Cyberspace Communications finances for December 2003

Jan 1 16:21 UTC 2004

Here is the treasurer's report on Cyberspace Communications, Inc. finances 
through December 31st, 2003.

Beginning Balance     $4,041.40

Credits                 $651.00         Member contributions
                         $17.00         Miscellaneous donations
                        $140.00         Donation to pay for speakerphone
                          $1.68         Interest on our savings account
                   ------------
                        $809.68

Debits                   $80.41         Pumpkin Rent for January
                         $45.97         Electricity for December
                          $0.00         Phone Bill (see below)
                        $135.00         DSL December 15 through January 15
                         $10.22         Paypal fees (income = $270)
                         $22.83         Winter Personal Property Taxes
                        $140.00         Speakerphone (see below)
                   ------------
                        $434.43

Ending Balance        $4,416.65

Our current balance breaks down as follows:

$4,170.11               General Fund
  $163.99               Silly Hat Fund
   $60.00               Spare Parts Fund
   $22.55               Infrastructure Fund

The money is distributed like this:

$1,046.40   Checking account
$3,370.25   Savings account earning 0.65% interest annually

We had two new members (kd3hw and garrigan) and one returning member 
(fhoda) in December.  We are currently at 84 members, 81 of whom are 
paid through at least January 15th.  (The others expired recently and 
are in a grace period.)

Notes:

- It was a good month for Grex!

- This month's phone charges totalled $90.83.  But we received a 
refund for the $168 in installation charges we paid to SBC last month, 
which covered the bill and left us with a credit of $77.17.  So next 
month's bill will only be about $13.

- Because we have a board member who will be connecting to meetings 
by phone next year, mary bought us a speakerphone for $140.  We tried 
it out at the last meeting and it worked great.  After a little bit of 
discussion of whether we should return it and maybe try to find a 
cheaper one, mdw offered to donate $140 to pay for the phone just so 
we would all shut up and move on.  His generous offer was accepted. :)

- Grex pays personal property taxes to the City of Ann Arbor on the 
equipment it owns.  The payments are divided into winter and summer 
taxes, with the winter ones being about half the size of the summer 
ones.

Thanks to everyone who contributed in December:

arabella, dang, dpc, fhoda, garrigan, jep, kd3hw, mdw, mooncat, other, 
russ, siamiam, tod, wlevak, and two people of whose logins I am 
unsure.

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 62:

Jan 1 18:02 UTC 2004

Whoops, I realized I forgot something.  One $12 check which I deposited in
November bounced.  So there should be an additional $12 debit for the check
and a $5 penalty.  The person who bounced the check has promised to replace
it and to pay the fee.

So subtract $17 from our balance.  I've corrected the copy of the report in
~aruba/reports/0312.txt .

response 4 of 62:

Jan 1 20:39 UTC 2004

Grex lost nearly a thousand dollars over 2003!

response 6 of 62:

Jan 1 23:03 UTC 2004

re 2 Isn't it the person that issues the bounced cheque supposed to pay the
penalty, and not the depositer?

response 8 of 62:

Jan 1 23:40 UTC 2004

Does grex now have to pay personal property tax on the new phone?

response 10 of 62:

Jan 2 22:34 UTC 2004

Perhaps Marcus could own the phone and lend it to grex once a month?

response 12 of 62:

Jan 3 16:23 UTC 2004

I don't see how Grex owning the phone solves anything.  If Grex owns
it and an officer keeps it, and the officer can't make it to a meeting
for some reason, you've got the same problem.

response 14 of 62:

Jan 4 00:54 UTC 2004

That might present problems for the local dialins. ;>

response 16 of 62:

Jan 7 05:10 UTC 2004

I thought that newer computers were supposed to use less electricity.

response 18 of 62:

Jan 7 13:31 UTC 2004

It's just that much more powerful.

response 20 of 62:

Jan 7 14:11 UTC 2004

(Thanks, Carson.  Mark said we should say it, but didn't say it ...)

response 22 of 62:

Jan 7 18:37 UTC 2004

I wonder why the power drain is so much larger for the new machine than
for the Sun?