Hi family, On December 2nd last year, I sent out my first Plans and Proposals ~ plans that I had for the family to help us prosper and grow. I had hoped that we would be able to complete all 20; though some of you said all these goals were rather "lofty." We did accomplished 9-1/2 of those goals ~ quite a feat considering that what none of us realized was that our two site moves and three rounds of site fights would play into those plans. However ... We now have our own domain (yeaayyy!) and we won the entire site fight (yeaayyy!), so we already know we won't face either of those this year. Once again then, I return to the Plans and Proposals from 2000 to lay 2001's out in front of you for discussion. As before, if there's anything in here we do NOT want, it gets scrubbed ... but the particular idea erased by a majority of the family as a whole. The ideas may be mine, but always ... the family must approve, since these are group efforts. We're still getting a lot of hits at our old GeoCities site. This isn't good; it means the search engines and those sites we have links at, still haven't been notified of our move[s] or, have been notified and still haven't changed their records. Publicity is paramount for us this year. Several of the proposals will hinge on this need for correct publicity. Those ideas are designated with a ** at the end. 1. Start a Bower Community webring for all our surnames plus those 80 variant spellings. It will help us get around to all those sites where information is kept locally that we still don't know about.** 2. Create an awards program. I don't mean the kind whereby just anyone can win our awards. I mean a program of stair-stepped awards so that even the newest Web owners can earn one. However, also have the kind that have to be earned ~ that will mean something after someone has worked hard to earn one. For example, a nice one for the inexperienced HTML builders, but something like a platinum one for those who do those super sites exceeding highest standards for presentation, documentation, etc.** 3. Get our Continuum up to 50% strength, at least. This project has been in operation over a year now and we still have just 9 sites. With four family teams working together, we shouldn't be having this problem getting the states and countries represented, but for some reason we are. Ideas? 4. Set up our Native American project. Our NA cousins still need help with those special requirement they face in their research. We can do a shelf, a room, a corner .... something strictly for them, much like the children's room for members of the TRIAD. 5. Our own Bower Community logo ~ something that will immediately identify us to the rest of the Web. Not only will the compass page display it, but so will the Homestead, Cottage and all Continuum sites display it. In addition, the Continuum sites will display their own logo, keeping the entire project tied together with the Cottage and the domain.** 6. Find new ways to advertise our community and each of its sites. The more known we are, the more chances we have of our material being found hence, the better chance we have of making connections with inline cousins.** 7. Open our own store? Revenues would pay for the annual domain fees. 8. Generally spread the word about our family to other Bower[s]/Bau[e]r, etc. researchers. The larger our ranks become, the better our chances of making those sought-after connections. 9. Get more people involved with the Retreat, our family's "get-away" where we have our own private chat room. Right now, only an average of 5-6 people visit there. If we don't want the project any more, then let's vote on it and scrub it; otherwise, let's figure out a way to get more of us utilitizing this source of bringing us closer together. 10. One project ~ meant to be a surprise to the family at the Reunion last year, then again at Christmas ... is still sitting on the back burner, like the GEDCOM project did. I can't say anything now since it is still to be a surprise, but this project WILL come out sometime this year with a full explanation to everyone. And there you have it. Not 20 proposals like last year because of all we did accomplish. However, that doesn't mean YOU can't come up with ideas yourselves. We can add your idea[s] to this page and present it to the family as I've done here. This page will be posted on the bulletin board at the Homestead. Discussion? Feedback? Colleen