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Grex > Coop11 > #6: Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances through 6/30/98 |  |
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aruba
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Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances through 6/30/98
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Jul 6 21:16 UTC 1998 |
Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances
through June 30th, 1998.
Beginning Balance $2,778.05
Credits $1,182.00 Member contributions
$70.00 Miscellaneous donations
$10.00 Spare Parts Fund
$2.00 Silly Hat Fund
$35.00 Grex store proceeds
$2.10 Sales tax collected
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$1,301.10
Debits $60.00 Pumpkin Rent for July
$83.00 Electricity for June
$20.00 Innovative Concepts phone line
$427.74 Phone Bill
$8.00 Bank service charge
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$598.74
Ending Balance $3,480.41
Our current balance breaks down as follows:
$2,475.79 General Fund
$816.00 Spare parts / 501(c)3 / Mail machine fund
$102.86 Silly Hat Fund
$65.00 UPS Fund
$15.24 Use Tax owed on $253.95 worth of mail-order purchases
$5.52 Sales tax collected
The Grex Store activity looks like this:
Cash Stock
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Beginning Balances: ($216.60) $384.10
$35.00 <-- Items sold <-- ($17.70)
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Ending Balances: ($181.60) $366.40
We had four new members in April: kdkd, straker, jmm, and tsdave. We are
currently at 103 members, 93 of whom are paid through at least July 15th.
(The others expired recently and are in a grace period.)
The reason the dues total is so high this month is that we received one check
for $600, for *ten years* membership. We now have one member who is paid
through 2008! We're now back above our $2000 cushion in the general fund,
which makes me sleep better.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in June:
atticus, bigwalt, bjorn, bmoran, bruin, carson, coyote, dadroc, dpc, giry,
headdoc, jmm, kdkd, keesan, krj, mnl2e, nephi, remmers, straker, tsdave,
valerie, and one mystery person. Thanks everyone!
Thanks everyone!
If you or your institution would like to become a member of Grex, or to extend
your membership into the next millenium, 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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| 62 responses total. |
danr
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response 1 of 62:
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Jul 7 11:35 UTC 1998 |
Wow. Thanks to our ten-year member!
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aruba
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response 2 of 62:
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Jul 7 13:32 UTC 1998 |
$600 is, BTW, by far the largest single donation of money that Grex has
received, at least on my watch. Dan, do you remember anything that big?
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danr
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response 3 of 62:
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Jul 7 14:23 UTC 1998 |
Nope. That is definitely the biggest.
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rcurl
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response 4 of 62:
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Jul 7 16:11 UTC 1998 |
That raises the idea of offering a life membership. That, however, is
usually based on about 20-years dues, so that the donation can be invested
and the interest supports the membership. Then after the member dies
the money is still there as an endowment.
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srw
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response 5 of 62:
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Jul 7 16:31 UTC 1998 |
As long as Grex's bank does not have a minimum balance, funds beyond
what is needed for normal month-to-month activities should be kept
earning 5% in a money market mutual fund.
(no fees, no appreciable risk to principal)
That way, a lifetime membership of $1200 should generate about a year's
membership worth of income every year as long as interest rates don't
decline greatly.
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jep
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response 6 of 62:
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Jul 7 19:53 UTC 1998 |
I can't see any reason not to have some sort of lifetime membership
rate.
I would set it at considerably less than 20 times the annual membership.
No one is going to send hundreds of dollars to Grex as a cost-saving
measure; they would do so only as an act of charity and support. There
are no fiscal benefits for anyone in sending any amount to Grex. Most
likely, anyone who sends such an amount is going to be happily willing
to crack the checkbook again if Grex needs money in the future, as long
as it's character doesn't change. Calling them a "lifetime member" is a
special way of saying "thanks for the big contribution".
Arbornet set the "lifetime patron" contribution level at 7 times an
annual patronship. At the time it was done, that amount was 7x$150, or
$1050. No one ever sent a check for a lifetime patronship. One person
was awarded a lifetime patronship in exchange for the donation of a
computer (the K-12 computer), but then never created a loginid so the
patronship wasn't implemented. I blather. A lifetime membership rate
of 7 years of membership seems like a reasonable rate to me.
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rcurl
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response 7 of 62:
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Jul 7 22:00 UTC 1998 |
Life memberships *are* inherently "charity and support", and only cost
savings if one intends to stick around longer. I am in another society
where I keep hearing members saying "I wish I had bought a life membership
twenty years ago". However maybe a conferencing system doesn't generate
that kind of loyalty - or expectation that the technology will still be
around and used.
The trouble with a life membership only 7xannual is that the person will
be subsidized for long after that. Why should other users subsidize someone
just trying to get a bargain? What good does it do Grex? The motives and
the results are all negative.
