possible Fundraiser to keep forum up and running.
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2017 12:13 am
Just want to run an idea past our members. Your comments will be appreciated.
As you probably already know, responsibility for this forum has been dumped in Pinks lap. This includes any fees associated with the running and upkeep of this forum. This forum belongs to all of us. It's for our use and enjoyment. It's unfair to have Pink footing all of the bills out of her own pocket.
We had the same problem on another forum that I belong to, and came up with a solution which seems to be working very nicely. Auctions with the winning bid being sent to the person administering the forum to offset the monetary fees involved.
Here's how the other forum is running it.
#1 – A member offers something related to our lapidary hobby / business for auction. This member puts a time and date for the auction to end.
# 2 - To make the auction more attractive to bidders, the person offering an item or items for auction covers the cost of sending the item to the winner.
# 3 – At the end of bidding the winning bidder sends the winning bid to the administrator via paypal or another suitable means, and sends their mailing address to the person who offered the item/s for auction. The administrators account is listed as a fund raiser, thereby avoiding paypal fees. ( The other forum used paypal because it's quick, and almost all of the members have an account ).
# 4 - The administrator sends a PM to the person who offered the item/s for auction. Notifying them that payment has been received and that the item is cleared to send to the winning bidder.
# 5 - The person who offered the item/s for auction sends the item/s to the winning bidder.
All pretty simple and straightforward. Any money earned in excess of what's needed for the fees involved in the upkeep of this forum can be saved towards the following years fees, or else put back into the forum for upgrades or some such.
I partook of one of the auctions on the other forum that I speak of, and just today received my winnings. A box of beautiful, high quality slabs of various materials for cabbing. I'm a happy bidder. With the postage being paid by the person offering the slabs, I bid higher than I normally would have.
If there's enough interest in doing something like this to help pay to keep this forum going, I already have 2 things that I'll be offering for auction. Probably more after spring thaw, when I can pull my big saw out of the garage to start cutting slabs.
If anyone can think of anything to add to this, please do so. Your comments are welcome.
Don - Jakesrocks
As you probably already know, responsibility for this forum has been dumped in Pinks lap. This includes any fees associated with the running and upkeep of this forum. This forum belongs to all of us. It's for our use and enjoyment. It's unfair to have Pink footing all of the bills out of her own pocket.
We had the same problem on another forum that I belong to, and came up with a solution which seems to be working very nicely. Auctions with the winning bid being sent to the person administering the forum to offset the monetary fees involved.
Here's how the other forum is running it.
#1 – A member offers something related to our lapidary hobby / business for auction. This member puts a time and date for the auction to end.
# 2 - To make the auction more attractive to bidders, the person offering an item or items for auction covers the cost of sending the item to the winner.
# 3 – At the end of bidding the winning bidder sends the winning bid to the administrator via paypal or another suitable means, and sends their mailing address to the person who offered the item/s for auction. The administrators account is listed as a fund raiser, thereby avoiding paypal fees. ( The other forum used paypal because it's quick, and almost all of the members have an account ).
# 4 - The administrator sends a PM to the person who offered the item/s for auction. Notifying them that payment has been received and that the item is cleared to send to the winning bidder.
# 5 - The person who offered the item/s for auction sends the item/s to the winning bidder.
All pretty simple and straightforward. Any money earned in excess of what's needed for the fees involved in the upkeep of this forum can be saved towards the following years fees, or else put back into the forum for upgrades or some such.
I partook of one of the auctions on the other forum that I speak of, and just today received my winnings. A box of beautiful, high quality slabs of various materials for cabbing. I'm a happy bidder. With the postage being paid by the person offering the slabs, I bid higher than I normally would have.
If there's enough interest in doing something like this to help pay to keep this forum going, I already have 2 things that I'll be offering for auction. Probably more after spring thaw, when I can pull my big saw out of the garage to start cutting slabs.
If anyone can think of anything to add to this, please do so. Your comments are welcome.
Don - Jakesrocks