KC, MO Fundraising

Okay everyone here's a topic no one likes to talk about but has to be talked about: MONEY

As you all know I am by far a Millionaire. And as you all (now) know there are things we need money for. (e.g. domain name, web hosting, general merriment) In the past I had no problem with taking a decent amount of the financial burden for things like the Bantha BBQ because I knew it would help bring us all together and help us become official. Now that we are official I feel the financial burden lies with each one of us equally.

There are several ways to accomplish this.

1. We could all start paying dues. [most of the audience rolls eyes] I know no one likes this suggestion but it is an option. Honestly I think there are more cons than pros for this option. The pros are that it would give us a steady flow of income for our expenses and well, that's it. The cons are that there will be times that some member won't be able to/refuse to pay; It will be hard for us to get new members if they are expected to shell out cash at their first human interaction with us; and most us would probably rather spend our money on something else, like SW figures [cough Tony ].

2. We file for Non-Profit status and do traditonal fundraising like selling Gold C/Entertainment Books, Coupons to area business, car washes etc. I personally think this option has potential. Especially if say we wanted to do a group trip to Celebration III [puts pinky to mouth].

3. We start selling logo branded merchandise. A company called CafePress (you can visit their website here .) "Selling through CafePress.com is FREE. There are no pre-printing, setup or inventory fees. Every time you sell an item, we keep the base price and you earn your markup. Checks are sent out monthly." Now I realize that there will probably not be that many people who will want to buy this besides us. However, I think it is a viable option long-term. For example, It is too late to do it this year but is a big Comic book convention every year here in the fall. We could set-up a booth at this and similar events and sell our items and possibly gain new members.

I think both option 2 and 3 will work the best for us right now. However if we get a group of 50 or so regular members then a combination all three would probably work.

Ideas? Suggestions?

MTFBWY

 

PM me about the option I mentioned at the meeting. It's possible so I need to know what you want to do with it/how you want to do it, etc.