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Grex > Coop11 > #110: Cyberspace Communications finances for June, 1999 |  |
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aruba
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Cyberspace Communications finances for June, 1999
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Jul 1 22:13 UTC 1999 |
Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances
through June 30th, 1999.
Beginning Balance $4,801.13
Credits $624.00 Member contributions
$44.00 Miscellaneous donations
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$668.00
Debits $66.15 Pumpkin Rent for July
$62.69 Electricity for June
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$128.84
Ending Balance $5,340.29
Our current balance breaks down as follows:
$5,164.93 General Fund
$115.36 Silly Hat Fund
$60.00 Spare Parts Fund
There was no activity in the Grex Store this month, so the balances remain at:
Cash Stock
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Ending Balances: ($64.60) $310.80
We had one returning member this month (jshafer). We are currently at 93
members, 81 of whom are paid through at least July 15th. (The others expired
recently and are in a grace period.)
A couple of notes:
- Our phone bill would have been $352.71 this month, but because of the large
refund of state taxes we paid, we didn't have to pay Ameritech anything again
this month. Currently we have a $264.90 credit with them.
- Scott measured our power consumption again, and since the installation of
the UPS we are drawing 7.5 amps (down from 8.9), so I've adjusted our
electricity payment accordingly:
power = 7.5 amps * 115 volts = 862.5 watts = .8625 kilowatts
energy/month = .8625 kw * 730.5 hours/month = 630.05625 kwh/month
$/month = 630.05625 kwh/month * $.0995/kwh = $62.69
- We're in the black for the 7th month in a row. I think this is the largest
the Grex bank balance has ever been.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in June:
bruin, coyote, dargon, dpc, dpfitzen, durrett, headdoc, jmm, jshafer, krj,
misha, mta, quail, remmers, satindra, valerie, and wh.
Thanks everyone!
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. 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.
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| 78 responses total. |
richard
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response 1 of 78:
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Jul 2 21:34 UTC 1999 |
five thousand dollars is a lot of money to be keeping it all in a checking
account-- sounds like its time to look at diversifying grex's financial
portfolio, considering investment strategies. Maybe buy some mutual
funds-- something that will make interest.
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mcnally
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response 2 of 78:
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Jul 3 00:52 UTC 1999 |
<sigh>
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orinoco
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response 3 of 78:
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Jul 3 19:59 UTC 1999 |
Why "sigh"? Evidently I've missed some sort of past argument about this one,
but it seems to me that Richard has a good point. If we could be earning
interest on that money, why shouldn't we be?
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aruba
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response 4 of 78:
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Jul 3 20:51 UTC 1999 |
I believe the board authorized me to open up a money market account, so we
could earn a little interest. I haven't gotten around to it, but will try
to soon.
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mcnally
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response 5 of 78:
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Jul 3 22:54 UTC 1999 |
re #3: "<sigh>" because I generally don't think much of Richard's ideas
for improving Grex's (or, once upon a time, M-net's) finances. In this
case, the idea of putting Grex's "extra" savings in mutual funds seems
like another idea that's only half-thought-through. A couple of downsides:
1) it might not seem like it based on the past several years,
but mutual funds have a risk associated with them -- they don't
*always* go up. who'd pick which investments, and decide when
to sell? who'd be blamed if things didn't work out?
2) who handles the extra paperwork involved? how does it complicate
Grex's tax situation?
a money market account sounds simpler and more prudent. the upside potential
might not be as large but the downside is negligible, the behavior is simpler
to predict, and the paperwork (which must be handled by volunteers, remember)
may be more straightforward.
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aruba
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response 6 of 78:
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Jul 4 05:12 UTC 1999 |
Let's hope so.
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senna
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response 7 of 78:
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Jul 4 06:33 UTC 1999 |
I'm not a big fan of investment, since I'm not sure what we'd do with
the money anyway. I'm uncomfortable as it is having the money just
sitting around like this. It might be prudent to attempt to anticipate
future large expenses so we can squirrel money away for them. This
seems moot now, but this is the sort of time when moving to a new
permanent location or replacing hardware is highly practical. I'm not
advocating this sort of expense, but it's a thought.
