Club Arnage

Grand Fromage PM'd me a week or so back with the serious news that the costs of running CA were beyond his current means. There is an outstanding bill of £500 for the server hosting which, if it doesn't get settled soon, could result in the site closing down.

We discussed the issue a little at the Reading planning meeting and, while longer term there are some good ideas to generate a flow of income (e.g. Sell or Swap becomes a subscription forum, charge a little more mark-up on Club merchandise, charge for downloading the Guide etc etc) we didn't really come up with a good short-term method of cash injection to pay the bills.

I'm sure that the regulars here would not mind stumping up a bob or two, but I don't think this would raise even half of what is needed. Nevertheless, when I get some time I will look at setting up a PayPal account to receive donations (which I would personally prefer were made anonymously) that could provide a start. (I'd set it up with joint ownership - probably Steve, Dave D and myself - to ensure fair play)

There are two events during LM week where CA gets big exposure and where some tin rattling could take place, if 1) it's thought to be an appropriate way to go and 2) we can find some tins and people to rattle them. These are at the poo bar and the Friday calvacade.

So, let's start the discussion. Bear in mind that we are really too late for any changes to the site or merchandising this year, and we have an immediate target of £500. And please at the moment try to stick just to short term ideas, although we need to be considering long term plans as well.

Thanks!!  :)

For the short term maybe say, ten of us could find  £50.00 as a short-term interest free loan just to pay the bill?  Then start on the serious fund-raising effort.  We can't let this happen.  No way!

Blinding - hadn't even thought of that...any volunteers please PM me, including the max amount of pledge you wish to make.

(But do bear in mind you may have to write off the money)

I'd like to think that there'd be rather more than 10 willing to pitch in so the debt wouldn't be that much anyway if it had to be written off.  100 giving a fiver and I doubt if any of us would want it back.  Somebody with a bit more money maybe would be happy to write off their entire £50 - don't know.

Other thoughts : a prize draw?  With LM entry tickets as the prize?  Could Pieter get us a pit visit with RFH?  Anybody who could donate nice motor racing related prizes? Memorabilia gathering dust?  Perhaps if you wanted to do a voluntary membership fee then free entry to the draw could be the lure?

Gear sales on the site would be good. Hats?  As a quick fix, would anybody else pay £4 not £3.50 for their lanyards?  I would.

A fee for the successful sales/swaps?  Paypal is a safe way for buyers and sellers to exchange money, and maybe this can be fixed up so there's an automatic percentage rake-off for CA for anybody who uses it?  Nothing scary, just a small amount.

Tin rattling's fine but maybe with say a little CA badge - 2 euros a pop if you cough up? Wear your CA badge with pride!

Long-term members with business web-sites could pay a small fee for putting a link on?

All off the top of my head sans thinking cap!

EDIT : Hindy suggested that we should contribute to RLM.  If we're going to do fundraising then we need to swell our membership.  I'm sure he'd be willing to interview one of us over LM weekend.  Then we can get the web address out there a bit more.

I'd be quite happy to contribute say £10-20 towards the running of the site in the short term to help pay the bills. In the long term we can consider fundraising for the site/ merchandise etc.

If there is enough like minded individuals then I would go with setting up the paypal account. I would stress this should be a one-off arrangement and the site owners in collaboration with the members should plan a longer term strategy for keeping the site afloat.

I think we could do both loans and donations.  The forum has got to be worth a £5 of anyones money.

I do plan to charge more for those that don't pay before I leave. €6 ~ £4.  I'm just composing the post about paying.
At £3.50 If I sell all 200 and it looks a distinct possibility there will be £200 to help out.


When I spoke to Dave earlier in the week to get the OK to use the LOGO etc. I did mention to him the costs of the Server.  He specificaly said he's not keen on running Adverts on the site.

t.

I wasn't thinking of bold and obvious advertising, L/M, simply a discreet website link in the profile, much as we have now for some members. (And I don't mean to photostreams etc, just potentially profit-making sites).

how about a Club Arnage Calander, there are enough good photographers on CA to donate a few pictures.

I know the ACO can be a bit protective of their image rights and a way around that would need to be found, but there is a lack of a good one I think.

I would not mind paying an annual sub to keep the site going, maybe the lure could be prizes and access to the sell and swap section and maybe a members only area.

Sell and sawp would need to be free I think to sell, but in order to buy you need to pay. The downside would be the possibility of driving potential sellers to other sites.

