Someone is in a lot of trouble right now and I am really concerned. I think we can help. If anyone is interested, let's start a fund and have someone trustworthy like Heavenly or Mary Janes handle it and disburse it. If each one of us sent $10 or $20 to the fund and had Heavenly or Mary Janes (if they agree to be the intermediary) forward it on, it might help get back on the utilities or pay for a plumber.

Xarelel...are there any Harley rules for or against this?

Any suggestions?

I have to leave and go into the office for a few hours today but will check back later.

Catnip =^^=

catnip,
I was wondering the same thing.

Dawn

I would send $$ in a heartbeat....just tell me where!

I think this is a lovely idea.

I only wish I could contribute more. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Frown]" src="images/icons/frown.gif" />

Count me in!

Tina

I'm positive my H would enthusiastically agree with and support this idea! Personally, I think it is a terrific suggestion...

I have sent and received goodies and/or bought books from MBers in the past without negative ramifications.

We are here for each other and I would gladly help with $ or whatever it takes. Just let me know how to go about it.

Count me in.

melissa

why?, when? and where do i send it.....oh yeah... how much?....

peace

tim

Excellent. Now we have to elect a treasurer of sorts. I was hoping we might hear from Heavenly or Mary Janes or someone else more stable who might volunteer to handle the fund. I can't because I am a gypsy and I might be moving again soon and with change of addresses, it could be problematic.

We can nominate some people and put it to a vote if they accept the nomination.....

Any nominations or volunteers to handle the money?

Heavenly? Mary Janes? Gem? We need someone somewhat financially stable, someone who doesn't move around, and in a good recovery.

Any other nominees? Volunteers? I know it is scary being responsible for collecting and disbursing $ and therefore, I propose we put two people in charge to answer to each other and report to us, that way they might feel more comfortable doing this sharing the responsibility. We can keep a record and make it open to any registered member so we know where we stand. We can submit a name of a person who needs the help and vote on it and give the name to the treasurer.

This might work with minimal organization and minimal work. All of our time is valuable but this little venture won't be overwhelming. Collect checks, disburse funds according to the unamimous decision of the members.

I'm excited...let's see what ideas we can come up with. Ladies? Gentlemen?

I got $20 bucks burning a hole in my pocket right now and I have set it aside for the fund.

Catnip =^^=

PS hubby tuff....whatever the ledger allows, be it $1 or $10 or more...it is strictly up to the donor. $1 has a talent to grow to a lot more and if everyone chips in a little, whatever affordable, it can become a lot and the recipient might get enough to get a plumber, turn on the heat or buy a Christmas turkey or buy a maternity shirt...who knows.

<small>[ December 06, 2002, 12:59 PM: Message edited by: catnip ]</small>

Just an idea that might work - is paypal - you can send money to anyone with an email address. That way the recipient can receive it directly, and nobody has to be in charge. Kind of impersonal, though. I don't know if it would be OK, but please let me know what you decide to do, I'd like to contribute.

Or maybe we could send it to their church? She mentioned the pastor's wife......

I like the paypal idea also!@

Dear MB friends,

I am glad to be on this Christmas venture and will be happy to do whatever Catnip feels is appropriate to make it happen.

Catnip you can e-mail me directly if you wish. Xarelel can provide me e-mail address to you.

What a wonderful idea. This is what the season is truly about. I love you guys.

Heavenly

Hello,
I know that on one of my other boards there is a fund set up for someone and it is like Joshmom said through paypal and it goes directly toward the fund. Just need someone to setup.

Dawn

I am checking into MB policies as requested, however I don't see a problem. As I see it, this endeavor involves cyber friends uniting for a common cause and no actual involvement of MB. Continue with your plans and if I get information contrary to what I have told you, I'll let you know.

Good Luck!! And let me know if there's any way I can help (besides my already planned contribution <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="images/icons/wink.gif" /> )

Dear Catnip,

I just read a bit about the paypal system at paypal.com and it sounds quite easy for all of us to do.

The only drawback is that we would have no way of knowing how much we actually collected from all of our MB friends. That is not essential, but it would have been nice to keep a tab on how much was being collected and sent.

