Club Match Charitable Contribution Program

[BOD 2014]

Fellow Members,

We have always been able to donate some of our funds to charitable organizations over the years and we are proud of that but we have had to re-evaluate that for this year.

During our annual Board of Directors meeting last month we decided upon a new charitable donations policy for the 2014 year. We decided on this change to be able to focus on some ongoing issues with our hosting and database. Our hosting fees have grown significantly since last year and we needed to make a three year commitment to be able to save the club money over that span. We have paid for the three year renewal as of the writing of this post and it feels good to know that forum will keep rolling for years to come. We also have some serious issues with how our database is interacting with our website and forum. Without going into too many details the database was built many years ago and it is outdated and data does not always end up going where it needs to be. The BOD has done a commendable job keeping on top of everything but it is time to get it fixed. We will be exploring that over the next couple of months and hope to have it implemented mid year, during our initial inquiries it has become apparent that this is going to be an expensive fix.

We realize that the forum and website are the heartbeat of the club and we need to focus our efforts and finances on them. With that in mind the following changes have been made to the charity program for the club. We are proud to announce a club match program that allows our members to dictate the amount and location we donate our funds. The details are written below.

Donations:
For the 2014 club year ending 1/31/2015, the 300M Enthusiasts Club will match all member donations up to $25 per member with an aggregate maximum of $250. Members may donate any amount, specifically earmarked for charitable contributions, through the club to be held in our treasury. On JAN 31 2015, the entire pool of money along with the appropriate club match will be donated to the selected charity. All money donated through the club would need to be paid as a GIFT through PayPal (payments@300mclub.org) so no fees are paid or by check. Any donations would be tax deductible.


Charity Selection:
During the 2014 club year ending 1/31/2015, members who make donations should notify the club VP & Treasurer via PM, not a post to a forum topic, of the donation amount and their first choice of a recipient. The final recipient is NOT guaranteed.
The first week in JAN, the VP will open a poll listing the top 3 charity requests from all donations made. The membership as a whole will vote for the final selection and the total of all funds will be donated to the selected charity. If there was a tie, the BOD will make the final selection.

We hope everyone embraces the new program and it is successful this year. It will be revisited at the end of the year and a decision will be made about future years by the respective years BOD. The charitable donations page will be updated in the next couple of days to reflect this change as well.

Please let us know if you have any questions about the program.

[BOD 2015]

The 2015 Board of Directors have decided to extend this program into 2015.

Please consider sending a donation in and the club will match it up to $25 per member and $250 total for the fiscal year.

We will be promoting this program much better in 2015 and hope people decide to be a part of it.

Thanks for the continued support!