I'm quite willing to set up a bucket at the entry to the St. Saturnin Friday with a notice explaining why and asking for donations if you need. I appreciate you'd have to trust me on this but if you want I'll be there from 9am until 4pm and can, I'm told be quite persuasive!

For starters, change hosts. I run my Rugby clubs site on Streamlinenet which although probably not the best host, it will run the CA site and forum no bother. It has unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth all for £80 for 2 years. I've also got 3 spare databases which I run a gallery on one and am about to put up 2 more club sites.

Same company I use, but I think Dave Davies want to leave it with the current provider. There may be another business reason for this.

Hmm, that sounds like bad news for Kidney Research, Black Granny and his inspectors were planning to rattle a few buckets at the DFH gig, and people aren't going to dip into their pockets twice.
I've suggested charging for buying tickets at cost from contacts on this site before, something like a charge to log on to 'Sell or Swap' section seems like a good idea to me.
How dire are these straits? Is this something that needs sorting out right now, or can it wait till after June?
Pistonheads never seem short of sponsors, it could be worth taking a closer look at their site to get a few ideas.
Of course, all of our crew are willing to sell their bodies for a small fee over the race weekend, although most are slightly worn...
H

You've got mail

You have mail

All in favour of keeping names private Smokie, but how about a target and a note of how close we're getting?  Might egg more on?

Good idea

Goodness - this simply won't do - there is far too much friendship, fun and cameraderie on this site for it to wither.  Cash is always tight for all sorts of reasons (somehow it seems to relate directly to spending beyond income apparently) but never so tight that I can't support this.  Just let me know where/how to contribute..... ;D

As another thought for CA members, there's always ebay to clear out stuff that you no longer need/want that is cluttering up the garage and loft, and then donate the proceeds to the site.

MG Mark

Our club has something like 1800 members? I know most are inactive! If we put £2.00 each their must be 250 who care???

Yep, I was proposing a regular update.

The response has been astonishing in just a few hours.

Just reached the immediate £500 target... it was only on £370 when I started writing this!!

I favour letting more offers roll in for a day or two more, thereby lowering everyones commitment (but making it a little harder to administer if/when there are funds to return) rather than simply "closing the lines" right away. Additionally we will probably set up a permanent "make a donation" link someplace, which might help a little in the longer term.

I will get a PayPal arrangement set up tomorrow.

Thanks on everyone's behalf to those who have volunteered.

Good point that BigH makes about his magnificent efforts for Kidney Research - he is already planning tin rattling so that may be a no-no. (btw H I believe Pistonheads was bought by Haymarket or someone, around the time of Hammy's accident, or do I have my fora confused?)

Keith - we reckon there are not more than 30 - 40 (OK, maybe a few more at this time of year) active members.

Stu - Dave specifically does not want to move the hosting - although maybe he could be persuaded to think again on that.

When I spoke to Dave I offered him free hosting on my server at least in the short term.  I think he has BIG concerns about moving servers,  Even more so given the short time left till we go south.  It may be worth revisiting the idea of moving servers once things quiten down after June/July.   I think we have to allow Dave to do what he feels comfortable with.

Although Dave is not very active on the site I do know he cares about it a lot.  He is pretty busy at the moment getting ready for PQ and the Race itself.    So it may be that he doesn't have the time right now to investigate the best solution. He's just taking the easiest.

Regards,
T.

get the paypal thing sorted out and you will have a donation coming your way from me :)

Maybe your donators could set a lower limit of when they don't want their contribution back?  Say, if you only need £20 of my £50, keep it.  Something like that.  Each individual according to their means/strength of feeling about this.

I suspect that although there are only 40 or so apparently active members, that there may be others who look in without logging in (our "lurkers") on a regular basis, who may still feel more strongly about the site than you think.  We know how many people turn up at the 'poo bar - it's got to be more than 40.

Changing servers sounds as if it could be fraught with problems, at least in the short term.  I'm no techie but you seem to have made big strides recently in getting shot of spammers.  It would be a pity to make a retrograde step for a short term aim that it looks like you can solve, anyway.  I'm a member of another forum and the software is awful and causes countless problems.  Would a change of server affect this?

Yes, it was Pistonheads which was bought by Haymarket, btw.  But it's a massive site covering much more than sports cars so I bet their revenue strength is much greater than CA's could ever be, from an advertiser's point of view.

