Lansing Heritage Pledge Drive

[Don McRitchie]

As I write, the total raised to date during this Pledge Drive is $1905 that has been made through 40 individual donations. To everyone that has participated, you have my sincere gratitude. This eliminates the accumulated debt for the site of $1827 and provides working funds for upcoming expenditures.

By now, I had hoped to have contacted each contributor individually to express my thanks. Unfortunately, a work situation has arisen suddenly that is taking me out of town for the next week (I have a plane to catch in 3 hours). Preparation for this event pretty much used up all of my spare time this past week. As soon as I return, I will followup with all that have participated.

Again my thanks.

[4313B]

Wow! Only 40 people donated? I'm stunned. I figured that absolute worst case maybe only 25% of the member list would donate. That would have worked out to roughly $25 each. Instead it appears we have roughly 88% dead weight. What a shame. I'm quite disappointed. I know several people made substantial contributions.

Thank you very much to those who contributed.
I'm glad you've found this excellent site worthwhile.

[Alex Lancaster]

To the 88%: $5 is nothing, compared to what You get; Also, I know some of the big contributors, post the good threads.

Alex.

[luxmanlover]

Hopefully donations will continue to come in. Even thought enough cash was raised to eliminate current debt, "upcoming expenditures" will continue.
Kelly

[Robh3606]

'Wow! Only 40 people donated? I'm stunned."

Hello Giskard

Well when you look at the membership list and see how many are 10 or less posts I am not to surprised. The important thing is the "core" of the site is sound and we were able to pull it together to help when it was needed. With any luck the site will continue to grow and the number will be 80 next time!

Hello Kelly

Point well taken

So how about we do $5 a month??

I will do it, cost less that a lunch at McDonnalds.
If we can get 1/2 of the people who did donnate that will cover a good portion of the comming year. If you look at the expenditures in 2003 it costs $60 a month to host the site. We can cover that with only 12 guys.

What do you think??

Rob

[Tom Roper]

And it's not that I mind. But it really irritates me having paypal collecting information, sharing it with whoever I had to consent to, to process the payment.

[Tom Roper]

And these companies have "privacy policies" that protect them for exploiting yours. How many times do we read about them violating or changing their own privacy policies without notice to you of course?

And then, with 400+ members of congress and the executive branch in full support of a national no-call list, and guess what? One filthy, stinkin', pathetic corrupt federal judge reverses it all, calling it a violation of free speech.

/rant_off

[Mr. Widget]

Thanks again Don!

PS While I was on vacation I had a trained eye out looking for Vintage Lansing, I even found one example. I may post it later if the photo is interesting...

I must admit to spending most of my time being distracted from anything remotely audio related.

[boputnam]

Originally posted by Tom Roper
/rant_off

Ha! Nice switch code!

And on the rest, I can only concur.

[scott fitlin]

Me donated to this great site!

[4313B]

Originally posted by Tom Roper
And these companies have "privacy policies" that protect them for exploiting yours. How many times do we read about them violating or changing their own privacy policies without notice to you of course?

And then, with 400+ members of congress and the executive branch in full support of a national no-call list, and guess what? One filthy, stinkin', pathetic corrupt federal judge reverses it all, calling it a violation of free speech.

/rant_off

Sounds to me like that judge is trying to keep a job or two available for Americans to fall back on...

"Millions of U.S. jobs will be exported in the coming decade, forecasters say. Here are the jobs that are especially vulnerable, plus 5 that aren't..."

"Software giant Oracle (ORCL, news, msgs) said it's moving 2,000 developer jobs from the United States to India"

"Then Hewlett-Packard (HPQ, news, msgs) announced plans to close a customer-service operation in Florida and send the operation's 1,200 jobs overseas, again to India."

"Though negligible when compared to the sheer numbers of job losses in manufacturing, the shifts by two technology companies are alarming for what they likely foretell: no less than the relocation of millions of high-end technology and service jobs from this country to less expensive foreign venues. In the process, there will be a redefining of what constitutes “safe” employment in America."

Let's all become Telemarketers?

My vote is for the United States Government to tax these companies right into the ground.
For every American job that is moved overseas, a 500% Federal Tax should be paid on that lost job's wages for a period of ten years.
Perhaps "American" corporate executives that advocate moving American jobs overseas should be immediately relocated to any location outside the United States. They no longer need to consider themselves Americans. Just tossing some ideas around

[Tom Roper]

It seems like our problems would be solved if Oracle, and Hewlett Packard would just hire the fired telemarketers for customer service jobs. The former telemarketeers would be happy to have customers who actually want to talk to them versus angry people like me hanging up on them because I'm in the middle of supper.

[boputnam]

Hey, Don...

You tend to sit on stuff like this - not that it's bad to do so... - but reading the Thread on "Member Inflation" reminds of the recent software upgrade, and I wondered how the LH balance sheet and operating budget look?

Donate is only a click away. This place has been, and continues to be, an amazing resource for things JBL, for all manner of audio, and for great friendships...

Lemme know.

[Don McRitchie]

Hi Bo

Thanks for the concern and it is valid. Personally, I am fine financially as far as running the site since John Nebel has generously removed the major ongoing expenditure by hosting our site at no charge. However, Project May finances are nearing a critical point. We currently have approximately $1000 in the kitty, but have that much in committed expenditures in the short term. In the longer term, we project at least another $3,000 in expenditures in fabrication and testing. The easiest way to address this is to become a participant in our L100 raffle. All of the proceeds go the Project May and you get the chance to win a truly unique prize. Therefore, I would greatly appreciate the donations of anyone willing to participate in our raffle. The simplest way to do this is to click on the "L100 Raffle" button at the top of the page. We'll be making weekly announcements regarding progress towards our financial goal.

Thanks
Don

[MJC]

I just donated. Its the first time I've been able to use paypal on this computer. The last ms update I did must have corrected this thing.