GDG- A plea for $$$ disguised as a short history of the GDG

[Dennis Lawrence]

Hello,

   I  certainly appreciate the response of members to the annual membership 
drive.  The size of our archives and the number of posts that pass through 
the server have made this an expensive operation to run.

   Without your generous support, we would not exist.

     In 1995 when Bob said he was going to start a discussion group 
on  Gettysburg, I had no idea how large the proposition would become.  We 
began by keeping the mailing list on  a large cc list on.  When the posts 
came in, they would go only to Bob or myself.  We would then send them to 
the group - about 75 - by hand. I remember coming home from work on 
lunchtime to forward posts to make sure their current.

    The first official GDG muster was the first one where we sold t-shirts, 
IMHO.  http://www.gdg.org/Muster/muster96.html  The purchase of a t-shirt 
gave the member free tours for the weekend as well a  free hot dog 
dinner.  (Dinner being a relative term.)

    There would always be $50 or so "profit" that we would use to offset 
the growing cost of using a server for the GDG.

    Eileen Murphy, Terry Moyer were a big part of getting us involved in 
archiving documents on the Internet that people would generally not have 
access to, the Tipton project was their project.   This type of  archiving 
became one of the most satisfying activities of the GDG.  Members from 
around the world would digitize documents, send them to me, and Bob would 
place them on the server. Everyone became a historian engaged in saving 
history.

    As the archive grew, so did the group and the expenses.

      It became obvious that we could no longer run the group without more 
money and without a more formal organizational structure.  At the same 
time, we  incorporated the GDG into a non profit organization with a board 
of directors to run the GDG.

   With the creation of the non-profit, came responsibilities that we had 
never had before. It was one thing to stick the extra hot dog money in an 
account to cover a fraction of the cost.  It was another to steward the 
$10,000 or so in contributions we needed to keep the GDG going.

     I appreciate the effort of everyone who steps up to help, and realize 
the responsibility your contribution places on us.

   If you go http://www.gdg.org/Support/Muster2007/memberreg2007.htm

   You can register for the muster and contribute on the Internet or you 
can send a check to

Gettysburg Engineering Co., Inc.
1621 Baltimore Pike,
Gettysburg, PA 17325

Thanks for your continued support.

Dennis Lawrence
President
Gettysburg Discussion Group