It's Time for our Second Quarter FReepathon - Thread 3

Click here to donate via secure server or PayPal ^

[Mo1]

It's Time for our Second Quarter FReepathon - Thread 3

Posted on 04/07/2003 6:33 PM EDT by Jim Robinson

Howdy everyone,

Are you ready for another FReepathon?

Good news:

John and Tami negotiated a new contract with our bandwidth supplier and got our bill lowered a couple thousand per month! Our monthly expenses are now totalling just under $20,000, so we're setting the target for this Freepathon at $60,000. We have approximately $18,000 (and growing) per quarter coming from our monthly donors so we will only need to raise a little over $40,000 this time. Hopefully, we can do this in a week to ten days.

We went over the goal last quarter and we used part of the extra money to purchase and install two new servers. We now have a total of five servers running Free Republic. John can post the details, but basically, we have two servers being used as web servers, two as database servers and one for the search engine. There may be some sharing and overlapping of duties, but that's the general configuration.

John also found a way to compress the files before serving them so we are able to effectively move 20mbs of data through our 10mbs line. In other words, we've doubled our capacity and halved our bandwidth cost!

Way to go John and Tami!!

(Just in time too! We hit the 10mps X 2 capacity a few times during the peak periods of the last couple of weeks).

And finally, we've added two new high capacity disk drives (I believe they're 72 gigabytes each) and just as soon as John gets the upload and file management programs ready to go, we'll be able to offer our donors directory space on their accounts to upload pictures, graphics, and music files, etc. I believe this is going to be a very popular feature!

Looking forward to another great fundraiser!

Thank you all very much for your continuing support and dedication to the cause!

Jim

[RottiBiz]

We hit our high point of 425 monthly donors and $7,100 per month in March 2002.

We are finally just about back to where we were then and we should keep going upward from here.

We have a great fundraising team, Support Free Republic's outstanding carpet bombing program, and the new donation system which simplifies donating and accounting.

We may eventually find ourselves out of a job!

[Mo1]

I will be locking the door on this place in less than 24 hours!!!!!!

Wow .. it really is count down time

Best of luck with the new house

[glock rocks]

too busy to do much but bump!

i'll get back to all y'all on this after work. i gots some ideas (*ouch*).

[Jim Robinson]

Good Morning Everyone!!

Latest in:

$100 from Maryland
$10 from Never Never Land
$25 from Florida
$10 monthly from California
$10 from Minnesota
$20 from North Carolina
$25 from Colorado

Thank you all very much!!

[Mo1]

Sounds good!!!

[glock rocks]

keep smilin! remember...

this too will pass.

[Mo1]

Thank you Freepers
from Maryland
from Never Never Land
from Florida
monthly from California
from Minnesota
from North Carolina
from Colorado

[justshe]

THANKS, Rotti. How did you know that I was just wondering about out 'monthly' history? You're obviously Psy-chic!

[justshe]

THANK YOU !

$100 from Maryland
$10 from Never Never Land
$25 from Florida
$10 monthly from California
$10 from Minnesota
$20 from North Carolina
$25 from Colorado

[Mo1]

i'll get back to all y'all on this after work. i gots some ideas (*ouch*).

I hear ya .. Been running around all morning trying to get ready for my daughters First Holy Communion that's coming up ...

Then I forget I left all the easter candy in the trunk of my car .. it's 80+ degrees out today ... guess who's buying more Easter candy tonight .. LOL

[Mo1]

Rotti knows everything ;0)

[Jim Robinson]

And to all on the fundraiser team and all who help with these fundraisers:

I'll second RottiBiz. We have a great fundraising team! Y'all did a fantastic job and have been doing fantastic work quarter after quarter, year after year!! It just keeps getting better!! I can't thank you enough for your hard work and dedication to the cause. Thank you and God bless you all!

[Jim Robinson]

Thank you RottiBiz! Great job!

[EdReform]

"I answered several FRmails, generated by that last grannymoon ad insert, from new Freepers who had read the ad out on the boards, asking if this was a monthly fundraiser...or if they could donate annually etc. In other words....they didn't understand the structure."

Perhaps we need a standard two paragraph (or so) summary of what the FReepathon is and how it works, incorporated into all future main FReepathon threads.

We also need to incorporate the link to the History of FR thread into most or all of the ads and supplemental threads (such as MonroeDNA's new post). Or perhaps we need to rework everything into something new. What do you think?

Ok, that's all for me. I'll try to check in later tonight. If not, then tomorrow morning.

[justshe]

Either I'm a bit 'emotional' these days....or your kind words just caused me to get a bit dewy eyed!

It is WE who THANK YOU for having the foresight and dedication to keep this forum going...thru thick and thin...even when you didn't know where the next dollar bill was coming from--or the direction of the next "grenade" lobbed.

It is the LEAST we can do to assist in any way we can. In fact, it is my HONOR to help.

[Grampa Dave]

Do us a favor and ask us next week. We need a little break from this and could be better after some time off from fund raising.

[justshe]

Well.....that grannymoon ad didn't have ANY information on it re: this being a 2nd Quarter Fundraiser. That can be fixed for next time. But the Freepathon thread is certainly adequately 'titled'......LOL.

It could just be that a few had a 'duh' moment (or two). I do that....more frequently than I will admit on a public forum. :-)

[Grampa Dave]

Jim, thank you for creating Free Republic, keeping it alive and nurturing it into such a wonderful asset and sanctuary for conservatives.

[justshe]

And wouldn't we all cheer to be 'out of a job'....lol.

Hey Rotti....

Curiosity question. How many total donors did we end up with..and does that figure include monthly donors? I might have been mis-quoting a stat I was using.

[Gabz]

Thank you my friend - there is nothing sane about this move - but at least I know I will be able to find my pillow immediately - my bed is the only piece of furniture (beside the chair I'm sitting on right now) left in this house to put on the truck in the morning!!!!!