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Grex > Coop13 > #199: Cyberspace Communications finances for September 2004 | |
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aruba
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Cyberspace Communications finances for September 2004
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Oct 3 23:07 UTC 2004 |
Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances
through September 30th, 2004.
Beginning Balance $3,357.74
Credits $300.00 Member contributions
$1.30 Interest on our savings account
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$301.30
Debits $84.43 Pumpkin Rent for October
$61.02 Electricity for September
$91.58 Phone Bill
$135.00 DSL September 15 through October 15
$5.00 Change of address fee (see below)
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$377.03
Ending Balance $3,282.01
Our current balance breaks down as follows:
$3,025.47 General Fund
$173.99 Silly Hat Fund
$60.00 Spare Parts Fund
$22.55 Infrastructure Fund
The money is distributed like this:
$398.27 Checking account
$2,883.74 Savings account earning 0.55% interest annually
We had no new members in September. We are currently at 71 members, 68
of whom are paid through at least October 15th. (The others expired
recently and are in a grace period.)
Notes:
- Every Michigan corporation has to have a registered agent with an
address in Michigan. The address isn't allowed to be a P.O. Box.
Since 1996 I have been the registered agent for Cyberspace
Communications. I moved last summer, so we had to submit a form with
the state telling them my new address. The filing fee is $5.
- For some reason, we only received one Paypal payment this month, and
it was $2 for a handbook. $1.64 (which is what's left after Paypal
took their cut) is below the minimum withdrawal amount for our account
($10), so I left the money with Paypal, and it will go on next month's
report.
- For the last two years, September has been the end of the long spell
of red ink for Grex. That is, we lost money April through September,
but rebounded in October. So far 2004 looks the same; let's hope we
get the same bounce next month.
Thanks to everyone who contributed in September:
aruba, charcat, dpc, gelinas, jying, krj, robh, and scott.
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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| 81 responses total. |
richard
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response 1 of 81:
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Oct 5 08:07 UTC 2004 |
Here's some interesting stats. I checked the finance reports for
September of each of the last four years--
Month-ending balance
September 2001-- $5,943.92
September 2002-- 5,093.51
September 2003-- 3,804.31
September 2004-- 3,282.01
Thats an average decline of $887 a year the last four years.
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richard
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response 2 of 81:
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Oct 5 08:22 UTC 2004 |
Further checking
Ending balances
September 1996-- $4,186.47
September 1997-- $3,468.05
September 1998 $3,391.75
September 1999- $5,196.01
September 2000-- $5,067.85
I can't find a September month end for 1995, but absent that, the last
time Grex had less money than it does now at the end of a September was
ten years ago, September 1994, when the ending balance was $2,681.89
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richard
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response 3 of 81:
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Oct 5 08:28 UTC 2004 |
Its also an eye opener to look at the treasurer's reports for 1994 and realize
that at the time, Grex was only paying $25 a month for rent at the dungeon
and $20 for the phone line charge. Expenses have more than tripled, while
the month end balance ($2,681.89) for September ten years ago is only six
hundred less than it was this past month.
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mfp
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response 4 of 81:
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Oct 5 15:17 UTC 2004 |
If Grex would get rid of its xenophobic policy of requiring identification
for membership, it would have more money.
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naftee
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response 5 of 81:
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Oct 5 15:55 UTC 2004 |
I echo and completely agree with mfp's #4 .
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twenex
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response 6 of 81:
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Oct 5 15:59 UTC 2004 |
Listen, sonny. I'm a xeno and Grex doesn't make me feel phobed; you got that?
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naftee
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response 7 of 81:
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Oct 5 16:00 UTC 2004 |
Then why don't you have a mambership, child ?
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aruba
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response 8 of 81:
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Oct 5 17:40 UTC 2004 |
Richard - You're right that Grex was paying $25 for the Dungeon in 1994,
but that was before we moved in there. The $20 phone line was for our
internet link to ICNET - the incoming the phone lines are lumped into the
"CE payment" of $197/month. (CE = Ken Ascher, in whose warehouse Grex
lived.)
I haven't checked all of Richard's numbers, but they sound right to me.
Most of the treasurer's reports since 1993 are in ~aruba/reports, if
anyone wants to look at them.
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krj
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response 9 of 81:
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Oct 5 21:46 UTC 2004 |
Richard, I would factor out the "Infrastructure fund" from
September 2001 and 2002. There was a $1024 donation to that fund,
essentially a capital investment (?), in Sept. 2001; that money
remained in September 2002 but most of it was spent on the
NextGrex project by the time September 2003 arrived.
The way you've drawn your first sample, you don't account for
the arrival of that large capital gift, but you do treat
its spending as normal operating costs; I think that substantially
exaggerates the decline.
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spooked
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response 10 of 81:
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Oct 6 00:34 UTC 2004 |
If you claim that the xeno...? stance towards ID is to blame for the
decline in Grex's bank balance, you failed Logic 1. As far as I can
recall it has always been a standard part of membership policy for Grex.
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ryan
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response 11 of 81:
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Oct 6 00:37 UTC 2004 |
This response has been erased.
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mfp
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response 12 of 81:
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Oct 6 00:52 UTC 2004 |
Re. 10: that's entirely untrue, spooked. No-one's claiming that Grex's
failure to purge itself of the xenophobic ID rule CAUSED the loss in income.
