Also keep in mind sometimes in text the context gets lost, in just the same way you feel you’ve been misunderstood you could be perceiving others cautious nature as a personal attack when they themselves do not actually feel that way.
I’d also like to add just to see where people on the forum are coming from I just skimmed a post recently where the user, I think it was yoyodoc if anyone could link the post. Anyway he listed all these multiple stories of people that joined, said things like they wanted to start a yoyo club or whatever reason, they had packages of yoyos sent, then vanished promptly after never to be seen again so I’m guessing things like that have a lot to do with people being skeptical.
I have found that the very best way to get rid of somebody is to send them stuff for free.
I have no idea why it seems to work that way for me?
That still doesn’t make me over skeptical… But it seems even most well meaning ideas; just don’t fly because no actual organized efforts beyond the original concepts; materialize.
Even Yoyo Organizations like the AYYA ‘Tank’ due to inconsistent leadership values.
Money has an amazing way of initializing the best of intentions and ruining the best of achieving any real fruitful results.
A Professor once told me that half the achievements of men are the direct result of an individual or group effort. And half the failures of men are the direct result of an individual or group effort. He said the primary result of failure are that plans often depend on completely selfless participation. A difficult proposition.
Any plan involving financial participation has the potential of ending up just like a New Years resolution. Every buys a Membership to the Fitness Club.
And their efforts and initiative ‘go south’ from there🤔.
…I’m a sucker for a good cause. But I’m getting smarter as I go along.
It varies but I hear ya. I think sometimes people feel indebted for free stuff, and if they feel they can’t live up to the expectations of using the free stuff or participating here they feel guilty and end up ghosting. I actually understand that and I don’t judge anyone for doing it.
You just reminded me, I have seen that mentioned before in some psychology article in my feed about how people tend to avoid other people they associate with guilt, and that owing them (usually money) was one of the more common reasons for this.
Yeah my thing is that I literally don’t care – if I give you a yo-yo it is for the pleasure of giving, if you flush it down the toilet the second it arrives and never speak to me again that is entirely your right and perogative – but it’s not about my feelings, it is about theirs.
I’d love to see some specific examples of things that such a group would spend the money on, like a plan for the next 6 months listing the 6 specific things you’d want to donate $1000 to.
Hey y’all, sorry to chime in so late to this discussion. I know @805Thrower and really appreciate the passion he has to promote yo-yoing. His support helps make my PopCast vlogs possible and I believe he is also a sponsor of ■■■■■■■■■■ on Patreon as well.
He reached out to me about this idea of folks working together to help make regular financial donations to help support contests. I believe his thought was that some contests could benefit from having something like $500 to give out as a cash prize (or something along that line).
His idea reminded me of a group that I’ve worked with called The Awesome Foundation. Each AF chapter has 10 members that donate $100 a month into a pool. They take grant proposals from local artists and community members, get together once a month to talk about their favorite proposal, then send a check for $1,000 to whichever proposal gets the most support within the group. There are no strings attached to the grants, so it’s all done in good faith with no guarantee that the project will be completed.
Most Awesome Foundation members are artists or makers themselves that now have a steady enough income that they can help others out who may need financial support. Not everyone has $100 a month to donate, but for those that do have extra income, it’s a great way to help support local art and projects.
I believe a similar model could be done within the yo-yo community if people had the money and interest to help out. For example, members could donate $25 a month to be pooled together as the grant fund. These members could look through grant proposals and collectively choose one proposal to donate all of their money to. Maybe it’s an afterschool yo-yo class in Nevada one month, then a new contest in Tennessee the next month, then to a filmmaker who’s working on a short story about yo-yoing the next month. It would be cool to see different types of things receive a grant as long as they help promote yo-yoing in some way.
On a personal note, PopCast is crowdsponsored thanks to folks who donate on Patreon and it literally makes the show happen. So I know how funds like this can help in big ways, but of course those funds only go towards producing new episodes of PopCast, not to other groups or yo-yoers.
This would be different from things like Kickstarter or Patreon in that the members of the group vote on were each month’s grant would go. The grants would probably be on the small side (ie $200 a month). I know a monthly donation of any amount can be a lot to ask for some people, but there are probably a few others out there that might be able to help out. So I think that’s sort of what Greg is trying to discuss here.
I think it’d be very difficult to get 10 people together who would give away $100 a month. The people who would do this are already doing everything they can for the community, hosting contests, providing prizes for the contest, etc. I think it’s wishful thinking to find another group of 10 people willing to give away $100 each month.
Just to clarify, I was saying that the Awesome Foundation does $100 a month, but I don’t know what Greg had in mind for a group like this. It’d be up for discussion. It could be $50 a year, or $20 a month, or whatever. It could even be a pay-what-you-can type situation, but I kind of like the equal donation system.
