Sorry arielbit, but I have to correct you this time. AFAIK it is soda machine not soda machines.
Second, @oaxaca incurred expenses to package and ship the soda machine that exceeded the original estimate of $1,200.00. Because the machine was picked up at a rural location, the shipper required packaging, and both the origin and destination lacked loading docks, there were significant additional charges. Actual costs ended up at $1,750.00. An additional $550.00 is therefore owed to oaxaca.
Oaxaca incurred additional expenses such as fuel, mileage, soda stocking costs, and parking... not to mention an enormous amount of time and sweat to store, load, and unload the machine (and then back to his house again). He will not be charging us for those direct costs, nor for his time. So a big thank you to oaxaca for all the effort and donated expenses!
EDIT: @buster deserves a special shout-out as well for helping transport the machine, and submitted pictures and video to allow us all to remotely "be there". He also purchased a router extender, and skipped the social events the first night of the conference to get it all working. What an awesome community!
Third, the soda machine has been a valuable resource for Dash at conferences to both attract thirsty conference-goers to our booth, and engage them in using InstantSend and learning how it functions. We would like to continue using the soda machine at future events, but it is in need of minor maintenance. For the time being, oaxaca is storing the machine for us, but would like his garage space back. We see two options to effectively utilize the soda machine in the future. Both options (which I will outline below) require moving the machine to Arizona and quickly servicing it. Therefore, we would like to request funding to ship the machine to Arizona and have it maintained. A coolant recharge is expected to cost about $140.00. Oaxaca saved the packaging from the shipment from Florida and agreed to package it for us, which will save significant costs. Costs to ship the machine from San Fransisco to Phoenix will cost $427.77. We will ship it directly to the repair shop to avoid additional expenses, and they will use their forklift to remove it from the truck, which saves money vs. transferring it to a lift-gate equipped local truck.
From there, we have two options with the soda machine: if it is repaired in time, it could be picked up by Dash Across America's John Bush and used at the Jackalope Freedom Festival and subsequent events on that tour. A second option is to store the machine here in Phoenix with the intention of using it for future conferences, as a demo machine for Evan and I to show prospective business partners investors, and preserve it (assuming we are successful) as an article of potential historical significance that belongs to the network. If local transport is needed, Evan and I should be able to borrow a trailer and go move it ourselves, so there should be no additional transport costs.
Requested funding is as follows for the August 5th budget cycle:
28.62 Dash for color handouts ($256.89 USD @ $8.976 per July 26th average rate at
https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/price-dash.html)
41.60 Dash for conference giveaways and placards ($373.43 USD)
61.27 Dash for reimbursement of soda machine transport costs from FL to CA ($550.00 USD)
47.66 Dash for transport of soda machine to Phoenix repair shop ($427.77 USD)
15.60 Dash for coolant recharge ($140.00)
5.00 Dash reimbursement for the proposal cost
Total: 199.75 Dash
