Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances
through July 31st, 2005
Beginning Balance $3,404.79
Credits $216.00 Member contributions
$0.98 Interest on our savings account
------------
$216.98
Debits $100.00 Provide Net colocation (thru 8/22/05)
$46.24 Phone Bill
$6.27 Paypal fees (income = $150)
$94.38 Summer personal property taxes
------------
$246.89
Ending Balance $3,374.88
Our current balance breaks down as follows:
$3,200.89 General Fund
$173.99 Silly Hat Fund
The money is distributed like this:
$1,478.25 Checking account
$1,896.63 Savings account earning 0.55% interest annually
We had two new members in July (oloryn and robfitz). We are currently at 68
members, 54 of whom are paid through at least August 15th. (The others
expired recently and are in a grace period.)
Notes:
- Grex is still paying personal property taxes from when we were in the
Pumpkin in Ann Arbor. Most of that bill comes in the summer. We'll get one
smaller bill next winter, and after that we should be done.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in July:
charcat, muthu, oloryn, robfitz, vanloons, and wh. Thanks!
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.
29 responses total.
Thanks Mark
Why will grex be "done" with personal property taxes?
Because grex no longer has personal property?
Grex moved from Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti, so we will no longer owe taxes to the city of Ann Arbor, as of next year. (Since we weren't out before January 1st of this year, we still owe taxes for 2005.) Now Ypsilanti may decide to collect taxes at some point; we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. But in the process of moving, we got rid of most of our junk, so paying in the future will be a lot easier than it is now.
what's the silly hat fund ?!
http://www.fatchicksinpartyhats.com
there's tod's wife ! ZING
Re #5: Many years ago, we were at a board meeting, discussing having a fundraiser for Grex. At one point in the discussion, someone apparently said, "Maybe we should also encourage people to send in plain old donations, which can be used for anything, up to and including silly hats", or something like that. I say "apparently", because I must have been distracted, since I didn't remember hearing that later. At the end of the meeting, Peter Riley (nestene) came up to me, gave me $5, and said, "This is for the Silly Hat Fund". Being a relatively new treasurer, I figured this was just something people did, so I dutifully created a line item for the Silly Hat Fund, and put the $5 into it. Over the years a number of people have donated to the fund. Often donations came as overpayments of dues, or as extra money collected to pay the bill at a Grex lunch. A few suggestions have been made for what to spend the money on, but none that I remember. I'm of the opinion that whatever we spend it on, it should be frivolous and yet fun for everyone.
I say we license a copy of Legend of the Red Dragon, and convert it to run on Grex. :)
If people would release source code to some of those DOS doors, it wouldn't be too hard to make it run, I don't think.
re 8 Neat. thanks.
How about an archive of Vincent's Hollow from 1991?
unlucky
Grex should consider switching banks to one of the online bank. They are fully insuranced and tend to pay much higher rates on savings accounts. Clark Howard's web site says that ING Direct pays 2.6% and Emigrant.com pays 3.5% Maybe put some of that savings into a 6 month CD?
what "personal property" does grex still own? Anything besides the hardware grex runs on?
No, that's about it. We have some spare parts. Re #14: I confess to being uncomfortable with online banks.
So, if anyone has experiences with online banks, good or bad, it would be helpful to post them here.
I've been satisfied with ING's service. Although, I'm not sure if they're a full bank (with checking accounts, etc.).
The reason I don't use an online bank is simple. There's no place, generally, to make deposits. Deposits have to be mailed in or wired in. Not a huge issue unless you, like me, sometimes have need to deposit money and have it immediately available, or you need to cash a check. Other than that, at this point, I don't think there's much difference between an online bank and banking online. They're FDIC insured and have to abide by all the same laws and regulations that a brick-and-mortar bank has to abide by.
There are other services made easier by a B&M bank, such as safe deposit boxes, signature guarantees and notarization, ability to immediately cash personal checks or get cashier's checks (can be important when closing on a house or buying a used car from a private party), withdrawing cash either in large quantities or in specific forms (e.g. "I need rolls of quarters") or depositing cash (foolish to do either by mail or at an ATM.) Many people rarely need such services, of course, and that may include Grex, but it can be nice to have them available.
We don't need those services, but we do need to make deposits once a month. It scares me a little to send a big wad of endorsed checks through the mail.
Scared about theft, about loss, or what sending endorsed checks through the mail? From my perception of Grex's needs, i'd say to get one of those `for deposit only to acct. # 123456-78 at Last State Bancorp. by Cyberspace Communications' rubber stamps and use Certified Mail. A bit of hassle/ cost/overhead, but not much if it's only monthly, and USPS has several "yet more secure" options if that's not safe enough. This isn't to say that i favor switching to an online bank, though.
I'm afraid of both loss and theft. We could do certified mail, I guess. I'm not convinced that it's worth the hassle and expense.
It might not be. 3.5% interest versus 0.5% interest on $3500 isn't that much
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the obvious strikesw again.... any movement here?
you're getting us walzing, ts
hmmmmmmmmmmm, that may be just the scuffling of nervous shoes under the table.
TROGG IS DAVID BLAINE
You have several choices: