Guys and Gals, It's time to get to work, time to donate!!

[John Bailey]

I've finished reading all the posts about the demise of HRO. There have been many good suggestions, many thoughtful, intellegent and creative ideas. This is no surprise, because that is how all the posts are on this forum. There is, of course, a simple solution. We all, me included, need to send some money. It's all well and good to talk about this solution and that solution. But, the bottom line is - we need to send some money. I hope I'm making this simple enough. We need to send some money. We don't really need to change ownership, or get a new server, or whatever. We need to send some money. I live in a community that is best described as a bunch of old hippies and old folkies (that's a wanna-be hippie who never quite made it). People here just simply help and do what's needed. If there is anyone in the "Creek" community that needs a little support it's HRO. We need to send some money.

It's Time to Get to Work!!

We can easily find out if this site can make it. I've just sent in a $10 donation. Everybody needs to do the same. We need to send some money. If 250 of us do that, we cover the costs for a month. (Hope I'm in the ballpark with that figure) If we don't, then I guess we don't get to keep our site. We need to send some money. I suggested something like this before, but I didn't follow through because I forgot. That, of course, is a pitiful excuse, but that's what it was. So, this time I'm going to make it my responsibility to send money again next month, but more importantly, remind you all that you should be doing it too.

When you make your donation, reply to this post so everybody will see that we are, or are not, getting the job done.

We need to send some money!!

Thanks to all those who take up this challenge. And remember, we need to send some money.

[Dennis Peacock]

John,

Are you wiring the money? Mailing the money? PayPal'ing the money? Since I just crawled out of bed....I can't seem to find my info for HRO. Just provide a means in which this can be done and I'm sure there will be some folks that will jump in.

[Bill Antonacchio]

Hi Dennis,

I think John is talking about clicking on the DONATE button up on the menu.

Regards,
Bill Antonacchio

[Randy Meijer]

Hi Dennis, I think John is talking about clicking on the DONATE button up on the menu.

Is that something new?? I never noticed that before!!

[John Bailey]

Way to go Ken,

Well, isn't this great, you guys make me feel like a cheapstake. As a relative beginner, I've gotten more out of this site than most. So, I just upped my donation to $25.

$100 down and $2,400 to go. Thanks to all!!

We Need to Send Some Money!!

John

[John Lucas]

Way to go Ken,

you guys make me feel like a cheapstake.

We Need to Send Some Money!!

John

John,
No one should be pressured and feel like a cheapskate. I know you were kidding but for the good of the cause, we should all feel good to donate whatever we can.
I'm in.

[Steve Ash]

Call me stupid, or old school...but is there a address that I can physically send a money order/cashiers check to instead of online?

[Karl Laustrup]

I'm in. May be the best $25.00 I'll ever spend.

And we need one of the MODS' to make this a "STICKY POST". Please.

Karl

[John Buzzurro]

I've only been using this forum for a short time, but I'd hate to see it go away. I kicked in $25 to help out.

[John Bailey]

Tim,

I've sent PayPal to an address in the past. It's easier if the "Creek" had a PayPal account, but that would take time and I'm not sure if it can be done. In the meantime, we should try to send something quickly. I'm looking for an address now, possibly someone knows the Sawmill address so those who would like can send snail-mail or PayPal.

John,

I know, and of course I was only kidding. But, at least you corrected my spelling of "Cheapskate."

Steve,

I'm looking for an address as I type. Hopefully someone knows and will post quicker than it will take me to find it.

Thanks again to all,

John

[John Bailey]

Karl and John,

Good show guys!!

$150 down, $2,350 to go.

We Need to Send Some Money!!

John

[Randy Meijer]

"Guys and Gals, It's time to get to work!!"


Well maybe and maybe not?? I don't want to throw a wet blanket on this party; but it seems to me that we may be getting the cart before the horse if you get my drift. I think it might be prudent to wait for a request from Keith for donations before we all go firing off checks in the mail. Certainly it is a wonderful sentiment and surely appreciated; but we may be potentially causing Keith more trouble than help. Supposing there are considerations that the general membership are not aware of and Keith has already decided that it is in the best interests of all involved to change the ownership at SMC. Under that scenario, conceivably, he would feel obligated to return all unsolicited donations and we, with the best of intent, would be doing nothing more than saddling him with the distasteful task of returning all of those donations. It does not appear to me the situation is that critical that we can't wait a day or two with our donations to confirm with Keith that he wishes to attempt a volunteer effort to raise the funds necessary to keep SMC operational under the current structure?

Having said that, I did a few calculations which may or may not be of any consequence. There are 176 pages in the membership directory with 30 members on each page which works out to 5280 ft per mile....no no...total members. In an earlier post, Keith stated that it would take $5 from each member(?) to resolve the financial problem. I have no idea whether he was talking about total members or active members or the top 1,000 members?? Let's take a worst-case figure and say he needs 5 bucks from everyone on the list. That would project to the neighborhood of $26,400 per year or $2200 per month(a hair less than what John figured)!!!! WOW !!!
Big bucks, folks.......

OK, we all know that everyone of those 5,280 "members" is not going to send money. A big chunk of that number...probably more than half....are folks who signed up, gave SMC a look for a week, posted once or twice and then never came back again. Just to get a number to work with, I arbitrarily picked folks with 10 or most posts as active members who might be likely to send some money and it turned out to be a nice round number....1500 members. Now, of that group, some are no longer with SMC and some will not be able to donate. Again in a totally arbitrary fashion(but with an eye to making the math easy) I assumed that 66% would contribute(probably a high estimate) which works out to 1000 members. From there it is easy to see that we would need $26 from each of those members....or maybe more.....to keep SMC alive and kicking for a year. That is a pretty daunting task in the current economic environment and may not be realistically attainable?? I don't know??

I want to reiterate that it is not my desire to cast a cloud over this effort. It is a commendable one in intent and spirit!! My only suggestion is that we hold off for a short time until we get directions from Keith on how he would like to proceed.

[Bob Noles]

"Guys and Gals, It's time to get to work!!"


Well maybe and maybe not?? I don't want to throw a wet blanket on this party; but it seems to me that we may be getting the cart before the horse if you get my drift. I think it might be prudent to wait for a request from Keith for donations before we all go firing off checks in the mail. Certainly it is a wonderful sentiment and surely appreciated; but we may be potentially causing Keith more trouble than help. Supposing there are considerations that the general membership are not aware of and Keith has already decided that it is in the best interests of all involved to change the ownership at SMC. Under that scenario, conceivably, he would feel obligated to return all unsolicited donations and we, with the best of intent, would be doing nothing more than saddling him with the distasteful task of returning all of those donations. It does not appear to me the situation is that critical that we can't wait a day or two with our donations to confirm with Keith that he wishes to attempt a volunteer effort to raise the funds necessary to keep SMC operational under the current structure?

Having said that, I did a few calculations which may or may not be of any consequence. There are 176 pages in the membership directory with 30 members on each page which works out to 5280 ft per mile....no no...total members. In an earlier post, Keith stated that it would take $5 from each member(?) to resolve the financial problem. I have no idea whether he was talking about total members or active members or the top 1,000 members?? Let's take a worst-case figure and say he needs 5 bucks from everyone on the list. That would project to the neighborhood of $26,400 per year or $2200 per month(a hair less than what John figured)!!!! WOW !!!
Big bucks, folks.......

OK, we all know that everyone of those 5,280 "members" is not going to send money. A big chunk of that number...probably more than half....are folks who signed up, gave SMC a look for a week, posted once or twice and then never came back again. Just to get a number to work with, I arbitrarily picked folks with 10 or most posts as active members who might be likely to send some money and it turned out to be a nice round number....1500 members. Now, of that group, some are no longer with SMC and some will not be able to donate. Again in a totally arbitrary fashion(but with an eye to making the math easy) I assumed that 66% would contribute(probably a high estimate) which works out to 1000 members. From there it is easy to see that we would need $26 from each of those members....or maybe more.....to keep SMC alive and kicking for a year. That is a pretty daunting task in the current economic environment and may not be realistically attainable?? I don't know??

I want to reiterate that it is not my desire to cast a cloud over this effort. It is a commendable one in intent and spirit!! My only suggestion is that we hold off for a short time until we get directions from Keith on how he would like to proceed.

Randy,

Thanks for your post as my thinking was much along this same line.

I am happy to contribute as I enjoy this forum as much as anyone here and want very much to see a continuation, but we need to think long term and not just buying a few days. And as you said, we need to await Keith's input and wishes. There is one more thing I would like to inject being a Public Accountant and that is the income tax consequences from these "donations". This could cause an income tax liability that would have to be paid by Keith and Jackie and these deductions are not tax deductable to the giver, not that it matters in my case as I would be more than willing to forego that aspect as would most everyone here.

Let's just slow down and finish thinking this thru with our leadership before we jump and make mistakes.

Don't want to rain on anyone's parade, just rather be cautious and not make a mess for someone else to have to clean up. Intentions are good from all here and many want to help, including myself, but advise caution in how we approach this. Let's respect the house we are visiting and wait for the hosts to speak.

[Mike Forsman]

So, Saturday, I head out of town for work, on a long sequence of plane flights, get to my destination after 34 hours of travel time, work all Monday afternoon local time, only to find out that SMC might close. I thought it must be some type of sleep deprived nightmare. I pinch myself and I'm not dreaming. I may not do many posts, but I learn more from SMC than all of my WW magazines put together. Call me sleep deprived and jet lagged but I just couldn't follow the directions to limit my donation to $5.00. Another $25.00 towards any operating expense required to keep SMC up and running.

Keith, Jackie, Aaron, and all of the moderators, thanks for making SMC the place to be for really great information on WW.

[Loy Hawes]

Donated a little cash earlier. How about some artwork?