response 1 of 83:

Jan 23 19:45 UTC 1996

Thanks Dan.

I think we have to cope with these facts:

 * Usage of Grex is way up.

 * Income is way down.

    -  Our 1995 income was actually *lower* than our 1994 income.

    -  The number of members is slowly but steadily decreasing.

    -  For the last two months our income has been less than our expenses.

Grex is not going to survive, much less expand, unless we can turn this
around.  Why are people not donating?  Possible theories:

  *  "Grex Sux:  It's slow.  Your files keep disappearing.  Service is so
     poor that it isn't worth anything."  True enough, but people come here
     and spend a lot of time here anyway.  We are trying to fix these things.
     It'd be easier if we had some money to do it with instead of cobbling
     computers together out of dumpster divings.

  *  "I don't get anything for the money.  Just internet access, and I have
     much better net access elsewhere."  That's true too.  That's why it's
     a donation, not a fee.  The question is, is Grex worth $6 a month or
     $60 a year to you?  That's the price of one movie a month, or one
     paperback book, or dinner at a cheapo restaraunt.  Is Grex less
     important to you than that?

  *  "Doesn't Grex get money from the university?"  I hear this a lot.
     People have different ideas of which university we get money from.

  *  "But I already pay my ISP every month."  Your ISP doesn't give us any
     money.  Your ISP would fall down laughing at the idea that he should
     give us money.  Your ISP is spending all the money you give him for all
     the hours that you connect to Grex on fast women and slow horses.

  *  "But doesn't the government..."  No, no, dang it!  Grex doesn't get any
     money from anyone except the users.  Yes, we get a few donations of
     broken down old computers from local companies, and occasionally someone
     donates their services, but this doesn't amount to a hill of beans
     when the bills come in.

  *  "I thought only internet users had to pay."  Nobody *has* to pay,
     although if *somebody* doesn't we'll sink.

  *  "But I only come here to use Email."  Email is 25% of the load on
     Grex and one of the major reasons Grex is so slow.  It's not a
     cheap service for us to provide.

  *  "But I only come here to use..."  We're delighted Grex's services
     are useful to you, but it *all* costs money.

  *  "I'm not sending any money because I'm upset that the settings in
     party were changed."  But you're still using it right?  How about
     you punish us by just sending $5.95 a month instead of $6.00 a month?
     We promise to be duely chastened.

  *  "But lots of other people don't pay."  Well yes.  Currently only about
     one user in 100 pays.  But that's just the point.  It's kind of cool
     that there are systems where nobody has to pay.  That's what you are
     supporting with your donation.  This is a charatable organization.
     We'd be happy as clams if maybe one user in 50 would give us some money.

  *  "What difference can six dollars make anyway."  A lot.  Look at the
     numbers on Dan's budget report.  By the standards of any business
     known to man, Grex runs on small change.  There isn't enough money
     in our bank account to buy a decent computer.  Our annual income is
     so low that the IRS doesn't bother taxing us.  Yet we serve 8000 users.
     We do a lot with very little money, and promise to stretch your six
     bucks farther than it will go.

  *  "I'm new here and don't really know if I want to support Grex."
     Welcome!  Take your time.  Look around as long as you like.  Don't
     worry about paying unless and until you feel comfortable doing so.

  *  "I can't afford to pay right now."  That's OK.  We don't mind a bit.
     We like having you here, and don't want to hassle you or pressure
     you.  Part of the reason we exist is that we want to provide access
     for people who haven't got much money.  Grex hasn't got much money
     either, and knows just how you feel.  But we do want people to be
     aware that, yes, Grex really does need money to run, and no, it
     doesn't fall like pennies from heaven.

There's no place on the internet more generous than Grex.  We give you
all a lot, with a minimum of restrictions.  We're willing and able to
run on a miniscule budget.  We don't want to badger people but we do
need a little cash from time to time.

response 3 of 83:

Jan 23 22:34 UTC 1996

(Jan, that was excellent. Perhaps it should be added to the support command.)

(I've actually found steady employment again, so I can send in a 
contribution soon.)  :)

response 5 of 83:

Jan 24 06:00 UTC 1996

Very nicely put, Jan.

I'd like to say thank you to Dan for his excellent reports and generally
excellent job he's done as Grex's treasurer for the last 4 years.  I think
we all owe him a great deal.

response 7 of 83:

Jan 24 09:27 UTC 1996

Re 4, I was tempted to put it in the motd myself, but have a feeling my
motd access would have been reconsidered.  :-) 

Re 5, indeed, thanks a lot for your excellent treasuring, Dan!

response 9 of 83:

Jan 24 17:10 UTC 1996

Ever thought about say, a $30. membership fee for those of us who live far
away and don't need internet access and don't particularly want to vote  for
officers and such and can't get to A2 for board meetings and things?  This
is a fee and restrictions that I could live with and still feel like I was
a contributing member and a real and caring part of the Grex community.

response 11 of 83:

Jan 24 17:13 UTC 1996

Contributions are always welcome, freida.  If you don't want the membership
perks, feel free to send some lesser sum.  And you will be thanked for it just
the same!

response 13 of 83:

Jan 24 17:44 UTC 1996

Well, you *are* part of the community, being an active and interesting
conferencer and all.  

Here's an interesting thought:  We're doing a modem fundraiser right now. 
We don't need modems to keep running, but we are hoping to need them soon when
the Sun4 and the modem terminal server are running.  that way we can have
faster dialins.  Do we have any plans to keep track of who contributed what?
Like in the Michigan Theater where each seat has a name of a sponsor on it.
I doubt Freida is that interested in our modem pool since she isn't local,
but are there other bits and pieces we could attach sponsor or contributor
names to?

response 15 of 83:

Jan 24 20:16 UTC 1996

   It's an interesting thought, coming up with another tier in the
membership system, but I wonder, would it actually bring people in?
Are there people out there who feel that Grex isn't worth $60, but
would contribute $30, if they could "get something" for it?  I really
have no idea.

response 17 of 83:

Jan 24 21:47 UTC 1996

   Hmmm.  I guess I didn't word that well enough, becuase I certainly
didn't mean to offend you--sorry!

   Up to now, we've never had any sense of a membership being "for" a
certain part of Grex, it's always been considered one pot that all the
monies go into and come out of.

   I wonder if there are people in general who think that because they
are telnetting in and have never used the dialins, that they are somehow
less important to them, than for local people?  I can see how people
might think that, but I think they're a really important tool for Grex,
in that a lot of the systems stuff that goes on here is done from the
dialins, and more importantly, those local dialins keep us locals off
the Internet line, making it less slow.  Not to mention the importance of
the dialins to people in this area who don't already have net access.

response 19 of 83:

Jan 24 22:57 UTC 1996

re #6: (nice idea. perhaps we've shied away from such bluntness for a
        bit too long.)

response 21 of 83:

Jan 25 02:19 UTC 1996

Actually the plan is to give internet access to validated non-members (as I
understand it).  We haven't quite implemented that yet.  Maybe I'm wrong.

We could call people who send $25 "supporters" and have the "support" command
say "type 'supporters' to for a list of Grex supporters", and send each person
an official Grex kazoo or something.

Wouldn't be a half bad idea to do something like that.