Hardly Anyone Cares . . . So Why Should I???

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For far too long I’ve watched Erin struggle financially. There’s general consensus that “something” has to be done.

Nearly two decades, ago I watched, for ten years while our local school district floundered with inadequate funding. They’d maxed out the amount they could legally receive through referenda, so they were looking at either cutting teachers and/or programs. I put together a proposal and went to the school board with a video presentation. They agreed to allow me to start a non-profit to generate revenue for them. I served without compensation as the initial chairmen of the board. Eighteen years later that non-profit recently announced they had raised over $7.5 million in total over the years.

While serving on that board I learned a few things about fund-raising. One of the most important things we learned is that volunteer help often is as valuable as cash – sometimes even more valuable.

Big Closet is a wonderful organization with an important purpose. One can only imagine how many lives Erin and crew have saved – or made immeasurably better. I know that she has bestowed a tremendous positive impact on me.

However – it seems obvious that Erin has not asked for help often enough or in the right way. A departed friend, Percy Ross, made millions in the plastic industry and then set about to give it away. He told me once that a big mistake most people make is to not ask for help.

Yes – Erin needs money. Sometimes there’s no substitute for cash, but she also could use a lot of volunteer help.

Currently, Erin stands at the top of Big Closet. She is an irreplaceable force (More on that later.) Erin is ably supported by Piper for technical (with a programming assistant) and Cat for editorial. Jamie is the administrative assistant, when she’s able. There’s a bookkeeper and an accountant. Two editors help prepare manuscripts for publishing (Tom and Onyx). Amy reads submissions for publishing. Frank and Janet help with outlining and Janet looks for spammers. The imaginative Melanie runs contests -- which prod authors like me to get off our duffs.

I absolutely love Big Closet and wish to thank all of these fine people for making it as wonderful and inviting as it is today. But, let’s imagine a future without adequate funding or without this staff or . . . WITHOUT ERIN.

Let’s visualize the carnage, and then quickly make adequate preparations so it NEVER comes to pass.

Erin has done a great job with the look and feel. She’s a terrific graphic artist and has impeccable taste. You could ask Erin if she wants help in this area . . . just to reduce her load.

Big Closet’s lifeblood is fresh content. There’s a need for help in at least three areas. Some days it might seem like Big Closet has all the free content it could ever possibly need. That’s never the case. People have individual taste. There are those like me who feel starved lately for stand-alone stories . . . not to mention the various genre and topics. BC could use a standing committee to attract new free, varied content. There was recently a complaint about lack of new content in Hatbox (Premium Stories). BC could use a standing committee to attract new content for Hatbox. Doppler press is becoming more and more important as a funding source for BC. There should be a standing committee to attract new manuscripts for Doppler Press.

Doppler Press should be spilling out new books to Amazon every day. To facilitate that Doppler press needs volunteers to edit, provide cover art, etc.

The entire organization could use a strong dose of marketing help. For example: Since Doppler Press is a funding arm of BC, wouldn’t it be wise to provide a list of Doppler Authors on the right-hand side of the front page? That list should link to a page for each author listing their Doppler books with links to Amazon. We have some excellent user/marketeers who could help BC with their sales talent.

If Content isn’t the lifeblood, then readers are. BC needs a standing committee to attract and keep new readers. They could discover enhancements for the reader’s experience. There’s an old maxim that says that for every complaint there are nineteen who didn’t complain -- who feel dissatisfied. BC needs to attract new readers than convert them to users -- who can be converted to volunteers/contributors. There should be a standing committee for conversion of guest readers to users. There should be another standing committee for the conversion of users to volunteers and/or donors. There should be another standing committee to gauge reader satisfaction and to identify new ways to meet readers’ expressed needs.

If Content and Readers aren’t the lifeblood of BC, then authors surely must be. BC needs a standing committee to gauge the satisfaction of authors. They should identify new ways to meet authors’ needs. There should be a standing committee who works to attract new authors. There also needs to be a standing committee to help new authors and infrequent authors through the posting process. The contests have helped revive certain writers’ muses. It might be good to have a standing committee who works to encourage writers who haven’t posted a story in some time to write something new.

There could be a committee to thank people for writing kudos and encouraging them to write more – especially for old stories – writers love to get comments on old stories. That committee could shape a kudos writer to make their efforts more positive and encouraging.