EDIT I take Big H's point about the clash with the charities.  However, I'll bet the site members here have already pledged a bit and that more will be forthcoming in June.  If CA collapses in a heap then the situation will only get worse for the charities we support.

come on then Smokes,sort out paypal.Im sure we'll raise enough to keep us up and running in the short term.
Buys us some time to come up with a more permanent way of funding.
PM

Smokester,

PM'ed you earlier today. Please let me know.

so a max of £ 15 each then?

Smokie,

Let me know when the Paypal thing is sorted and I'll put some money in straight away. I wont want it back.

Jem

No, I've deliberately not set a figure, as some can afford more than others. That's also why I thought it best kept anonymous, and why I asked for communication via PM rather than on the thread. It will be managed jointly by the mods and Dave, and I don't see why accounts (without names) should not be available to participants on request.

Once again Termie has come up trumps with the idea of "how much do you not want back" as this might ease the admin. However we should obviously aim to repay every penny, but it will take a collective effort of some sort.

One or two people have PMd me without stating the amount they are prepared to stump up. I'll PM them back, but it would be helpful if people could place a max value on their pledge. That way, when I "close" the book I can work out how much I need from each to achieve the target. At this stage I do not want to collect and be responsible for a long term fund.

Sort out the Paypal thing and i'll be making a donation, didn't get my ticket off here this year but have done previous years so definately worth a few quid.

Tim.

I would pay for a link to my web site, I can put it as advertising for my company,

but even better - I would'nt expect any work from it, as I'm in a special unusal industry - Strange but true. It woud just help with the branding of my company and its service

As one of those probably classed as a "lurker" , I would glady make a donation.

This site has given me countless pointers, reams of information & hours of laughs .

Long may it continue !

In my humble opinion (or IMHO if you prefer) there are many members like me who may not be at the forefront of CA activity but could not bear to see the site go to the wall for the sake of a few quid. Due to the nature of our collective hobby we must all have a bit of spare cash to make sure that this institution keeps running! As previously stated I do not (due to time and knowledge constraints) join in the discussions a great deal but would pay for the entertainment value of the site alone! If a paypal account is set up please let us know so that a donation may be made.

Cheers

(I know that this is probably a longer winded version of Steve Bs response but I just wanted to add my two penneth worth)

Not to get too soppy and girly and stuff but at times like these, it's easy to see what's so great about CA.  If the members have anything to do with it, this site just is not going to lie down and die.  Makes you feel all warm inside... :)

It's good to see these guys posting and offering support.  Sometimes it's easy to fall in to the trap of thinking that only the regular posters feel they  get any benifit from the site.  Thus one starts to think those guests and "lurkers" won't contribute.  When in fact they get just as much out of the site but in a different way. 

I was amazed last year at the number of people I met who had downloaded The Guide. 

Thanks guys.

It does my heart good to read the posts on this thread. From its origins more than 10 years ago Club Arnage and the forum have improved the experience of Le Mans for thousands of people. It remains free of advertising and is an 'enthusiast' based not-for-profit enterprise.  I was very tentative about revealing our poor financial state, but it just came to a pass where I had no option.  Hopefully we can put CA on a sound long-term path to stability. I just need the help and understanding of regulars to get us through this small 'hiatus'.

We have many friends all over the world in the fan community but also within the race teams, sanctioning bodies and in the press corps. I hope we can keep on the rails this year and continue to flourish into our second decade. We ARE the oldest established Le Mans related website in continuous use since 1995.

Thank you.

Hey GF,

I don't think that there is any doubt that the immediate problem will be rapidly overcome.

The community on here is a marvellous one.

I don't want to try to speak for everyone (or anyone) but, huge thanks for your work over the years.

Also to Smokester and more recently, Steve.

Thanks.

I am sure DfH can contribute into this, just send LT or me a PM and we'll donate.
We have learned a lot from CA, and made some great friends here. DfH could never be like it is today if it wasn't for CA.

I would second the comments of those who have suggested moving servers to reduce costs, although I can understand why there is reluctance to do so.  Having moved a site recently and run into problems due to the number of people involved.  The end result was that the site was down for a couple of weeks, and lost its Google ranking for a month or so.  However once it had been recrawled by Google it was back at the top of the ranking again.

I do believe Hindy said that Club Arnage could sell T Shirts through the RLM shop.  Is that something that could be investigated for the future?  If there was a surplus of money from the immediate appeal could the surplus be used to buy T Shirts or similar for sale on the RLM stand?  
 

Moving the server...

I'd hate to move it at all, but I'd really hate to move at at date so close to June.

We have a great situation for our co-located server and backup server at Uni-C. They have reduced our costs over the years and they don't charge a premium however many gigabytes we serve over our connection. If anyone can find an 'open bandwidth' co-location deal to beat what we have now, I'm sure we can get Uni-C to match the price.

Streamlinenet do a complete unlimited package for £80 for two years. I have never had a problem with them other then that they do not have telephone support only email.

(BTW GF I still have your camping gear in the garage. Do you want it at LM?)

UPDATE: We now have pledges far in excess of the immediate requirement. Thanks one and all, the support has been truly overwhelming.

I have set up a PayPal account, I just need to check details and operation before announcing the detail (tomorrow).

Also I will have a discussion with GF about exactly what our approach will be - I'm simply thinking along the lines of whether we really want to run a surplus (I think we do, as it could be useful for funding future fund raising opportunities, and de-risking them for individual members - e.g. maybe Tom gets 300 lanyards made) and how the fund would be managed (again, I'm thinking that you - the members - appoint a small fund raising committee (which excludes us mods and GF) to coordinate efforts and authorise expenditure, and ensure transparency). Personally I would not want any surplus going to one of our charities - I would prefer to collect less in the first place, leaving the surplus with individuals for them to do with it what they choose.

As an aside, Dave already has some ideas for changes to the site which might give opportunities for fund raising.

Again, thanks for the support!! I haven't yet had time to respond to all the PMs but will try to catch up on this tomorrow. ;D

Would gladly pledge a donation to help keep this great site alive, not one of the most active posters on here, but often log on here for a good read.

As a sugestion, could this site offer to sell camping passes & entrance tickets (with a small proffit) to help things in future? Not sure how you would go about this though, maybe a year in advance.
I look here each year to buy our camping pass as i find it easier than trying to buy from ACO.
Happy to pay a bit extra this year for next years pass.

As usual I have ordered extra tickets for next year in case I may need them. For quite a few years I have sold off any surplas and split the postal charge that the ACO have charged me between myself and whoever I sell the tickets on to. This.IIRC, is about 8 Euro, So next year I will charge any buyers the full postage and donate that amount to CA. This will keep us to our no profiteering ethos as the tickets will still be sold at cost price. If anyone who sells tickets through this site did the same it would amount to quite a sizable donation which no-one would mind paying.

just logged onto this and will be donating as soon as paypal is up!

got to keep the good work up ;)

Filthy lucre snatched from the landlord's grasp and ready to offer athletic support to our beloved CA.

We would be lost without the only way to get hot and bothered about the second w/e in June

Wow!  Just checked in and seen this topic.  Can't let CA fade away.  Far too much fun and interest all year for that, so there'll be a contribution from me when PP is up and running.

Keep up the good work guys :-D

Hello to all, new to CA today.

I feel the Paypal donation is a viable start.

I will make my first LM visit this year. I will be asking for all help/tips I can get!

My first ? is how to best obtain any grandstand ticket (just one) as I did not get one online in time.

Thanks!

Try the sell and swap section but you will have to be quick. BTW welcome to CA!

Just like to say thanks to all at CA, for making this a first class site. We can't and we wont let it go to the wall. Glad to see with some relief that the immediate problems are solved, but need as a group to ensure that the future of this site stays safe and viable.
Good luck with your efforts smokster.
Brian.

It'd be terrible if CA disappeared. I think the idea of a store selling downloads of the guide, baseball caps, lanyards / ticket holders, badges etc is a good one. The only problem is the fact that once you've got a CA cap etc. you might not want to get another.

Alternatively, a requirement to register in order to post in the buy / sell / swap forum. (The Skoda forum I visit has a membership requirement like this, and I think it works well)

Or we buy up loads of tickets, and hawk them on ebay for a fortune. (Not sure about this one)

I know that these have been suggested before, but just thought I should add my vote.

Like Paddy said,

We will open a topic for everyone of us who wants to donate to the cause of keeping CA up and running. There must be at least 10 of us who post here on a semi regular basis.

All procedes of the fundraiser on our party however will go to Doris' charity, like last year!

