Hey guys,

I know I'm starting this a little late again this year, but I have been out of town in Rochester, NY for the last week and until the end of next week training for my new job. So I haven't had a chance to get things going for the donation drive for the server this year, but I wanted to start it now before I come home since time is ticking away.

As you know this will mark the SIXTH year (wow it's been that long) that we have done a donation drive to have the VHLinks server paid for by the members of this site for the next year. We will of course continue using GoFundMe as the vehicle to collect our contributions.

First of all, as I say each year and will continue to for as long as we do this, not having to pay the server is a huge load off of my plate financially, so I really thank all of you who have donated to keep this place going. Especially now with me starting a new job, it just really relieves the burden.

I have no delusions this year that this will be easy. Every year it gets harder and harder to get this done, but we've managed to somehow. I am well aware we have less active users than ever. A lot of that stems from band inactivity, but much of it stems from users becoming apathetic to the band situation, and of course people just move on.

The server bill is due the on October 1st this year, so need to have our $4,000 in donations done by September 30th. We do have some money in the kitty from last year, ($230) but the goal is still to get $4,000 again this year so we have some overspill for next year in case something arises and we have issues. I say this every year. Having more in there is better than having less. So watch the donation tally graphic I have on here, as that's what will be accurate for what we've raised for this drive.

We're looking at needing about 150 people to donate $30 and we'll be there again. That takes into account GoFundMe fees. Again there is NO OBLIGATION for ANYONE to donate, it's purely up to you. Nobody is required to donate to post here, this is completely voluntary! Also if you donated last year, and you're obviously donating a bit under the year time frame, I'll still make sure it doesn't end until next October, so don't worry about that. We're starting a little later than normal this year because I have had a busy summer, but I think in the next 5-6 weeks we should be able to get it done!

How Do I Donate This Year?
Go directly to our GoFundMe page (linked below and the donate link at the top goes to it), and directly do your donation from their page. It's super simple, and you DO NOT need to be a GoFundMe member to donate...it's not like PayPal. I have set up three tiers on there like we used to have $30, $50 (can't do the old $51.50 one anymore sadly), and $100. So you can just click on one of those to save yourself some time. You of course can donate less than $30, but that really won't help us get to our goal, and you won't get the premium membership if you do. So I urge you to please donate at least $30 if you can.

After you donate, you MUST private message me here to let me know you've donated so I can manually update your account here. If you don't, there's no way for me to know who has donated what because the name on your donation won't tell me your username. I am using my computer to check for PM's not my phone, because for some reason I don't always get PM notifications on Tapatalk.

What's nice about GoFundMe is it will tell us where we are in terms of donations in real time on our donation page there.

If you have any questions about this process of using GoFundMe, please just post them in this thread. The link is below.

2019 VHLinks Server Drive @ GoFundMe!

Brett I don't want to use GoFundMe, can I send a check or money order?
Yes of course you can, contact me privately for mailing.

I will post this his in various places on the site so people don't miss it, and I really would love to get it done early this year and move on from it (I say this every year. )

I thank you for your continued support of the site, which has served the VH online community since September 1, 1999!

Brett