[HCoop-Discuss] Budget Issues, Membership Meeting, and Overhauling HCoop

[Steve Taylor]

Can the poll give an accurate picture of financial commitment each
member is willing to make without mentioning how pledge levels and
deposits would be affected?

Clinton Ebadi <clinton at unknownlamer.org> writes:

> Greetings,
>
> As the result of the last few general member meetings on IRC, plans
> have been drawn up to perform a hardware upgrade and to adjust our
> dues structure to return to financial stability. A number of important
> events are occurring within the next week:
>
>  * A poll has been opened at
>    <https://members.hcoop.net/portal/poll?id=28> asking members for
>    input on potential dues adjustment plans
>  * A general membership meeting has been scheduled for October 18 at
>    18:00 UTC
>  * A board meeting and vote on service upgrade related matters will be
>    scheduled shortly thereafter
>
> What follows are brief summaries of the major topics to be
> discussed. This message has also been CCed to hcoop-discuss for
> discussion.
>
> * Datacenter Move and Hardware Upgrade
>
> A wiki page has been created at <http://wiki.hcoop.net/Migration2009>
> with semi-finalized plans for a datacenter move and hardware
> upgrade. This should allow us to:
>
>  * Increase reliability
>  * Decrease costs in the long term (12-18 months)
>  * Increase capacity allowing expansion
>
> More details are available on the wiki page. We are also open to
> remaining at Peer1 with a modest hardware upgrade to increase
> capacity.
>
> * Dues Restructuring
>
> Presently our monthly costs are $6.06 per pledge [0] as of the October
> Peer1 billing cycle. With dues fixed at $5/month/pledge this is
> causing us to run an appreciable monthly deficit.
>
> The board is proposing that we alter dues to reflect actual costs by
> fixing them to a function of our monthly recurring costs:
>
>  * Dues would be adjusted quarterly
>  * Dues would be set at (recurring costs) / (number of members)
>  * The board would be authorized to add up to $3/month for a
>    non-recurring costs fund (with excess funds above a certain amount
>    disbursed to members at the end of the fiscal year).
>
> Tentatively dues would be set at $7 for the December dues cycle unless
> there is major opposition.
>
> Switching to this model would have several advantages:
>
>  * Dues would reflect actual costs, but remain stable most of the time
>    preventing the issues with varying dues each month that we had
>    before the fixed dues system was enacted
>  * We would avoid running a deficit again
>  * We would have funds for regular hardware upgrades and emergency
>    replacements for failed hardware
>  * With enough members (e.g. 300) dues could even end up lower than $5/month
>
> There are, naturally, a few potential disadvantages, and so we require
> member input in order to make a properly balanced decision.
>
> A poll has been set up at [1] asking the maximum amount each member is
> willing to spend on HCoop per month. It will be open from October 13th
> through October 19th; please take the time to respond and to discuss
> your opinion on hcoop-discuss.
>
> A wiki page has been created with budget projections and more
> information at <http://wiki.hcoop.net/DuesRestructuring>.
>
> [0] http://wiki.hcoop.net/HcoopBudget
> [1] https://members.hcoop.net/portal/poll?id=28
>
> _______________________________________________
> HCoop-Discuss mailing list
> HCoop-Discuss at lists.hcoop.net
> https://lists.hcoop.net/listinfo/hcoop-discuss

-- 
Steve, staylor at ncf.ca, 736-1653/cell 620-7286