Blimey, this has flushed out the lurkers hasn't it - well done!  ;D

As KK has said we'll happily pay up - we've made some great friends through this site and life would be much poorer without it.

KK will happily donate pictures for a calender and this could be run through photobox with no admin costs to the site.  The slight problem would be the ACO copyright issue that I'm sure will cause DD some concern. 

As many of you know I'm involved with MotorsportvisionRacing - I'll see if I can swing some tickets to some events - not sure about the best way to deal with them - ebay auction linked from a thread? 

I feel quite shallow saying the next bit...but I like "our" site as it is, I'd hate it to become Pistonheads or similar, I like it the way it is and I'd be more than happy to pay to keep it this way. 

Cheers Dave and co for the site - we don't say thanks often enough but life would be different without it (I might get more done at home though!)   ;D

Of course I'll join in with helping CA. I will do that through the joint DfH fund.

I will help to keep the site going.
Mike

Blimey, you don't check the site for a couple of days and look what happens!

Get the PP account working, and a donation will be with you...

Without this site I wouldn't have such a strange assortment (according to swmbo))of t-shirts.  Long may it expand!

Patrick.

Thanks to all for your support.

I have now set up a PayPal account (club_arnage@ntlworld.com) and would be delighted to start receiving donations. Dave has sent me the hosting invoice to be paid, I'd like to get that completed this week.

Can I request that, thanks to the over-subscription, in the first place people simply make donations. The loan idea was great as it got the ball rolling, but administering loans could be time consuming and would require a level of administrative support. If subscriptions in the next few days do not meet the necessary figure then, depending on the shortfall, I will contact those who indicated they would loan via email. I will post regualr updates on progress on this thread - but as usual I am off to Aberdeen on Tuesday when my access becomes more limited.

The donations will remain anonymous but I would be happy to provide a summary of income/expenditure to any subscibing member on request. I am thinking that we should set up a "committee" (which would exclude Steve, Dave D and myself) to approve expenditure and plan fund raising, and in particular ensure fair play. It's not necessary to post here to confirm you have paid, I will receive details directly from PayPal.

Hopefully the funds are already rolling in. ;)
Signed, anonymous.

They most certainly are...  ;D

The PayPal account might not work right now.

I set up a PayPal ordinary account but got a warning that it could only accept two CC payments a year. So I upgraded to a Premier acocunt and it has now limited the account while I fulfill a set of inappropriate questions about "my business". It isn't a scam, but I will call them tomorrow first thing to sort it out.

ISTR the DfH lads having a similar problem...

Just checked in and seen this.

As most have already said......we just cannot let CA go. Although my boss would probably disagree, as I seem to spend increasing amounts of time lurking and reading CA rather than doing what is fats becoming a mundane job. Oh well.

Happy to make a donation for the short term problem, as I see it is as fair for the amount of info and giggles you get from reading the various posts.

Is the pay pal up and running correctly now?

Just logged on after a bysu weekend all over the place - surplus or not, let us know when the paypal account is sorted.

MG Mark

Just tried to donate via PayPal but the "Recipient unable to receive fiunds" apparently...

Let us know when we can donaate and I am sure you will be flooded...

As soon as paypal is up and running, donation to the fighting fund will be on it's way.

IMHO any monies in excess of immediate requirements should be put in a reserve fund untill longterm finance is sorted out, and running smoothly. Once CA's future is safe, then a decission can be made whether to donate any excess money to charity, or prehaps keep a fund available for special circumstances, ie members losing money on t-shirts orders etc. I know that some members have been out of pocket in the past due to non payers etc. 

I think some sort of committee would be a good idea. It would also mean that all of the CA merchandise could be organised from a central point of contact rather than several individuals all using up their own time (and often losing money in the process). Adding a couple of extra quid on the prices of things should fill the coffers nicely for the future. When you think how much some of us spend going to LM (Paddy!) I'm sure we won't miss the extra.

You don't get anything for nothing these days and it's not really fair that a couple of people have been running this site out of their own pockets while we enjoy it for free.

I used the link late last night, without any problems, well I hope there was not, got my pay pal reciept via e mail.

Just had the same response here  ???

Rusty

Can't see anything beyond Brian's contribution.

I've spent a long time on the phone to them today. There are two items which I cannot reolve, which I am expecting them to remove from the limitation on receipt of an email. The third item is where I have to verify the amount of two payments into the registered bank account, which won't happen for three to 5 days; they tel; me that payments cannot be received until that's completed. Update to follow...

