Major 2006 update of website content.

[Michael Fisher]

No, I'm not redesigning the site. Who has time for that?!

Some questions before I change everything for the 2006-2007 scholarship timeline:

-Didn't we vote on changing the nature of the application fee in some way?

-Did we make it $10 non-refundable per application?

-How did we deal with per-child, per-family, or per-application fees? Did anything else change or did we just change it to $10 non-refundable per application?

-Didn't we eliminate the sentence from the prerequisites regarding "or... did not live in New Hampshire during the blah blah school year?"

-Do we have accurate finances on the scholarship fund that I can post? A statement for the Endowment Fund arrived, but it seemed low for some reason.

Thanks!

[Michael Fisher]

And Brian, can you please write up some short (or long) content about planned life insurance gifts so I can add information about it to the donation page?

Thanks! 

[Kat Kanning]

I thought we changed it to make the application fee refundable if they didn't get a scholarship.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Does the LSF have a board?, Meetings?, Secretary? Records of the meetings that you can go back and refer too?

[Kat Kanning]

Board:  yes
Meetings:  not really
Secretary:  yes
Minutes:  no

But there is a yahoo group with the stored messages.

[Michael Fisher]

We need more free time.

What's a meeting?  ???

Yeah, we need to have one. Let's schedule an LSF meeting for... ummm... how about May 11th? That's my birthday and the day my 1-year probation expires. Everyone is invited who supports the LSF's mission so we can start working to make beaucoup bucks for the LSF's endowment and scholarship funds.

LSF Meeting
May 11th
10am-???
Bickfords in Manchester

Let me know if there's a better date, time, and place for everyone and I'll change it. How about somewhere on 101 near Milford?

These public LSF meetings should be scheduled for once every 3 months and will become more often if things work out as planned.

Upcoming public LSF meetings:
May 11, 2006
August 11, 2006
November 11, 2006
February 11, 2007
May 11, 2007
etcetera

[Lloyd Danforth]

You could simply have online meetings. I didn't intend to generate any changes, I just thought something like the item in Reply#2 would be written down somewhere.

[Michael Fisher]

Meetings work well with my personality to increase my effectiveness. I am not sure if others have this same experience.

Oh yes, we changed the eligibility requirements last June. Section 3 now looks like this:

One of the following three statements are true:
a. My children were enrolled a public school in the 2004-2005 school year; or
b. My children were too young to be enrolled in a public school in the 2004-2005 school year; or
c. I can no longer afford a non-public education for my children.

We eliminated the application fee entirely and I now think that was a bad move because people do not appreciate something they receive for free, and there was a lot of talk about a $10 application fee that would be nonrefundable unless the Board votes to send the fees back to those who do not receive scholarships.

I'm making a motion to change the application fee to $10 and make it nonrefundable. I'll post it to the Yahoo group to make sure everyone receives the motion so we can discuss it before we vote on it.

It looks more and more like we need to redesign the website or at least add a lot of content to it.

[Michael Fisher]

Some random Board discussion on this topic...



In the past, we've received one or more erroneous applications from people who apparently read the word "scholarship" and apply without reading any of the details about it. One seemed to be someone applying for a college scholarship. Luckily these people did not pay the application fee, or we would need to include them in the selection process.

Look at the results and sponsored links on this Google search to see why having NO fee is a bad idea: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=college+scholarships

A fee deters mass fraudsters, people applying "just in case" who do not really need it, and guarantees that people who do not even care enough to read the eligibility requirements will not qualify.

A good reason not to have a fee is the appearance of a lottery in the case of mass applications, though such an event seems very unlikely. Our old $50 fee would be exceptionally bad for this reason. However, from our experience through the years, even when advertising the scholarships to all private schools, only a few school counselors will take the effort to look into it, and fewer counselors will find families that fit the scholarship.

During our first year in operation, I mailed LSF applications and brochures to all 200+ private schools in the state. The result is that we received only 6 applications, if I remember correctly.

In conclusion, I believe we should set some fee to deter those who do not read the requirements at all and who apply with complete disregard to the requirements. In the future we should adapt the fee and our handling of it to the number of applications received. At this point, I think we need an application fee of $5 to $10.

Michael

[cathleeninnh]

Checking                                      1409.79
paypal                                             33.07
undeposited checks in my possession 1500.00
Endowment                                         ???
lottery money in Russell's possession        ???


All unofficial, of course

Cathleen

[Russell Kanning]

You mean the highly illegal Porcupine Raffle that is not officially connected to the LSFund?
I have $100 for you.

[Michael Fisher]

Checking                                      1409.79
paypal                                             33.07
undeposited checks in my possession 1500.00
Endowment                                         ???
lottery money in Russell's possession        ???


All unofficial, of course

Cathleen

Cathleen, can you please call and thank the major donor? This is something Tony was doing for us. Also, how much of the total donations that you possess are going to the scholarship and endowment funds?

I just sent Brian the latest Endowment statement from 3/31 which I believe was around $600-$700. Brian, do you have the amount?

I'm updating the website.

[cathleeninnh]

No problem on the Thank you. I have approximately $350 for the endowment fund. I will e-mail Brian and get it transfered out of checking when I have it nailed down.

Cathleen

[Michael Fisher]

We need more free time.

What's a meeting?  ???

Yeah, we need to have one. Let's schedule an LSF meeting for... ummm... how about May 11th? That's my birthday and the day my 1-year probation expires. Everyone is invited who supports the LSF's mission so we can start working to make beaucoup bucks for the LSF's endowment and scholarship funds.

LSF Meeting
May 11th
10am-???
Bickfords in Manchester

Let me know if there's a better date, time, and place for everyone and I'll change it. How about somewhere on 101 near Milford?

These public LSF meetings should be scheduled for once every 3 months and will become more often if things work out as planned.

Upcoming public LSF meetings:
May 11, 2006
August 11, 2006
November 11, 2006
February 11, 2007
May 11, 2007
etcetera

The meeting is this Thursday from about 10am-noon.

Do we have any idea how many people will be there?

[Kat Kanning]

I think I will be there with Kira and GrannyD.