Greetings:
> However I hope that 'serious' (as against frivolous) fora like
> FlightAdventures can survive - it is refreshing to see such mature
> conversation <g>OK, I think there needs to be some clarification of what's going on.
Just so there's no question, here's the situation:
- FlightAdventures, and our parent company FlightVentures, Inc. are NOT insolvent, and will continue regardless of the status of the Virtual Pilot Center (VPC).
- The VPC will continue to operate for the sake of our paid members until their current memberships expire.
- FlightAdventures does not have the budget to continue to keep the VPC on its current path. During a board of directors meeting several months ago, my request was denied for funding to make up for the shortfall that the VPC was generating. Rather than shut down the VPC then and there, the staff and I filled the gap by collecting our voluntary membership renewals early. When that ran out, I began financing the VPC's overages out of my own paycheck. In addition to the VPC becoming a living, breathing entity that I personally enjoy working on and interacting with, and the friendships and fellowships I been privileged to enjoy here have been, well, wonderful, I did this because I really believed that we could count on a good majority of renewals and a few new members we'd be able to make this all work.
- From the responses to our call for new members, I can see that we do have good core of folks that believe that the VPC is worth saving. My hope, of course, was that we'd have enough of us to cover the costs and keep the VPC as is, but that hasn't happened. Unfortunately, there are not enough of us to continue to finance access to folks that don't care enough one way or the other.
- As much as I like everyone, value their participation, and welcome lurkers to share our common love of aviation, I am not independently wealthy, and I cannot in good conscious continue to fund the shortages of the VPC myself for folks that simply don't care who is paying the bills.
- I don't believe in making threats and those that know me by reputation or personally know that I'm not one that would scream the sky is falling when it isn't, so I'll just state the facts: We'd rather shut the VPC down to those that don't care enough about it, than to beg for money to let these same folks have free access. Unless we can pickup the required remaining memberships to cover bandwidth costs, we'll be closing the VPC down to the public.
We've always thought that the VPC, a public, virtual gathering place for folks to share their aviation interests was a good idea. Unfortunately, good ideas don't always work. It's time to stand up and be counted. If this is the end of the VPC as we know it, so be it. We've tried our best to make the VPC special. If we've failed, then the VPC will just go away for you.
Best wishes.
our voluntary membership renewals early. When that ran out, I began financing the VPC's overages out of my own
Ben
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Registered to: Ben Chiu
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