I'm only a new kid (61) on the block, and noticed comment on the necessary funding for WOL.
As a very small contribution to the debate, has there ever been thought of WOL having a page advertising books of poetry written by subscribers to WOL?
WOL need not be involved directly with the selling or finance.
e.g. In Jan. 2009 I had a book of 80 poems printed on top quality paper to give to friends. 50 books cost me about £4.50 each. Assume £1 for postage; £1 for the writer; £1 for WOL. Total selling price £7.50
This isn't me plugging my poems. At least half of my book is awful, and that's the best half.
I'm not into writing for a living, but this idea may help up and coming writers to get something out there.
Just a thought.

Steve M.

Yes, This has been suggested Steve.

A good idea on the surface I agree but who would be in the book. POM's WOLOP? a hornets nest I fear.

Winston

Hi Steven

I misunderstood your last post. I took it that you were suggesting a WOL anthology which would indeed be impossible, yet it was suggested somewhere along the line I believe. You may have a point with your suggestion

I have another idea for funding. People feel skint (especially this year) yet many would like to contribute. The site is growing rapidly and we are up to 600 or so poets. Just think if there were a facility for everyone to press a button to donate,say £2 a month. Less than a pint! we would have £1200 per month to do all sorts of thing with! Not sure how difficult this (Standing order type of donation) would be to set up. No one would miss £1 or £2 per month yet wouldn't remember if it wasn't automatic.

Win

Good ideas - we'll have a think about both and see what we can do.

Any other ideas gratefully accepted.

Hi Paul
Hopefully something will come from the funding ideas, but do you (or anyone else) have an idea what could/would be done with the money.
I'm sure even an additional £600 (600 @ £1 each) per month would be most useful, but I have this awful deja vous after the Ernesto furore. 600 people with 600 ideas how the money should be spent.
Personally, I'd be happy for any money to be allocated by Julian and the gang.
More grist to the mill.

A couple of points responding to the entries below:

If anyone wants to set up a regular standing order donation, please don't do it via paypal, rather contact me and I'll give you our bank account details. I say this because if you donate say £2 via paypal they take 27p!
________________________

We need to spend money on various things just to keep WOL going - a couple of examples: paying an ISP to host the site, paying Public liability insurance to run our events.

Any new money we get we use to try to develop the site and make it better for users. So, at the moment, our developers are working on making the gig guide better and easier to use whilst setting an infrastructure that will allow new and useful functionality such as linking Galleries with events on the Gig Guide.

At the same time a new 'Features' section has been added which both simplifies the front page and menu and paves the way for more features to be added.

We have a great many other ideas which we will work on as any funding becomes available.

You can contribute to the way the site develops by posting your ideas in this section of the Discussions forum.

Paul
I know putting things on the front page may cause some sort of backlash, but what about placing this Discussion in a more prominent position.
I know I don't manage to keep abreast of all of the Discussions, and it may be that a large number of contributors will miss this one.
If you think this idea (i.e. putting it onto the front page) is asking for trouble (or making it for you) just delete this. No offence taken.

Hi Paul
Just a quick note regarding Public liability insurance. I was speaking to a promoter for Equity and he informed me that if you join Equity (for about £100 a year) they gives you PLI as part of the package. Double check but he did say they got an awful lot of members that way!
best
matt

Hi Matt

If you join equity you get 10,000 public liability insurance as part of your membership and you can increase this or extend its cover in other ways by paying an add on fee.

This would be fine for WOL if everyone present was a member. Otherwise there will be people not covered which I guess is the issue here

Employers public liability may be appropriate but I don't know WOL's requirements.

I am an equity member who joined simply because of this bonus as refered to in your comment.

Incidently my insurance has increased from ~£30 in 1994 to ~£300 now ! I suspect WOL would not have required a policy at all in days gone by.

It may still worth checking out if the Equity insurers (for whom I have a contact) could provide a competitive quote.

[Paul get in touch if you think this is something of interest]

Winston

I am not sure that individual WOL members joining Equity would absolve Write out Loud, the organisation, from public liability claims against it. We feel we need corporate cover.

Individuals joining Equity will not help WOL, it would only help Equity members in cases against WOL, should they arise. There is a system whereby a production can register with Equity but I'm not sure if whole organisations can, And, I think, performers have to be paid anyway, under Equity rules.
I have always found the people at Equity to be very helpful though, and if they can't help you directly, they can usually point you in the right direction.
Cx

Ah! The reason I was asking the questions of the Equity chap was to cover my own shows playing in venues which don't have the PLI, My impression was as long as the organiser of the event was covered then the event itself was covered.
I was quite specific in the asking of that as it was research for next years tours (IE - if I perform in a warehouse, which is unlikely to be covered and an audience member trips, breaks a leg, sues, I - as the organiser am covered.)
But I might easily have grasped the wrong end of the stick...it WAS 9 am...I had had only ONE coffee...there was a hangover involved...
best
M

Hi folks

I paid £97 for 1 yrs PLI for £5m cover a year ago.

Similar cover is now available free when you join NAWE - Nat Assoc Writers in Education. Julian - they also do a corporate cover which covers all named individuals.

Details at http://www.nawe.co.uk/metadot/index.pl?id=41281&isa=Category&op=show

*Note - read the small print. Don't sue me if it doesn't cover you! You'd need to be clear that it covers performances/events not just teaching settings. Pyrotechnics is not included! Nor is "emotional harm!"

Cheers

Tony

how much?