On Sat, Feb 10, 2001 at 01:58:12PM -0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> In a message dated 2/7/2001 3:06:01 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> > Finally, last week I had a long conversation on the phone with Laurel
> > Quam, who was totally against the proposed 5% markup to go toward a
> > buying club fund.
>
> Why was she against the 5% markup? Did she have some valid reasons others of us
>should consider?
> Dr. Z.
I asked her to send her thoughts to the list so people could discuss
this, (but she it still not reliably online). Basically, she didn't
believe there should be any costs associated with the buying club
since we are all volunteers. I explained that it already costs money
to keep the website and mailing lists working, (which she didn't want
to believe because she gets her Yahoo email for free ;-)
Yes, there are "free" mailing list and website services out there, but
you actually "pay" for these through advertising, (and you are subject
to changes and limitations in those services). Effectively, you don't
own or control your Internet resources when you don't pay for them.
Anyway, she also expressed some indifference toward the Internet based
buying club, and said it was easy enough to just place orders like
Marigael did, taking cash, and meeting in person. I explained that I
didn't really even have time to talk on the phone, and the Internet
based communications / payment systems were important to what I am
trying to create here, so people can actually work together to buy
food more efficiently.
Of course, people are free to form their own buying clubs that have no
infrastructure or overhead if they choose, (and there are almost
certainly some of these already in town if you look for them).
In the meantime, I still think the 5% markup will be effective for the
very low cost organization I am envisioning for BuyOrganic.org, and in
fact, most of that 5% could probably be returned to members through
patronage refunds, (like REI does), or donated to support local organic
farms and community gardens, (which was my original idea).
Regards,
-jeb
--
Jeb Bateman
http://buyorganic.org