BC could use a committee to review and maximize the income from advertisements.

There should be committees for the following:

Programmers, if Piper could use the help.

Perpetuation, to make sure BC outlives us all. Erin is a superwoman, but not immortal.

Software, if Piper wants the help.

Hardware, if Piper wants the help.

Mission and Ethics, to help Erin with the day-to-day struggle against the winds of dissension.

Finally, but not least important, BC could use a committee to establish and monitor a budget. This might be the most important committee. As a business-person I’m always questioning the amount of surprise expense that happens around BC. After decades of existence, this is a symptom of wishful thinking.

Of course, BC is a product of wishful thinking. No one with any business sense at all would have taken on BC as a project. Thank God Erin is one of those positive people who see a need and go forth.

Erin shouldn’t have to ride herd over a myriad of committees. BC would have to have a volunteer who is long on "organization" to work with the committees and pass information to Erin in digestible chunks. Erin could accept or reject every committee suggestion.

Do I think these committees will be established? Maybe.

However, if you’re still reading you probably now have an idea of some of what Erin does every day and the level of support she needs.

If you support the idea of committees, let me know in a comment below.

Thanks.

Jill

Comments

Excellent!

Great Ideas!
I love them.
I just wishI had a skill to help.
Instead, I contribute on a monthly basis.

Red MacDonald

Committees vs. Volunteers

I agree that some committees might be useful. But people who join up need to think of themselves as volunteers first, committee members second. There is a committee mentality that leads to endless discussion, but little decision making, direction, and action. This could lead to Erin & Co. spending time they can't afford to waste "herding cats" (i.e. committee members) without getting enough of the actual help they need.

Kris

{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}

Well said, Angela!

I'm willing to help in any way I can.
However, in order for others to help out we would need a full disclosure of the expenditure or as they say in legal cases 'Discovery'. I'm not sure if Erin would be willing to do that but I'd love to be proven totally wrong on this.

how many people knew about the 'behind the scenes' editors? I certainly didn't.

I'm going to be putting a story into the Hatbox early in the new year. I'll be working with Erin early in 2019 to get it into the Hatbox. It is a new departure for me in that it is a Thriller. As I said in another reply, more George Smile than Rambo but a thriller nevertheless.

I also lament the lack of stand alone tales. I'm probably as guilty as many in publishing multi-part stories but at least mine are not hundreds of parts long and you never know if there is ever going to be a real "The End". I guarantee that all the works I post here are complete.
That said, I think that all my posts for the remainder of the year are solo stories.

It would be nice if there was a way in which us mere hacks of writers could get the nudge (or a kick up the backside) to take the step towards getting our better works published. We have seen longer works but I don't recall ever seeing a 'collection of short stories' appear on Amazon or Hulu from any author here. Maybe there was/is but I've personally given up on Amazon as a place to shop for reasons that I won't go into here.

Just my £0.02 worth of possibly useless thoughts and ideas which can be ignored. I won't be offended. Honest!

Samantha

Disclosure

Every time I've asked Erin a question about BC she has answered candidly.

I knew there were editors, but then I've donated a number of stories/books to Hatbox and also Doppler.

I happen to love Amazon. They bring me something nearly every day.

I totally share your enthusiasm for a compilation of short stories. But, Erin tells me that compilations don't sell.

Jill

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

At the risk of a comment

At the risk of a comment being a pledge of volunteerism, You have a great idea, Jill. If nothing else, it provides more charge cards to pay the bills. My talents lie in other areas unfortunately. That said, I'm willing to have Doppler Press publish my first book, that should provide some income to feed the kitty.

As much as I agree with what you say

Monique S's picture

in my experience the best way to kill an idea is to form a committee. What we need is something a wise man once told me:

"If you see something that needs doing and other people pass it by, do it. You see it so it becomes your responsibility. It is the only way the world will change."

I have been following that concept ever since. I have pointed out volunteering in a comment to a previous post on this topic. I love reading and I am willing to assess entries for books for Doppler Press.

I know that a lot of you here are in favour of Amazon, it my opinion using them is akin to selling your soul to the devil. I am investigating smashwords as an alternative, They have more than enough alternative outlets worldwide to take away Amazon's leading position in ebook sales. The question is are they ready to embrace Rainbow Literature? I will find out.

