Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc.
finances through May 31st, 1998.
Beginning Balance $2,760.02
Credits $378.00 Member contributions
$372.00 Spare Parts Fund
$11.00 Miscellaneous donations
$1.00 Grex handbook bought
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$762.00
Debits $60.00 Pumpkin Rent for June
$83.00 Electricity for May
$20.00 Innovative Concepts phone line
$421.95 Phone Bill
$150.00 501(c)3 application fee
$9.02 Bank service charge
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$743.97
Ending Balance $2,778.05
Our current balance breaks down as follows:
$1,787.53 General Fund
$806.00 Spare parts / 501(c)3 / Mail machine fund
$100.86 Silly Hat Fund
$65.00 UPS Fund
$15.24 Use Tax owed on $253.95 worth of mail-order purchases
$3.42 Sales tax collected
There was no activity in the Grex store this month, so the balances remain at:
Cash Stock
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Balances: ($216.60) $384.10
We had five new members in April: jiffer, arrow, womble, sea, and dea. We are
currently at 104 members, 94 of whom are paid through at least June 15th.
(The others expired recently and are in a grace period.)
Looks like we had slightly more money in our account at the end of May than we
did at the beginning. But we had a lot more expenses than contributions to
the general fund, so it dropped by about $200. Thanks to janc for taking care
of the treasurer dudties while I was gone - he left the records in perfect
order.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in May:
ajayd, arrow, bmoran, bruin, coyote, dea, falcon1, gibson, hematite, janc,
jiffer, monamoor, mziemba, nestene, nt, otaking, quail, rcurl, rsbutler, sea,
son1, srw, womble, and zetetic.
Thanks!
Now is a great time to become a member of Grex. It only costs $6/month or
$60/year. Send money to:
Cyberspace Communications
P. O. Box 4432
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-4432
If you pay by cash or money order, please include a photocopy of some form
of ID. I can't add you to the rolls without ID. (If you pay by personal
check, we consider that a good enough ID.) Type !support for more info.
11 responses total.
Organizatoins - clubs - can also become members. Several clubs keep web pages on grex and receive their e-mail here.
I dug through Mark's old treasury reports for the last 2.5 years and generated
the following record of Grex's assets. What is reported here is
General Fund + Silly Hat Fund + Grex Store Stock
I didn't include things like the spare parts fund which can't be used for
operating expenses.
Jan 96 $2,613
Feb 96 $2,828
Mar 96 $3,384 (JCC Sale)
Apr 96 $3,235
May 96 $2,762 (Sun 4/260 parts)
Jun 96 $3,636 (Auction)
Aug 96 $3,207
Sep 96 $4,126
Oct 96 $4,271
Nov 96 $3,971 (disk drive purchase)
Dec 96 $3,441
Jan 97 $3,972 (move to pumpkin)
Feb 97 $3,542 (Sun 4/670 parts)
Mar 97 $3,770 (auction)
Apr 97 $3,315
May 97 $3,334
Jun 97 $3,499
Jul 97 $3,876 (auction)
Aug 97 $3,851
Sep 97 $3,408 (isdn routers)
Oct 97 $3,325
Nov 97 $3,896
Dec 97 $3,272 (ameritech isdn charges)
Jan 98 $2,625
Feb 98 $2,470 (taxes)
Mar 98 $2,450
Apr 98 $2,476
May 98 $2,272
Basically our bank account is lower than it's been in a long time, and we
have been losing money steadily for 6 months. Also note that for most of
this period all the money was cash, while $380 of what I have listed as
our current assets is t-shirt stock, which have to be sold before it is
real spendable money.
Some of the decline in the last month is probably because the fact that while
Mark was out of town I wasn't as dilligent about sending renewal notices
to people who's memberships were expiring, so I expect some of the people
who normally would have renewed this month won't send their money in till
next month, but I think that would only account for about $100 of this
month's drop.
The new network connection does cost us a bit more than the old, and we
have pretty much been slowly leaking money ever since we installed it.
So obviously we are far from any emergency. There has been some discussion
about cutting expenses. There are reasonably painless things we could do,
but the board's feeling was that it wasn't worth doing yet. I think there
is an auction coming up which might help balance things a bit.
But although Grex is in no danger, and I'm sure we will not be cutting any
services, we are getting into a situation where we have no money for
improvements to our services (though we are probably less in need of
improvements than ever before in our history).
Still, I would encourage those who can support Grex to do so. Become a
member, or just buy one of the pretty t-shirts from the Grex shop. Every
little bit helps.
Thanks for the summary, Jan. I will get the auction process started very soon now. Without the T-shirt stock, we are below our desired $2000 cushion in the general fund. I'm sorry I wasn't at the board meeting last month to push for some cost cutting to be done, because I think now is the right time.
This is now linked to co-op 112. Join co-op and help run Grex.
At February's budget meeting it was decided that we would *not* go below the $2000 cushion. What do we do since we are now below it?
Maybe we should call in the IMF.. Or we could just go to rioting in the streets and the reluctant resignation of our current leadership. Of course we don't have streets, so maybe a more cautious approach should be our first option.. There'll be time for riots later, maybe during Art Fair.. :-)
Suspend authorized expenditures temporarily.
You mean we shouldn't pay our phone bills?
Start with not spending the money for spares/501(c)3/mailmachine/UPS. If having a reserve is more important than these, that is.
But that money was collected on dedicated pledges.
Yes, but it does not have to be spent until the reserve allows it. I am looking upon this suggestion as a impetus to do something about fund raising to increase the reserve and then get on with business. In my own opinion, I'd forget the reserve condition and get on with business. This would tighten the screws so there would be more action and less talk.
You have several choices: