Saving geocachingmaine.org

[squirrelcache]

Based on my limited experience w/other organizations, I don't believe the donation basis will work well. Perhaps a minimum fee to be a member, one that might be affordable to the majority. And the possibility for members to make a donation above and beyond that, so we can hit the mark? Possibly Post a graphical reminder on the home page so we know how much more needs to be raised? Perhaps someone could put out a suggested/mandatory poll for current members, to see who would be willing to pay and how much as the minimum?

[d’76]

Based on my limited experience w/other organizations, I don't believe the donation basis will work well. Perhaps a minimum fee to be a member, one that might be affordable to the majority. And the possibility for members to make a donation above and beyond that, so we can hit the mark? Possibly Post a graphical reminder on the home page so we know how much more needs to be raised? Perhaps someone could put out a suggested/mandatory poll for current members, to see who would be willing to pay and how much as the minimum?

As far as i know the donation has been working. I would like to think that if RIck needs more money for the website he will ask. We are all a big family here and Rick knows we will support what ever (within reason) that he ask.

So.... I guess we should ask Rick, Do we need more money?

[Opalsns]

Maybe everyone that isn't a donating member, should be. Then see where it stands.
Opalsns

[Haffy]

It has been my impression that there hasn't been enough money donated in the past to keep the website going and Rick has been footing the bill so to speak. (I'm guilty as well for not donating recently but I will soon, I promise) I know in past events that have been held, an ammo can was put out for members to donate and support the website. But those have been far and few in between from my recollection. Remember I'm not around there anymore so really don't know what has been happening in that regard but it's just a suggestion for future events. For some reason and I know Rick will step in and hopefully give his input on this,was that he didn't think it was necessary for membership dues so to speak but maybe the time has come? In the past it has only been about 20 or so members who have donated so maybe it is time. Even though I am down here in SC I still consider this my 2nd home. Ok ,back to mowing the lawn.....

[Opalsns]

What I don't understand is if people aren't willing to donate , why would they be willing to pay a membership ???????????
If they are willing to pay a membership, why don't they just donate ??????????
If membership dues are iniciated, will that mean all the people that don't donate now will leave ???? Or will they pay the membership ??? If they'd pay for a membership, why not just donate $ 5.00 now ?????
And what about all the GUESTS that are allowed to view this website??? Everday , on the bottom of the page it shows members that are on the website and guests viewing. If nobody joins with a membership, they can still be a viewing guest ???????
Am I making any sense at all ????
Opalsns

[Medawisla]

Thanks for posting the thread! I meant to get one posted when the Newsletter came out.

Some of you, but maybe not Dave, have noticed the Newsletter feature this month is about the lack of funding for GeocachingMaine.org. Check it out in the Newsletter Thread if you didn't get it by email.

GeocachingMaine.org is in need of a lot more funding than it has been receiving. The Newsletter explains how the website has been able to run up to this point, and how we need to get on our own two feet. Please read the article, it'll answer a lot of questions!

Ideas, like mandatory membership fees, are what we need if donations don't increase a lot. Is the idea of mandatory fees the best idea? I think we can come up with some more creative, inclusive, and bonding ideas. Please post any and all ideas that have crossed your mind. I hope we'll all be respectful of ideas and see them just as ideas as we brainstorm a way to maintain our great online community here. But feedback on ideas are just as important as the ideas themselves, just try to be respectful.

Thanks Opalsns for your feedback! I see your logic. I know that this online community was started with the intent to be as inclusive and supportive as possible of all geocachers, so I too hope that we can find an idea for raising funds that would be in line with that goal.

How do people feel about donation cans at events? I get the impression that some people feel it turns off attendees...

Again ideas and comments are welcome! We really need to come together to solve this issue! Thank you!

(And I'll be adding myself as a donating member at the end of the month...Hannaford credit card issues and bills have postponed my donating this month...)

[Hiram357]

how bout upping the price of the geocoin a few dollars and those few dollars from every coin will go to the site?

[Haffy]

how bout upping the price of the geocoin a few dollars and those few dollars from every coin will go to the site?

Great idea!!! An extra .50 on each coin and with the sale of 2000 coins we are back in the game again.... Remember the 1st coin, we sold over 2000 coins so who knows how many we can sell this time around. Although I think the newness is wearing off some with geocoins and unless it is truely unique and with a good price like we had on the 1st coin I doubt that we can sell over 2000 coins,but what do I know?

[attroll]

how bout upping the price of the geocoin a few dollars and those few dollars from every coin will go to the site?

Arron I brought that up once before and got shot down. Like it was a sin to even mantion it. I can nto remember if it was here or with the board members. I had sugested adding $1 to the price of each coin. It would not have come close to what I would like to have seen but it would have been a good start.

Let me also make it perfectly clear that I will keep our web site hosted on this server even if we receive no donations until it becomes a problem with my administrators from my other web site start complaining (which they have not yet) or until we start using to much bandwidth where we will have to start doing something drastic. I was just trying to see if we could find a way to bring in some money to help show the administrators from my other site that we are not freeloading. The $100 is not going to cover it if they were to ever realize that we are only contributing $100 a year to host on the server. They do not do the books and that is why they have not realized it. If they were ever to ask to see the books from me and saw that then I am sure one of them would say something.

I did not want to bring this up and have been tap dancing around trying to avoid getting involved with this topic. I was afraid that people would think I was trying to make money off our web site, which is not the case at all. I talked to Stef and had her try to mention it in the newsletter that we have been floating along for almost nothing for too long. As I have said in the past we are being hosted on my larger web site (www.whiteblaze.net). We have been using their bandwidth for free.

Let me explain the situation once more as I have in the past. We are using some of the space from my other web site which was not a problem in the past and still is not a problem yet. (I deleted a whole lot that I wrote because I started rambling on, LOL).

The point is this. We are using bandwidth from my other site for literally free. The amount of donations we received in the past up until now has been is as follows:

We had 27 donating members. Over the last year we have received $210 and this includes the $55 in a raffle that Brdad had to help out the web site.

Now let me talk about software cost to run the web site. These are just the things I can think off of the top of my head. There is more that I can not recall right now.
Forum software renewal is = $35
Gallery software renewal = $30
Article software renewal = $20
Links software renewal = $15
Domain name renewal = $10
Total = $110

To host a web site of this magnitude and with the expenses above it would be over and I am guessing at this without doing any research but my guess would be for what we have to be at least $750 to $1,000 per year to run the site.

[Mainiac1957]

Folks need to put a few dollars in if they want to use it. I have come here since the beginning in 2004. I have donated every year. I would start with if you want forum access at all then you must be a donating member. Now maybe a one week trial would be nice. After that then it should be put up or shut up. This website has a lot to offer, and free is great, but everything comes with a price. Adding money on the coin is nice, but offers no guarantee. As the old American Express commercial said, "Membership has it's privileges".