[committee] Proposal for spending money

[Andrew Adamson]

Hi Felix,

Given the club has over $8k in the bank at the moment, I'm unsure why you 
are first looking to the term deposit? FYI, we used to regularly run under 
$1000 and didn't have any issues with coming up with funds when things 
needed replacing in a hurry. Everything you have listed below could easily 
come out of current funds, and still leave us heaps for other new gear.

In direct reponse to your other items: 

1. The biggest problem I see with tech talks is actually a lack of 
presenters/content, and people willing to run them, since most of us don't 
come back to present a second time. I was personally put off after the 
presentation I did, due to the lack of attendance from those who said they 
were coming. I consider this to be due to a lack of buy-in from those 
attending - if it costs them nothing then they have lost nothing by 
skipping it at the last minute. I hope committee will consider a 
low-priced, refundable-at-the-door ticketing system to encourage genuine 
attendance. Further, I find it a little odd that you are considering 
blowing $1000 on food, but nothing on recognising the effort that speakers 
go to in preparation and presenting, and I hope committee will consider an 
honorarium type setup for tech talk speakers.

2. I haven't looked at a power supply yet, but my golden option for a 
scope would be 
https://www.tequipment.net/Rigol/DS4014E/Digital-Oscilloscopes/ because it 
can be upgraded to a 500MHz scope with a key (makes the scope worth around 
$10000). I realise that this is probably out of the budget, so my 
second-best option is 
https://www.tequipment.net/Rigol/DS1054Z/Digital-Oscilloscopes/ but it is 
only hackable up to 100MHz. Could instead go for the kit which has a power 
supply and desoldering gear as well: 
https://www.tequipment.net/Rigol/DS1054Z-Kit4/Digital-Oscilloscopes/ . 
Don't forget to add around $300 for a foam lined pelican case, and keep in 
mind that the last scope lasted 20 years when making your model decision. 
This can all be done via input from the mailing lists, and I don't see why 
committee needs to wait for an AGM.

3. 100% agree it's time to replace the couches and (sigh) maybe the coffee 
table could look a little better than a retired tav table-top. You cannot 
get the durability that UCC needs by buying new - we've tried this in the 
past, done the hard yards looking around at all furniture places for 
decent stuff (it took us 2 days), and ended up buying second-hand because 
we don't want to pay $5000 for a couch. Lightweight couches don't last 
long in ucc because the arms or backs snap, or the material tears because 
it is not properly backed with padding and wood. There is actually some 
very good stuff going second hand - keep an eye on gumtree and FB 
marketplace, the last set cost us $400. I highly recommend micro-suede.
 
Andrew Adamson 
bob at ucc.asn.au

|"If you can't beat them, join them, and then beat them."                |
| ---Peter's Laws                                                        |

On Sat, 23 Feb 2019, Felix von Perger wrote:

> Hi committee,
> 
> Since there's a general meeting coming up and we have lots of money to 
> spend, I have a few hopefully not too crazy ideas for how we could spend 
> some of it:
> 
> 1. Considering we are trying to run more tech events and such, I believe 
> that it would be good to consider using some of our funds towards 
> achieving this goal. My suggestion is to table a resolution at the AGM 
> to budget something on the order of $1000 from our term deposit (see the 
> Investments Policy at 
> https://www.ucc.asn.au/infobase/policies/appendix.ucc) for the purpose 
> of providing (or subsidising) food and drinks for tech talks, to be used 
> entirely over the next 9 months.
> 
> 2. New equipment - we have been discussing purchasing a new oscilloscope 
> and a benchtop power supply for some time now. Given these are expensive 
> I would go so far as to suggest we bring it up at the AGM such that we 
> have a clear mandate (and motivation) to purchase them, and so we can 
> use the term deposit money for this purpose instead of the club's 
> regular spending money (which can then instead be put towards upgrades 
> and maintenance). Hence another resolution (or two) to reserve up to 
> $2000 total to purchase an oscilloscope and power supply.
> 
> 3. New furniture - regarding clubroom renovations, there is a 
> possibility that something might happen eventually, but as it is we 
> could start by upgrading some of furniture such that we will not have to 
> purchase it later (and we get to replace some of our older furniture 
> with nice things). Pending further investigation and exact pricing, I'd 
> suggest we at least bring it up at the AGM to gauge interest and don't 
> bother with a resolution to use the term deposits.
> 
> Naturally there may be some money left over from purchasing specific 
> items, I would suggest wording the resolution such that whatever is left 
> over will be returned to the term deposits.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Felix [FVP]
> The President
> 
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