JustRalph
10-13-2008, 12:10 PM
Miesque the accounting member of the HANA board has made a clarion call of sorts............and for all of those who have talked about how badly a Horseplayers group has been needed, Please read from his post I copied below (in case you missed it) and match my challenge of donating $25 bucks (or whatever you can afford) to help get this thing started. I donated $25 bucks and I say it is time we put a few bucks where our mouths have been the last year or so............... :ThmbUp: Jump on board guys......... They are putting in lots of time and effort.........we need to back these guys up with a few bucks to get started.
The HANA Website has a donations link, http://www.horseplayersassociation.org/donations.html
Miesque Post:
Originally Posted by miesque
As the resident bean counter on the HANA board, I just wanted to follow-up on the excellent points made by Jeff, Dean and John with a few candid comments of my own. On a very basic level we are at the point where in order to maximize the potential of the organization we need to maximize our membership base and we need to start raising some revenue.
There appears to be a lot of expectations being made of HANA and in due time we fervently hope the organization will be to be able to live up to those expectations. However, please keep in mind that the Horseplayers Association of North America has existed as an offiical corporate entity for less then a month. That may seem like a minor, insignificant point, but that was when HANA finally grew up and became a legitimate corporate enterprise and at long last could start laying some definitive organizational groundwork which will hopefully enable it to be an effective vehicle for providing a unifying voice for horseplayers with the goal of achieving constructive changes. The first HANA meeting I attended was August 13 and at that point HANA was basically a very informal collaboration of individuals with a blog, it was not an official entity and there was not much structure. In the two months that have passed between then and now there has been substantial progress made in making HANA a viable, legitimate organization. Once the decision was made to make HANA a true corporate entity and people had to step up and bite the bullet and put themselves in the uneviable roles of officers and members of the Board of Directors, then the organizational building blocks could finally be put in place and that has been our primary focus recently. The past few weeks we have been busy putting in place all of the supporting administrative functions such marketing, accounting/banking, website, membership database, etc...
Now HANA is finally getting to the point when we can move forward from being absorbed with taking care of those basic organizational issues to gaining greater visibility and both increasing the membership base and getting them more involved as well as getting a good gauge on the willingness of those members to be involved and to what extent. That last part is key because any sort of declaration of collective action by HANA (which is what I know a lot of people are looking for) requires a solid grasp of who your membership base is and knowing they will follow through. We are not yet there but we are getting there. I realize there is a lot of frustrations out there and everyone wants something done yesterday. However, this is a gradual process and we are a 100% volunteer organization which means everyone is donating their precious time and there are only so many hours a day to get things accomplished. In addition, as has previously been stated, we are operating on a shoestring budget and that is understandable at this point in time considering where we are on the organizational lifecycle. However we will be reaching a point in time very soon where HANA will not reach its full potential without some positive cash flow and I strongly feel that if HANA is going to have any chance in being succesful things need to be done the right way the first time around because credibility can be far more easily ruined then achieved. A key component of being a viable, successful entity is there needs to be enough cash inflows to offset cash outflows be it for web hosting, P.O. Boxes, postage, letterhead, annual incorporation fees, basic office supplies, etc. While those expenses may seem small, they do add up pretty quickly and the lack of proper cashflow stymies the growth and effectiveness of an organization. I realize times are tough and everyone is tightening their belts but a little can go a long way.
~End Post~
From the HANA Link:
Donations
Membership is free. Donations are completely optional.
To make a donation (any amount no matter how small will be genuinely appreciated) to H.A.N.A. using PayPal, follow these steps:
Log into your PayPal account at http://www.PayPal.com
Send the amount of your donation to the following recipient email address:
Donations@HorseplayersAssociation.org
You should know
Money is needed for basic necessities such as having a website hosted, printing business cards and letterhead, postal services, and applying to the .I.R.S. for 501(c) tax exempt status. To date we are operating on a shoestring while we try to get the ball rolling. If what we stand for matters to you, won't you please help us change the game for you the bettor?