I have just had a long chat to Smokie on the phone.  He is obviously very busy not only with the immediate CA funding problem, but also with the small matter of earning a crust.  I have therefore volunteered - on a purely temporary basis - to begin the logistical business of setting up a fund-raising commitee.  Smokie and the "Big Cheese" are obviously concerned, particularly in view of the huge and heartwarming response to this thread, that everything is seen be clear and above board; also that the members have a proper input into current and any future funding - how we go about it, how the money is spent etc.

To this end, you will shortly see another sticky thread entitled "Fundraising Committee."  Initially, all we want are volunteers to kick the thing off.  We would like the commitee to be in place in time for the race so that they can begin to sort things out once everybody is back home.  Rather than nominating others, we have taken the executive decision of asking you to nominate yourselve, as much depends upon the time, enthusiasm and expertise which you are able to bring. "One volunteer is worth ten pressed men" as they say!

We would also be very interested to hear from anybody who has any financial expertise.  In view of the Pay-Pal problems which we are already experiencing, our own gut feeling is that it would be better if we could ultimately start our own bank account and have a credit card payment link on here, but our own expertise in this field is - shall we say - limited. ::)

Thanks on Smokie and Dave's behalf for all you have done so far.

I would stress again, that I am not taking this over, I am just here to start the ball rolling as I have, shall we say, a little more personal time than some.

But of a ball*ache when you want to keept the impetus going, but that seems to be standard paypal operating practice when getting a verified account - never a problem thereafter, but a pain whilst waiting for it.   

MG Mark

OK, so I'm getting old and the years left diminish but I've sat and worked this out:-

If the powers that be grant me 10 years then that is 3650 days, forgetting the bonus day every four years.

If I can't afford around one half of one penny per day to help this site keep going then either I am already in deep doo-doo or else I should be giving economy lessons to Mr. E. Scrooge.

As and when the Paypal account is up and running you will have my contribution. I tried at 13.30BST today and it wasn't so I'll try tomorrow.

Probably not until the weekend. I have to wait for PayPal to pay in amounts to the bank account then verify the account.

I'll post when this is complete.

Sorry - I called them but that's the process and I'm stuck with it...  >:(

Well there I was, lounging in the sun on a dive boat for a week.

I come back and, having read the responses so far, I'm overwhelmed at the generosity and kind words of fellow CA'ers.

It's these shows of solidarity that make this such a great web site and forum.

Part of the solution appears to be lying in your own hands Harry. No, not that, I'm simply suggesting that seeing as you're cycling to Le Mans, I'm kinda assuming you'd be more that willing to cycle back to Blighty? All in a good cause of course.

That aside, the response here has been typically fantastic; nothing ever surprises me as to the levels of friendship, generousity and helpfulness of CA and Le Mans people. It's nice to see the amount of folks coming out of the internet woodwork too, folk who don't post so often but who really do appreciate what CA can offer on so many different levels. Good on you all!

I seem to have missed most of this.  On the basis that Smokie didn't have his begging bowl on friday, I assume its sorted.

Can we have a stickie for funding in the future

Still, it could be worse. At least Dire Straits aren't in Club Arnage. Not that I've got anything against them, I just think they've lost a lot of their appeal these days.

Although on second thoughts, if they were, perhaps they could have filled in on friday night and helped us raise money - selfish bastards.

Holy Jesus Crack Smokin' Mary and Mother Of Mickey Rooney!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is that a no then?

Maybe it's an idea to prevent these enormous bills to look at free mirrors for hosting the CA Guide. I don't know how that will be done this years, since it's only the forum now, but if I recall from last year that was on the website too. Maybe that's a factor generating a lot of data. And a cheap but good provider is never a bad idea. From experience I think 1&1 is quite good and cheap, JPC would agree with me I think.

I'm not entirely sure - I rather think that it could be equally interpreted as a "eureka" moment as he saw the light.....

MG Mark

The hosting overheads are one of many things that the new committee will be tasked with looking at, but as DD says somewhere above he has reasons for keeping it where it is, especially for now.

Right then, lets get this sorted.

"Fundraising Committee." is where we go to now!

Suggest this thread closes? ????
-----------------------------------------------

Whoops ,,,,,,,,,, just read the "Fundraising Committee." thread.
PalPal will do fine, please inform when it's up & running. I'm up for it!

