Dear Cousins, Recently it has come to the attention of the listowners on RootsWeb that at least one listowner has been asking for money to maintain his list(s). If any of you belong to a list where the listowner is REQUIRING personal information and monetary contributions be sent to him/her be sure that you understand what you are supporting. That is not the way that RootsWeb operates. The following is a note from Brian Leverich. He and Karen Isaacson are actually the owners of RootsWeb which is maintained by contributions. There is NEVER a charge to join any list on RootsWeb. If anyone has any questions please don't hesitate to write me. Sara RootsWeb Sponsor <snip> > > It's perfectly OK for listowners to solicit funds for RootsWeb, > or by consolidating donations from your subscribers (though that > does make it a little harder for us to maintain the RootsWeb > Membership roll). > > Or it's fine if you never mention RootsWeb to your subscribers at > all. Listowners have *NO* obligation to help us fundraise. > > BUT if you fundraise for RootsWeb, please do it in a low-key way and > make it clear that RootsWeb is open to everyone regardless of > whether they choose to support the site or not. > > It's also OK to let folks know about family associations or other > things that might be vaguely "commercialish", so long as it's > low-key and doesn't confuse the notion that RootsWeb's facilities > are open to everyone. > > The one critical thing is that folks know precisely why they're > being asked for money and how the money will be spent. Genealogists > are a remarkably trusting and supportive community, and we want to > be worthy of that trust by being perfectly clear about what we're > doing. > > Cheers, B.