- Joined
- May 12, 2010
- Messages
- 797
Hi. I'm Riley. My job is to keep track of our funds for our community, and to make sure they're put to good use. To do this, well, we need funds.
Each summer, around this time, we ask our members to give back to the community in the form of donations. We are one of the only Wheel of Time communities on the World Wide Web to completely, one hundred percent, member funded. If you look to the side of your screen, or at the top, or at the bottom, you'll see something pretty amazing. Or, actually, what you don't see is pretty amazing. What you don't see are ads. We don't sell ad space. We never have. We don't want to. If I have my way, we never will. We do not require a monthly/quarterly/yearly subscription. Again, if I have my way, we never will. Frankly I LOVE that we are a large enough community to make it onto the dust jackets of the books we love, and we are still, completely and utterly, member funded.
Think about the time you've spent here. Have you found a good friend? Someone you can tell anything to? Someone you know will support you through thick and thin? Let me ask you this... How much is that worth? For myself I know I've found some of the best friends I will ever have through this community. Others have found husbands, wives, soulmates. I feel like I've found brothers and sisters that I never even knew existed. Again, how much is that worth? A better question though.... is how much can you pay for that? And where would you go to do that?
To nuts and bolts.... where does your money go? It goes toward server space. The larger we get, the more we buy, and it is well worth it. Some of you may remember there towards the end of November things were happening slowly when our pages loaded. WE were too big for the bandwidth we had at that time. We paid to increase it, because making our member web experience as smoothe as possible is a priority. Along those lines some exciting changes are coming to TarValon.net. We are changing from a phbb run format to vBulletin. I'm not well versed in all the technical aspects, but I trust our tech people when they tell us it will be beneficial for us. Along with this, we will possibly be able to create and run a mobile site, for use with smartphones and other mobile devices, as well as our own ap to run it. How exciting is that? This is what your donations go towards.
In the past, when we wanted to have a real-life event, we had to figure our costs, and start taking payments before we could even book our venue. This lead to some... memorable... events. Like the Great Flood of Chicago. We no longer have to do that. We are able to put deposits on our venues up to a year in advance, to create events that are memorable not for the disasters, but for the things that make our community grow stronger. Your donations go towards this. I realize not all of you are able to attend events, but did you know that our ability to organize and implement events where our members get to see each other face to face is one of the defining characterisics of our community? One of the things that make us stand apart from the other communities? Even if I never went to events, I would be awfully proud of that.
Our goal for this year is $4000. This is roughly half of our operating expenses per year. Why only half? Because we do have other avenues of fundraising available to us. Now, I understand that there are those of us who really cannot afford much. That's okay. You don't have to give much. I promise you every dollar counts, and each dollar is appreciated as much as every other dollar.
Let's look at this from a couple of different angles: When I look at the boards, I see something like 140 active members. I know we have more than that that are lurkers, aren't really active, etc. If 200 of us gave $20 each.... we have our goal. $20 may be a good bit of change, but how much do you spend on other forms of entertainment? $5 cups of coffee from Starbucks can add up. Going to a movie in a theater these days can be more than $10 per person. Pay per view movies on cable are around $4. I would ask you to consider if you can give $20 for the time you get here, connecting with other fans of these great books, building friends, finding new family members. If you can't afford that... What can you afford? Again, what is it worth to you?
Enough begging for money. LEt me give you some information on how to go about doing it, if you would like to.
You can send payments online, through Paypal to:
payments@tarvalon.net
You can send checks or money orders through the mail to:
TarValon.net, Inc.
33 El Prado Dr
Edgewood, NM 87015
If you are not comfortable sending payments through the mail, or do not have access to paypal, we do have a few options available to you. Just contact me at shatayan@tarvalon.net, and I would be happy to discuss them with you.
Tree, our new Community Outreach director will be along shortly to share with you some of our incentives for this fundraiser. Some of them are going to be quite fun, I believe, and I think you'll enjoy them. We have some creative things going on.
For myself, I'm about to write my check for my donation, which I'll deposit tomorrow. Because I believe in putting my money where my mouth is.
