Frequently-Asked Questions regarding the PICLIST Fund ----------------------------------------------------- This FAQ is HUGE... How often are you going to be filling my mailbox with copies of it? Approximately once every two weeks while the Fund is open, then never again. The PICLIST generates 20-50 messages per day, so this FAQ should represent only a very small percentage of the total list traffic. What is the PICLIST Fund? The PICLIST Fund is a means for list members to express, through monetary donations, their gratitude to Jory Bell for the work he's done. The Fund will be open for donations for six months, then it'll be closed and all the collected money will be given to Jory. Anyone MAY donate to the Fund; no one HAS to. How will monetary donations help the PICLIST? As I mentioned above, Jory Bell's been operating, maintaining, and (occasionally) moderating the PICLIST since its inception. If you subscribe to the PICLIST, you know that it's particularly well-run in comparison to most other lists; Jory's managed to make it a truly valuable resource for all of us. What you may not know -- mostly because Jory's a modest guy -- is that he has had to devote a significant amount of his own time to operating the list. Unlike the other PIC-related mailing lists, the PICLIST isn't being run by a for-profit corporation; every hour that Jory's spent on the list has come out of his limited personal time. Jory's always spent that time freely, and he's never considered charging a fee for access to the PICLIST, but it's only right that we thank him for the PICLIST, and -- while he certainly wouldn't mind receiving an occasional thank-you note in e-mail -- thank-you notes don't pay the bills. Additionally, a number of troubling issues have recently arisen: 1. The free MIT list-server that Jory has been using may go away, necessitating a switch to a commercial server. 2. List-administration and -maintenance requirements have grown along with the PICLIST membership (currently, over 1,000 people subscribe to the list), and Jory's old hardware is starting to become overloaded. 3. We'd all like to add new peripheral services to the PICLIST. In particular, a searchable archive of the messages posted to the PICLIST, and a way for list-members to make large source-code (or whatever) files accessible to others, would be very useful additions. Commercial internet service, new hardware, and web pages don't come free... Even if someone DONATES the list- or web-hosting services, it'd be nice to have some money to support it; the PICLIST archives, for example, are very large and the server owners would certainly appreciate it if the PICLIST payed for its own disk space. Also, web-page creation and maintenance is a time-consuming job and it's unreasonable to assume that Jory's magnanimity extends to performing this thankless task. If a PICLIST web-page were created, some of the money collected by the Fund would probably go to a part-time Webmaster. Who's the custodian of the Fund? I am. Why you? Why not? Someone had to do it. Look... The Fund was my idea; Jory never asked for any money. Since I proposed the idea, it didn't seem right to ask anyone else to spend his or her time managing the Fund. Also, I've been a PICLIST member for a long time, and most members (I hope) feel that they can trust me to manage the Fund responsibly. See "How do we know you won't take the money and run?" below. I thought the PICLIST was free. Does this mean that we'll now have to pay money for access? NO! Everyone CAN contribute, but no one HAS to. Donations are absolutely voluntary; you won't gain any personal privileges on the PICLIST if you donate, and you won't lose any if you don't. No one will think any less of you if you choose not to contribute to the Fund, and if you don't contribute, the list (for as long as it's operational) will continue to be available to you for free, as it always has been. Jory has no intention of transforming the PICLIST into a fee-based service; the Fund has been set up for one-time voluntary donations only. What, exactly, will the money be used for? I don't know yet, and neither does Jory... Until we have an idea of how much money there'll be, it doesn't make much sense to decide how to spend it. If you have any specific suggestions, however, please send them to me in private email (Jory's busy enough already) and I'll pass them along to him. All we know right now is that we want to ensure that the PICLIST can survive without depending on the generosity of any one individual or corporation. If we can also expand the PICLIST to include auxiliary services like a list-member FTP site for distributing code samples, list archives, etc., that'd be great, too. One thing that you CAN be sure of is that ALL of the money