Well, folks, thought I would send out a short note on joining the
RootsWeb group and helping support a very worthy cause.
RootsWeb is not a profit making operation. It is run by Karen
and Brian, both of whom have full time jobs and run RootsWeb
as more-or-less a hobby. When MAISER crashed, they accepted
the 1000+ Lists there WITHOUT requiring us Listowners to join
or contribute. (The normal way anyone gets a new List at RootsWeb
is by contributing $24 per year; that gets them 2 Lists.)
Most of us Listowners did contribute (at least the minimum, but
some much more) and some subscribers sent in contributions.
Since the 1000+ Lists were added, Karen and Brian have had to
install new servers, upgrade the software, etc., all at their own
expense. They are in no way funded by ANY governmental
agency, nor any charitable organization. They've spent more
than $20,000 out of their own pockets.
So, if any of you out there can send in a few bucks, it would sure
help out. Send as little or as much as you feel you can afford.
ALL contributions are greatly appreciated. Here is a recent
post by Brian Leverich about RootsWeb funding:
(You will find a snail-mail address at the bottom if any are
interested in contributing.)
Lisa Henderson
*****************************************************
RootsWeb has *no* "main sponsoring org". No university, no
government agency, no gensoc, no business, nobody but *you*.
We are *entirely* supported by voluntary contributions.
Our hardware and bandwidth budget for the last year was in the
neighborhood of $60,000, of which about two-thirds were individual
contributions and the rest came out of Karen and Brian's pockets.
Apple Computer also donated a server to RootsWeb, which augments the
other 4 main servers we've bought.
Karen and I have also donated our time as system administrators, as
did the other RootsWeb folks.
Next year's costs will be well over $100,000 and possibly as high as
$200,000, depending on whether we have the resources to start buying
datasets and uploading them for everyone to freely use.
RootsWeb wouldn't have happened without the support of the Internet
genealogical community, and we need continued support if we're going
to keep expanding the services that are available to the community.
Thanks to everyone who is helping us make this happen! -B
[ BTW, please feel free to redistribute this to your lists. It
worries me that folks don't realize that their contributions are
are the *only* thing that keeps RootsWeb alive. ]
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