Klarinet Archive - Posting 000971.txt from 1998/09
From: "Mark Charette" <charette@-----.org>
Subj: [kl] Pledge Drive progress report (long)
Date: Fri, 25 Sep 1998 19:49:05 -0400
I'd like to report that at the end of day 6 there's been a total of
$1275.00 pledged for the Sneezy machine replacement and I've received
$490.00. My thanks go out to the latest people to officially
pledge:
Mitch Bassman, Anonymous, Doug Sears, Amy Delano, Heather Fry, another
Anonymous, and the International Clarinet Association. The current ICA
Web site (www.clarinet.org) will, as a result of their donation, be
hosted on the Sneezy machine.
25.5% towards the goal of $5000.00.
For those of you with no Web access, here's what appears on the Pledge
Page (http://www.sneezy.org/PledgePage.html):
----------------------------------------------
"Why is there a pledge drive going on?" you may ask.
"Isn't this a free service?"
Nothing is free; there's a lot of time and a few of
my dollars going into this site. There are no "major"
sponsors; the commercial sponsors of this site have
paid between $50.00 and $100.00 to have their sites
either on Sneezy or have links to their own sites.
I don't have all that many; neither have I pursued
that avenue all that much. I really don't want one
company supplying the financial resources needed to
keep this site up & running.
My company, MIKA Systems, Inc, has given me
permission to use their Internet connection to keep
Sneezy on-line; that has saved me a good $300.00 a
month in commercial connectivity fees. The machine
is my own personal DECStation 3000/600 - and that's
where the problem lies. The machine is ancient by
today's standards - it was built in 1992. New parts
are no longer available; luckily I have a few pieces
here and there that I cannibalized from other
machines. The machine is also a 64-bit architecture
machine; while in most cases this is an asset, in the
case of public domain software (software I use to run
this site) it's a nightmare. I ported 32-bit to
64-bit for a living for a number of years, and it
takes time & debugging effort to make the switch -
time I could be using to make the site better!
So, in light of this continuing problem, I'm
soliciting contributions to replace the current
machine with a more modern and faster one. I'm
looking to collect a total of $5000.00 from the 10s
of thousands of people who use this site. I don't
think it's an unrealistic goal.
What do you get for your pledge? Well ... not much
besides a better machine and (hopefully) more of my
time being available to incorporate new things.
Here's a list:
$1.00 to $4.99 - Lawn Seating: My thanks in an
e-mail after your donation arrives.
$5.00 to $24.99 - Balcony - My handwritten thanks
on a postcard mailed back to you after your donation
arrives.
$25.00 to $49.99 - Main Floor - My handwritten thanks
along with an "I'm a Sneezy Supporter" iron-on mailed
back to you after your donation arrives.
$50.00 to $99.99 - Dress Circle - The same as #3 along
with a page or link in the "Sponsors" section and
inclusion on the rotating Sponsor section in the menu.
$100.00 or more - Box Seats - The same as #4 along with
my undying gratitude!
For Options 4 and 5:
For an additional $70.00 I will register and host a
domain (www.<yourname>.<com,org> and 2 email addresses)
on Sneezy - $70.00 is the cost for the domain name and
will be directly billed to you from the InterNIC, not
from me.
In all cases your name goes on the Pledge Drive list
until January 1, 2000! If for some incredible reason I
collect more than $5000.00, everyone will know what
becomes of the money. It will not be used for any personal
purposes; I would hope to help deserving children with new
student instruments, start a scholarship competition, or
some other worthy cause. The Pledge Drive will reflect
the financial position of the Pledge Drive as soon as
there is a financial position!
So, for much less than the cost of a box of reeds or a
ligature, have your name added to the Pledge list!
Your Name:
(Corporate names, In Memoriam, or anything else is
acceptable as long as I have a valid Email address)
First
Middle (if any)
Last
Your Email Address:
Amount of Pledge:
(Please - no dollar sign! Just numbers and optional
decimal point)
Please send your pledge to:
Sneezy.org
c/o Mark Charette
22538 Porter St.
Novi, MI USA 48374
Also, to keep costs down I do not have a checking
account specifically for Sneezy.org, so please make
any checks out to Mark Charette.
Thank you!
Mark Charette, Webmaster of http://www.sneezy.org
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