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mdw
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response 8 of 62:
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Jul 7 22:20 UTC 1998 |
The reason you might create a "cheap" lifetime membership rate would be
if you had some short-term need for a lot of capital, and could afford
the resulting "liability" later on. I don't think this is particularly
attractive or necessary for grex.
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richard
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response 9 of 62:
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Jul 7 22:25 UTC 1998 |
#8..right. Grex is not despearate enough to need to offer
lifetime memberships. Now M-net on the other hand probably
ought to consider that as an idea because it needs to find a
way to hit up the patrons it already has for more money.
Also would need to spell out that such large memberships cant be'
refundable, at least not 100%, because Grex cant be in a position
if its in financial trouble someday of having to reimburse
lifetime memberships for those who start thinking they may not
outlive grex and have gotten a bad deal.
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davel
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response 10 of 62:
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Jul 8 01:25 UTC 1998 |
As usual, Richard, you need to learn to read. jep said Arbornet does (or did)
have a lifetime patronship, & that it hasn't attracted any real interest.
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tpryan
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response 11 of 62:
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Jul 8 02:49 UTC 1998 |
M-net is now feeling the finiancial effect of the 'buy 3 months,
get one free' offer, as a lot of free months are going by. Without
follow-up fund-raising, it will be down to an emergcy again.
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uniontod
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response 12 of 62:
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Jul 8 04:36 UTC 1998 |
Having seen the humble numbers and having been a voyeur long, when I get home
from work in the morning I'll get out the check-book and do my thing for at
least a couple of years.
1 dog year=7 human years...hmmm. There has to be something there, no?
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senna
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response 13 of 62:
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Jul 8 06:17 UTC 1998 |
What, again? We should have an M-net Financial Emergency Tally to keep track
of how many times it has to be bailed out.
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aruba
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response 14 of 62:
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Jul 8 07:32 UTC 1998 |
(How about moving the M-Net discussion elsewhere, and using this item to
discuss Grex finances or to thank the member who donated $600?)
Re #12: Thanks Todd!
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jep
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response 15 of 62:
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Jul 8 14:18 UTC 1998 |
I didn't mean to bring a discussion of M-Net here, I just thought it was
reasonable to mention what Arbornet did and what the results were.
I don't see a "lifetime membership" as being a budget membership. I see
it as recognition for people who send in a large chunk of money.
Grex doesn't need people to send in big chunks of money to keep it
afloat at it's current level of operation, that's true. Grex is stable
right now. I have no doubt it can keep doing what it's doing for at
least a year or two; maybe three or four. Grex should be looking at
what it wants to do beyond that time frame, like any individual, group
or corporation which has achieved short term stability.
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mta
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response 16 of 62:
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Jul 8 15:14 UTC 1998 |
I don't think your comment was out of place, John. It is interesting to note
how lifetime memberships have worked (or not) elsewhere in examing them for
Grex.
On the otherhand hand this is a good time to thank our anonymous donor!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
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rcurl
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response 17 of 62:
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Jul 8 15:23 UTC 1998 |
A life membership should not be considered a "big chunk of money". It
should be considered an endowment, and put aside to earn interest. In
another organization I arranged for most of life memberships to be
deposited to an endowment fund with a Michigan Community Foundation, where
it not only earns interest (5%) but can attract further endowment donations
since donations to a Michigan community foundation can be treated partially
as *tax credits*. The principle in the fund no longer belongs to the
organization and cannot be recovered (by state law).
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scott
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response 18 of 62:
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Jul 8 17:01 UTC 1998 |
Wow, thanks to your anonymous donor!
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scott
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response 19 of 62:
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Jul 8 17:01 UTC 1998 |
Make that "our" anonymous donor... :)
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dang
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response 20 of 62:
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Jul 8 18:59 UTC 1998 |
Thank you, donor!
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richard
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response 21 of 62:
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Jul 8 22:02 UTC 1998 |
ok name names! out with it...give credit where credit is due...
who bought the membership?
(richard thinks valerie and janc probably bought it for their
unborn child...who would presumably be computer literate within
ten years eh?)
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richard
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response 22 of 62:
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Jul 8 22:08 UTC 1998 |
Here's the most eyeopening statistic:
Mnet (cash in bank June 30, 1996 or two years ago)-- $9,192.44
Mnet (cash in bank June 30, 1998)-- $216.77
In 24 months, Mnet lost almost nine thousand dollars cumulatively.
this is an object lesson for Grex. Never feel too comfortable.
Even with money in the bank, it can all disappear in a hurry!
Maybe in retrospect, lifetime memberships are too unnecesary a
risk?
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other
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response 23 of 62:
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Jul 8 22:42 UTC 1998 |
richard, were you helping to run m-net in the last two years? or did you
think you were?
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other
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response 24 of 62:
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Jul 8 22:43 UTC 1998 |
<other is somehow reminded of the bleating of sheep>
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