Please, make a donation today. Every little bit helps.
Thank You,
Jeff Platt, President
John Swetye, Vice President
Theresia Muller, Treasurer
Dean Towers, Secretary
The HANA Website has a donations link, http://www.horseplayersassociation.org/donations.html
Miesque Post:
Originally Posted by miesque
As the resident bean counter on the HANA board, I just wanted to follow-up on the excellent points made by Jeff, Dean and John with a few candid comments of my own. On a very basic level we are at the point where in order to maximize the potential of the organization we need to maximize our membership base and we need to start raising some revenue.
There appears to be a lot of expectations being made of HANA and in due time we fervently hope the organization will be to be able to live up to those expectations. However, please keep in mind that the Horseplayers Association of North America has existed as an offiical corporate entity for less then a month. That may seem like a minor, insignificant point, but that was when HANA finally grew up and became a legitimate corporate enterprise and at long last could start laying some definitive organizational groundwork which will hopefully enable it to be an effective vehicle for providing a unifying voice for horseplayers with the goal of achieving constructive changes. The first HANA meeting I attended was August 13 and at that point HANA was basically a very informal collaboration of individuals with a blog, it was not an official entity and there was not much structure. In the two months that have passed between then and now there has been substantial progress made in making HANA a viable, legitimate organization. Once the decision was made to make HANA a true corporate entity and people had to step up and bite the bullet and put themselves in the uneviable roles of officers and members of the Board of Directors, then the organizational building blocks could finally be put in place and that has been our primary focus recently. The past few weeks we have been busy putting in place all of the supporting administrative functions such marketing, accounting/banking, website, membership database, etc...
Now HANA is finally getting to the point when we can move forward from being absorbed with taking care of those basic organizational issues to gaining greater visibility and both increasing the membership base and getting them more involved as well as getting a good gauge on the willingness of those members to be involved and to what extent. That last part is key because any sort of declaration of collective action by HANA (which is what I know a lot of people are looking for) requires a solid grasp of who your membership base is and knowing they will follow through. We are not yet there but we are getting there. I realize there is a lot of frustrations out there and everyone wants something done yesterday. However, this is a gradual process and we are a 100% volunteer organization which means everyone is donating their precious time and there are only so many hours a day to get things accomplished. In addition, as has previously been stated, we are operating on a shoestring budget and that is understandable at this point in time considering where we are on the organizational lifecycle. However we will be reaching a point in time very soon where HANA will not reach its full potential without some positive cash flow and I strongly feel that if HANA is going to have any chance in being succesful things need to be done the right way the first time around because credibility can be far more easily ruined then achieved. A key component of being a viable, successful entity is there needs to be enough cash inflows to offset cash outflows be it for web hosting, P.O. Boxes, postage, letterhead, annual incorporation fees, basic office supplies, etc. While those expenses may seem small, they do add up pretty quickly and the lack of proper cashflow stymies the growth and effectiveness of an organization. I realize times are tough and everyone is tightening their belts but a little can go a long way.
~End Post~
From the HANA Link:
Donations
Membership is free. Donations are completely optional.
To make a donation (any amount no matter how small will be genuinely appreciated) to H.A.N.A. using PayPal, follow these steps:
Log into your PayPal account at http://www.PayPal.com
Send the amount of your donation to the following recipient email address:
Donations@HorseplayersAssociation.org
You should know
Money is needed for basic necessities such as having a website hosted, printing business cards and letterhead, postal services, and applying to the .I.R.S. for 501(c) tax exempt status. To date we are operating on a shoestring while we try to get the ball rolling. If what we stand for matters to you, won't you please help us change the game for you the bettor?
Please, make a donation today. Every little bit helps.
Thank You,
Jeff Platt, President
John Swetye, Vice President
Theresia Muller, Treasurer
Dean Towers, Secretary