Greetings everyone.
Well, it is that time of the year again. The season has changed and we must ask readers to help us continue to maintain and improve this website, as well as the activism that continues to result from our efforts.
As I do with each fundraiser, I want to take the opportunity to go over some of our accomplishments since we last asked for your support and let you know what is ahead for us in the future. There is a lot to tell you about.
First, as most of you know, we have attracted the interest of a bona fide, award winning documentary film production company that is making a movie about A Voice for Men, with the intent of giving you a never before seen platform to talk about your road to the Men’s Human Rights Movement. The more contact we have with these people, the more I am convinced that they want to make a real documentary, not something like Michael Moore would do. It is literally a never before seen opportunity to get our message out there.
The work we have been doing with the National Coalition for Men to start forming university groups for men’s issues has continued, slow but steady. Tom Golden is now in the process of producing the first video call to action to form the groups and it should be out within an estimated two weeks. We will of course bring it to you here first. There has been a lot of support for this long term, very ambitious project, and AVFM, including myself and AVFM News Director Bob O’Hara, have been in the thick of it.
We have future projects coming up as well. I have just rebuilt my office into a video production studio. I will soon start producing a streaming video program on men’s issues to be hosted directly on the site. I will be producing other videos for YouTube to redouble efforts there, but we are also contracting a web development company to set us up with a custom video player and subscription function, hosting the program on Amazon S3 servers so that we can direct stream from the site – away from the control of YouTube or anyone else. It will work on a paid subscription, which means that we will auto enroll anyone already contributing to the site on a monthly basis, and of course there will be free passes for activists in a financial fix.
Hopefully through sales of these video programs, which we are taking care to produce professionally, we can help ease the burden on contributors to the site who have been coughing up the large donations to keep us going. It will also provide an extra service to those of you who regularly contribute smaller amounts every month.
I am scheduled to start in late July with a series of programs to be made for YouTube, which should provide some great content, but also help me work out the bugs in making a more polished video program. I hope to be ready to produce that program in earnest, weekly, by September of this year.
But, as I always say around this time a year, this stuff is not happening for free. As we continue to grow, our expenses grow commensurately. And we still have all the same regular operating costs, like a dedicated server, image royalties, Blog Talk Radio fees, legal expenses to keep my big mouth covered, and the endless assorted costs of keeping this operation afloat.
But it appears to be paying off, folks, faster than I could have ever expected. Thanks to your donations AVFM is now certifiably giving traction to a men’s movement in the most real sense of the word. With thanks to everyone associated with this site, the editors, contributors, technical experts, readers, donors and fellow activists, I ask you again to help us take a few more big steps in the right direction.
As you can see, there is no paid advertising on this site. The only source of support we have is you.
Please use the donation button at the top right of the page to contribute to this quarter’s fundraiser through Paypal. For those of you who want to mail in checks or money orders, please click on the “Other Options” button in the same area.
Thank you in advance to all who help and those that have always helped us achieve our goals.
19,040.00!
Thank you!
Check pledges total $650.00. Drive ends 12:01 AM CST July 1, 2013
