Guest Ed Posted September 28, 2005 Share Posted September 28, 2005 quote:Originally posted by David C. Great! You can start by posting those wonderful "Canucks in Germany" updates again... I do them semi-regularly on bigsoccer.com Cdn forum. I don't want to interrupt the endless flow of important Toronto stadium threads with soccer content here in this forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nolando Posted September 28, 2005 Share Posted September 28, 2005 Lots of cash!! OUCH!! What can we do to help - well, besides the obvious?? What about the ideas cooked up before of two-tiered memberships with a basic membership being free with all posting rights, and a "gold" membership for those of us who don't mind kicking in twenty bucks a year to help keep the site afloat. You good give gold members a cloth patch, give them access to an extra forum or two, and pass on some other cheap goodies with our emblem on it upon application and have a little gold star next to our name when posting. I realize this may sound a bit like the Alberta healthcare plan, but by the sounds of it we do need to come up with some alternatives. Surely in 2005 on the net there must be a more intelligent way of setting up the fundraiding than just by an old-fashioned high school carwash and bakesale-style funding drive. I will happily donate for this drive but I think that relying on it will only mean more scrambling and more uncertainty for the years to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Massive Attack Posted September 28, 2005 Share Posted September 28, 2005 I like nolando's idea. Doesn't bigsoccer do something similar to what he's suggesting? People on bigsoccer need a paid membership to use avatars and sigs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elias Posted September 28, 2005 Share Posted September 28, 2005 Wasn't somebody here offering free server space in exchange for advertising space recently (like within the last year)? That is basically the only cost. As for nolando's idea, I think it's a good idea too, but to be done properly, I think you would need to set-up an actual organization to run it, keep track of everything, and organize The Voyageurs in general, with the web site being the main project. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted September 28, 2005 Share Posted September 28, 2005 It's great that people are willing to donate. We also have Voyageurs Cup funds that can be used for this, though I think they shouldn't be until there is a very urgent need. But, as others are saying, these are only temporary solutions. I don't think we would be successful in collecting the necessary donations every year. I'm not sure that I like the other ideas being proposed, though. I don't think we can really offer members anything, so it would basically be just donations (see previous paragraph). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhat Posted September 28, 2005 Share Posted September 28, 2005 How about some competition/contest between regions? Let's get some bragging rights happen and get some contributions. Regions could be: British Columbia and Territories, Prairies (AB/SK/MB), Ontario, Quebec, and Maritimes. Winning region can nominate the moderators. :-) Or future reps of the Voyageurs. C'mon lads, aren't you aware that the Voyageurs are pretty much the ONLY voice for Canadian soccer? Let's make it work and put your money where your mouth is!!!!!!!!!! (The extra punctuation is for you Luis.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheeta Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 quote:Originally posted by Massive Attack I like nolando's idea. Doesn't bigsoccer do something similar to what he's suggesting? People on bigsoccer need a paid membership to use avatars and sigs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now you guys are onto something. Selling memberships when you realy have nothing substantial to offer is just a donation. Fair enough right? So all you can provide are meaningless badges which proclaim a contributors generosity to their peers. It's labour friendly and dosen't cost a damn thing but at least that's something. As mentioned a star or some other nonsense below a posters name. (I'm assuming that sort of thing is doable on this site). Or playing off redhat's lark regarding "buying" moderators how about buying title. Lord redhat of Linden Woods. Ed, 1st Count of Calgary. Sir Cheeta the Slightly Dazed. Got a ring to it no? Seriously though. I wouldn't get too hung up on getting into a formal structure here. Rightly or wrongly a lot of things have been done on this board through the honour system and blind trust and I see no reason to change that yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 I'd pay 20$ a year for an avatar and some other exclusive crap . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sstackho Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 I'd pay $20/yr to prevent everyone from having avatars and signatures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowlander Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 I rarely post but I always read, so I've kicked in (for the European region, I guess). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RS Posted September 29, 2005 Share Posted September 29, 2005 I'll see what I can scrounge up. Unfortunately I'm unemployed at the moment, so it'll have to be a token $5 donation or something insignificant like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadasBest Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 Hang on here. We're fund-raising to pay for last years web service? We definitely need to get better organized. We should have funds raised in advance to cover the server cost for a year in my opinion. Is there any way we can cut down on this cost? Is $109.00 US a month standard? And as asked already do we need a dedicated server? Would it be possible to seek a corporate sponsor to cover the costs of the server rental? In my opinion I think a board of directors should be nominated and we incorporate the voyageurs as a non-profit organization. Other than the good ad revenue suggestions already made regarding 'memberships', also perhaps a good stream of income could come from merchandise? Scarves etc... Anyways i'll make a donation to the cause, but I agree that we should be better organized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jarrek Posted September 30, 2005 Author Share Posted September 30, 2005 quote:incorporate the voyageurs as a non-profit organization. We would need at least $1000 to cover the cost of incorporation, and another $1000/year to do taxes. It's not cheap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Massive Attack Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 Becomming non-profit is not as difficult as you think. It only costs $300 to incorporate a company in Ontario (it might be less for a non-profit org.) Also, in regards to taxes, a non-profit organization only has to fill a simple 2-page tax form that seems pretty simple ( http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pbg/tf/t1044/t1044-05e.pdf ). Plus, if your revenues are under $10,000, you don't even have to file a tax return. