Grex Oldcoop Conference

Item 273: Cyberspace Communications finances for May 2005

Entered by aruba on Tue Jun 14 13:35:13 2005:

Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances 
through May 31st, 2005

Beginning Balance     $2,986.64

Credits                 $312.00         Member contributions
                        $251.00         Refund for Pumpkin insurance
                         $40.00         Miscellaneous contributions
                          $1.08         Interest on our savings account
                   ------------
                        $604.08

Debits                  $100.00         Provide Net colocation (thru 6/22/05)
                         $45.70         Phone Bill
                        $290.00         New disk drive
                          $5.95         Paypal fees (income = $162)
                   ------------
                        $441.65

Ending Balance        $3,149.07

Our current balance breaks down as follows:

$2,975.08               General Fund
  $173.99               Silly Hat Fund

The money is distributed like this:

$1,254.43   Checking account
$1,894.64   Savings account earning 0.55% interest annually

We had one new member in May (ric).  We are currently at 66 members, 59 
of whom are paid through at least June 15th.  (The others expired recently 
and are in a grace period.)

Notes:

- We moved out of the Pumpkin March 1st, and so we were entitled to a partial 
refund of the $552 we paid for liability insurance last August.  Mary had to 
hound the insurance company to get them to pay it, but they finally did. 
Thanks Mary!

- I have been travelling since the beginning of June, which is why this 
report has been delayed.  My apologies.

Thanks to everyone who contributed in May:

arthurp, atticus, charcat, dpc, janc, mooncat, muthu, and ric.

If you or your institution would like 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.  We can't add you to the rolls without ID.  (If you pay 
with a personal check that has your name pre-printed on it, we 
consider that a good enough ID.)  Type !support or see 
http://www.cyberspace.org/member.html for more info.
35 responses total.
#1 of 35 by ric on Tue Jun 14 13:42:15 2005:

(btw, that would be my first ever contribution to Grex, even though I've been
here on and off since day 1)

#2 of 35 by aruba on Tue Jun 14 13:50:27 2005:

Grex certainly appreciates it, Rick.

#3 of 35 by naftee on Tue Jun 14 15:11:01 2005:

what's the silly hat fund ?

#4 of 35 by nharmon on Tue Jun 14 15:16:59 2005:

Welcome to Grex membership, ric... even though you've been using the system
longer than I have. :)

#5 of 35 by tod on Wed Jun 15 00:10:59 2005:

I move that we replenish the inventory of silly hats.  Let's start with Jim
Naftee.

#6 of 35 by naftee on Wed Jun 15 01:31:47 2005:

can i buy your hat ?

#7 of 35 by tod on Wed Jun 15 05:46:12 2005:

You can shine my helmet

#8 of 35 by naftee on Tue Jun 21 17:56:22 2005:

This is ridiculous.  If I get someone else to write me a cheque for a GreX
membership, and the cheque has their name and address pre-printed on it, 
then that's "good enough" ID, even though I don't actually have anything to
do with the person who wrote the cheque ?!

#9 of 35 by nharmon on Tue Jun 21 18:02:56 2005:

No, it has to be a personal check from your parents or guardians, or from your
self.

See: http://www.grex.org/memfaq.html

#10 of 35 by scholar on Tue Jun 21 18:37:22 2005:

does grex accept canadian tax rebate cheques?

#11 of 35 by nharmon on Tue Jun 21 18:56:57 2005:

No

#12 of 35 by naftee on Tue Jun 21 20:43:29 2005:

And how does the treasurer prove it's from the parents ?

#13 of 35 by aruba on Tue Jun 21 21:24:59 2005:

Try me. :)

#14 of 35 by naftee on Tue Jun 21 22:27:50 2005:

You personally phone that person up and say "ARE YOU THE LEGAL GUARDIAN OF
SUCHANDSUCH< ?".

Or maybe you hire a private eye to figure out who they are.

All this stinks of identity theft.

I think GreX is a front for stealing people's SIN numbers.

