed and
varied community.
Opportunities for IRL meetings are available, but
limited . Venues are parks or eating places with no
cost meeting rooms.
Most connections are through virtual communities
(Facebook, My Space, Yahoogroups)
Interest has been expressed over the years for an
IRL place to meet where the community would
have control over the venue.
4. Exploring the Potential
Ideal building:
Centralized location
Adequate parking
Attached green space for rituals
Large room for meetings
Kitchen for food preparation
Office and small meeting space
Buildings to look for:
Old church building
Community building (VFW, FOE, etc)
Restaurant
5. Rent or Own?
Rental:
Pros:
Not tied long term to a building
Maintenance would be landlord’s responsibility
Cons:
We could only make minimal modifications
Landlord controls how long we stay in building
Lease could limit building utilization
Rental increases not under our control.
6. Rent or Own?
Purchase:
Pros:
Building would belong to us
We could make whatever modifications we choose
We would determine utilization within zoning
considerations
Mortgage would be a constant cost factor
Cons:
Building would be multiyear commitment
Would have to sell if we decided to move locations
Maintenance would be our responsibility
7. Market Considerations
Dayton is a buyer’s market if you are looking for a
home. There are many distressed and foreclosed
properties available for relatively low upfront costs.
Commercial property is more costly, both for rental
and for purchase. Lower cost commercial property
tends to be older and in need of extensive repairs
and/or renovations. With this in mind we will look
at one lower cost purchase property and one rental
property.
8. A Tale of Two Properties
Rental Purchase
Location: North Dixie @ Location: W Stewart St
Needmore Rd
Type: Church
Type: Retail, former
Space: not indicate, but
restaurant
located on 0.20 acre.
Space: 4,000 sq ft
Cost: $41,900
Cost: $7.50 sq ft per yr
Additional: Built in 1900,
Additional: Has Kitchen older building
equipment and furniture
16. Limitations and Solutions
Community does not have the money to fund this
project alone.
Grants and loans are available to nonprofit groups for
community related projects.
DPA is not a nonprofit corporation.
Apply for nonprofit status with State of Ohio and IRS
Partner with an existing nonprofit group, such as
DAPN (Dayton Area Pagan Network)
18. Non Profit Status?
The costs associated with either rental or purchase
are beyond the financial capacities of the Dayton
Pagan Community at the present time.
However, there are grants, loans and other financial
programs available to non profits who are focused
on community building.
DPA needs to consider whether to take the steps to
obtain nonprofit status in the State of Ohio or
partner with another group that has nonprofit status
19. Which Way?
Establish Partner
Instead of paying fees for
While it will cost money up
nonprofit status, we can
front to establish a
allocate funds to other
nonprofit, it will be an
projects
essential status to have in
the long run Could lose control of the
enterprise as a junior
We maintain control of partner
enterprise
We will be left without
We will compete for funding if nonprofit pulls
funding as our own entity out
20. Community Buy In
It would be fruitless to spend time, effort and
money setting up a community center unless there
is some indication that the community will actually
use it.
DPA needs to gauge local interest before it takes the
steps necessary to establish a community center.
This can be done by contacting other groups
directly and indirectly.
21. Reaching Into the Shadows
Between pagans who are relatively public, pagans still in
the broom closet and pagan friendly/interested people
the potential local community numbers in excess of 500
people.
Many for them can be contacted via the Internet
Social networking sites such as Facebook and My Space
Message boards such a Yahoogroups and Google Groups
Special interest sites sites such as Witches Voice
Blogging sites like LiveJournal, WordPress and Blogger.
Podcasting via iTunes
Twitter
22. Reaching into the Shadows
Advertising via Print Media
Dayton Daily News weekly community update
Dayton City Paper
Programming on Dayton Access Television (DATV)
Partnering with pagan student groups and Sinclair
Community College, Wright State University and
University of Dayton.
23. We are not there - Yet
Dayton Pagan Alliance has a vision for the future,
but we are not there yet.
The potential exists in Dayton to have a vibrant,
active, and moreover supportive pagan community.
While the seeds of this community were planted in
the Fall of 1999, factionalism and cliquism has
severely stunted it’s growth.
24. We are not there - Yet
DPA needs to encourage the growth of the Dayton
Pagan community in small, but continual steps.
A physical community center can and should be
viewed as a future project, but at the present time it
is not supportable.
25. For more
information
contact
ZoryaEvenstar,
Steering Committee Coordinater
Dayton Pagan Alliance
Email:
daytonpaganalliance@gmail.com
Website:
www.datytonpaganalliance.org