Well I wish Smokie the best of luck at getting the Paypal account verified.  I tried doing it to mine last night and found myself throwing my toys out of the pram and nearly throwing the PC out the window.

Needed the address of my bank branck inc Postcode, thats great.  Can't find cheque book, so phone the 24 hour online banking, and whilst on phone fill in the details.  Hang up to bank, and then press next on Paypal, when it decided to loose the data I have just entered!  Grrrr.

Must try and do it again in the future!

Can't believe it  :o I go away for a week and then my world falls apart.
Donation will be imminent when paypal account is working
keep us posted smokie.

Despite me fulfilling their requirements, PayPal still feel unable to delimit the new account, so Del has kindly suggested that CA contributions should be made to his PayPal account at

delboy@del-a.orangehome.co.uk (www.paypal.co.uk). Please put CA Fund in the Title box.

Longer term we are looking into getting a Club account with internet banking with one of the high street banks.

Please donate whatever you can. Thanks to the pledges received earlier, we should not need to pursue the loan idea.

Geoff

Done. Come on folks, honour those pledges. CA WILL survive  ;D

Done.

Sorted and done - thanks to Del for allowing his account to be used to keep the impetus going

MG Mark

Done.  Contribution on it's way to Del's CA fund account.

del
money sent to you via paypal

PM

Done.

Done.

Done  ;)

Also done :)

Done

Just bumping this back up near the top, just as a reminder to those who may not yet have hit the paypal button.

MG Mark

another bump ;D

On to it now

done too

I found myself verified after renewal of my account. Apparently you get verified after spending €1500 (£1000), which I obviously did (since '03).

You better upgrade the amount of topics per page too then, at the moment there's more stickies then 'normal' topics on page one :-\

Bugger this, I'll sticky it.

Hey, one of the servers has a time difference! :o ::)

Or connect it to your creditcard, and you'll have it verified within the month. :)

Are we there yet Del?   Is CA saved?  What will I do at work if I can't log on to CA?

Running total if possible please.

Done and dusted.

Jerry

I'm planning to do it when I'm back from Aberdeen at the end of the week.

However, I can safely predict that CA will be secure, at least for the short term, thanks to y'all!!  :)

Still have to make my contribution, got to do it on home computer as this bloody thing won't let me in.
Will try tonight.
Good to see the good ship Arnage will sail forth. Well done to all!

You have mail!!!
Malcolm.

Contribution sent. Like many others who have posted I mostly lurk, but this site has proved invaluable over the years and I'm happy to do my bit.

Can we have "I saved Club Arnage" t-shirts!

You know that whole "Frankie says" Tshirts thing is very popular again  ;D

ANOTHER MONEY MAKING IDEA RIGHT THERE. I WOULD BE HAPPY TO SPEND A BIT MORE FOR A T- SHIRT AND ADD A LITTLE MORE TO THE WAR CHEST. FINALLY GOT THROUGH ON PAYPAL, SAID EVERYTHING WENT THROUGH OK

Done

Done (I think!)

F

Yeah, feel free to print 'em yourself and donate a couple of quid  ;D ;D ;D

My wardrobe is bursting with CA, DfH and other LM related t shirts. I know you can never have enough of a Good Thing, but I nearly have enough  :) Just a few more years....

Done

After loads of hassle, managed to use the paypal link!! Delighted to be able to assist, the experience wouldn't be the same without the help, and build up to the week on here.

may I be so bold as to ask how much has been raised so far

PM

See
http://www.clubarnage.com/forum/index.php?topic=7061.0

Note to mods : I for one think all these sticky threads are beginning to crowd out the important ones.  Maybe unsticky the Fundraising Committee and the FC Election threads now as they're pretty much done with?

Sent modest 'leg-up'.

T-Shirts would be a good idea. Are you guys going to sell them ??

Then you could organise a gathering at LM2008.. To raise more money. Just an idea.

 8)

There will be 2008 t-shirts, yes.  Meet at the Champagne Bar 21.00 Saturday during the race - tins will be rattled! ;D

Just to amplify Termie's response, see

http://www.clubarnage.com/forum/index.php?topic=6463.0

with the final design here

 http://www.drinkingforholland.com/Paddy/ClubArnageShirtCompleet.jpg

The design for 2008 shirts will start (hopefully) in December!!

Del