LongeCity Newsletter
April
2014
2014 budget finalized
Money is not really a key aspect of what LongeCity is about. We are a non-profit organization, dedicated first and foremost, to offering a platform for information exchange, discussion, and planning joint initiatives among those interested in removing limits to lifespans. Still, sometimes funding can be an important part of the mix, and in our own small way LongeCity needs to make sure that we spend the limited community funds wisely.
Firstly the good news is that LongeCity is not in financial difficulties. Thanks to the brilliant support from members and donors, careful placing of advertising, the generous hosting provided by our friends at Canaca, and countless hours of volunteer time, LongeCity is able to maintain its day-to-day activities and even grow a little each month.
The 2014 budget is once again, aimed at depleting LongeCity's financial reserves. The fact that these reserves have build up over the years is testament to our responsible financial management and thrift, but ultimately, no point is served in LongeCity hoarding its finances, we want to be out there and put it to good use for our mission!
But how to spend our limited resources wisely? Its a nice problem to have, but still not an easy one. Our key volunteers in leadership simply don't have the time to also see through special projects. Moreover, this could create some tensions and conflicts of interest. As with anything else, LongeCity can only be as effective as the community that constitutes it -- In many respects, the 2014 budget is the boldest, most explicit acknowledgement ever of this basic concept.
There are very few 'predefined' spending items. Instead there are different categories for enabling community initiatives. Roughly, these fall into four schemes: 'Small Grants', 'Guest Editors' and 'Fundraisers'.
The trick with all of these is that they are, like almost everything happening at LongeCity, not 'top down' preconfigured projects but instead options that community members can decide to tap into.
Details of the 2014 budget here (Members section)
Forum software upgrade
We have recently updated the software behind the LongeCity forums. There will be few immediately visible changes but as we get more confidence that the upgrade is stable, new features will come online over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, users can report any bugs and glitches in this forum.
LongeCity Podcast
An interview with Wendy and Gennady Stolyarov about their recently published children's book "Death is Wrong" and the initiative to make it available to hundred of children for free. listen here
Monthly forum feature: 'Ideas forum'
If you browse this and other forums you may find a repeating pattern: Someone says "would it not be great if we did....?" other people agree or comment. To make sure that we keep track of these and encourage good ideas to go further, this sub-forum collects some of the ideas for action that have been mentioned at LongeCity over the years, and is a good platform to gather feedback on projects. Ideas forum.
Caliban
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