In a recent thread
Randy posted:
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">That and as has been mentioned before - several months ago i emailed all members of TalkBoard and TalkTeam (moderators) of my intent to install a Community Director in this new year. I've gotten a few ideas from their feedback for helping fund such a person but the first priority is the move to new technology. I'm thinking this a $30-35K job but a few moderators told me to budget $60K. That puts the idea in far newer light. But, I've been tweaking what I can do in-house to save a few pennies in my organization to fund this personally if i have too.</font>
I would be happy to donate $100.00 a year to this cause. FT is worth way more than that to me each year. Are their 600 to 999 other folks who are so inclined?
How about setting up a pledge system that provides certain privileges to folks who pledged certain amounts. Maybe a private (read only)
"Randy's Hottest Travel Tips" forum for folks who pledged a minimum of $50-75 per year? The Community Director could be charged with keeping the Hot Tips current. You could have another level, maybe $150.00 a year, which would allow private interaction among FT supporters, kind of like the Opera. You could even tie the Director's salary directly to the donations pledged for subsequent years--decent motiviation for the director to improve the site and keep things fairly balanced and under control.
The possibilities here are are endless and such programs would not be particulary challenging to implement. The only real challenge would be to make certain that you selected an individual who was very rational and very close to you philosophically--a person who could remain totally fair and objective at all times, even under fire.
Given the right person, I can see this working.