W
ell, you can’t have missed it if
you got this far in read ing
CYC-Net for this month. We
have been ask ing for your help. But in case
you did miss it, have a look here
http://cyc-net.org/appeal.html
This is the first time we have ever
made such an ap peal – al though we know
CYC-Net can be very ap peal ing J – but
the re al ity is, we are want ing to set
CYC-Net on a se cure fi nan cial foot ing for
the fu ture, as well as sur vive for the pres -
ent. And we need your help to do that, as
Leon says in his ap peal to you, the con -
sumer of CYC-Net and CYC-On Line.
And if it seems to you that we are ap -
pear ing to be a bit more ur gent, or
in sis tent these days about need ing your fi -
nan cial sup port it is, well, be cause we are
feel ing it.
You see, I hap pened to look in the mir -
ror the other day and no ticed that I was
not, con trary to my wishes, get ting any
youn ger. And, it seems, nei ther is the rest
of the CYC-Net team. And while up until
now we have been able to pretty much
run CYC-Net as a vol un tary ef fort, we
know that may not be pos si ble in the fu -
ture. Thus our con cern with se cur ing a
‘fi nan cial fu ture’.
We do hope that CYC-Net will live
lon ger into the fu ture than we are likely to
do. Think about this for ex am ple ... if you
are a youn ger-than-me (64) user of
CYC-Net, would you not like it to con -
tinue to be avail able to you in your fu ture
growth as a per son help ing young peo ple?
If you find it use ful now, would you not
like to keep hav ing ac cess to it?
Well, now, then, is the time to think
about that fu ture – I know, I know, I might
sound like a nag ging grandpa — ‘re mem -
ber, think about the fu ture!’ — and maybe
that is what I am right now. But I am con -
cerned about the fu ture. I think it would
be a shame in the fu ture to lose this re -
source, sim ply be cause we could not put it
on a sound fi nan cial foot ing right now.
Now, I rec og nize that we have cre ated
this di lemma our selves. By run ning
CYC-Net as a free vol un tary ser vice for
so long, peo ple have, per haps, come to
think that CYC-Net does not need fi nan -
cial sup port – in deed, over the past few
years as we have strug gled to sur vive, and
asked for sup port, many peo ple have said
they just ‘as sumed’ it was sup ported by
some large or ga ni za tion or cor po ra tion.
But it is not. While there are some or ga ni -
za tions and staff groups and in di vid u als
who are con stant in their sup port, there
are many who are not – see
here
.
So, enough said. If you think about the
fu ture and you think CYC-Net should be a
part of that fu ture, then please an swer the
ap peal. And as some one said, ‘what? 10 a
month? That’s it? I can do that!’
Thanks for what ever sup port you can
offer.
Thom
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CYC-Online July 2011 / Issue 149
editorial
Ap peal ing for the Fu ture