Dear MMD Readers,  It's time to have an MMDigest spring fundraising
drive.  The daily Digest and the MMD web site invite readers to
voluntarily contribute to the publication of the Digest and the
operation of the web site.

I have put off making this fund raising drive request because I wanted
to address some of the suggestions that have been made regarding
donations.  I also wanted to tie in the request with the announcement
of a new web site feature.  Consequently I have been putting off
starting a fund raising drive, but doing my annual income taxes
required a close look at the books.  The MMD's expenses (which included
a new dedicated leased server with a much faster network connection)
exceeded income in 2007.  Uh-oh!

One of my technical goals for this year was to greatly improve the
subscription mechanism on the web site so that it is mostly automated.
I also wanted to simplify the editing tasks by reducing SPAM.  A lot of
work is still going on behind the scenes in these areas but the progress
is visible.  I monitor the error reports from the web site for failed
requests and I know there are some.  We're trying to fix things as
quickly as possible.  If something doesn't work right, let us know --
you may not be doing anything wrong.

One of my personal goals for this year was to send a thank you note
to each contributor (including, especially, past contributors),
acknowledging receipt of their contribution and thanking them for it.
The pace of the technical stuff I've been doing has distracted me from
doing this but it is still my goal to write each contributor an e-mail
thanking them.  While I am still working on this goal I want _everyone_
who has contributed in the past to know that Robbie and I appreciate
your support very much.  I personally read and enjoy every comment that
is included with a PayPal payment as well as the many paper notes that
are included with people's checks.  Thank you!

Some of our regular contributors have suggested that I send a 'reminder'
12 months after their contribution was submitted.  I have always
thought this was a good idea but have never set up a procedure to do
it.  I am close to being able to use some of the database machinery on
the new server to send reminders.  My thanks to those of you that have
suggested it.  I am almost ready to start sending thank you notes to
those who have contributed at some time in the past.  For those of you
who get these thank-yous and choose to treat them as reminders for this
year, my thanks in advance for your 2008 contribution.

In closing, I want to ask those of you who have _never_ contributed
to the operation of the MMD to consider making you first contribution
to the operation of the MMD.  For this Digest only, we're putting the
daily contribution solicitation text in the post script (P.S., below)
so that it will be archived as part of this article on the web site.

Thanks again to everyone for their interest in keeping the Mechanical
Music Digest going,

Jody
Jody Kravitz, Publisher
Mechanical Music Digest

P.S.  Here's the daily contribution solicitation text that normally
appears at the bottom of the Digest:

The Mechanical Music Digest is a publication of The Foxtail Group.
Publication is made possible by gifts from its readers in amounts
deemed appropriate by the contributor.  The amount $30/year is
suggested, but all gifts of support, regardless of amount, are
appreciated and helpful.

International contributors and anyone wishing to make payments via
credit card or bank EFT should use the PayPal link below:

   https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=paypalmmd%40foxtail.com&item_name=MMD+Support&no_shipping=1

PayPal will indicate the Payee as "paypaladmin" at Foxtail dot com.
This is not an e-mail address so please don't try to correspond with
us using that address.

Those wishing to pay by check should be make their check payable to
"The Foxtail Group" and send it to:

  The Foxtail Group
  P. O. Box 502230
  San Diego, CA 92150-2230