PIF's

[JMH1950]

I contacted the cute young cross eyed PIF fairy to see if there was an ongoing PIF account that people could contribute to. Turns out there isn't any.

I would like to suggest that there be an account where people can contribute small amounts whenever they get the urge, or even on a monthly basis, rather than relying on a PM that they may or may not read until it's too late. I would think that it would streamline the process and have funds available for emergency PIFs. There would still be the option of mass PMs to get additional funds if needed.

Since it's all anonymous anyway, there wouldn't be any pressure for people to donate if they don't want to or can't afford to.

[Pontiacdad]

Odd I was thinking the same thing the other day.....kind of a pif bank.

But playing devils advocate and checking in with my own emotions I'm not for it.
Pif's are personal and depend on many factors, having an account in the ready steals the magic and it becomes more of a rainy day fund.

Pm's and phone calls may seem clumsy but they are done from the heart and add to the overall experience.

[cml37]

True true, and hate to say it, even among the best of us, where there's standing money, there's politics...

[bonnevillain]

my thoughts exactly. Although i trust the club, i wouldn't donate unless there was an actual immediate need by a member. A sitting pot of money seems like a bad idea.

[JMH1950]

Unfortunatly............. good points.

[Hans]

invest it in alternative energy stocks and oil futures....

[SSEi95]

Let me offer up an alternative...

Yes, I am not a fan of the club having what would basically amount to a petty cash slush fund. It will go great, until the first time we go to use it, then....

One of the things I see pop up every time a PIF is done is people saying "Oh man!, I would love to help out, but I just bought xxx and don't have any extra for 2 weeks now". Not everyone will give to every PIF, and many will actually give to none. But for those of you who have seen the effects of the PIF, and are willing and able to help out those that get PIF'd when the time comes, throw $10-$20 extra in your savings and call it your personal PIF fund. That way, next time someone is about to get PIF'd, you'll be ready and able. This would be the most simple and effective solution, and it would still allow YOU to control who gets PIF'd with your funds, and with how much.

[clarkhamblen]

I don't know about the rest of you but my PayPal account has always been my "play" money. I use it to purchase my stuff online and try to always keep $20.00-$50.00 of "mad" money there to use any way I feel at the time.

So I may use it for Amazon.com or Buy.com, Newegg.com or Tigerdirect.com......

but now I will always make sure that I have PIF money set aside it there too.

[2000Silverbullet]

I agree that it's best to manage the PIF's separately.

If you have a few extra bucks and want to contribute, just help a fellow member and do a good and even anonymous deed by sending a care package to someone.

[wjcollier07]

Per the points mentioned, I don't support a club account for PIF occurrences. What we raise is what we raise, period.

I do however like the idea of a club account for other things. Say, using the funds towards official Bonneville fest stuff, say the custom shirts, and also the fund to give people a custom meet souvenir, such as a key chain, poster, sticker, hat, or something of that nature, in addition to the shirt. This also coming from a preset fund, we could also have the availability to pay a resident graphic designer for their work, in addition to the production costs.

For meet funds, people might be able to choose which meet they're contributing to. NEBF, SEBF, WCBF or MWBF.
This really could be rather simple. And donations would certainly add up.

Also, I don't see why part of the money couldn't go to support the website funds. No reason that we shouldn't at least have the availability to contribute!

The way I always look at people and their money is...be there when they want to pay for it, and have it not when they don't, or don't have it.

[willwren]

We have such a 'general' account, and it's a joint account. Signatories are jr's3800 and myself. We have used it in the past for both pif's and group buys. This is a joint bank account in Florida (I lost the coinflip over the phone) with a related paypal account.

The biggest problem with the PIF process is getting the word out to everyone EXCEPT the victim. That's the place where there is room for improvement.

[RJGill84]

I definitely agree. I have wanted to be a part of the PIF process a few times, and would have definitely contributed had I been given the chance. But I never find out until theres already 1-2 pages in a topic about it!

Not only does it hurt the person being PIF'd because they would be getting potentially a considerably larger amount, it also disenfranchises members who would love to be a part of it and help out a fellow club member.

I don't know if there is any official organization such as Bonneville Club, Inc. (I've tried to find out, but with no success) but the formation of such an official body, with a small elected board of trustees and oversight, would eliminate any issues regarding trust (with the money) as well as giving us many advantages. Quite a few other large clubs have an official legal entity for tax purposes and such.