will go to Jory... I'm DONATING the time and effort required to maintain the Fund; NO PORTION of the money is going to me. What if we donate our money and the list disappears anyway? Will there be any refunds? No. The Fund is primarily a vehicle for expressing our gratitude to Jory for work that he's ALREADY done... While there's a strong expectation that he'll spend the Fund money on improvements to the PICLIST, there's no guarantee that he'll do so. This doesn't bother me (or any of the people who've already contributed to the Fund) in the least. So how do we know that Jory won't just take the money and run? We don't. The money in the Fund will be given to Jory WITH NO STRINGS ATTACHED, so there are NO GUARANTEES as to the use to which he'll put it. If this makes you uncomfortable, do as the other contributors have done and try to think of your donation as an expression of gratitude for information you've ALREADY received from the list. If you still feel uncomfortable, please don't donate. How do we know that YOU won't take the money and run? I guess you don't, really... But keep in mind that I run a business whose success depends largely on my personal reputation. It wouldn't make much sense for me to risk that reputation for a sum of money that I expect will amount to less than what my business generates every couple of weeks. If it helps, I'll be happy to tell any potential contributor how to get in touch with an officer at the bank where the PICLIST Fund account is located... Just send me private e-mail. How do I donate to the Fund? I've set up an account at a local bank specifically for the PICLIST Fund. The bank doesn't want to receive checks directly, so if you'd like to contribute, please send checks only (I don't want to deal with cash or credit cards) to the following address: The PICLIST Fund c/o Fast Forward Engineering 1984 Casablanca Court Vista, CA 92083-5043 USA IMPORTANT: Make checks payable to "Andrew Warren and Jory Bell". Both of our signatures will be required in order for any funds to be withdrawn from the account, so this shouldn't make anyone nervous. Please endorse the back of the check as follows: For Deposit Only Andrew Warren and Jory Bell Union Bank Acct #0923012314 Please include your e-mail address with your check. If you want your donation to be anonymous (as far as the rest of the list is concerned), please include a note to that effect. Is my donation tax-deductible as a "charitable contribution to a non-profit organization"? No. For income-tax-reporting purposes, Jory will probably report it as "gift income". How much should I donate? As much as you feel is appropriate. I don't think it's improper to recognize those who dig a little deeper, however, so I've come up with the following three-tiered "contributor-level" suggestions: LEVEL: AMOUNT: EXPLANATION: --------------------------------------------------------------- FRIEND $10 If you're a Student, you should be able to (Student) afford $10. This is less than the cost of one audio compact disc or a tank of gasoline, and it's not much more than the quantity-one retail price of a PIC16C84. FRIEND $30 If a Student can afford $10, anyone with a (Employed) job should be able to afford $30. PATRON: $50 A decent programming reference book costs at least this much. If you've received as much useful information from the list as you might reasonably expect to find in the average textbook and want to show your gratitude, this is the way. GOD: $75 Many of us have actually profited financially from the list, either through help that other list-members gave us with our commercial products or through sales of development software and hardware that we've advertised on the list. If you fall into this category, a $75 donation shouldn't significantly affect your balance sheet. Note that contributing at a particular level doesn't actually MEAN anything... Sorry, but you won't receive a commemorative T-shirt or coffee mug even if you donate at the "God" level. I don't live in the USA. Can I contribute with a check drawn on funds other than US dollars? Yes. The bank assures me that no fees will be charged for currency conversion. However, you should check with your bank to ensure that YOU won't be charged a fee if your check is converted to US dollars. I have more questions about the Fund. To whom should I send them? Jory and I are in contact, but he's not involved in the day-to-day running of the Fund. It'd be best, therefore, to send your questions directly to me at fastfwd@ix.netcom.com. -Andy === Andrew Warren - fastfwd@ix.netcom.com === === Fast Forward Engineering - Vista, California === === === === Custodian of the PICLIST Fund -- For more info, see: === === http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2499/fund.html ===