Greetings fellow MepisLovers.

As you'll be aware, over the last 12 months, we've made some remarkable progress as a Community. During that time, we've developed the Community Repositories, built our own Community Website, and recently hired a server for Restricted Community packages.

At this time, all of these services for the Community are being funded in the main by the private individuals who also help run them.

I indicated recently that it was time we as a Community stepped up to assist these generous individuals, by at least trying to cover the expenses of running these services. There was a big show of support for this idea at the time. Thanks to 3 other members of the Community (Karen, Jerry and Rob), we now have the means to make this a reality.

THE HOW:
By going to the Community Website, you'll find a new link on the front page - DONATE. This will take you to a second page where you can read a little information on the mechanism. The next link will take you to the actual donations page - and from there to the actual PAYPAL page to make the transaction.

The PAYPAL account we are using belongs to one of the members here (Rob) who you know as Okie2003. Once the transaction is complete, you'll get a confirming email, and the money will be transferred to Rob's account. Rob will keep me appraised of a running balance, so we can supply regular updates on progress. No information about the donator or the amount, will be disclosed to anyone else.

Once our target has been met, all of the accumulated funds (less the PAYPAL fees) will be transferred to the individual server Maintainers. At completion of the funds drive, the total raised and how it was allocated will be fully disclosed.

THE WHY:
This fund drive is being carried out to cover the costs of the servers that host MEPIS Community sites. Our goal is to collect US $1,000 in two weeks.

This is designated to cover some or all of the server costs hosting the following sites:
- the Mepis Community Restricted repository
- the Mepis Community Main repository
- the Mepis Community Website
- the MepisLovers Forums

Any additional funds will be forwarded to Warren Woodford at completion.

CURRENT STATUS:
At the time of posting, the four of us who set this up have each donated - and the balance currently sits (after fees) at US 100.24 - so we are about 10% toward our initial total already!

PLEASE - I ask all who can afford to contribute to do so. I know a lot of you also assist with time and other services. But we ALL partake in the services others are providing. A true mark of the spirit of this Community would be to show our support.

I will try to post regular updates.

Thanks in advance.