#15 of 35 by nharmon on Tue Jun 21 23:01:44 2005:

What in god's name is a SIN number?

#16 of 35 by naftee on Wed Jun 22 00:34:50 2005:

It's God's version of an SSN.  We have them here in Canada.

#17 of 35 by jared on Sun Jun 26 01:22:33 2005:

I'm no longer a deadbeat.
q

#18 of 35 by aruba on Sun Jun 26 05:16:45 2005:

Thanks Jared!

#19 of 35 by tod on Sun Jun 26 14:04:56 2005:

re #17
You're more like a sweet potato! ;)

#20 of 35 by jared on Sun Jun 26 14:31:22 2005:

The past two years Mark has been kind enough to keep nagging me,
so i've removed the need for him to nag for at least another
year or more.  I'm quite happy to see grex with a positive cash
flow, It should help out a lot with the necessary upgrades
(disk capacity mostly I suspect) Grex will need in the
upcoming months/years.

#21 of 35 by mary on Sun Jun 26 16:06:07 2005:

Thanks, Jared, a lot.

#22 of 35 by naftee on Sun Jun 26 17:30:08 2005:

thanks, Mary, a lot

#23 of 35 by ric on Mon Jun 27 14:30:32 2005:

Oh, I saw someone mention somewhere in this conference that they wouldn't
object to doubling of membership rates to raise additional funds.  I just
wanted to state for the record that I WOULD object to the doubling of
membership rates.  It's basically a donation and nothing else anyway.  Force
me to donate $120, and you'll probably get $0.  People are welcome to donate
over and above the $60 membership rate, and if Grex needs to raise more money,
it should be publicized.

#24 of 35 by keesan on Mon Jun 27 14:39:26 2005:

The current membership rate is more than adequate for ongoing expenses and
people seem willing to make additional donations if we need hardware.

#25 of 35 by jep on Mon Jun 27 15:04:54 2005:

I was the one who mentioned doubling the membership rate.  It's the 
same now as it was the day Grex came on-line.  If we needed more money, 
then increasing the membership rate would be acceptable to me.

#26 of 35 by nharmon on Mon Jun 27 15:05:07 2005:

I'm with Rick. I would object to doubling the membership rate...but I might
sponsor a hard drive or something.

#27 of 35 by tod on Mon Jun 27 15:57:24 2005:

Anybody want to prime up the auction to raise funds?  I don't see a reason
to juice member costs when there are many alternatives that could include the
userbase.

#28 of 35 by aruba on Mon Jun 27 22:13:27 2005:

I would always prefer to have more members than to raise the amount it
costs to be a member.  More members means a stronger community, and I
rather have that than a richer one.  We have probably set the membership
rate lower than th intersection of the supply and demand curves, for that
reason.

#29 of 35 by jep on Tue Jun 28 14:42:42 2005:

I agree that it'd be better to see more members than to get more money 
from the current members than to increase rates.  However, membership 
is declining and no one has been able to do anything about it for a few 
years now.

I am not advocating that we increase membership fees.  I'm just saying 
that it's been a long time that Grex has had the same rates, and if 
some increase were necessary, I would be willing to pay more.

#30 of 35 by tod on Tue Jun 28 14:46:21 2005:

Why not donate?

#31 of 35 by marcvh on Tue Jun 28 15:10:41 2005:

Ah yes, the lesser-known first draft of Meijer's slogan, "Why not pay more!"

#32 of 35 by jep on Tue Jun 28 15:39:33 2005:

re resp:30: I do donate when there is occasion for it.

#33 of 35 by keesan on Tue Jun 28 15:55:09 2005:

ISPs used to charge $2/hour and you can now get unlimited service for
$5/month.  The actual costs of running grex have gone down, not up, so why
raise rates?

#34 of 35 by ric on Tue Jul 5 19:36:52 2005:

(it's rare, but "agreed")

#35 of 35 by jesuit on Wed May 17 02:15:33 2006:

TROGG IS DAVID BLAINE

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