skibum
05-21-07, 06:58 PM
Hey everyone,
While a good number of you know me personally, quite a few don't - in fact, I would guess the majority do not. My name is Jake Lewis, and I've been involved, off and on, in NPDA debate since about 1998. My first experience with NPDA was judging Geoff Brodak and Billy Herman at Metro State's tournament. My debate experience prior to then was HS policy and CEDA/NDT.
Since that time, I've coached a little bit - helping out the CU team before their funding got completely cut in '02, judged a lot, taught at Wyo's co-op, etc - and somehow along the way I managed to find a beautiful debater that was actually willing to marry me. Anyway, my professional life for the last few years has not allowed me the time to spend at tournaments as I was once able to; unfortunately, that is probably going to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. That being said, I still enjoy the community, and some of my best friends make debate their life.
All of the above is intended to help you get to know the new (and hopefully fairly temporary - more on this in a little bit) owner of these boards. I've worked out a deal with Jed and the current site host to pay the back charges, and keep net-benefits going.
I am taking over these boards with one goal in mind: I want to be able to give a healthy, vibrant, financially sustainable and student-driven message board back to a student, or group of students, to take ownership of and carry into the future. I am a pretty good "capitalist," meaning that I have a sharp eye for the bottom line, and a good feel for what it takes to make something sustainable (or even sometimes profitable) - I know how to "cut costs" and how to "maximize revenue," and all those other sorts of capitalist buzzwords. I intend to use those skills to set up a sustainable budget and revenue-generating model that can be used by a group of college students to keep these forums as a wonderful resource for their fellow debaters.
Now, to do all of that I need your help. There are going to be fund raising efforts, there are going to be "new membership" drives, and there are going to be some very frank discussions about how to lessen the sometime vitriolic atmosphere that occasionally develops. In the coming days, I am going to be posting budget figures, with real costs, and hopefully realistic income projections from advertising. I am going to be initiating some discussions about moderation policy, and how to attract new members. I will toss out some ideas for fund raising, and ask for your comments and ideas.
On the money side, I will say that while I don't expect to "recoup" the money that has been spent "saving" the site, I am going to set some benchmarks that I would like to see met before I put more money into the site (upgrading the software, pre-paying a 2 year hosting contract (excellent savings by doing it that way rather than month-to-month), etc) - I think the reasoning for that approach should be self-evident ;).
One last note, I know that the site lost a few users this past spring. If you are one of those who left, please consider rejoining the community - the vitriol you saw (and experienced) is going to be moderated a lot more in the future. If you know someone who left, please ask them to return. We really do miss all of you!
J
While a good number of you know me personally, quite a few don't - in fact, I would guess the majority do not. My name is Jake Lewis, and I've been involved, off and on, in NPDA debate since about 1998. My first experience with NPDA was judging Geoff Brodak and Billy Herman at Metro State's tournament. My debate experience prior to then was HS policy and CEDA/NDT.
Since that time, I've coached a little bit - helping out the CU team before their funding got completely cut in '02, judged a lot, taught at Wyo's co-op, etc - and somehow along the way I managed to find a beautiful debater that was actually willing to marry me. Anyway, my professional life for the last few years has not allowed me the time to spend at tournaments as I was once able to; unfortunately, that is probably going to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. That being said, I still enjoy the community, and some of my best friends make debate their life.
All of the above is intended to help you get to know the new (and hopefully fairly temporary - more on this in a little bit) owner of these boards. I've worked out a deal with Jed and the current site host to pay the back charges, and keep net-benefits going.
I am taking over these boards with one goal in mind: I want to be able to give a healthy, vibrant, financially sustainable and student-driven message board back to a student, or group of students, to take ownership of and carry into the future. I am a pretty good "capitalist," meaning that I have a sharp eye for the bottom line, and a good feel for what it takes to make something sustainable (or even sometimes profitable) - I know how to "cut costs" and how to "maximize revenue," and all those other sorts of capitalist buzzwords. I intend to use those skills to set up a sustainable budget and revenue-generating model that can be used by a group of college students to keep these forums as a wonderful resource for their fellow debaters.
Now, to do all of that I need your help. There are going to be fund raising efforts, there are going to be "new membership" drives, and there are going to be some very frank discussions about how to lessen the sometime vitriolic atmosphere that occasionally develops. In the coming days, I am going to be posting budget figures, with real costs, and hopefully realistic income projections from advertising. I am going to be initiating some discussions about moderation policy, and how to attract new members. I will toss out some ideas for fund raising, and ask for your comments and ideas.
On the money side, I will say that while I don't expect to "recoup" the money that has been spent "saving" the site, I am going to set some benchmarks that I would like to see met before I put more money into the site (upgrading the software, pre-paying a 2 year hosting contract (excellent savings by doing it that way rather than month-to-month), etc) - I think the reasoning for that approach should be self-evident ;).
One last note, I know that the site lost a few users this past spring. If you are one of those who left, please consider rejoining the community - the vitriol you saw (and experienced) is going to be moderated a lot more in the future. If you know someone who left, please ask them to return. We really do miss all of you!
J