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Grex > Coop12 > #73: Cyberspace Communications finances for December 2001 |  |
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aruba
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Cyberspace Communications finances for December 2001
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Jan 3 02:28 UTC 2002 |
Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances
through December 31st, 2001.
Beginning Balance $6,258.70
Credits $132.00 Member contributions
$4.00 Miscellaneous donations
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$136.00
Debits $72.93 Pumpkin Rent for January
$45.97 Electricity for December
$174.41 Phone Bill
$135.00 DSL December 15 through January 15
$2.04 Paypal fees (income = $60.00)
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$430.35
Ending Balance $5,964.35
Our current balance breaks down as follows:
$4,731.49 General Fund
$148.86 Silly Hat Fund
$60.00 Spare Parts Fund
$1,024.00 Infrastructure Fund
The money is distributed like this:
$5,464.35 Checking account
$500.00 8-month 3.00% CD which comes due 5/28/2002
There was no activity in the Grex store this month, so the balances remain at:
Cash Stock
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$149.40 $162.10
We had no new members in December. We are currently at 95 members, 93 of
whom are paid through at least January 15th. (The others expired recently
and are in a grace period.)
Notes:
- December was a slow month. Not a big deal though - we've had several good
months in a row.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in December:
arabella, bruin, rcurl, and tomaso.
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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| 38 responses total. |
tpryan
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response 1 of 38:
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Jan 3 17:16 UTC 2002 |
How long had grex had over 90 members in a month? It would seem
to be quite a long string of time. Having a reliable income of over
$5,000 a year for a while has done well. Thank you to all members!!
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aruba
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response 2 of 38:
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Jan 3 19:35 UTC 2002 |
Here are the number of paid-up members for some dates in 2001:
01/07 91 07/07 93
01/22 89 07/22 92
02/07 92 08/07 91
02/22 96 08/22 90
03/07 95 09/07 88
03/22 98 09/22 88
04/07 100 10/07 89
04/22 101 10/22 90
05/07 101 11/07 91
05/22 100 11/22 98
06/07 97 12/07 99
06/22 96 12/22 95
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aruba
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response 3 of 38:
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Jan 3 21:55 UTC 2002 |
I filled out Grex's Sales, Use, and Withholding Tax Return. Since we sold
under $5000 worth of stuff ($1024) and we didn't make any purchases all
year, our net amount owed is once again $1.00 (the filng fee).
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aruba
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response 4 of 38:
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Jan 3 21:59 UTC 2002 |
Also: we received the form from the City of Ann Arbor that we need to fill
out to pay personal property tax for 2001. We still haven't gotten a bill
for 2000, though.
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i
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response 5 of 38:
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Jan 5 18:41 UTC 2002 |
Do you mean no bills-based-on-the-2000-filing? I'd ask the City, since
both Summer & Winter tax payments would be overdue at this point.
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aruba
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response 6 of 38:
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Jan 5 22:36 UTC 2002 |
Right, no bill based on the form we filed last summer, which detailed our
property as of 12/31/00. It was filed late, and apparently missed the
deadline for tax bills to me mailed in July. That kicked it to the "Board
of Review", which met in December. We got a letter from them dated 12/12.
It says that our taxable value has been set at $2,000, which is what we
agreed it should be last summer. I expected a bill to follow soon after,
but it hasn't come yet.
I did write to Mike Courtney, the appraiser I worked with at the City
Assessor's office. He said he didn't know if we should have gotten a bill
yet or not, but would check into it and get back to me.
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aruba
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response 7 of 38:
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Jan 6 00:18 UTC 2002 |
I went to 9 banks Wednesday and Friday, to ask about prospects for opening
a savings account for Grex. Here are the results:
TCF: No account that we could use. Closest is a money market with:
Interest Rate: 0.50%
Minimum balance: $5000.
Flagstar: "Statement Plus Savings Account"
Interest rate: 2.00%
Minimum balance: $1000
Bank of Ann Arbor: "Statement Savings"
Interest rate: 1.74%
Minimum balance: $100
Key Bank: "Key Organization Saver Account"
Interest Rate: 0.50%
Minimum balance: $0
Comerica: "Business Savings Account"
Interest Rate: 0.50-.70%
Minimum balance: $500
Standard Federal (formerly Michigan National): "Business Savings Account"
Interest rate: 1.00%
Minimum balance: $250
Per debit fee: $1.50
Republic Bank: "Business Savings Account"
Interest rate: 0.50%
Minimum balance: I seem to have forgotten to write this down.
Bank One: No one paid attention to me when I stood around for a few minutes,
so I left.
National City: Ditto.
So, the upshot is that Sindi deserves credit for identifying Flagstar and
Bank of Ann Arbor as the two best candidates, since they seem much more
interested in the savings account business than the others.
My inclination is to go with Bank of Ann Arbor, because they seem to have a
bigger presence in Ann Arbor than Flagstar. This is just a superficial
judgement on my part, and I haven't researched either bank. So I could be
talked into Flagstar, if someone had some good reasons for preferring them.
