I posted a link earlier today requesting that people that had not sponsored the group before could consider doing so by denoting $5. My post seems to have raised a lot of concerns and emails, so I want to explain what happened.?

?

I know many people wanted to donate, but I don’t want to build up a big piggy bank of money to which we have no access. If group.io folded we would have no access to the money. It’s non-refundable. So I'd rather have enough money to cover fees, but not an excessive amount. Hence I requested donations were only $5, and only if you had not already donated.

?

IMHO groups.io have been very fair, and our fees for the group have been fixed at $110/year, despite new groups getting less facilities paying $220/year. Groups dot io seem to be keeping the fees constant - they are not rising inline with inflation. We are considered a legacy group.

We had got enough money to cover the fees within 20 minutes, of my post, so I disabled the sponsor function. I have received a lot of private emails, mentions on here, and even a complaint about the way it was handled, so I thought I'd try to clarify why I did it the way I did, and how? you can usefully donate to a charity if you want to.

Firstly, the link that ended in /sponsor is created and destroyed by groups.io automatically, depending upon whether I enable the sponsorship feature. So I could not, ?as someone suggested, put a custom message. Those of you who tried donating later got a 404 error. Next time I will look into creating a custom message, which itself has a link to the sponsor, but warns that unless you are quick, you will likely not be able to donate.

If anyone wanted to donate, but was unable to, then please consider donating to one of the following charities. All want payment in UK pounds (GBP), but PayPal, a credit or debit card will just convert whatever you donate to your own currency.

?

If you don't want to deal in GBP, then you can send whatever currency you want to my personal PayPal address (drkirkby@...), and I will ensure it gets to the charity of your choosing. Please do not send to my business email address drkirkby@....

I put below in alphabetical order, a suggested list of UK charities. I know some people like donating to small charities. The third in the list is 100% voluntary, with zero employees. The fourth in the list is very small.? The other charities are better known, and bigger.

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1) Cat’s Protection League

?

2) Dog's Trust

?

3) German Shepherd Dog Rescue (100% voluntary, zero employees).

(Declared conflict of interest, I own a German Shepherd)

?

4) Girlguiding (A small charity, but it does have paid employees)

This helps? young girls develop new skills and build self-confidence.

?

5) Open University

This provides education, including degrees. The courses are very high quality, but funding is tight.

?

A lot of material is made freely available too.

(Declared conflict of interest, I'm currently doing a BSc (honors) degree in mathematics at the Open University)

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6) Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)

?

?

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On Fri, Oct 18, 2024 at 9:44 AM, Radu Bogdan Dicher

<vondicher@...> wrote:

Herding cats sometimes, it feels like... :)

Radu.?

On Fri, Oct 18, 2024 at 9:37?AM John via <jphutch60bj=[email protected]> wrote:

David -

Thanks for the update and taking on the job of herding? heading up the group? ;-}

On 10/17/2024 7:31 PM, Dr. David Kirkby, Kirkby Microwave Ltd via wrote:

I posted a link earlier today requesting that people that had not sponsored the group before could consider doing so by denoting $5. My post seems to have raised a lot of concerns and emails, so I want to explain what happened.?

?

I know many people wanted to donate, but I don’t want to build up a big piggy bank of money to which we have no access. If folded we would have no access to the money. It’s non-refundable. So I'd rather have enough money to cover fees, but not an excessive amount. Hence I requested donations were only $5, and only if you had not already donated.

?

IMHO have been very fair, and our fees for the group have been fixed at $110/year, despite new groups getting less facilities paying $220/year. Groups dot io seem to be keeping the fees constant - they are not rising inline with inflation. We are considered a legacy group.

We had got enough money to cover the fees within 20 minutes, of my post, so I disabled the sponsor function. I have received a lot of private emails, mentions on here, and even a complaint about the way it was handled, so I thought I'd try to clarify why I did it the way I did, and how? you can usefully donate to a charity if you want to.

Firstly, the link that ended in /sponsor is created and destroyed by automatically, depending upon whether I enable the sponsorship feature. So I could not, ?as someone suggested, put a custom message. Those of you who tried donating later got a 404 error. Next time I will look into creating a custom message, which itself has a link to the sponsor, but warns that unless you are quick, you will likely not be able to donate.

If anyone wanted to donate, but was unable to, then please consider donating to one of the following charities. All want payment in UK pounds (GBP), but PayPal, a credit or debit card will just convert whatever you donate to your own currency.

?

If you don't want to deal in GBP, then you can send whatever currency you want to my personal PayPal address (drkirkby@...), and I will ensure it gets to the charity of your choosing. Please do not send to my business email address drkirkby@....

I put below in alphabetical order, a suggested list of UK charities. I know some people like donating to small charities. The third in the list is 100% voluntary, with zero employees. The fourth in the list is very small.? The other charities are better known, and bigger.

?

1) Cat’s Protection League

?

2) Dog's Trust

?

3) German Shepherd Dog Rescue (100% voluntary, zero employees).

(Declared conflict of interest, I own a German Shepherd)

?

4) Girlguiding (A small charity, but it does have paid employees)

This helps? young girls develop new skills and build self-confidence.

?

5) Open University

This provides education, including degrees. The courses are very high quality, but funding is tight.

?

A lot of material is made freely available too.

(Declared conflict of interest, I'm currently doing a BSc (honors) degree in mathematics at the Open University)

?

6) Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)

?

?

?