| Grex > Coop13 > #387: Cyberspace Communications finances for 2006 |
| Cyberspace Communications finances for 2006 | 
Jan 11 03:41 UTC 2007 |
This is a special year-end report on Grex's finances for 2006.
Beginning Balance $3,735.11
Average Total
------- -----
Credits $330.00 $3,960.00 Membership dues
$33.33 $400.00 Sale of old Sun equipment to mdw
$20.00 $240.00 Miscellaneous donations
$1.14 $13.62 Interest
$0.20 $2.38 Silly Hat Fund
------- ---------
$384.67 $4,616.00
Debits $100.00 $1,200.00 Colocation fees
$48.33 $579.98 Phone bills
$6.93 $83.17 Paypal discounts
$3.33 $40.00 Rental of P.O. Box
$2.49 $29.90 Fees to maintain our domain names
$1.67 $20.00 Fees to maintain our corporate status
------- ---------
$162.75 $1,953.05
Ending Balance $6,398.06
We added 24 people to the membership rolls in 2006:
beebot, c3067692, charcat, cross, easlern, firewizz, glenda, jadecat,
kaf28, kingjon, koppula, lapdragon, llama, lutefisk, matasw, mudlark,
muthu, nharmon, pmakinen, ringbark, scholar, stefburn, steve, and walkman.
Of those, 15 were still paid-up members at the end of the year.
At the beginning of 2006 we had 48 paid-up members. At the end of 2006 we
had 53 paid-up members. We had an average of 49 paid-up members during the
year.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to Grex in 2006:
ajax, arabella, arthurp, aruba, atticus, beebot, c3067692, chanur, charcat,
coyote, cross, easlern, eskarina, firewizz, fitz, garrigan, gelinas,
glenda, gorg, i, jadecat, janc, jason, jep, kaf28, kaplan, kedar, keesan,
khamsun, kingjon, koppula, krj, lapdragon, llama, lutefisk, matasw,
mbroggy, mbusse, mdw, mnac, mrtuna, muthu, naftee, nharmon, pengo,
pmakinen, polygon, rcurl, remmers, ringbark, robfitz, scholar, scott,
slynne, srw, stefburn, steve, trh, vortayne, walkman, wh, witling, wlevak,
and a few more people who asked to remain anonymous. Thanks all!
| response 1 of 47: |
Jan 11 03:44 UTC 2007 |
It seems pretty clear that Grex had a pretty good year, financially. In fact, a very good year. We had twice as many new members as in 2005, and we took in a lot more than we spent. Thank you to everyone who supported Grex in 2006!
| response 2 of 47: |
Jan 11 04:04 UTC 2007 |
But this is the people's money! If we have a surplus, we should give it back and stimulate the economy.
| response 3 of 47: |
Jan 11 04:08 UTC 2007 |
Zing!
| response 4 of 47: |
Jan 16 22:36 UTC 2007 |
What is grex gonna do with that net gain of ~$2,500?
| response 5 of 47: |
Jan 16 23:09 UTC 2007 |
Contract a sysadmin outsourcing firm in Bangladesh.
| response 6 of 47: |
Jan 16 23:49 UTC 2007 |
Burn!
| response 7 of 47: |
Jan 17 05:18 UTC 2007 |
First, we should all take a deep breath, and feel good for a moment that Grex did so well over the past year. It hasn't always been the case, so we deserve to enjoy it. But absolutely, if there are problems we can solve by throwing a little money at them, now is a good time to do that. People have been talking about a RAID array. How much staff time will be required to install a RAID array if we buy one?
| response 8 of 47: |
Jan 17 05:39 UTC 2007 |
It would be a fairly significant investment; essentially, the system would have to be reinstalled onto it. That might not be a bad thing, as grex is due for an operating system upgrade anyway (it is now two OpenBSD releases behind).
| response 9 of 47: |
Jan 17 17:03 UTC 2007 |
Are there any system upgrades which require money but not significant time, and after which the users will see an immediate improvement?