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadasBest Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 At this point we need to get some funds going to take care of this bill. I've donated $50.00 US for the server. But as mentioned, incorporating is not all that difficult. I think our biggest challenge would be coming up with a charter we all agree with. The cost to incorporate an NPO federally with office in Ontario is $200.00. See this link on NPO's http://www.corporationcentre.ca/docen/home/faq.asp?id=incnp#q2 We would need neither a lawyer nor accountant. We simply would not be dealing with sufficient funds to warrant either. Anyways as mentioned, the most important thing right now is to raise this money. Can we get an update on how much has been donated? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Beaver Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 I'll dig through the lint to see what cash lies therein... As for long-term solutions, if we were a not-for-profit organization, then we could do fundraising and apply for grants etc. Or perhaps we could look for corporate sponsorship. CIBC and Safeway, among others, are supposed to be official sponsors of Canadian soccer. Maybe they'd be willing to advertise here. I think we should do as much as we can to prevent our members from having to spend cash on this site or on any of our Voyageur projects. I think donating our time and expertise should be the focus. With that said, I suspect some sort of formal or semi-formal structure would need to be put into place to organize, manage and execute operations, and I don't know if we have the critical will (or stomach) for it. I've voiced interest in getting involved in the past, and will iterate that interest again here. But clearly, this is a discussion for a later date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redhat Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 We should really consider the non-profit organizational route. Maybe GL can enlighten us? If we were an NPO, we can provide tax receipts. And if we were a more organized group, maybe Sportsnet and the CSA will take our position more seriously. As for now I appreciate everyone's great suggestions, but right now we need a band-aid fix (ie. money). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HamiltonSteelers Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 I threw in what I could spare. Give us an update of funds raised, if you don't mind. You lads are doing an excellent job. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elias Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 quote:Originally posted by redhat We should really consider the non-profit organizational route. Maybe GL can enlighten us? If we were an NPO, we can provide tax receipts. It's two separate issues (non-profit organization and charitable organization/tax receipts). I can't find the page now, but Revenue Canada has a section about what groups qualify as charitable organizations (thus allowed to give tax receipts) and I don't think the Voyageurs would qualify. There really is not much benefit to an official organization. What would be the purpose? What would the group be involved with that does not happen now? On the other hand, there could be potential benefits. Such as paying for the server, the Voyageurs Cup (maybe even expanding it), maybe even like merchandise (whatever did happen to those scarves?), etc. Ideally the main benefit would be to organize fans at games, getting discounts for flights/hotels, etc., but...um...yeah.... The other thing, which I don't think they realize, legally, Reza owns Canadian-Soccer.com and Jarrek owns TheVoyageurs.com, so they are legally liable for anything that gets posted around here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadasBest Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 quote:We should really consider the non-profit organizational route. Maybe GL can enlighten us? If we were an NPO, we can provide tax receipts. I'm pretty sure that only charitable organizations can issue tax receipts. Unfortunately, we would not qualify as such. But maybe i'm wrong. Your comment about people taking us more seriously and the comments regarding government grants and corporate donations are spot on. It will also remove the financial liabilities that some people have placed on themselves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 quote:Originally posted by The Beaver I think we should do as much as we can to prevent our members from having to spend cash on this site or on any of our Voyageur projects. I would stop short of calling ourselves "The CIBC Voyageurs". Ads on our site or things like that are one thing, but sometimes advertising goes too far. We can talk all we want about doing things, but, the fact is, we've always talked about doing things and very, very few of them have gotten done. Becoming "more official" won't change that. Therefore, since we'd like to be bringing in money as soon as possible, I say aim for the simplest solution that would involve the least amount of time, work and organization. For example, have we done all we can to get more ads on our site? If traffic is high enough to require such an expensive server then you'd think we'd be able to attract more ads? Jarrek, how have we been getting advertisers so far - do they come to us? Maybe we just need a plan of attack here - be more aggressive and approach a bunch of potential advertisers, especially those that already sponsor Canadian soccer in some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew W Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 Can't make a donation via MasterCard or PayPal right now, so the cheque will be in the mail on Monday (Oct. 3) for $25 (No, seriously, it will be in the mail ). Thanks for posting the address. Unfortunately it's all I can afford at this time. Open to doing more in the future, whether it be subscriptions or merchandise from which the profits go towards the site. Even a formal structure to the V's would be something I'd entertain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamiltonfan Posted September 30, 2005 Share Posted September 30, 2005 I'll be sending in a donating via mail. Someone should contact the CSA sponsors..CIBC, Adidas, Nutella ect... and see if they would chip in...maybe even the CSA?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ray Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 How does the Canadian Rugby Supporters Forum keep afloat? Do they use the same server as the Voyageurs? http://www.canadianrugby.ca/forum/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbailey62 Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 quote:Originally posted by ray How does the Canadian Rugby Supporters Forum keep afloat? Do they use the same server as the Voyageurs? http://www.canadianrugby.ca/forum/ They seem to have started up a shop to raise money for the site but there is currently a thread on the site stating that things aren't selling well and to start purchasing. db Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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