Thank you for your time, and thank you now for your generosity.
Each summer, around this time, we ask our members to give back to the community in the form of donations. We are one of the only Wheel of Time communities on the World Wide Web to completely, one hundred percent, member funded. If you look to the side of your screen, or at the top, or at the bottom, you'll see something pretty amazing. Or, actually, what you don't see is pretty amazing. What you don't see are ads. We don't sell ad space. We never have. We don't want to. If I have my way, we never will. We do not require a monthly/quarterly/yearly subscription. Again, if I have my way, we never will. Frankly I LOVE that we are a large enough community to make it onto the dust jackets of the books we love, and we are still, completely and utterly, member funded.
Think about the time you've spent here. Have you found a good friend? Someone you can tell anything to? Someone you know will support you through thick and thin? Let me ask you this... How much is that worth? For myself I know I've found some of the best friends I will ever have through this community. Others have found husbands, wives, soulmates. I feel like I've found brothers and sisters that I never even knew existed. Again, how much is that worth? A better question though.... is how much can you pay for that? And where would you go to do that?
To nuts and bolts.... where does your money go? It goes toward server space. The larger we get, the more we buy, and it is well worth it. Some of you may remember there towards the end of November things were happening slowly when our pages loaded. WE were too big for the bandwidth we had at that time. We paid to increase it, because making our member web experience as smoothe as possible is a priority. Along those lines some exciting changes are coming to TarValon.net. We are changing from a phbb run format to vBulletin. I'm not well versed in all the technical aspects, but I trust our tech people when they tell us it will be beneficial for us. Along with this, we will possibly be able to create and run a mobile site, for use with smartphones and other mobile devices, as well as our own ap to run it. How exciting is that? This is what your donations go towards.
In the past, when we wanted to have a real-life event, we had to figure our costs, and start taking payments before we could even book our venue. This lead to some... memorable... events. Like the Great Flood of Chicago. We no longer have to do that. We are able to put deposits on our venues up to a year in advance, to create events that are memorable not for the disasters, but for the things that make our community grow stronger. Your donations go towards this. I realize not all of you are able to attend events, but did you know that our ability to organize and implement events where our members get to see each other face to face is one of the defining characterisics of our community? One of the things that make us stand apart from the other communities? Even if I never went to events, I would be awfully proud of that.
Our goal for this year is $4000. This is roughly half of our operating expenses per year. Why only half? Because we do have other avenues of fundraising available to us. Now, I understand that there are those of us who really cannot afford much. That's okay. You don't have to give much. I promise you every dollar counts, and each dollar is appreciated as much as every other dollar.
Let's look at this from a couple of different angles: When I look at the boards, I see something like 140 active members. I know we have more than that that are lurkers, aren't really active, etc. If 200 of us gave $20 each.... we have our goal. $20 may be a good bit of change, but how much do you spend on other forms of entertainment? $5 cups of coffee from Starbucks can add up. Going to a movie in a theater these days can be more than $10 per person. Pay per view movies on cable are around $4. I would ask you to consider if you can give $20 for the time you get here, connecting with other fans of these great books, building friends, finding new family members. If you can't afford that... What can you afford? Again, what is it worth to you?
Enough begging for money. LEt me give you some information on how to go about doing it, if you would like to.
You can send payments online, through Paypal to:
payments@tarvalon.net
You can send checks or money orders through the mail to:
TarValon.net, Inc.
33 El Prado Dr
Edgewood, NM 87015
If you are not comfortable sending payments through the mail, or do not have access to paypal, we do have a few options available to you. Just contact me at shatayan@tarvalon.net, and I would be happy to discuss them with you.
Tree, our new Community Outreach director will be along shortly to share with you some of our incentives for this fundraiser. Some of them are going to be quite fun, I believe, and I think you'll enjoy them. We have some creative things going on.
For myself, I'm about to write my check for my donation, which I'll deposit tomorrow. Because I believe in putting my money where my mouth is.
Thank you for your time, and thank you now for your generosity.
