Alexandra Posted May 17, 2004 Share Posted May 17, 2004 Dearest Ballet Alert! Posters (and Lurkers!): When I began Ballet Alert!, the message board cost $30, the site cost $15 a month. Things have changed. Our administrative costs, including registration, tech support, site fees, software and software upgrades, are now more than $1200 a year. Last year, when things began to get seriously out of hand -- i.e., the expenses were much more than I could cover -- I made a plea for funds. The response was wonderful -- we raised $100 more than we asked for!! -- and several people suggested that we make this an annual event. I've set up a Fundraising Page on the Ballet Alert! site. There's a Make Donation button there; clicking it will take you to a secure page, and you can send us money by check or credit card through PayPal. For those who prefer snail mail, I've posted the address. Last year my project was to update the DanceView site, redesigning it, and putting up articles from the print publication. That's nearly completed. This year's project is to update (though not redesign; I think I'll keep what we have) Ballet Alert! There are quite a few very nice interviews from the print edition of the newsletter (by Dale Brauner, Mary Cargill, Marc Haegeman and me) that will be posted, as well as some historical articles, AND Victoria Leigh's Advice to Young Dancers column. I'm going to ask your indulgence -- I will crosspost this on several forums, because there are some who only read one or two forums and I'm afraid there are some who never look on announcements! While I'm begging -- please post. The more opinions we have, the more interested the site is to read. We want to hear from you. Lurkers, delurk. Regulars, let us hear from you. THANK YOU FOR POSTING WITH US! Thank you in advance for your support. I'll update this thread weekly to let you know how we're doing. Updates and comments will be here: http://balletalert.com/forum/index.php?sho...=0entry136621 Alexandra Link to comment
Alexandra Posted May 21, 2004 Author Share Posted May 21, 2004 We now have $835. Thanks very much to those who have contributed thus far, but we're still $400 short. I'm beginning to know how public television feels. Our statistics show that 3500 people read this board every day. (That's "unique visitors," not one person clicking 3500 times, but 3500 individual visitors.) Yet only 28 people have contributed thus far. That's less than 1 percent! I'm sorry I can't offer t-shirts or funny hats or coffee mugs.....but that would take even more money! I ask for money only once a year. I cannot afford to pay the expenses of this site. If I don't get help from our members, I have two choices: one, shut it down; two, go to a mandatory paid subscription: no one will be able to access the site until they've paid a small fee. So please, if this site is useful to you, or provides entertainment, information, of whatever, check our Fundraising page and make a small donation to keep it going. Thank you! Link to comment
Alexandra Posted May 24, 2004 Author Share Posted May 24, 2004 Stop! Don't send any more money!! We made it last night. Thank you very much to all who contributed. We had an almost 50-50 split between the two forums, as far as I can tell, which pleases me greatly. Thank you!!! Link to comment
MJ Posted May 24, 2004 Share Posted May 24, 2004 Congrats! Keep up the great work! Mike Link to comment
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