% This file should talk about the financial aspects of SIPB.  This
% should include our various budgets, and how much has been spent in
% each year.  Significant capital outlays should be discussed, as well
% as numbers such as COOP.  Computer funding, etc.  Some of this stuff
% might be hard to gather.
\section{Finances}

During the early part of the reporting period, SIPB was assigned a
budget split into three categories: operating expenses, capital
expenditures, and telecommunications costs. The budget was assigned on
a fiscal-year basis, ending on June 30 of each year. Operating
expenses included costs for use of computers maintained by MIT's
Information Processing Systems (IPS), and were always the largest
component of this budget.

Approximate annual spending totals on computer time during the first
few years were as follows: 

\vbox{\leavevmode\hss
\halign{#\ &\ \hfil#\cr
1983 & \$170,000\cr
1984 & \$260,000\cr
1985 & \$340,000\cr
1986 & \$88,000\cr
1987 & \$100,000\cr
1988 & \$20,000\cr}\hss}

Much less has been spent in subsequent years. The sudden
dropoff in spending in 1986 was caused by the availability of no-cost
Project Athena accounts to undergraduate students, ending the role of
Multics as the primary student-computing platform.

In the years from 1982 to 1987, SIPB's largest expenditure was always
for Multics usage. For example, over \$30,000 was spent on Multics
during February 1985. There was other computer-use spending during
this time, particularly for VM/CMS and VMS (JCF) accounts.

Users logged into Multics on terminals, located either in computer
rooms on campus, or at MIT living groups. In the latter case, the
login involved a dialup connection. SIPB spent significant amounts of
money (around \$10,000 a year) on the hardware (e.g., terminals and
modems) to support this computing infrastructure. SIPB also provided a
printing facility for its user community, leading to expenses for
printer purchases, as well as continuing costs for paper
and other supplies. Finally, maintenance of some of this hardware was
done by SIPB members, leading to costs for a SIPB toolbox and various
small hardware items. Later, SIPB obtained service contracts from
Digital Equipment Corporation on the terminals that had been
purchased, adding additional periodic costs.

There were also ongoing costs for user documentation.  The SIPB paid
the duplication costs for thousands of copies of the Multics NETs and
NUMs documents. A set of notes on the Lisp programming language was
also developed by the SIPB; it proved extremely popular even outside MIT.
Some later publications for Multics users described how to print using
each of the available printers.

The SIPB also bought documentation for use in its office, e.g., the
official Multics manuals published by Honeywell. The SIPB subscribed to a
few popular computer-oriented magazines.  Over this period we
occassionally bought standard reference books for the office library,
covering topics such as PostScript, \TeX, \LaTeX, C, and Fortran.

A VT-240A terminal for the SIPB office was purchased in April 1984,
for \$1600. In February 1985, the SIPB purchased its first Macintosh. In
the summer of that year, a second personal computer, an IBM portable
priced at \$1500 was bought for the office. In October 1985, \$4000 was
spent on modems to provide dialup access to Athena timesharing systems.

An Apple LaserWriter printer was purchased in February 1986, for
\$4900. Significant continuing costs for toner cartridges began at
this point. Also in 1986, the SIPB began developing and photocopying
publications oriented toward the growing UNIX user community at MIT,
beginning with an ``Inessential Guide to Project Athena''.

A Macintosh II system was purchased by the SIPB in March 1987, for \$6800.
In December 1987, some software-development tools for this machine
were purchased. A network-interface card was added in February 1988.

A NeXT workstation was bought by the SIPB in January 1989. About this
time, plans for moving the SIPB office to W20 (the Student Center)
were being finalized. Spending of \$35,300 for renovations to SIPB's
new office space was approved in April 1989.

A refrigerator for the new SIPB office was bought in June 1989, for
\$480. This is used to hold soft drinks, and occasionally
food, for consumption by SIPB members. Also, chairs and other
furnishings were purchased at about this time.

The SIPB bought a mathematical software package, {\it SuperMongo}
({\it sm}), at a cost of \$600 for an MIT-wide site license, in June
1990. In October 1990, an Amiga computer that had previously been
owned by a Board member was purchased by SIPB for \$450. Also during
this month, a commercial Usenet feed was purchased from Clarinet
Communications, for about \$3000. This was an annual subscription
cost, and was renewed a year later.

In February 1991, SIPB purchased a substantial hardware and software
upgrade for its NeXT workstation at a cost of \$2000. Also, in March
1991, the Macintosh II was upgraded by the addition of a \$450
high-density floppy drive. In the summer of 1991, a new
air-conditioning system was installed in the SIPB office, at a cost of
about \$9000.

In December 1991, a 1.2 Gb disk for SIPB's new news server
(Bloom-Picayune) was purchased for approximately \$2000. The memory in
this server was then upgraded by 8 Mb, at a cost of \$600. An Ethernet
card for SIPB's IBM PS/2 workstation was obtained in January 1992 for
\$280. A 300 Mb disk for the NeXT workstation, to replace a failed
disk, was purchased in February 1992, for \$1600.