[games_access] Game control question...

[d. michelle hinn]

>On Jan 18, 2008 2:04 PM, d. michelle hinn <hinn at uiuc.edu> wrote:
>  > >On Jan 18, 2008 2:22 AM, Barrie Ellis 
><barrie.ellis at oneswitch.org.uk> wrote:
>>  Anyway...I'm not AT ALL saying this is a bad idea...it's just that
>>  fund raising right now is for us to keep surviving as a group.
>
>Do we have a brochure/grant proposal/business plan type thing that
>could be used to shop for investors?  What I need is mission, goals,
>and a plan to spend a bunch of money to achieve those goals.

That's what we now have some funding to do -- at last! It takes 
money/time-time/money as you know to come up with these plans, get a 
flashy brouchure/investers package printed out, etc in order to get 
more money to do things like contacting companies and arranging for 
them to have a controller and/or purchase one themselves. I must 
admit that I'm kinda torn between buying controllers for the 
companies that could easily afford to buy one themselves and buying 
them to give away to gamers that would actually use them day-to-day. 
It kind of reminds me of those swag bags that they give away to 
actors that contain merchandise that is so pricey that, if sold, 
could help a family eat for a few years. But I hear that they are 
starting to tax actors on those things now so things are changing in 
that arena too.

We've always been short on both time and money. But now we have some 
funding but I don't know how to budget it out/write it up in a way 
that will be successful. The grant is to help us grow and raise more 
funds. So the grant is to help us afford to ask people for more money 
basically. This is perhaps where you could really help us out on -- I 
have no business background other than having worked for businesses. 
I've just never been in the "business plan" side of things. So I'd 
gladly accept some help with coming up with a template for what would 
be something that didn't look amateurish. I have music, psychology, 
and CS degrees...none of those required any business/legal course 
work (although, I'm wondering why at least one of them didn't require 
at least one course). Not that course work is necessarily all that 
great -- it's experience that really counts when push comes to shove. 
I need to come up with this for the SIG grant and it's a steep 
learning curve for me. It's something I need to learn how to do now 
that we're playing in the big(ger?) leagues now!

>  > BTW, part two -- did you know that we have a grant that we are trying
>>  to get matching funds for? If not and you want to donate (you can
>>  even earmark money for a controller for company X and then we'll
>>  start calling them up), let me know. Not sure what your
>>  personal/company situation is but we will take anything we can get!)
>
>That's really cool..  I'm certainly not wealthy myself, but I think
>it's a good plan that would show results and I'll put my money where
>my mouth is - next month. This month I already blew my toy budget on
>my own controller :)

Yeah...those controllers aren't cheap -- and I have a completely 
broken one thanks to airport security (I've taken it through carry on 
and through checked luggage -- doesn't matter, they break it anyway). 
But, as you know...it *does* look a little suspicious. However, I 
think that they might be better off worrying about the things that 
don't look suspicious. I guess!

Anyway, I'm asking him if he can fix it for me -- I think he'd be 
willing to do so if he and I could come up with a repair fee that was 
fair value. I'm sure we can!

Michelle