Treasurer's Report for May 2000

Jun 24 23:20 UTC 2000

Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances
through 5/31/2000:

Beginning Balance     $5,792.92

Credits                 $390.00         Member contributions
                        $161.00         TOP contributions
                        $ 58.50         Auction proceeds
                        $  2.44         Misc. donations
                   ------------
                        $611.94

Debits                   $69.46         Pumpkin Rent for June
                         $54.34         Electricity for May
                        $340.18         Phone Bill
                         $35.00         CardService fee for April
                         $30.75         Charge Solutions fee for April
                         $ 0.20         Exchange rate adjustment 
                   ------------
                        $529.93

Ending Balance        $5,874.93

Our balance as of 4/30 breaks down as follows:

$5,454.16               General Fund
  $139.86               Silly Hat Fund
   $60.00               Spare Parts Fund
  $220.91               TOP sponsorship fund

There was no activity in the Grex Store this month, so the balances remain at:

                         Cash                                    Stock
                     ---------                                ---------
                      ($46.60)                                 $301.60

We had 10 new members (danang, ktsix, nadz, ethiczen, silsbury, toph, 
ckkrish, madgey, granch, djlactos) and no returning members in May.  
We are currently at 112 members, 94 of whom are paid through at least 
June 15th.  (The rest expired recently and are in a grace period.)

Notes:

    - The rent shown above reflects a 5% increase as of 6/1.  
    - The exchange rate adjustment reflects the fact that I posted 
      last month's (April) report based on the assumption that the
      Canadian exchange rate was 64 cents on the dollar.  It had been
      steady at that rate for many months.  I discovered that it 
      had changed to 62 cents US per Canadian dollar when I made the
      deposit.  
    - Note that, while technically in the black this month, the general
      fund actually decreased somewhat, since much of our credits 
      consisted of TOP donations.
    - Also note that I still have not succeeded in getting Charge 
      Solutions to fix their monthly fee.  Apparently they were 
      acquired recently by, hmm, Merchants Online or something like
      that, and all their phone numbers changed.  

Thanks to everyone who contributed in May:
danang, eeyore, bruin, krj, ktsix, nadz, ethiczen, silsbury, toph,
ckkrish, scott, other, remmers, aquatic, quail, coyote, aruba,
kami, dpfitzen, satindra, madgey, granch, and djlactos

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.

response 2 of 68:

Jun 25 03:08 UTC 2000

(62 cents a dollar? having been in Canada during the past month, I
can honestly say the Canadian dollar never went that low, as much
as I wished it would. was there an exchange fee of some sort?)

(FWIW, the Canadian dollar a week ago was worth 68 U.S. cents.)

response 4 of 68:

Jun 25 07:24 UTC 2000

It is an as yet undesignated kitty originally formed from excesses of cash
left for restaurant tabs during Gatherings of Grexers (GoGs).

Don't ask why.  The name alone should be sufficient.

response 6 of 68:

Jun 25 08:15 UTC 2000

Why not use 'paypal'? http://www.paypal.com

response 8 of 68:

Jun 25 13:01 UTC 2000

Re #6 - There was recent discussion of paypal in the Coop cf.
Upshot was that our current credit card service better suits
Grex's needs.  See item:coop,179 .

response 10 of 68:

Jun 25 15:15 UTC 2000

As I knew it would...  :)

response 12 of 68:

Jun 25 16:05 UTC 2000

How many of the memberships this month were paid by credit card?  How many
were new memberships and how many renewing members paid that way?

response 14 of 68:

Jun 25 16:34 UTC 2000

A couple of the new members appear to be in the UK.  I don't
know how many members total are outside the US, but one of the
rationales for accepting credit cards was to facilitate people
outside the US getting money to us, which has often been a
problem in the past.

response 16 of 68:

Jun 26 04:03 UTC 2000

I certainly do, though I would feel more comfortable with it if I had a 
backup lined up.  Which I don't yet.  

response 18 of 68:

Jun 26 13:58 UTC 2000

Oh, right.  Canadian exchange rate.  Well, the .64 and .62 cents on the 
dollar are the rates that TCF has been giving me for checks in Canadian 
dollar amounts.  It's probably not the true "exchange rate", but it 
seems fair enough.  

response 20 of 68:

Jun 27 01:37 UTC 2000

The ISDN line at the old ISDN donors should be cancelled.  This
should be done after the centrex contract is checked to
determine how that will affect obviously.

response 22 of 68:

Jun 27 15:09 UTC 2000

The routers are configured to know which line they are using.

response 24 of 68:

Jun 27 15:32 UTC 2000

And what I meant was, that information can be deduced by examining the 
router configuration of the router at the Pumpkin.  The Pumpkin router 
will say, essentially, "I am configured to be connected to ISDN lines
734-555-1111 and 734-555-1112," and that is the ISDN circuit you must
NOT disconnect.  I can go over this with STeve if needed.