We're claiming that Grex is losing income -- and this is shown to be true by
the statistics Mr. Richard did us the favour of compiling -- and that loss
of income could be alleviated by removing the xenophobic ID rule. I know for
a fact that if it were removed, I would promptly give Grex sixty dollars for
a membership. I suspect that several other people would also be more willing
to donate. I don't suspect anyone will be less willing to donate. It seems
obvious, then, that Grex will make money when it gets rid of the silly ID
rule.
I don't think this is complicated stuff.
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glenda
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response 13 of 81:
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Oct 6 01:13 UTC 2004 |
But you would then need to take into consideration those of us that would not
contribute either money, time, or serving as staff or board without it.
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mfp
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response 14 of 81:
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Oct 6 01:34 UTC 2004 |
As I already said, I don't think anyone's quite that petty. Irregardless,
the most JUST thing to do is to combat xenophobia in all its forms, and thus
Grex SHOULD remove the restrictions, even if it means they have to sacrifice
the money and time given by people who are petty.
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richard
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response 15 of 81:
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Oct 6 04:23 UTC 2004 |
#12...I don't think that Grex getting rid of its id requirement policy for
membership would bring in more money. I think there are valid legal reasons
why it, or any organization, should want to validate its members, have proof
of who they are. Whats the big deal mfp of sending grex something that has
your name on it, which is all they ask. I don't believe it even has to be
a photo id.
On the other hand, I do believe that while grex shouldn't change its ID
policy, it should change its policy requiring money for membership. A
mandatory "donation" isn't a donation at all, it is dues. Grex is a non
profit and does not request dues. It asks for donations. It strikes me, and
always has, as exclusionary to "require" a donation to be a voting member of
the community.
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richard
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response 16 of 81:
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Oct 6 04:33 UTC 2004 |
And before somebody calls me on contradicting myself, because I pointed out
grex's financial problems and then said "don't require donations for
membership", let me explain. The key word is "exclusionary" What I think
an examination of the past few years financial reports indicates is that the
current setup isn't working. Grex's membership isn't growing, and as a result
it is losing money at an unacceptable pace. Grex needs more members, and you
cant get more members if you are being exclusionary. If you get a hundred
new members as a result of not requring donations, and being more
INclusionary, and of those hundred new members, sixty donate anyway, that is
better than only getting fifty new members who all donate. You make more
money by involving more people, and you do that by opening up the membership
and putting as few rules as possible (except for IDs) as pre-requisites
Also grex has many loyal users in India, Pakistan and other places who would
love to become members. But they cannot because it is too difficult to
donate. Either the exchange rate makes the membership "dues" too expensive,
or it is too difficult to exchange their money for u.s. dollars, or it is too
difficult just to pay the money. Or they are students in a poor country on
a strict budget. Either way Grex's requiring a monetary contribution for
membership is exclusionary to them.
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aruba
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response 17 of 81:
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Oct 6 12:48 UTC 2004 |
Richard, I appreciate your paying attention to the finances. But this
idea of not requiring a payment for membership, which you've proposed a
number of times over the years, makes even less sense to me than Reagan's
trickle-down theory. Grex needs money to pay its bills, so we ask people
who care about it to help. That's all there is to it. I know you say
that you contribute your ideas, and that ought to be good enough.
Everyone's ideas are welcome on Grex, and always have been. But at the
end of the month, I can't draw on our bank account of ideas to pay the
rent. That's just reality.
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mooncat
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response 18 of 81:
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Oct 6 15:27 UTC 2004 |
I still need someone to explain to me why the word xenophobic is being
used in connection with the ID policy.
If we shouldn't think it's a big deal to have ID- and we're just being
paranoid by requirign ID- how paranoid are those of you who don't want
to provide it? Do you think Grex is going to use your ID for nefarious
purposes? Are we going to sell your name to a telemarketing company?
Seriously here, those of you so against the ID policy- why are you so
afraid of sharing your ID?
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albaugh
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response 19 of 81:
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Oct 6 18:06 UTC 2004 |
Because it's a convenient thing to complain about.
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tod
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response 20 of 81:
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Oct 6 18:39 UTC 2004 |
Some of us still value our freedom and would like to see Grex continue in the
same spirit.
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mooncat
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response 21 of 81:
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Oct 6 20:40 UTC 2004 |
Tod- try a new one. That logic doesn't follow.
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mfp
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response 22 of 81:
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Oct 6 20:47 UTC 2004 |
I don't want to be FORCED to give ID on account of how it's a pain in the ass
an it's unnecessary.
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albaugh
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response 23 of 81:
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Oct 6 21:37 UTC 2004 |
Well, it *is* necessary, currently, for grex. Whether it should be necessary
is in the eye of the beholder. You refuse to acknowledge that, and still
nothing changes. Let's see tod make a proposal, if he's really serious about
something other than complaining.
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mfp
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response 24 of 81:
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Oct 6 21:57 UTC 2004 |
By complaining about it and analyizing it, I acknowledge that it is necessary
to produce identification to get a Grex membership. What I'm saying, of
course, is that that requirement is Grex's fault, and it could function
perfectly fine without requiring it.
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