Website Renewal for 2021

[schoolmaster]

I wanted to take this opportunity to update everyone on the status of the website for 2021. As most of you know, there are costs associated with maintaining the website so that it functions properly and securely to protect everyone from internet mischief. Jerry M. is our webmaster and all-around website coordinator extraordinaire and we owe him our thanks for taking such good care of it so that we may communicate effectively and efficiently.

You may also know that your Ride Coordinators pass the hat once a year to support the costs of maintaining the site. They then get those contributions to me and I work with Jerry to insure that he has the funds to adequately maintain the site. Since the costs are not static and change from year to year based on web traffic and regular and unanticipated technical issues that arise each year, I have maintained a small balance ahead of time so that we can deal with any surprise that may arise. Well, this year the surprise was Covid-19 that prohibited us from riding and being able to collect funds to support our costs.

Fortunately, due to a decline in web traffic and Jerry's efforts to cut costs, I had a sufficient balance to cover his immediate expenses so we are good for another year. Hopefully by this time next year we will have resumed our weekly rides and we will be able to again raise the necessary funds as we have in the past. I have placed a more detailed account of the expenses on the ride coordinators' website link. If anyone has additional questions feel free to touch base with your coordinator or message me. Let's hope that we can put this pandemic behind us sooner rather than later and get back to enjoying those weekly lunches!

Mick Lowe
Eastern Kansas Ride Coordinator

[TomK]

Jerry has maintained this site to perfection out of his interest in motorcycling and his tech background. He is tireless and dutiful and we all owe him our deepest thanks! And you Mick have done yeoman work as the main ride coordinator with much help from the other ride coordinators. Thank all of you for your volunteer work, it means so much to us who may or may not ride and follow along as casual Romeo's, likely are pretty silent. We are lucky to be part of this endeavor, likely unparalleled elsewhere. Thanks again, and MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hang in there guys and gals, we can whip this virus, stay vigilant, stay smart, follow the guidelines. Sympathies to anyone who has lost a family member or friend to the virus. Ride safely when you get the chance.

[JerryM100]

Thank you, Mick, for updating everyone and handling the donations and funding. As a reminder for everyone, this is a labor of love for me and not a money-making venture. But there are costs, which aren't that much in the grand scheme of things, but they add up year after year, so it is nice to at least be compensated. It is really quite satisfying to see how this has grown over the years to provide such a service to so many people. 

Such a simple idea: have a few people post a few destinations for others to meet and have breakfast or lunch on their motorcycles. Every week! (Except not so much for now.)

I want to say more but I will start a separate post to keep the topics separated. This topic is about keeping the Romeos forums and website going financially. What can we do to keep it going or improve the service it provides to our Romeo communities during Covid and the winter riding off-season?

See my next post...

Jerry M

PS. And thank you for your kind remarks, Tom K. I have fond memories from the early days, meeting for lunch with the various groups and Sunday mornings there at JT's Grill in Desoto (between Kansas City and Lawrence). I see from your stats on the right (all those stars!) that you were one of the beta testers I invited to test this idea out when I first created the website. You can see on my post on the right side that I "joined" on Nov 16th, 2008. That is the day I first installed the software and made an account for myself. I played with it for a few weeks, we talked about it at lunch, and then I invited a few friends to test it with me. That was in December 2008 and you were one of the first. Thanks for sticking around! 

As I said, let's limit responses here to Mick's original post and move comments to my next post about the future of the website.