Re: Antonio's grant

[frank bliss <frank@blissnet.com>]

For those of you that tuned in late, we are trying to raise funds on 
the list to facilitate research on a basal Hadrosaur from Italy.

I believe that Dr. Dalla Vecchia now has a Paypal account as we 
suggested as of Monday night.  All of you overseas DML'ers can send him 
money directly via that system.  The US page on Paypal that explains 
this process is 
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/sell/mc/mc_send-outside  
Some of you overseas users may not be able to access the secure site 
https so you will have to find the directions via your normal paypal 
link.  In order to send cash this way you also need to establish your 
own paypal account.  The currency conversion is automatic.  The way I 
see the deal is that Paypal makes a few percent on the currency spread. 
 Dr, Vecchia's paypal account is fabdalla@tin.it

I do have a problem with this kind of dispursal through the DML without 
a central counting authority.  (I will gladly give the job to someone 
else) but lets say an amazing amount of  5000 US comes into the 
account.  It would be nice to police that amount to dispurse it to 
other needy researchers doing dinosaur science rather than the 
recipient having to send part of it back.  I trust Dr. Vecchia 
implicitly so this statement is not regarding him but it is possible 
that some recipients might not be honest and cut off contributions at 
their grant limit or send back the excess.  If we keep a central 
depository (so to speak), the DML has a source of grant funds from it's 
subscribers and at least an amount of control over those funds.  I 
think this would be in everyones best interest.

Sincerely
Frank Bliss
MS Biostratigraphy
Weston, Wyoming
On May 16, 2005, at 6:12 PM, frank bliss wrote:

> Toward the end of putting together a cash grant to Dr. Dalla Vecchia 
> from the members of the DML, I established an account this morning 
> with the purpose of receiving donations to facilitate the study of 
> Antonio.  I will be taking checks or money orders for this purpose 
> made out to me Frank Bliss, at 1107 Parks Rd.  Weston, Wyoming 82731. 
> Please note that they are for the Antonio study fund.  I put 100 bucks 
> of my own into the account to start the ball rolling.  The account is 
> the cheapest I could open with very minimal upkeep that I will take 
> care of.  I understand that it will cost about 50 bucks to do a bank 
> to bank transfer of the funds once the fund has reached the 1000 buck 
> mark.  Please send your checks now.  I will post an accounting of the 
> account once the grant amount is received.  If you do not want your 
> name to appear on the accounting list as a donor, let me know.   This 
> account will only be used for handling donations from the DML list 
> members to support paleontological research.  If all the members of 
> the DML give a few dollars we are going to easily fund the study of 
> this basal Hadrosaurian from the upper Santonian of Italy.  If 
> everyone gives much more, I will position the excess to do other 
> similar funding activities.  Members from other countries will have to 
> handle this in some other way since I do not have the ability to 
> handle foreign fund without a bank to bank transfer which would be 
> cost prohibitive for any amounts under several hundred dollars US.  If 
> this becomes big, I will form a non-profit org with other members of 
> the DML as board members to facilitate the grants.  It would be my 5th 
> corporation.
> Frank Bliss
> MS Biostratigraphy
> Weston, Wyoming