Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!bryan
From: bryan@cs.utexas.edu (Bryan Bayerdorffer @ Wit's End)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Fish disks on ux1 (collecting pledges for)
Message-ID: <296@mohawk.cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 28 Mar 91 05:05:57 GMT
References: <1991Mar26.033433.28060@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: bryan@cs.utexas.edu
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In article <1991Mar26.033433.28060@m.cs.uiuc.edu> schwager@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Michael Schwager) writes:
=-
=-Hi,
=-My name is Mike and I upload Fish disks to ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (128.174.5.59).
=-Lionel Hummel is the person who gets them, and he forwards them on to me
=-for uploadage.  The subscription has nearly run out, and up till now Lionel
=-and/or I (mostly Lionel) had provided the money for the Fish disks.  Now
=-Lionel wants to bow out of the process, and I am willing to keep on
=-uploading, but I'm not willing to invest as much financially (50 bucks
=-maybe; but a subscription costs $300 for 100 disks [the cheapest rate]).
=-So, now we'd like to ask you in the Amiga Internet-community-at-large if
=-you'd like to contribute some bux to this noble cause.  If so, make checks
=-payable to me, Michael (my friends call me "Mike") Schwager, and send to:
=-     Mike Schwager
=-     403 S. Coler St.
=-     Urbana, IL 61801
=-(this address valid until August, 1991).  I'm suggesting $20, and we'll see
=-how it goes from there.  But whatever you wanna contribute is fine.  I have
=-no idea what kind of response we'll get.  Anything over $250 I figure ought


	What you otter do is to collect donation pledges in a way almost, but
not entirely unlike the way usenet votes are collected.  Just asking people to
send you money is too haphazard; you might get $0, and you might get $40,000 or
so, with which amount we don't entirely trust you. :-)  Also, potential donors
are more likely to contribute if they're allowed to see what others are
contributing, and how the overall effort is going.  Otherwise even the most
well-intentioned of us will rationalize away that check that was almost in the
mail.  This is one of the reasons PBS stations run the dreaded pledge drives.

Here's a plan:  Set a goal of, say, $300, and post an announcement that you are
soliciting EMAIL PLEDGES (NOT actual contributions) of the following form:

	My Name   (maximum amount I am willing to contribute)

to be submitted by some suitable deadline (say within four weeks).  If after
some period of time (say two weeks) the total of all pledges falls short of the
goal, post a summary of all the pledges received to date, along with a request
for additional pledges.

Once the deadline has passed, if the total amount pledged exceeds the goal, then
those who pledged are obliged to send you a donation in proportion to the amount
of their pledge, e.g. if the goal was $300, and $400 was pledged, then each
person should send you 75% of the amount they pledged.

Limiting the amount you collect in this way is very important; an "I'll take all
I can get" policy discourages people from pledging the maximum they feel they
can afford, and may make them wary of sending their pledge early for fear that
they'll be taking on more than their fair share of the burden.  By
proportionally limiting the amounts of the actual donation, the burden is
equitably distributed, and the more people pledge, the less each one has to pay,
which is ideal in this case, since, unlike with charities, the cost of the
venture is fixed.

It's not necessary to calculate each person's contribution for them, just keep a
mailing list and broadcast a message stating the percentage owed when the time
comes.  You might want to tack a "deadbeat factor" of 5% or so onto the amount
of the goal when calculating---not everyone who pledged will send in their
donation. 

To keep things simple, you might stipulate that each pledge whould be for a
fixed amount, say $5, but this might not be a good idea.  Also, you can set a
floor on the amount of each actual donation, to keep from having to ask for a
ridiculous number of 12-cent checks in the end.

Finally, you may want to get someone else to handle all this, since you're
already handling the disks.  Now where is that pain in the ass who loves
collecting votes so much that he inflicted a herd of new comp.sys.amiga.*
newsgroups upon the world?  :-)

I think that having the Fish library online at a U.S. ftp site is a great
convenience, and saves many of us a lot of time and money, so I'll pledge the
first $10.

Who's next?