[CSL board] Fundraising dan revised

[Laura MacNeil]

Dan and I talked about this at length over the weekend (as you can well 
imagine.)

Should the board decide to go this route, all board members will have to 
make some effort to raise funds whether it be personal donations, asking 
family, friends and professional contacts to support the CSL and grant 
writing. Are we prepared to do this?

Laura

Dan MacNeil wrote:

> Josh Harding wrote:
>
>> Hi All -
>>
>> Dan - you're probably not going to like this too much :P
>
>
> What's not to like? Only my mom says nicer things. :->
>
> > today now). I would greatly appreciate feedback, critique
> > and comments.
>
> It all seems good to me.
>
> > Dan be asked to allocate the theoretical 'new' 10 hours a
> > week to growth opportunities. [...] actively and methodically
> > seeking new contracts, contacts, and funding for the Lab.
>
> It is wonderful to be asked to do what you want to do anyway.
>
> > Dan systematically collaborate with another member
> > of the staff for those 10 hours. This would introduce the Lowell NPO
> > community to the Lab as an entity of it's own. Right now Dan is the
> > face of the organization, which is fine, but should not continue
> > indefinitely.
>
> I'm all for me not being the face of the organization. My fantasy is 
> to have somebody like Felicia Sullivan or you do it. I'm much happier 
> nagging people to show up on time or telling them that $GLOBAL_VARS 
> are bad, than I am going to conferences and shaking hands.
>
> One problem is that right now in cadre (Kamala,Manny,Matt,John) there 
> isn't anyone that is skilled and interested enough to take this sort 
> of thing on and also likely to be around for long enough to make the 
> investment pay off.
>
> John would do pretty well, but he's gone in March. (sigh)
>
> That said, I try to bring everyone to things like NPA events, 
> Philanthropy Day, telcom dept focus groups, art receptions and 
> Enterprise Bank cocktail parties and CBA protests.
>
> One pretty good work around, is to have Board Members do some of the 
> networking. Melissa has been kind enough to attend various functions 
> in our name and I think done pretty well.
>
> Another possibility is to be really nice to the coming fundraising 
> VISTA, (there are a couple good candidates)
>
>
> #######
>
>
>>
>> I have little experience with the finances of the non-profit sector 
>> (heck, I
>> can't even balance my checkbook). That stated, my opinion follows.
>>
>> It seems to me that on the road to sustainability, being able to have a
>> full-time executive director is a very important milestone. If 
>> financially
>> viable, I would be strongly behind getting Dan in the Lab full time. 
>> Dan can
>> best comment on the dynamic of the lab, but having a 'fearless 
>> leader' who's
>> full-time would strike me as a morale booster. Additionally, there 
>> are many
>> conclusive studies that devoting complete attention to a task greatly
>> improves effectiveness and efficiency. So, I think we'd be getting 
>> more than
>> just an extra ten hours - we'd be getting time for him to work on larger
>> projects, and effectively delegate minutiae to others.
>>
>> Aside from the technical skills & drive Dan provides, he's also the 
>> public
>> face of the Lab right now. I would propose that, should we find a way to
>> make it happen, Dan be asked to allocate the theoretical 'new' 10 
>> hours a
>> week to growth opportunities. That would certainly include lunches with
>> Gregg, but also actively and methodically seeking new contracts, 
>> contacts,
>> and funding for the Lab. Dan: your technical repertoire is essential 
>> to the
>> lab, but it's not what keeps us alive. It's your drive, your presence 
>> in the
>> greater Lowell community that allows us to exist.
>>
>> I would also suggest that Dan systematically collaborate with another 
>> member
>> of the staff for those 10 hours. This would introduce the Lowell NPO
>> community to the Lab as an entity of it's own. Right now Dan is the 
>> face of
>> the organization, which is fine, but should not continue indefinitely.
>>
>> I would also propose that we set an general set of deliverables to be
>> accomplished by Dan and his cohort, whether it be in new contracts, 
>> grant
>> applications, grants err... granted, conversations in which people 
>> smiled,
>> etc...
>>
>> All that was off-the-cuff, as I haven't had access to a computer over 
>> the
>> weekend and wanted to get this email out tonight (well, today now). I 
>> would
>> greatly appreciate feedback, critique and comments.
>>
>> -Josh
>> On 9/10/06, Dan MacNeil <omacneil at brave.cs.uml.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> When I worked at Habitat, there was a guy "Richter", who had the word
>>> from God to get on his bicycle, travel around the country and spread 
>>> the
>>> good news of Jesus. As I understand Richter, God also wanted people to
>>> tithe to support Richter's mission.
>>>
>>> A couple times he came up to visit us up in Lowell. Unfortunately (?)
>>> after Laura suggested that maybe God wanted Richter to get a job,
>>> Richter decided not to visit us any more.
>>>
>>> I think the CSL would work better if I could quit my day job, but given
>>> Richter's example, I have my doubts.
>>>
>>> My big questions for the board meeting:
>>>
>>>     Is it worth $16,000 to have my full time attention for a year?
>>>
>>>     If so, can we raise $8,000 by May 01 2006 to cover 6 months
>>>     of salary, freeing up time for more fundraising?
>>>
>>> $16,000 is what the CS Dept pays me per year. With this money and a lot
>>> of support from Laura, I've  volunteered full time for the past 4 
>>> years.
>>> Our work is very satisfying, my support is solid. I can volunteer at
>>> this level for quite a few more years.
>>>
>>> But...
>>>
>>> Fifty years from now, I'm unlikely to be fit to be fearless leader. 16K
>>> might not be enough to sustain somebody who isn't married to Laura.
>>> However, it is a start...
>>>
>>> With Ken's (my boss') blessing I spend at least half my time time at
>>> the day job working on CSL stuff. At least in theory, paying me to work
>>> full time at the lab will only free up 10 more hours a week.
>>>
>>> The problem is that these 10 hours are broken up in to small chunks and
>>> while I'm allowed to be idle, I need to be on site. It is hard 
>>> sometimes
>>> to concentrate and I miss opportunities like 501 tech club or the Perl
>>> Mongers.
>>>
>>> A 2-3 hour block of uninterrupted time every day would be a huge help.
>>>
>>> Except for the time I blow off, I'm on the clock 9am to 9pm which is
>>> usually fine. (I like the work.) Occasionally, it is not fine and I 
>>> find
>>> myself being less accepting of cadre's little quirks than I might
>>> otherwise be.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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