| response 10 of 47: |
Jan 17 17:06 UTC 2007 |
Very important technical purchase: send chocolate to all of the active participants in the technical conferences
| response 11 of 47: |
Jan 17 17:09 UTC 2007 |
Yes!! Feed them chocolate. Improve their sense of well being!
| response 12 of 47: |
Jan 17 17:47 UTC 2007 |
re #9: > Are there any system upgrades which require money but not significant > time, and after which the users will see an immediate improvement? /var/mail needs more disk space -- needs it badly. setting everything up on a high-performance RAID array would be nice but I guarantee we'll find uses for a spare disk if we wanted to buy one now and start using it for /var/mail until a more permanent solution comes along.
| response 13 of 47: |
Jan 17 18:13 UTC 2007 |
Regarding #9; McNally points out the need for additional mail spool space. Actually, I'd say that the spool space isn't the problem so much as spam is; if the spam problem could be brought under control, then space probably wouldn't be such an issue. To reiterate my ideas for controlling spam: 1) Make SpamAssassin (and the rest of the `standard' spam scanning tools) default for all users. Users who wish to turn off spam scanning may do so by editing SpamAssassin configuration files. 2) Make *incoming* email `opt-in' for new users, with the *default* to be forwarding off-site. 3) Make outgoing email require some sort of automated verification process, or `sponsorship' by an existing member. My suspicion is that the vast majority of legitimate users don't care about email, and would not notice if their incoming email were simply turned off. For those that do care, this would give sufficient coverage that they'd still be able to do whatever they needed to do with a minimum of hassle and user intervention. I suspect that this scheme would more or less eliminate the majority of the spam problem. As for the RAID controller, I think I should clarify. The incremental cost of installing such a thing would Not add significantly to the overall cost of doing a standard system upgrade. I do, however, find it a bit disturbing that the major consideration for not going with this improvement seems to be staff availability. It speaks to our lack of staff resources and our need to address that issue. Of course, the benefit to the users would be elimination of sources of downtime and increased space/performance.
| response 14 of 47: |
Jan 17 21:13 UTC 2007 |
At a recent board meeting it was suggested that everyone have incoming mail for mail sent from grex, but not from the rest of the world, by default.
| response 15 of 47: |
Jan 17 21:24 UTC 2007 |
Yes, definetely keep local mail on by default. How else would new members request mail access? :)
| response 16 of 47: |
Jan 17 22:40 UTC 2007 |
Right, that goes unsaid.
| response 17 of 47: |
Jan 18 13:27 UTC 2007 |
I got my annual notice from aruba that it's time to renew my membership. Well, I'm not sending in any money at this time. When there's a need, I'll send a contribution, but Grex has enough now to meet it's expenses for years.
| response 18 of 47: |
Jan 18 13:33 UTC 2007 |
Low-life.
| response 19 of 47: |
Jan 18 14:55 UTC 2007 |
And you know what? If Grex was in need Jep would be there, as he said. That sounds like a nice deal, to me. Thanks, John.
| response 20 of 47: |
Jan 18 15:21 UTC 2007 |
re #17 DITTO re #19 Do I get a pat on the back, too? ;)
| response 21 of 47: |
Jan 18 15:46 UTC 2007 |
If grex ever stops existing, would the savings account be donated some place or split among current members?
| response 22 of 47: |
Jan 18 16:00 UTC 2007 |
http://cyberspace.org/local/grex/bylaws.html ARTICLE 8: DISSOLVEMENT In the event the membership is unable to support Cyberspace Communications, all property belonging to the club shall be sold. The remaining cash assets, after paying final bills, shall be donated to a charitable organization, as determined by the BOD. All elected officers shall then be released from their obligations and the corporation dissolved.
| response 23 of 47: |
Jan 18 18:40 UTC 2007 |
There's still hope, Sindi- maybe Grex can take out a very big life insurance policy and something unfortunate could happen to him. . . (I know a guy.)
| response 24 of 47: |
Jan 18 19:10 UTC 2007 |
What I will miss is John's being able to participate in our voting process. That's one good reason for being a member and paying dues.