Go to the website and read about it. Then let us know.

love,
heavenly

Thank you, Justuss for your support. We will follow any rules of this board. Please let us know if we get off balance here.

Heavenly....I don't have a clue how to set up paypal, and I need information. I don't want to make any decisions without everyone's input because this is a united effort. I would like to record the donations so the donors could all vote democratically on recipents in the future. Would you be interested on taking on the treasury part of it? I do understand your career is very demanding and you have a lot of stuff on your plate, but you would have a co-chair, so to speak to work on it with you.

Until we figure out the pay-pal thing, maybe we can all send our "cards" with our gift to a small PO box near you (reimburse yourself first for the cost of the PO Box) and then record the name and amount for the record, report the list to Mary Janes or whomever, and then after say, 10 days, forward the gift to the recipient.

Any other ideas? Anyone want to educate me on paypaland how it works and how we go about it?

Thanks

Catnip =^^=

Dear Catnip,

I would be very happy to be the co-chair. I will look into purchasing a PO box today so that everything is ready if we decide to go ahead.

From what I can tell about Paypal, every MB member would go to the Paypal website and set up a pledge, through credit card, to send to an individual who has an e-mail address.

The recipient gets an e-mail telling them that they have received cash and instructs them on how to pick up the cash. The good thing is that you can pay through credit card. However, the bad thing is some people don't like paying through credit card over the internet.

As I mentioned before, and as Joshmom pointed out, it is pretty impersonal because we at MB will never know how many of us contributed to the fund and how much was actually collected.

As I said above, I will find out about the PO box in anticipation. But others hopefully will come along with their views on which way we should do this.

love,
heavenly

I have used PayPal for a couple years and have not had any negative experiences with it for my needs. However, JMHO, I think a PO box would be better for this.

Anyone can register with PayPal free. She, or the person handling this, would have to create an account. To accept payments (donations) by credit card or debit card the account would have to be a "business or premier" account. There is a charge for credit card or debit card deposits. It's a small charge 0.7% + 30¢ to 2.9% + 30¢, but a charge nonetheless. She would not be getting ALL the money. PayPal would get alittle. The account holder would be able to see and keep track of WHO sent the payments and the amounts. Although, as previously mentioned, many people are still very leary about sending credit card or debit card info over the internet.

If a post office box was available for donations, the senders could send cash (to maintain their anonymity, with perhaps only their MB name if they wished), checks or money orders. And, minus the cost of the PO box, all the money would go to her. But even with checks and money orders,,,, they'd have to be "made out" to "someone".

Yeah...I vote for the tiny PO Box in Heavenly's city. Heavenly can post the address here and we can all send whatever we can. Heavenly can record the names and amounts and share them with her co-chair, and with any other donor who wants to know, and the co-chair....whomever we choose, whomever volunteers....Wait!!!...since it appears Heavenly has accepted the nomination, all in favor of having Heavenly handle the logisitics of this, say "aye"...opposed, "nay"...

Since we haven't heard from Mary Janes, does anyone else have someone they would like to nominate?

Heavenly, I will e-mail Twiisty's address to you when I hear from Xarelel, and in approximately ten days you can send the first wave of the fund to the recipient and then every few days, send whatever else trickles in.

This is just wonderful. I am so excited and thankful so many of you want to do this. We can even use the same approach for cyber baby showers or other worthy events as we all vote on them. We can even save the money toward legal fees for someone who cannot afford an attorney. I am lucky...I have cdcollins representing me and helping Bipolar through this thing on Monday, but others might not have any resources at all.

WE all need to make a pledge that we will preserve the anonymity through e-mails from now on. I know we couldn't do this with Twiisty because she is the "maiden voyage", the guinea pig, the prototype, so to speak, and we needed to determine how to go about this, but after this, in the future for any other worthy causes, we need to gather amongst ourselves via private e-mail and do this all very quietly for obvious reasons.

Heavenly, could you please rent a tiny PO Box in your area on Monday and post the address Monday night? Thanks.

Anyone who would like to put something in the kitty (no, not me), you can begin mailing your envelopes on Tuesday...and then a week from Wednesday or Thursday, Heavenly can mail what she has collected to the Recipient.

Any other suggestions or opinions or nominees???

Thank you so much, Everyone.

Love

Cat