The other thing I would suggest is that people join me to start a fund to sponsor NaNoWRiMo. There are thousands of young and even very young writers perticipating there, as I found out last year. Being advertised there as a sponsoring publisher could draw a lot more interest to Doppler Press.

What I am really good at apart from renewable energy is listening and counselling. I have had sales people in buider's merchants pour their heart out to me while shopping for materials. Maybe that was because they rarely see a woman in there, but it has happened with supermarket cashiers too. I can offer a counselling service free here or against voluntary contributions to BCTS. Try me, you might be amazed.

Monique.

Monique.

Monique S

Re: As much as I agree with what you say

When it comes to committees, unless they are kept rather small (three or four max, with one person firmly in control), you will end up with endless discussions and very few actual resolutions that would move forward the intent of the business the committee represents.

I've been on community boards in the past, although that was quite a while ago. It was a total PITA getting quick decisions in meetings, I can't count the number of times we were supposed to set a course, but with all the squabbling, it took forever to actually happen.

I've stated several times I'm willing to offer my time for editing and proofreading stories/chapters if people are interested.

I would have no problem doing that in an effort to assist the folks helping Erin to get stories sorted for Doppler or Hatbox.

I also need to talk with Erin about possibly submitting my story Home Is Where The Heart Is for Doppler or Hatbox. As much as I might like to use other pieces I've written here, very few of those are complete and might fill 30K words total compared to Home's approx. 85K.

As with Monique, I'm going to be participating in NaNoWriMo again. I'll be continuing to work on the story I started last year. I would have no problem with coordinating with Monique to see if we could get some interest from there to come back here.

If I can actually manage to finish that story this year, I would also consider submitting it for Doppler or Hatbox at some point.

Good suggestions

But who is going to do something? I have continually seen Angella and others submit good ideas, generate a little discussion, and have nothing happen. It seems to me that Erin needs to do the asking, not Angella. That management (Erin) needs to delegate some power, so that the better ideas can germinate and grow rather than die from lack of attention from someone who can actually make something happen.

It appears to me that the very force that has created and maintained this wonderful site, also keeps it from developing a business like foundation, and financial security. I see some hope in the Doppler press area, but I'm not sure I want to see BC become an advertising arm for DP.

Just my 2 cents worth, Cheryl

Publication Submissions

Hi, Amy here, speed-reader extraordinaire.

Jill mentioned I read submissions to see if we should publish them (when I'm not wrangling a five year old ninja or spending time with Piper that is). I can read a book in about 3 days, sometimes quicker if I can't put it down!

I'm in the midst of my first semester back at school since the ninja was a newborn. It has been an adjustment for sure especially since I am stuck taking a required algebra basics course so my time is a bit limited at the moment. After December, and this semester, that will change.

So if you have something you want published, please send it to Erin. I promise that I am always fair, and if memory serves me correctly we have published everything I have read. I could use something to keep my mind off linear equations!
<3,
Amy

Speaking of the contest front . . .

I have to warn people, it was REALLY HARD to start doing those. I mean, I had to post the blog entry and totally not bother to ask Erin permission and create my own arbitrary rules and everything. It took me all of, like, five minutes, and who has that much time on their hands?

In all seriousness, supporting the site is a great thing. With any luck I'll be chipping in my own work toward both the Hatbox again as well as Doppler's publishing thing because I want to see the site not only survive, but thrive.

All of us are capable of doing something to help, and as Angie pointed out, there are surprisingly few of those things that actually require money. If you have the time to read a story or two, surely you can find the time to share a comment or two as well, or recommend the site to a friend, or even write your own content for the site. Working together we can all help to tend the garden of beauty that is BCTS in our own ways.

Also, even though my next contest won't be 'til January, I'll be announcing it in a week or so to give people time to have a good thunk on it. Trust me; this 'un's gonna be a doosie!

Melanie E.

Four Actres of Blooming Doosies

Your example is right on target.

First of all . . . I hate committees. I run from serving on them. Yet . . . when you have an organization with so many users who are struggling financially, volunteerism isn't a nicety; it's imperative.

Melanie has shown that a committee of one can be very effective.

Perhaps there are other committees of one who can address some of the areas I've suggested, or other areas where they can help.

Thank you, Melanie . . . I woke up this morning pretty burned about the lack of response to this post. Once again, it just takes one to make a difference.

Jill

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)