[theforum] Bits from the Finance Front

Jon Molesa rjmolesa at consoltec.net
Mon Jan 5 23:15:43 CST 2009


I'm sorry to hear it.  I'm still available and willing to help with
server/database/code related tasks.  I'm specifically interested in
helping with the migration.

*On Mon, Jan 05, 2009 at 11:53:00PM -0500 David Kaufman <david at gigawatt.com> wrote:

> Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2009 23:53:00 -0500
> From: David Kaufman <david at gigawatt.com>
> Subject: [theforum] Bits from the Finance Front
> To: theforum <theforum at lists.evolt.org>,
> 	sysadmin <sysadmin at lists.evolt.org>,
> 	finance <finance at lists.evolt.org>
> X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.3264
> 
> As of today, after this month's hosting bill from The Planet ($113.84 for 
> both the old server and the new one) was drafted from the checking account, 
> the account no longer has sufficient funds to cover next month's hosting, 
> and evolt will have to begin transferring money from PayPal to cover its 
> hosting fees.
> 
> This sounds worse than it is -- For the whole time (going on 5 years?) that 
> I've been treasurer the checking account has always had a relatively low 
> balance (a couple hundred dollars) while the PayPal has always had one to 
> two thousand dollars in it.
> 
> So the end is *not* near -- we could do that, as previously noted, for a 
> couple years if need be -- but the tide has certainly turned.  Since I 
> became treasurer, evolt has never needed to take "donation money" out of 
> the PayPal account to pay recurring expenses.  It's been done just once 
> iirc, for the initial $300+ of setup fees when we first moved to the 
> Planet.  The PayPal account, to me, has always been evolt's nest egg. 
> First Cafepress, and then Google AdSense, have always wired funds directly 
> into the checking account, and there has always been just about the right 
> amount of revenue to pay ongoing expenses.  And so the checking account has 
> always had a couple hundred bucks in it -- never much more, and never much 
> less.
> 
> Having to make this transfer also feels bad to me, because it's like 
> crossing a line, like spending other people's money.  The Cafepress account 
> and the Google AdSense account were setup on my watch, as was the IRS 
> taxpayer ID and then, with it, the checking account.  As a result I feel 
> comfortable managing these accounts.  But the PayPal nest-egg was handed 
> over to me, in an act of trust.  It was not *earned* by the sales and 
> advertising revenue streams I helped to create -- it contains the 
> hard-earned cash money donated by the members of our community, most of 
> whom donated it during a donation drive whose purpose was to prevent 
> evolt's imminent demise, and many of whom still continue to contribute, 
> some even doing so with a monthly automated payment.  And so I find myself 
> reluctant to spend a dime of that, if it can be avoided.
> 
> So, anyway.  Emotional milestones aside...
> 
> We do need to complete our server migration in as few more billing months 
> as possible, so we can decommission the old trusty tempest server, and cut 
> our burn rate by 60 percent:
> 
>  1. tempest/old/production ......... $69.00
>  2. tron/new/development ........... $44.84
>  ------------------------------------------
>  Currently unsustainable Burn Rate: $113.84
> 
> My hope is that reducing this bill to under $45 a month, plus maybe making 
> just a one-time "stimulus" transfer (or "bailout" or "rescue", whichever 
> euphemism you prefer) of a couple hundred dollars from PayPal to Checking 
> will get us over this migration hump, without evolt having to start dipping 
> into it's nest egg a little bit each month, just to make the rent.
> 
> thanks!
> 
> -dave
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> --
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> 
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-- 
Jon Molesa
GPG ID: DAA35239
Owner - Consoltec
rjmolesa at consoltec.net
http://www.consoltec.net


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