I am forwarding this message from Brian. I thought you members would like to know. Thank you, Sharon Straight [email protected] List Owner DRUMM. ALLEN-NEW-ENGLAND/NY/NJ/PA, BUCKLEY, STRAIGHT, BIRD "Remember The Maiser - Shoot A Spammer" (Created by Kathryn Graham - "Kathie") http://members.aol.com/sjworkman/index.html http://members.aol.com/sjstraight/index.html http://members.aol.com/ssharmans/index.html --------------------- Forwarded message: From: [email protected] (Brian Leverich) Reply-to: [email protected] (Dr. Brian Leverich) To: [email protected] CC: [email protected], [email protected] (Dr. Brian Leverich) Date: 97-08-31 14:34:11 EDT -- Your message was: (from "[email protected]") > Can someone one answer the following question? I wasn't real sure > how to answer and wanted to make sure I didn't miss lead anyone. > Thanks for your help > Lisa > Co-List Owner COOK-L > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > > I am wondering who or what institution supports ROOTSWEB? > Are they attached to a university? It obviously is a huge venture > that someone is underwriting currently. I assume any donation we > would make would be on top of the commitment of the main sponsoring > org. > Thanks for any clarification. I probably missed these facts > in previous communiques. > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ RootsWeb has *no* "main sponsoring org". No university, no government agency, no gensoc, no business, nobody but *you*. We are *entirely* supported by voluntary contributions. Our hardware and bandwidth budget for the last year was in the neighborhood of $60,000, of which about two-thirds were individual contributions and the rest came out of Karen and Brian's pockets. Apple Computer also donated a server to RootsWeb, which augments the other 4 main servers we've bought. Karen and I have also donated our time as system administrators, as did the other RootsWeb folks. Next year's costs will be well over $100,000 and possibly as high as $200,000, depending on whether we have the resources to start buying datasets and uploading them for everyone to freely use. RootsWeb wouldn't have happened without the support of the Internet genealogical community, and we need continued support if we're going to keep expanding the services that are available to the community. Thanks to everyone who is helping us make this happen! -B [ BTW, please feel free to redistribute this to your lists. It worries me that folks don't realize that their contributions are are the *only* thing that keeps RootsWeb alive. ] -- Dr. Brian Leverich Co-moderator, soc.genealogy.methods/GENMTD-L RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative http://www.rootsweb.com/ P.O. Box 6798, Frazier Park, CA 93222-6798 [email protected]