Cyberspace Communications finances for July 2001

Aug 1 00:23 UTC 2001

Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances
through July 31st, 2001.

Beginning Balance     $4,360.21

Credits                 $426.00         Member contributions
                        $179.00         Proceeds from the 6th Grex Auction
                          $9.00         Miscellaneous donations
                          $2.00         Sales of handbooks
                   ------------
                        $616.00

Debits                   $72.93         Pumpkin Rent for August
                         $45.97         Electricity for July
                         $42.61         Phone Bill
                        $135.00         DSL July 15 through August 15
                         $40.00         CardService fee for June
                          $4.90         PayPal discounts (income = $138)
                   ------------
                        $341.41

Ending Balance        $4,634.80

Our current balance breaks down as follows:

$4,432.94               General Fund
  $141.86               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
                     ---------                                ---------
                      $131.40                                  $171.30

We had two new members (oldsrvnt and morpheas) and one returning member 
(womble) in July.  We are currently at 95 members, 88 of whom are paid 
through at least July 15th.  (The others expired recently, or expire today, 
and are in a grace period.)

Notes:

- Ameritech finally took the two lines we dropped in March off the bill, and 
refunded us the money we've been paying for them.  That's why the bill is so 
low this month.  Our regular monthly bill will be $179.52.

- I put the Grex inventory into a database, which is on the web at 
http://www.cyberspace.org/~invent/index.cgi or by typing "inventory" on 
Grex.  This should help with filing the yearly personal property tax report.

Thanks to everyone who contributed in July:

anderyn, aruba, bmoran, bookie, brighn, brown, bruin, carson, charcat, 
coyote, dpfizen, eeyore, jep, kentn, kooky1, mdw, mju, mooncat, morpheas, 
oldsrvnt, quail, sagan, scott, sekari, thehair, tomaso, volvo, and womble.

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 24:

Aug 12 04:43 UTC 2001

This question comes up regularly, but I've never paid enough attention to
know if it is the same person asking every time.

Apparently, someone gave some money to grex and, when asked what to do with
it, said, "Put it in the silly hat fund."  So the treasurer did.

response 4 of 24:

Aug 12 13:18 UTC 2001

The money was donated (rough quote) "for any purpose, including buying silly
hats for the Board members".

response 6 of 24:

Aug 13 03:53 UTC 2001

Because it would be silly.

response 8 of 24:

Aug 13 14:29 UTC 2001

Unused accounts of non-members simply expire after some months (3?). They
can always create a new account, but something has to be done to limit
the accumulations of thousands of idle accounts. Doesn't this seem
reasonable?

response 10 of 24:

Aug 13 17:23 UTC 2001

The Silly Hat Fund is Grex's money laundering scheme.

But don't tell anyone please.

response 12 of 24:

Aug 13 21:30 UTC 2001

Re #8: I was trying to make a joke suggesting that Grex is expiring the member
themselves, not the membership or actual login id. I will try harder next
time! :)

response 14 of 24:

Aug 20 18:59 UTC 2001

#9 is basically accurate.  Peter Riley was the one who started the fund, and
quite a lot of people have donated to it since.

response 16 of 24:

Aug 21 01:06 UTC 2001

I'd suggest that the board should act on it, given the history. 

response 18 of 24:

Aug 22 00:40 UTC 2001

I suppose if there were call for it, I might make another batch.  The old ones
were hats of various kinds with iron-on nametags on the forehead that I'd
written GREX on.  You could probably whip up one for yourself pretty easily.

response 20 of 24:

Aug 27 22:37 UTC 2001

It sells Grex paraphernalia -- t-shirts, mouse pads, other stuff
maybe.  I'm not sure who's tending it since jiffer left town.

response 24 of 24:

Aug 31 13:59 UTC 2001

Right, someone needs to figure out how to fix the pages so they work with
Paypal.  I guess the default person to do that is me, but if anyone else
would like the job, I'd be willing to part with it.