[Theforum] half the battle - finance time

[Warden, Matt]

ok...


so we've got the hosting location worked out and we've worked out how
we're gonna get the machines to that location, but this is only half the
battle.

now we need to figure out a way to pay for it.

some things that have been mentioned:

hosting affiliate program
	- people sign up for a host and name evolt as a referrer; we get a
	kickback
tagwear
	- we already have a supplier and have invested money into
	re-usable screens
donation drive


and i'm sure there are others that i've forgotten.

now, as i understand it, our main stumbling block is *how* we're gonna
accept money from everyone who wants to offer it (in one way or another).

and, i'm afraid i can't really help there. the finance group probably
wants to handle that themselves anyways (as they're best qualified).

i say we set up the hosting affiliate program yesterday, as we'd need only
one method of acceptign money with that. i know there were some offers
made before, and we can always look for more.

then, we've got at least two options left. personally, i think we ought to
go with the donation drive next while we still have a definite $$$
target. in a way, our members should be able to decide whether we're worth
$10/each donation to save. if we're not worth that, then i think we're
going to a lot of trouble for nothing. i think we are worth that. and i
think a lot of oru members would agree. we have plenty of talented people
here at evolt.org that can sell this donation idea to the members and can
make this drive work. and, other than the "support evolt.org" link that
has recently shown up on weo, we've never even really made it apparent
that we *accept* donations. i think a drive could be a nice kick-start for
donations. we could easily rally up enough cash to pay our first 6 months
of hosting.

then we've got tagwear. i think we need to stop putzing around with that
idea, and just set up phpShop or somethign to get the thing running. It
died out last time because we got too involved in what the design should
look like and how the app should work and how the form could support
international addresses. let's just find something that will suit our
needs and set it up somewhere. we dont have to roll everything
ourself... especially when we're running on a deadline.

and we *are* running on a deadline. yes, ron has offered to work with us
financially. but, evolt.org shouldn't be taking advantage of that
generosity... especially when we CAN come up with funding in time if we
put our minds to it.

so, let's...
work out a hosting affiliate progrem
then figure out how best to run a donation drive
then get tagwear moving again

whatyousay?

--
mattwarden
mattwarden.com