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Grex > Coop11 > #127: Cyberspace Communications finances for September, 1999 |  |
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aruba
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Cyberspace Communications finances for September, 1999
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Oct 1 05:46 UTC 1999 |
Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances
through September 30th, 1999.
Beginning Balance $5,344.24
Credits $324.00 Member contributions
$2.00 Handbooks sold
$0.20 Miscellaneous donations
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$326.20
Debits $66.15 Pumpkin Rent for October
$54.34 Electricity for September
$350.14 Phone Bill
$3.80 Discount for Canadian check last month
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$474.43
Ending Balance $5,196.01
Our current balance breaks down as follows:
$5,020.65 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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($46.60) $301.60
We had two new members in September (ddt and swa). We are currently at 90
members, 79 of whom are paid through at least October 15th. (The others
expired recently and are in a grace period.)
Notes:
- We're down about $150 this month. So it goes. September is traditionally a
pretty good month for us, so it's a bit disappointing, but not
earthshattering. Our membership totals are also down a bit. Not sure if this
is something to be concerned about yet.
- The bank did indeed discount the Canadian check I deposited last month,
hence the $3.80 correction. The lady at the main branch told me that the
people at the Kroger's branch didn't know what they were talking about when
they said they couldn't do it right there. I'll try again next month.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in September:
aruba, bruin, coyote, dang, ddt, devnull, dpc, mlf, n8rxs, quail, robh,
satindra, and swa.
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 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.
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| 90 responses total. |
danr
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response 1 of 90:
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Oct 1 16:47 UTC 1999 |
Can't get much quicker than this, Mark! :)
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lilmo
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response 2 of 90:
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Oct 1 18:33 UTC 1999 |
Re: canadian check
If the ppl at the kroger's branch didn't know what they were talking about,
I'd hesitate to take them anoother one, even if they're supposeed to be able
to do them. Eh?
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don
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response 3 of 90:
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Oct 1 20:15 UTC 1999 |
So does anyone still refute what I said last month about the black ink going
down with the phone credit?
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aruba
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response 4 of 90:
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Oct 1 21:11 UTC 1999 |
Yes, I dispute it. Grex's income always goes up and down, pretty
erraticly. You can't conclude much about the overall trend by looking at
only 2 months' activity. Our income for the last year is still well above
our expenses, *even if you leave out the phone credit*. By "well above",
I mean that I added it up for Sep. 98 through Aug. 99, and even without
the tax refund we are $1000 ahead.
Having said that, it's certainly time to ramp up the auction again.
As for Kroger's, I am hesitating, but it's more convenient for me to go
there than to the main branch. Not sure what I'll do next month.
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i
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response 5 of 90:
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Oct 1 22:29 UTC 1999 |
If they credit us too much $ for Canandian at that branch, then later
correct the error, i don't see any downside beyond your extra effort
tracking things.
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mcnally
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response 6 of 90:
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Oct 1 23:33 UTC 1999 |
And if that proves to be less overall effort than going to another
branch, well, problem solved, eh?
Anyway, how often does Grex have to deposit checks written in Canadian
currency? (I'm assuming that Canadian dollars are a special case even
among foreign currencies and that even the most clueless teller would
probably realize that, say, lire or rials should not be credited at par.)
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orinoco
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response 7 of 90:
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Oct 1 23:57 UTC 1999 |
(Although if we did manage to cash a check in lire at face value, it would
certainly help replace that phone credit...)
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scg
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response 8 of 90:
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Oct 2 03:20 UTC 1999 |
See the Agora item a few Agoras ago about Jan's attempt at depositing a
British check.
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aruba
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response 9 of 90:
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Oct 2 13:21 UTC 1999 |
Re 5-8: The only downside to depositing at face value and having it corrected
later is that I have to correct the records, as I did this time. I'd just
rather avoid that.
We have a user who is sending us a check in Canadian dollars every month now.
Yes, I gathered that Canadian checks are special among foreign checks, and
that they would charge us a hefty "collection fee" to deposit a check in any
other currency.
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richard
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response 10 of 90:
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Oct 2 21:18 UTC 1999 |
credit to aruba for posting financial reports on or close to the 1st---
another difference between grex and mnet. Over on mnet, dpc tends to wait
to post the financial report until whenever enough money has come in to
put a positive spin on things. Which isnt necessarily a bad thing,
sometimes its prudent to do a little spinning.
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mdw
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response 11 of 90:
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Oct 2 22:23 UTC 1999 |
M-net has always been a bit sloppy about finances; the tradition long
preceeds dpc who ought at least to be congratulated for actually
generating a financial report. On grex, we've always tried to be more
punctual and precise about finances. I think it's important to do that,
because people are a lot more likely to donate money if they think the
money will be used responsibly.
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senna
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response 12 of 90:
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Oct 3 00:23 UTC 1999 |
Don, Grex has been fluxing up and down the scale for years. I don't
think it was that long ago that we had $2,000 or so in the bank and
tended to shade the red a little bit. It wasn't that big of a deal
then, either.
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krj
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response 13 of 90:
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Oct 4 04:07 UTC 1999 |
I was going to argue with richard about the delivery of the M-net
financial statements; but really, what's the point?
