Re: [atlarge-discuss] A Plan... but no funding...

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Judyth and all stakeholders or other interested parties and members,

espresso@e-scape.net wrote:

> At 18:01 -0800 2002/11/13, Jeff Williams wrote:
> >Judyth, Walter and all stakeholders or other interested parties and members,
> >
> >  Indeed Walter is right as far as he goes...  Any plan without funding is
> >just a plan that will never be executed adequately, if at all...
>
> Repeating myself yet again, I'll just point out that no responsible funder writes cheques to unknown individuals for unspecified purposes in unspecified countries. Even start-up funding for a one-person operation under some kind of "create your own job" grant required a defined purpose and a well-articulated statement of what the funds are for.

  Startup funding does not and never has required a "Mission Statement".
Or even incorporation.  Only and intent to incorporate is required in most
US states.  These simple tasks take about 3-4 days at most to achieve.
The Panel was supposed to get those tasks underway and notify the
members for their voted upon approval.  That has YET to be completed,
even though several members have offered bylaws, articles of incorporation,
and Charter drafts.  So yes Judyth, I am repeating myself and this concern
until or unless it is completed or at the very least truly underway.

>
>
> FIRST the mission, charter and a plan for Year 1,
> THEN a budget (or several project budgets) to implement the plan,
> THEN applications can be made to various funding agencies and foundations.

  Not necessary or even advisable in order to execute any "Plan".
Execution of a PLAN takes funding.  Funding is something we do not
currently have.  Nor do we even have an agreed upon "Funding PLAN"
even though I have offered one as well as temporarily set up an
account for donations and other deposits that I can transfer, and would
be more than happy to do so, to this organization.

>
>
> Anybody who's hoping to make money from belonging to this group should probably leave right now: there won't be any salaries or consultancy fees for a long time, if ever.

  I agree completely with you here!  This is not an organization that will be
making any money or likely to be providing moneys for consultants, advisors,
or other positions in the near term.  We should however be able to pay
staff, BoD members, should we ever have any, and legal staff for
stakeholder/user assistance of various sorts...

>
>
> As an unofficial and unfunded non-organization, we shouldn't dream of paying anyone to do anything and should expect to pay our own incorporation expense.

  Also very much agreed here as well!  Until or unless this fledgling organization
can get it's act together and become "Official" it should not pay anyone
anything.  However incorporation expenses have to come from somewhere
or some of the members in order to get this show actually on the road, which
it is not currently.  So, AGAIN that requires funding/Initial funding/Seed Capital
BEFORE any plan can even be seriously considered or considered reasonably.

>
>
> After that, as a legitimate non-profit organization, we'd be in a position to apply for funding but not in a position to pay people to keep the organization's normal operations going.

  We do not have to be a non-profit organization officially or legally.  We can
always be or become a Legal association.  Hence making funding much
simpler and less troublesome.  However it will not have the attractiveness
of having donations tax deductible by the donor...

> As a grassroots endeavour, we'd *deserve* to fail if we cannot generate enough member participation to keep ourselves going, at least for the critical first two years.

  It shouldn't take even a year to gather enough members to be pretty close
to self supporting.  If it does, than we have little chance in effecting
the stakeholder/users plights in any serious way...

>
>
> We can reasonably expect to raise a little start-up money by passing the hat amongst ourselves and (once incorporated) to apply for things like travel grants so we can afford to send representatives to meetings and conferences.

  As I have said, I have already raised some $3500.00 US and did that some time
ago now with very little effort...  I could probably get us on the road to
another $50- $100k in a couple of weeks if not less than that.  But this would
require some members to do some follow-up door knocking in their respective
domicile areas...

> We *might* be able to scare up something for postal mail, brochures and such or for lobbying efforts but these things are not normally eligible for the funding available to charities.

  This is one resource, yes.  But it is a poor one.  Best is to use contacts
that each of us have or should have that can and would be willing to
aid in financial support for this fledgling organizations efforts and understand
the risk in doing so...  This would mean however most of our members
getting off their collective butts and doing some door knocking as well
as some Phone call work...

>
>
> In the meantime, those of us who can afford to give something will probably do so as soon as there's a legitimate bank account for the organization, and those of us who can't will probably be donating time instead of money. As for asking for donations from others ... well, it's premature to demand it until we know what we'll be doing and who is likely to support it.

  Asking for donations is NEVER premature when starting up an organization
of this nature or starting up any company.

>
>
> My opinion (based on 30+ years of non-profit experience),

  How many of those Non-profits are still around?   I have about 23+
years in start-up companies some of which are Non-profit.  All but
three are still around...

>
>
> Judyth
>
> ##########################################################
> Judyth Mermelstein     "cogito ergo lego ergo cogito..."
> Montreal, QC           <espresso@e-scape.net>
> ##########################################################
> "A word to the wise is sufficient. For others, use more."
> ##########################################################
>
>

Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup - (Over 127k members/stakeholders strong!)
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
Contact Number: 214-244-4827 or 972-244-3801
Address: 5 East Kirkwood Blvd. Grapevine Texas 75208



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