Forming Bonneville Club, Inc. as a non-profit corporation would benefit the club and it's members greatly. For example, as a non-profit 501 (c) 3 any donations made to the club, whether it be for PIFs, or general operating expenses, would be tax deductible by the contributor. This would encourage more donating by members, and also allow the ability to solicit funds from other organizations. You potentially could do a lot of great things. Just an idea..

[willwren]

I'm 100% against any corporation or board. It's politics, and I'm not interested in bringing that into our club. Politics suck.

As far as oversight, my paypal account has been 'overseen' by others during processes like this because I trust them. Our joint account passwords are known by all admins and the site owner.

We'd all have to be sheisters at the same time to take advantage of anyone here.

[GoldenBullet]

id like to add an idea, not relating to the money, but to the part of not everyone not hearing about it. would it be a good idea to put somewhat of a list together of people that have expressed that they would like to donate? it could help when the mass pms go out. just a thought.

[myfirstbonnie]

Then you take a chance of the person being PIF'd getting the message too.

[lowrider0308]

I kind of feel like "if it aint broke, dont fix it." The PIF system is working fine right now IMO. The best way to be included in PIF pm's is to be active and associate with a lot of senior members (those that normally send out the pm's) IMO.

[petraman]

I'm 100% against any corporation or board. It's politics, and I'm not interested in bringing that into our club. Politics suck.

I do agree that the system needs revamped, though... It used to be in the early days that we had a board for it, now we just do it mainly through either word of mouth or PMs, which is effective really only with the active members. Now, if we bring the PIF board back, it'll allow for better planning and discussion, and also better exposure (with that comes responsibility, but hopefully we can trust everyone ). We can create a new post and block the user it's directed to from viewing that particular one (is that possible?). If it's not possible, maybe different sub-forums?

[sandrock]

OK, let me intro an idea for "getting the word out"

We all have cell phones...well, most of us anyways. How about a tiered system on how to get the word out via text messaging? Assign a certain person to contact x amount of people, then each of those 5 people contact another x amount each. Kinda like this...

*
/ \
* *
/\ /\
* ** *

And on and on...

The person in charge of starting the text-out would have to send a special text to the person in -charge of notifying his or her group that the PIFee is in their group, and to not text them at all. The person in charge should also have a master chart of dissemination, so he or she can notify the group under the PIFee in their absense. The beauty of it is that everybody who agrees to this idea would only get 1 text message, and would only have to send out...I don't know guys...let's go with a maximum of 3 or 4 people...since this a tiered, or cascading, system.

Of course, there are rules Jack.

Once the cascading starts, and a member gets a text message, stick with the cascade effect and ONLY TEXT THOSE ASSIGNED TO YOU, AND NOBODY ELSE. Doing otherwise might very well leak the word out to the person being PIF'd.

When you get the message, cascade it STAT via texting of course.

Remember, this method is good only for getting the word out, not for the actual act of the PIF. It's function and organization would mimic military chain-of-command, so those of us that are currents or veterans would probably get this idea right off the bat

[willwren]

Keep in mind the OLD section of the forum for PIF's had to be hard-coded into the Forum (old forum). It's not easy to set up a section with permissions for 'all' and leave out the victim only. Permissions and groups don't work that way in forum software.

This is why we try to use the PM campaign method. People PM other members as they see them login.

In Echo's case, we were not only reacting abruptly to a situation, we were time-limited based on the delivery of the car in AZ. That left very little time to get the word out and donations in. That also presented some difficulties for me, as I had to cover some e-checks that hadn't cleared (finally did this week). So soon after WCBF, that can be painful. All part of the joy of a PIF though.

I think a PM campaign based on the memberlist, where each person takes a page or half a page, and we go with it. Carefully omitting the intended victim, of course. PM's can have multiple addressees with this software version. And it only takes a minute to copy/past from the memberlist into the TO field.

[lash]

I agree that the old way is still best, with maybe a Memberlist page assignment or two for each that wants to help with the PMing part. I know that, in the past, when we had more time and a larger PIF need, I spent hours upon hours PMing folks, who in some cases were PMed multiple times.