On 5 March 2012 22:06, David C. Rankin drankinatty@suddenlinkmail.com wrote:

On 03/05/2012 08:44 PM, Darrell Anderson wrote:

...

Anybody with experience running a fund raising drive?

I'd like us to raise $500 --- or more so Tim can update server hardware.

50 people x $10 and we're done.

I'll put up $50.

Darrell

Yes -- The first thing you have to do is tell people where to send the $$ :)

I don't know that you will be able to do much better than posting to this list and the trinity user list and then have those who read tell their friends and unix enthusiasts about it.

Best way to do it would be to provide the who to make checks out to unless you want to go though the trouble of setting up some type of paypall/cc handling account.

Whatever you do - don't by Seagate. I've had 40% of drives go bad w/in 1 year for the past 4 years... :)

I'll chip in as well

-- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.

paypal is really easy to use without having an account. Only Tim needs one. Everyone can now pay via credit/debit without an account. I say that is the best way

https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/general/OptionalAccount...

On 03/05/2012 09:10 PM, Calvin Morrison wrote:

...

paypal is really easy to use without having an account. Only Tim needs one. Everyone can now pay via credit/debit without an account. I say that is the best way

https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/general/OptionalAccount...

Think about long term fund-raising: I still have my long-sleeve T-shirt (good quality) that reads: "SAMBA Opening Windows to a Wider World" from the 2.0.7 days.

A black long sleeve t-shirt with a white TDE logo (start menu style) might do OK. We all drink coffee, etc..

Also, facebook / whatever the latest marketing link is can also help.

From a banking standpoint, if you want to open an account in a trade name, you will need a separate business entity in order to comply with bank regs. (i.e. Trinity Desktop, LLC) Otherwise you can simply use your name and a separate designation. (i.e. Timothy Pearson - TDE operating account)

If you do want a separate entity, use the LLC. Costs next to nothing, provides same protection and benefit as corp., with passthrough tax advantage of a schedule C sole-proprietorship, with no formal recording requirement. State filing fees are generally about $350.

-- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.

Good ideas! Donations + advertising for the project via products sounds like a win-win to me...

I think we need a good, catchy slogan, and some professional quality artwork. Perhaps it would be a good idea to have the mascot problem ironed out as well. Ideas anyone?

Tim

On 5 March 2012 23:01, David C. Rankin drankinatty@suddenlinkmail.com wrote:

On 03/05/2012 09:35 PM, Timothy Pearson wrote:

...

Good ideas!  Donations + advertising for the project via products sounds like a win-win to me...

I think we need a good, catchy slogan, and some professional quality artwork.  Perhaps it would be a good idea to have the mascot problem ironed out as well.  Ideas anyone?

Tim

Let's get a list of ideas, etc.. and then narrow them down. I'll think about it while my wife finishes the overkill battle on Ratchet & Clank a Crack in Time :)

-- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.

offtopic buy isn't this one of the greatest PS games on the planet? oh gosh I've played through the series many a time.

What about Coffee Mugs? it's easier than t-shirts (sizes, types, custom imprints, a whole mess). We could ask for a minimum X dollars for a mug, and allow users to bump it higher. plus most people rely on a trusty coffee mug at work, making it rather useful.

What do you guys think?

Calvin

On Mon, 5 Mar 2012 23:48:55 -0500 Kristopher Gamrat chaotickjg@gmail.com wrote:

On Mon, Mar 5, 2012 at 11:37 PM, Calvin Morrison mutantturkey@gmail.com wrote:

<snip> > What about Coffee Mugs? it's easier than t-shirts (sizes, types, > custom imprints, a whole mess). We could ask for a minimum X dollars > for a mug, and allow users to bump it higher. plus most people rely on > a trusty coffee mug at work, making it rather useful. > > What do you guys think?

I think we should do both the t-shirts and the mugs. How many types of t-shirts are there? Regular t-shirts and polos? Heck, if I had the money and TDE had the coffee mugs and polo shirts, I'd definitely donate for both, that way I could walk around promoting TDE with a flashy logo that people would be interested in, perhaps look up or ask me about 8-)

The biggest problem with the shirts is finding a reliable and trustworthy silk-screener, but that's what social networking, Google, and real-life contacts are for, right? :-)

There's always the option of using one of the on-line drop-shipping item-printers--basically, companies that will print and ship the item for you and give you a cut of the sale price. There are about a half- dozen of them out there:

Zazzle currently offers the widest selection of things-you-can- print-on (apparel, mugs, mouse pads, stickers, iPod cases, etc etc ad nauseum), but their contract contains a nasty little clause with a rights-grab for any correspondence you have with them, any posts on their forums, etc. (it doesn't extend to designs you print with them, but I find it a bit disturbing on principle).

Spreadshirt has a better contract, but they only do fabric goods, so no coffee mugs.

There's also CafePress (requires a monthly fee, IIRC), Redbubble (based in Australia, so the shipping fees to US/Canada/Europe are likely to be high), one that does mostly organic/free-trade apparel whose name I can't remember, and a couple that are like Spreadshirt but with contract clauses similar to Zazzle.

I've done silkscreening on shirts before, but I'm not good enough that I think it's a good idea to have our fundraising efforts rest on me, and there are a bunch of logistical problems anyway--it's very difficult for me to get supplies here, and they're expensive enough that I would want cost remitted to me, and . . . well, you get the idea.

There's also the option of hiring a commercial screen-printer for a short run, but they're likely to want payment up-front and have a minimum run size of 200 items or so, which someone then has to store and arrange to ship out.

I would say the minimum-effort option is to go with Zazzle or Spreadshirt.

paypal is really easy to use without having an account. Only Tim needs one. Everyone can now pay via credit/debit without an account. I say that is the best way

https://www.paypal.com/uk/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=xpt/cps/general/OptionalAccount...

Almost. :(

I happen to have a pre-paid gift card sitting on my desk. I just tried using the card. Won't fly without 1) street address, 2) city, 3) zip, and 4) phone number.

Darrell

Been there, wasted $$$, now I only buy one type of validated, extremely reliable enterprise-grade disk from Hitachi. :-) Seagate and Western Digital both have have serious Q/C problems recently with their drives, and WD especially makes drives that will fail or function very poorly in enterprise hardware, all in the interest of being "green". Ugh.

Would you post a link to the model number you like?

Thanks! :)

Darrell

Hitachi P/N 0F10311 (2TB 7200RPM). They are somewhat hard to find now, but I have never had one fail once it was in service. The only failure I had was a DOA drive, it failed as soon as it was plugged in, and it may have been dropped in shipment.

Thanks. :)

Darrell