Hey all smile


As most of you know, these sites are kept going with a lot of hard work on the part of willing volunteers, and also with donations from FoLCs. Every few years we run a fundraiser, asking for donations to pay the costs of webhosting, domain names etc. The last fundraiser was in spring/summer 2004; generous FoLCs donated enough cash to keep the sites going for at least three years.

In the meantime, Annette has kindly provided a new site for hosting videos, trailers, photos and so on - as these take up a lot more space and bandwidth, this site is more expensive than the others and so, even though we get a really good rate from our webhost, we need to raise more money sooner than we anticipated. So watch these boards for a new appeal for cash within the next few months.

In preparation for this, we have some thoughts about what could be offered in return for donations. Last time we raffled some autographed fanzines, and this poll asks for your opinion on what the unofficial 'fundraising committee' is considering for this time round. We had the idea of asking winners/nominees for the Kerth short story categories in recent years to write a new story. Then one of our very talented trailer-makers would make a trailer to accompany the story. The stories and trailers would be put on a DVD, as well as some new music videos. Anyone donating over a certain amount would get a copy automatically. Nothing on the DVD would be released online until a year after its issue for the fundraiser.

There are costs involved in burning and mailing a DVD, so we'd have to take that into account in setting the minimum donation for getting a copy. And this, incidentally, is why we're not considering a paper fanzine this time. Last time, we had help covering the costs of printing, binding and so on, and one FoLC paid for most of the postage costs (which were very high as the fanzines were heavy) out of her own pocket.

Finally, when we get started on the fundraiser we're going to need help: volunteers to make trailers and videos, collectors in different countries/regions, help with distribution etc. So if you'd like to help in any way, do let us know!

Oh, and if there's anything at all that's not clear, please post to ask! We're still working this all out ourselves - which is why we're asking for opinions wink - and it's very possible that we've overlooked stuff or not explained it very well.

Edited to add: We're still discussing the mechanics of distribution costs, specifically the cost of mailing the DVD to a country where we don't have FoLCs who are able to burn and mail it to others. One option is that the minimum donation could be reduced and shipping costs calculated separately, so watch this space and if you have anything to add on that subject please post!


Wendy, SaraK and Yvonne smile
'Fundraising Committee'

Just a fly-by! *waves*