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tpryan
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response 8 of 78:
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Jul 4 16:21 UTC 1999 |
It's the fact that an emergency can emerge at anytime that Grex
would want a comfortable surplus. Also haveing 3 months operating
expenses worth of cash in the bank is a good idea.
So, a self re-newing Certificate of Deposit with a short term
may be something to look into. That way, any time there may be a need
to reach that money, the early withdrawal penalty would be minimal.
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pfv
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response 9 of 78:
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Jul 4 19:22 UTC 1999 |
You COULD, however, look at certain certificates and Bonds for
say.. Half the fundage.. for like.. 6 months..?
This would yield ther Evil Profit that could itself be rerouted
back into the the pay-stream.
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kaplan
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response 10 of 78:
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Jul 6 17:45 UTC 1999 |
What about investing a few hundred in a large, modern hard drive? The
return on investment in terms of both additional storage capability and
power savings would be significant. We could take the current 2 gig
hard drives off line and save them for a rainy day rather than paying
Detroit Edison every month to keep using them. A new drive would be
more reliable as well.
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richard
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response 11 of 78:
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Jul 6 21:38 UTC 1999 |
grex can now afford to add more phone lines and more telnet ports if
it wants-- that would be a quality service improvement
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jiffer
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response 12 of 78:
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Jul 6 21:47 UTC 1999 |
Naw, we need real queality service improvements.
hone lines and telnet ports are not that needed.
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steve
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response 13 of 78:
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Jul 6 23:59 UTC 1999 |
I agree with Jennifer--'real' improvements are needed. We need to
figure out how and what they really are. I suspect they run along the
lines of a faster net connection and more CPU or starting the move
towards distributed services, but thats fodder for another item.
We probably don't want to buy any disks right now, because we have
2G disks galore right now, and we could spin *10* of them for a year
at a cost of buying one new big one. Given that load is far better
balanced among several different disks than one, we'd see a real
performance hit in doing that.
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senna
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response 14 of 78:
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Jul 7 05:44 UTC 1999 |
"Telnet Ports" are a slave to system speed and bandwidth. We cannot
"buy" them the way we buy phone lines.
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cmcgee
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response 15 of 78:
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Jul 7 12:29 UTC 1999 |
As a regular dialer-in, I personally don't think we need more phone lines.
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dpc
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response 16 of 78:
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Jul 7 15:25 UTC 1999 |
Me, neither.
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mcnally
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response 17 of 78:
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Jul 7 16:43 UTC 1999 |
I can't recall the last time I got a busy signal on the local dial-ins..
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janc
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response 18 of 78:
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Jul 8 20:05 UTC 1999 |
I think the only way adding dialins would be interesting would be if
they were added in some other city.
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toking
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response 19 of 78:
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Jul 8 20:11 UTC 1999 |
resp:18 that would most deffinately be cool
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ryan
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response 20 of 78:
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Jul 8 20:24 UTC 1999 |
This response has been erased.
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lilmo
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response 21 of 78:
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Jul 8 21:08 UTC 1999 |
Add one in Blacksburg, and I'll call in every day. Hmm... maybe that's not
such a good idea; I do need to get SOME sleep. At least the library closes
every night, and I *have* to leave.
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richard
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response 22 of 78:
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Jul 8 21:20 UTC 1999 |
could add a dialin in columbus for grexohio...or perhaps in upstate
michigan somewhere
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aruba
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response 23 of 78:
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Jul 9 04:05 UTC 1999 |
I wonder how far afield we could add lines and still have them be on our
Centrex system?
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hhsrat
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response 24 of 78:
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Jul 9 04:33 UTC 1999 |
Probably not too far, but I don't know anything about centrex or phones.
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