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lilmo
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response 14 of 90:
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Oct 4 17:57 UTC 1999 |
None, really. It's like wrestling a pig in the mud -- you don't accomplish
anything, and eventually you realize that the pig enjoys it. :-)
(No, richard, I'm not calling you a pig.)
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aaron
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response 15 of 90:
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Oct 4 18:08 UTC 1999 |
Right. You drew an analogy between Richard and a pig, but you did not call
him a pig.
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richard
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response 16 of 90:
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Oct 4 21:14 UTC 1999 |
krj, what, you dont think mnet's financial statements should be
more punctual?
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lilmo
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response 17 of 90:
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Oct 4 21:39 UTC 1999 |
Re resp:15 - Yes, that's correct. I wanted to be clear, b/c the last time
I saw that analogy, someone had displayed it in such a manner that it was
clear that he was included in it. He thought it was amusing, and so do I.
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aaron
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response 18 of 90:
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Oct 4 21:53 UTC 1999 |
So this time, you put the cart before the horse. Not that I'm calling you
a horse, or anything.
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dpc
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response 19 of 90:
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Oct 5 15:41 UTC 1999 |
Er, actually I have to wait to do M-Net's monthly statements until
after the UM Credit Union statement comes because I don't know what
we will have earned in dividends (interest). The UMCU statement
comes no earlier than the 7th of the month; it wasn't in the PO box
yesterday. Then I do our monthly statement and post it ASAP.
Aruba, could you please post the total Grex income for
each of the past six months in this item? I am somewhat concerned
as well about declining income recently. (Or tell me where to find
the income figures in your directory.)
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dpc
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response 20 of 90:
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Oct 5 18:12 UTC 1999 |
I got the income figures from old items in this conference.
Here are the total "credits" for the past six months:
April $836.25
May 584.00
June 668.00
July 453.20
August 238.00
September 326.20
Adding these up gives $3105.65. Monthly average is $517.61.
July, August, and September were all *below* the monthly average.
The trend is not good.
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aruba
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response 21 of 90:
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Oct 5 19:06 UTC 1999 |
Here are the figures for average monthly income into the general fund for
the year from September '98 through August '99:
Member Dues $456.92
Auction $105.00
Miscellaneous $208.88 ($71.77 without windfall income)
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$770.79 ($633.69 without windfall income)
We had two large windfalls in the period - the tax credit from Ameritech
and the donation of spare parts which resulted in most of the spare parts
fund being moved into the general fund. I broke those out so it's clear
how we would have done without them.
Here were our average monthly operating expenses for the same period:
Phone lines $272.32
ISDN connection $95.74
Electricity $66.09
Rent $63.30
Miscellaneous $43.61
Bank service charges $3.04
ICNET link $1.67
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$545.77
Which means that our non-windfall income exceeded our expenses by an
average of $87.92 per month, for a total of $1055.03 on the year. If
you're wondering just what I'm including up there and what I'm leaving
out, here's the overall balance sheet for the year. For purposes of this
accounting, I've included the Silly Hat Fund in the General Fund.
Amount Description
$2,537.18 General Fund balance on 9/1/98
$675.00 Misc. Transfers from Spare Parts Fund
$970.27 Ameritech Tax Refund
$1,055.03 Operating Surplus
$77.00 Grex Store sales
$8.00 Sales of handbooks
$35.32 Refund for erroneous long distance
$(11.76) Use Tax from '98
$(56.00) UPS ($119 came from UPS fund)
$(5.80) Temporal distortion in phone bills
$5,284.24 General Fund balance on 8/31/99
The temporal distortion in the phone bills is caused by the fact that the
phone costs I reported were those we incurred in the period named, but
some things you pay for after the fact, like local calls and price hikes.
So I think it's fair to say that Grex had a teriffic year. As for the
"trend" of the last 3 months, if I showed you my graph of income by month
you would see that it is very erratic. At a glance, I see several periods
of 3 or more months in which income was slow; Jul-Sep of '95 is one,
Nov '95 - Jan '96 is another, Aug '98-Oct '98 would have been if not for
the auction. We always bounced back.
Believe me, Dave & Don, if I thought we had a problem, I would be out
there agreeing with you. But the data don't support anything but a robust
assessment of Grex's finances.
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don
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response 22 of 90:
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Oct 6 01:13 UTC 1999 |
I don't necessarily think there's a problem; I can't think there's a problem
when the current general fund could sustain grex for almost a year without
any income. I'm simply noting a trend; just feel really, really lucky that
I wasn't here back during grex's financial crunch(es).
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krj
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response 23 of 90:
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Oct 6 04:12 UTC 1999 |
The number I would worry about is the slight sag in the membership numbers.
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janc
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response 24 of 90:
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Oct 6 05:09 UTC 1999 |
So far as I know, Grex hasn't had a financial crunch since the days of
its infancy, in 1991 and 1992. Certainly for as long as I've been
around, we have always had the three month cussion that it was generally
agreed that we needed.
I agree with Ken. It concerns me that we haven't seen any growth in
memberships for a long time, and now seem to be seeing a slight decline.
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