Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Fundraiser is Officially Launched!

On Saturday night at the Kerths, the FoLC Website Fundraiser 2006 was officially launched. Those present got to see snippets of some of the wonderful stories available exclusively to those who support the fundraiser and get copies of the DVD.

I've been on another planet for the past six months. What's this all about?

Well, this post pretty much sums it up. We're raising money to support all the fantastic Lois and Clark websites maintained for your fandom pleasure - the Archive, these boards, FoLCVideo, Annesplace, the Kerths website, the Alt-Kerths website - and to thank people for donating their hard-earned cash we've put together a DVD containing lots of goodies.


What kind of goodies?

Stories by some of your favourite authors, to begin with. A full list of stories is available on the previous post, but authors involved include Sheila Harper, Yvonne Connell, Erin Klingler, CC Aiken, LabRat, Tank Wilson, ML Thompson and Tracey, among others.

There are trailers and posters for the stories, including trailers by SaraK, Poussin, Elena, Pam and others; posters by Julie, Laurach and others. And there are music videos by, among others, Rachel, Anna Belcher, LabRat and JenniJac.

And a very special bonus: The Super Speedy Adventures of Lois and Clark, by Paul-Gabriel Wiener!

The DVD itself and the cover will feature artwork by Julie Stars and Anna Belcher.

Now, isn't that something definitely worth having?


Yes! I want! Gimme, gimme, gimme!

Sure! All you have to do is donate a minimum of US$15 to the fund. And how do you do that? Well, we have collectors around the world just waiting to collect your cash, cheques or whatever. Here's the list:

USA - Annette - amciotola at aol dot com
Canada - Wendy - wendy at lcfanfic dot com
UK - Yvonne - Yvonne at lcfanfic dot com
Eurozone - Elena - elena at lcficmbs dot com
Australia - Tricia - triciawalpole at optusnet dot com dot au

Anyone outside those zones and wanting to pay by PayPal - contact Annette Ciotola at the address above. If you can't use PayPal, some of us may also be prepared to accept Amazon vouchers, but we can't do that for too many people.

The email addresses are disguised so as not to attract spam robots! Simply replace the at with @ and the dot with . and remove all spaces.

Ensure that your collector has your postal address for the DVD. We do need to do a little working out yet as regards sending DVDs internationally, but what we do will depend on numbers, and we'll give more information on that in due course.


So, want your DVD? Start sending in those donations! And, while you're enjoying all those stories and videos, you can bask in the pleasure of knowing that you're helping to keep all your favourite Lois and Clark websites alive and functioning.


But I don't have $15 to donate!

Any donation you can make, no matter how small, is very welcome indeed. Even $1 is appreciated - every little helps to keep the sites going.


Wendy
Fundraiser Committee - PR Division

And back with an update...

Want a sample of the goodies on the DVD? Then take a look here !


Wendy

I hope that this doesn't imply that contributions have to be via PayPal. That would be unfortunate, since I'm sure there are several people, like myself, who just don't do PayPal.

Tank (who hopes that all the work and effort that has gone into putting together this DVD will prove worth it... financially)

Oh, no, I never meant to imply that at all! PayPal is just for people who can't get cash or cheque of the right currency to a collector. You're in the US, so if you're donating you'd just send a cheque to Annette. Anyone in the UK would send a cheque to Yvonne.

But we don't have any collectors in countries such as Singapore, Brazil, Japan and so on. So people in those countries can use PayPal if they wish.

Hope this clears up any confusion!


Wendy

Wendy, I'm a little thick-headed today. So does this mean that I can't use PayPal to pay Annette, but that I need to send her a cheque? I assume not, but I just want to clarify that...

Kathy

Hi Kathy

We're encouraging people to use cash or cheques wherever possible. The problem with PayPal is that it levies charges on the recipient of money. So the fund won't get all of what you donate, whereas if you send a cheque then every penny goes into the fund.

So if you're in a country where you can send cash or a cheque in your collector's currency, please do that rather than using PayPal.


Wendy

Sorry, I'm clearly very thick - but where do I actually send my cheque?

c.

See my post at the top of the thread, Carol - if you email me, I'll supply my postal address and you can send it to me.


Wendy - looking forward to receiving lots of nice Can$ cheques

Actually, I think there is no fee charged to the recipient if the money is sent from a bank account, as opposed to coming from a credit card. But it's no problem to send a cheque. Certainly I don't want my donation diminished by a service fee (which may be a necessary evil in life, but that doesn't mean I have to like it...)

Hey Kathy,

I get charged with paypal no matter what you use to fund what you send.

Really, Annette? OK, cheque it is. Maybe it depends what kind of a/c you have. I've never received money through PayPal, only sent, and I know that a few years ago I changed my withdrawal "source" from credit card to bank a/c to avoid the recipient paying charges. But since this was a few years ago, they've probably done another overhaul of the system and started charging everyone.

Thanks for the info. (And I'll be in touch...)

Kathy

Speaking as a PayPal fan who's only paid with PayPal so far, and never actually been paid with it, how much would they take out of $15? Maybe you could add the fee as a surcharge to the $15 and post that as the PayPal donation amount? Sort of like how sometimes people get discounts for paying in cash vs. people who pay full price by using a credit card ... only in reverse? Or something like that.

I've made a lot of impulse purchases on eBay simply because the seller accepted PayPal. I could've talked myself out of it if the purchase had required going out to buy a money order and a stamp. PayPal makes it too easy. Darn that "Buy It Now"!

Just a thought.

-- LaurenW

From US$15, it was 75 cents, which is 5%, Lauren. And, yes, that's a very good suggestion.


Wendy

Oh, wow! A real life math problem (instead of the made-up stinkers in the text--if I can't count the number of coins in my collection, I'm sure not going to use algebra to try to figure how many dimes, nickels, and quarters are in it!): What is the minimum you can write your check for to make sure $15 goes to the fundraiser, while still paying 5% of the total in a fee to PayPal? 15 + 5% of N = 100% of N.

Change those pesky percents into decimals, and we get 15 + .05N = 1N.

After collecting like terms, we have 15 = 1N - .05N, which simplifies to 15 = .95N.

Isolate the variable, and we get N = 15/.95, so N = $15.79, assuming, of course, that PayPal doesn't have minimum increments.

Thank you, guys. I love showing my students math in real life, so I'll take this one to class with me next week.

(BTW, send $16 if you are using PayPal, not $15.75 )

<---Hits head on the cyber desktop!

I completely forgot about the fee and I use PayPal a lot for another fandom I'm in.

Would it be appreciated if I send another $1 towards my donation?

I've been thinking. (Oh no! Run for your lives!!)

There's this discussion about an extra 75 cents to cover the paypal fee. It's an extra cost, so you cover it.

Well, I'm not part of the committee. I haven't spoken to anyone about this, and I hope I'm not overstepping. I just wanted to point something out...

I haven't priced things in a while, but last I heard, a DVD-R disk cost about $1 (give or take). Throw in an extra 20 cents or so for the case. Then there's postage, which, IIRC, is another $1 or so, depending on package weight. Come to that, there's the packaging itself. A padded envelope or something. That's another $1 or so. Then there are labels, which require not just the sticker itself but also ink and wear and tear on the printer (it adds up, and hopefully there'll be a lot of these things to send). Then you have to consider that mistakes happen and some stuff will have to be redone. Then, too, there's...

You get the idea. It adds up.

Now, sure, it was factored in to the original $15, but it does take a significant bite out of things.

There's also the fact that the donations are being split between five different sites.

There's the archive. Do you write fic? Consider what they're doing for you by hosting it. Do you read fic? Think how hard it would be without a central archive.

There's the nfic archive, which does the same for fics rated over PG-13, and which has a PG archive that actually covers some things you won't find on lcfanfic.com.

There are these boards. How much time you spend here? How much do they do for you? A place to post and read fic before it hits the archive (and get reader-author interaction). A place to discuss fic. A place to tap into the vast resource of FoLC knowledge. A place for vids, posters, icons, etc which you'd have a hard time finding elsewhere. A place to just meet and hang out with cool people...

There's FoLC Video, the site that plays host to the majority of vids you'll find on the boards. It's got some other neat features, too, like a FoLC photo album.

Finally, there's the official Kerth Awards site, new home to everything Kerth. It goes a long way to making the Kerths possible.

You probably depend on some of those sites a lot more than you realize. Think about how often you find yourself using them (directly or otherwise). Your donation goes to support them, helping to ensure their continued existance.

All of which goes to say that maybe, if you can afford it, it would be a good idea to give more than the minimum. I'm sure you spend more on other hobbies/entertainments/activities.

Think about it.

Paul

Just bumping this back up to the top again to remind everyone that donations are still very much welcomed and encouraged. Your favourite sites need your money, and you need the amazing DVD with all those fantastic stories and trailers and videos and posters!

So hit your email program and contact the designated collector near you now!


Wendy

Hi,

I will when payday hits - hopefully I remember! Where's that list of mine...

I would like to pay by cheque, but to do that I have to do it in CDN. If I do USD I have to pay to make a money order or I get charged for making my cheque in USD.

I work in an accounting dept and we use the regular o'Bank of Canada currency coverter. If I do it in CAD I can donate more. The minimum I'd like to donate is $15USD. Can I change that to CAD? I will use the exchange rate that happens on my payday.

What would you guys be charged if I do it in CAD?

Please let me know what you guys prefer. You can e-mail me if you like.

Sorry - I'm a newbie at this. Please let me know if I am not seeing something simple. If I missed some info on this, sorry.

Roo, if you look at the first post in this thread you'll see me listed as the Canadian-currency collector. You can send me a cheque in Canadian funds - email me and I'll send you my address.

To allow not only for exchange rate fluctuations but also for currency conversion charges (usually a couple of per cent) I'm recommending a minimum amount of Can$20. The actual equivalent of US$15 is closer to $18, but I know from experience how much can be lost in conversion...


Wendy

Thanks Wendy - I saw you as the collector as soon as I read the thread a few weeks ago and I was happy. Thanks for letting me know I can send in CAD.

It's around 1.14 at the moment...hmmm, maybe I'll make a quick shopping trip to the Mall of America. Muhahaha.

Thanks for your help.