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I felt as a spending of a LARGE amount of our cash reserves, it should be something the general membership had the ability to comment about...there wasn't all that much argument about if we SHOULD do it, just that as a coop, we need to report back to membership of what we are doing with the $. Reid On Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 3:31 PM, Richard Laager <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > On 02/05/2018 11:08 AM, DeLong, Owen wrote: > > I think we’re mostly on the same page. > > I think so too. > > Bringing this to the members for input may have given the impression > that a problem-needing-solving exists and the board was asking for > suggestions on solutions. To be clear, I don't think there's a problem > here. I think this is a no-brainer. > > In terms of the function should_we_buy_3_years(...), the members are > being given an opportunity to suggest the algorithm inside the function > or at least its parameters, not to execute the function and provide the > boolean return value. > > Here's my thinking: > > I don't see us needing to buy a new switch this year or next > year, so this decision doesn't affect that either way. > > We will probably need to add a line card eventually. That is hopefully a > 100G line card, to avoid filling the chassis with another 10G line card. > At a quick glance, the 10G has ~35 ports available and the 100G has ~30 > ports available. Upgrades to 100G will free up 10G ports. We can also > use breakouts to get more 10G ports out of 100G ports if absolutely > necessary. It looks to me like we should be okay on this front. In the > unlikely event we are not, we will end the year with enough cash to buy > another line card anyway, and if we fill up on ports, that means we also > brought in a bunch of additional money in port fees. > > Our only large recurring expense is this contract. The minimum cash > balance with this plan is more than 10x other expenses and 5-10x the > minimum cash balance of last year. That seems fine, and is only > temporary until all port fees are paid, at which point it is even higher. > > One of the Juniper switches or modules dying is a risk, but those are > significantly cheaper. We also already have two switches, and all the > participants fit on one, except for the 4 fiber, who could be moved to > the Arista in a pinch. > > The interest we'd earn on the cash is zero or nearly zero, so it takes > very little extra discount on 3-years to be acceptable on that basis. > > The ratio between the 1 and 3 year options is in line with what I'd > expect from my previous purchases of support contracts from various > vendors. It is in line with a suggested ratio I was provided off-list by > another member. > > Do you see any flaws in the above or have any additional factors I've > missed? > > -- > Richard > > -- Reid Fishler Director Hurricane Electric +1-510-580-4178