The difference in income between the two is about $10/year.
I will open the account at BoAA next week unless there is a big argument for
why I should open a Flagstar Savings Account instead.
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mary
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response 8 of 38:
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Jan 6 14:59 UTC 2002 |
You are *very* generous with the time you donate to Grex, Mark.
Thanks you very much.
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keesan
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response 9 of 38:
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Jan 6 18:50 UTC 2002 |
Jim says he has a funny feeling about Flagstar that he cannot explain.
He did not understand their attitude. I chose BoAA instead of Flagstar
because the latter did not have safety deposit boxes except in a distant
suburban location. But Flagstar has bike parking and BoAA does not.
BoAA seems exceptionally friendly especially to small investors.
BoAA does not offer free checking to businesses including nonprofits. If ;you
think that at some future date Grex might want to have all accounts at one
bank, you could ask Flagstar about free checking for businesses (I did not).
Also I know that BoAA is about to open a westside branch and has ;one in Ypsi
and ;you might want to ask about Flagstar branch locations.
How long did it take to go to every bank in town? It took me about an hour
to phone most of them.
I also did not ask Flagstar anything about their CDs other than the rate.
BoAA is a known quantity (no problems that I can think of).
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aruba
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response 10 of 38:
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Jan 6 19:16 UTC 2002 |
It took me an hour or two.
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mooncat
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response 11 of 38:
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Jan 8 17:25 UTC 2002 |
Thanks for your hard work, Mark.
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steve
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response 12 of 38:
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Jan 8 19:01 UTC 2002 |
Wow. All in one item, too. THanks Mark. I'll be happy with either
one you choose--make it the one that is easiest for the tresurer. Any
amount of interest is better than what we're getting now...
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aruba
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response 13 of 38:
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Jan 18 23:37 UTC 2002 |
OK, we finally have a savings account. I opened the account today at Bank
of Ann Arbor. Our initial deposit was $3800. The current interest rate is
1.75%, so we can now look forward to earning $5.54 per month. When our CD
comes due in March, I'll put that money in the savings account too.
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other
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response 14 of 38:
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Jan 19 14:51 UTC 2002 |
Thank you, sir.
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aruba
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response 15 of 38:
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Jan 31 06:48 UTC 2002 |
OK, I've completed our December 31, 2001 Personal Property Tax Statement.
It includes 19 pages(!) of addenda, which you can view online by going to
/---------------------------------------------\
| http://www.cyberspace.org/~invent/index.cgi |
\---------------------------------------------/
and clicking on the "reports" button. (Better hurry, while the database is
still up.)
The bottom line: we should owe about $118 in taxes, up slightly from last
year because we acquired the Sparc Ultra computers from Dan Cross.
I did most of the work for this when I spent the month of July setting up
the database. STeve gave me updated value information. (Thanks STeve!)
I am beaurocracy man. Fear me.
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other
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response 16 of 38:
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Jan 31 13:12 UTC 2002 |
Way to go, Mark. Thank you! (You, too STeve!)
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keesan
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response 17 of 38:
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Jan 31 16:48 UTC 2002 |
What is the paper value of the Sparc computers? (Excuse me for not going
through 19 pages of inventory - I wonder what it costs the city every year
to read through grex paperwork.)
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steve
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response 18 of 38:
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Jan 31 19:02 UTC 2002 |
Don't thank me -- thank Mark for the reall cool inventory control system.
I suspect people know my feelings about this BS, but at least Mark has
created a system that doesn't stink. ;-)
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jep
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response 19 of 38:
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Jan 31 21:17 UTC 2002 |
Grex is well-managed.
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russ
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response 20 of 38:
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Jan 31 22:30 UTC 2002 |
Is there any chance of being able to value the old computer gear
at its scrap value? That would practically eliminate the tax bill
for it and (assuming it's at all useful) let us hold onto it cheaply.
If it's not useful, scrapping is probably a good move if we can't
find any other takers.
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steve
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response 21 of 38:
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Jan 31 22:41 UTC 2002 |
Mark can answer better than I, but no--as I understand it, the horrid law
always puts a value on computer stuff, such that we can't just hang onto it
without paying for it.
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aruba
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response 22 of 38:
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Feb 1 00:49 UTC 2002 |
The city has (so far) accepted STeve's estimate for what things are work,
and their line is that if something has value to us, we have to pay taxes on
it. No argument that getting rid of unwanted stuff is a good idea.
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davel
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response 23 of 38:
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Feb 1 19:15 UTC 2002 |
And if we're bothering to keep it, it must have value to us?
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aruba
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response 24 of 38:
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Feb 1 23:42 UTC 2002 |
Yeah, pretty much. They did cut us some slack on things that are dead (no
longer working), and things which were donated to us but which we never had
any intention of using. But it would be wise to get rid of those things
anyway, in case they change their minds in the future.
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