Cyberspace Communications, Inc., finances through 12/31/98

Jan 12 03:53 UTC 1999

Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances
through December 31st, 1998.

Beginning Balance     $3,282.65

Credits                 $492.00         Member contributions
                         $29.00         Auction proceeds
                         $22.00         Miscellaneous donations
                   ------------
                        $543.00 

Debits                   $63.00         Pumpkin Rent for January
                         $66.36         Electricity for December
                        $323.41         Phone Bill
                          $6.08         Bank service charge (last one!)
                          $6.20         New Checks
                          $3.50         Charge for check to close old account
                   ------------
                        $468.55

Ending Balance        $3,357.10

Our current balance breaks down as follows:

$2,360.52               General Fund
  $816.00               Spare parts / 501(c)3 / Mail machine fund
  $108.86               Silly Hat Fund
   $65.00               UPS Fund
    $6.72               Sales tax collected

There was no activity in the Grex store, so the balances remain at:

                         Cash                                    Stock
                     ---------                                ---------
       Balances:     ($123.60)                                 $340.90

We had three new members in November (wlevak, wgm, and deembee).  We are 
currently at 99 members, 93 of whom are paid through at least January 15th. 
(The others expired recently and are in a grace period.) 

We did good in December.  Our new, lower costs (thanks to dropping the ICNET 
link and two phone lines) helped.

The last check from our old MNB account finally cleared in December, so I 
closed the account.  That means we have suffered our last service charge!  
Yay!  The bank charged us $3.50 to write a cashier's check to close the 
account.  The alternative was for them to give me $2445.90 in cash to carry 
across town, so I decided $3.50 was worth it.

As noted in advance, our rent was raised from $60/month to $63/month on 
January 1st.

Thanks to everyone who contributed in December:

arabella, atticus, bigwalt, dea, deembee, dpc, fiza, jerome, monamoor, other, 
sagan, wgm, and wlevak.

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.

response 2 of 30:

Jan 17 18:14 UTC 1999

The silly hat fund was started by Peter Riley (nestene) in November 1996 when
he handed me $5 at a board meeting and said "this is for the silly hat fund".
I dutifully created the fund, and a number of people have donated to it since
then.  It's not clear what will be done with it, but I've always hoped that
ultimately it will be spent on something amusing and frivolous.

response 4 of 30:

Jan 17 22:16 UTC 1999

I found a store in London that had lots of silly hats.  I considered buying
one and asking Grex to reimburse it out of the Silly Hat Fund, but I didn't.

response 6 of 30:

Jan 17 23:41 UTC 1999

My brother-in-law showed me a catalog he'd gotten from Toscano's in
Chicago.  They specialize in gargoyles for home and garden,  but they
do have several silly soccer-fan hats available, including a
plush Viking helmet and a dragon.  (I'd post the URL, but they don't
have a web page!  Can you believe that?  >8)

response 8 of 30:

Jan 18 01:04 UTC 1999

they wear silly hats at buckingham palace, i hear.

response 10 of 30:

Jan 18 03:42 UTC 1999

It's not a bad idea though.

response 12 of 30:

Jan 18 15:06 UTC 1999

I always thought it would be nice to buy something for departing board and
staff members.  Maybe the Silly Hat Fund could be used for that.

response 14 of 30:

Jan 18 16:27 UTC 1999

Or we could just give the money to recently departed board members. ;)

response 16 of 30:

Jan 18 17:20 UTC 1999

Yeah, something like that.  :)

response 18 of 30:

Jan 18 18:55 UTC 1999

How about buying each board member a copy of RRoO from the silly
hat fund? That would satisfy multiple constituencies.

response 20 of 30:

Jan 18 22:35 UTC 1999

But would those be silly hats?

response 22 of 30:

Jan 19 02:41 UTC 1999

  I think Lori has an excellent idea.

response 24 of 30:

Jan 19 15:33 UTC 1999

On Barney this morning, they sang a song about silly hats.
Don't ask how I know this.