23.1356, At LINGUIST List, we're economizing for you

Fri Mar 16 20:23:21 UTC 2012

LINGUIST List: Vol-23-1356. Fri Mar 16 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.1356, At LINGUIST List, we're economizing for you

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Veronika Drake, U of Wisconsin-Madison
Monica Macaulay, U of Wisconsin-Madison
Rajiv Rao, U of Wisconsin-Madison
Joseph Salmons, U of Wisconsin-Madison
Anja Wanner, U of Wisconsin-Madison
       <reviews at linguistlist.org>

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

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https://linguistlist.org/donation/donate/donate1.cfm

Editor for this issue: Matthew Lahrman <matt at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:22:43
From: LINGUIST List [linguist at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Help us keep all of our services--and keep them free!

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=23-1356.html&submissionid=4542713&topicid=121&msgnumber=1

Dear Subscribers,

The LINGUIST List Advisors suggested that I share with you 
some of the information I've been sending them on the way 
LL spends the money you donate in Fund Drive.  They thought 
you should also know that we are taking steps to generate 
additional income and to streamline our operation so that 
we use resources frugally in these bad economic times.   

We hope that our services have been of value to you this year 
and that learning more about our financial situation will 
inspire you to contribute to the 2012 Fund Drive:

https://linguistlist.org/donation/donate/donate1.cfm

When you look at the list of LL crew members, you may think, 
"That's a big crew.  Do they need that many people to run 
an email list?" Well, yes, we do.  Why do we need editors?
Remember that each student works only 20 hours per week;  
and LINGUIST List sends out 5-6 issues per day,  350 days 
per  year.   And remember that editors classify every post  
by both subject language and linguistic subfield, before 
sending it out within 48 hours.  At the same time, editors 
are corresponding with 27,000 subscribers and  maintaining 
a huge website, with hundreds of thousands of webpages and 
scores of facilities that need tending, e.g., 'Ask-A-Linguist,' 
'NoticeBoard,' 'The E-MELD School of Best Practices,'  
'The Internship Register,' 'The Student Portal,' 'MultiTree,' 
'EasyAbs,' 'LL-MAP,' and 148 language-related mailing lists.  
Nothing is posted anywhere on the site without having been read 
and approved by a student editor.  As it stands right now, we 
are already more than stretched with the number of editors we 
have; without your donations, we may not be able to feature 
all the areas that we currently post.

So what do we do with your donations?  All donation money is 
used to  support  and train students,  as they pursue their 
linguistics degrees.  The money donated in Fund Drive goes 
into a special account reserved for student support  (as 
opposed to the money we make on jobs and book announcement 
postings, which is spent on programmer salaries, equipment, 
and supplies).  The student support money is spent primarily 
on graduate assistantships; GAs work 20 hours a week for 8 
months  for a tuition and a stipend, together totaling  
$16,000-$24,000 depending on whether they are in-state or 
out-of-state.  For the past two years, however, we have been 
decreasing the number of GA-ships and using student workers 
to make up the slack.  Student workers are paid by the hour, 
without tuition.  And in the summer we have a mix of hourly 
student workers and interns.   Interns are also linguistics 
students, but they come from all over--not just from Eastern 
Michigan U.   

What are we doing to reduce expenses? Well, we are reluctantly 
reducing our student staff.   Next year we will be reducing the 
number of GAs by 2 and using more student workers.   We hate to 
do this, since the students need the tuition; but our primary 
goal has to be to shepherd LL through these bad economic times.   

We are keeping the same fund drive goal as we had in 2008, but 
tuition,  salaries, and fixed expenses keep climbing.  And Eastern 
Michigan has decreased its support,  paying for only one staff member, 
not 1.5, as it did last year.

So our lead programmer has been systematically reviewing the site 
and making modifications that will, we hope, save labor and make 
it possible to do the same job with fewer workers.  This week, for 
example, we're starting 'Midnight Makeissue,' a facility that will 
post approved issues automatically, saving about 6 hours a week in 
posting time.  And we've made other behind-the-scenes modifications.  
As you may have seen too, we're experimenting with taking ads. And 
we're about to unveil a conference registration system that will 
produce a small income stream. 

I'm hoping that these  measures  will compensate for other losses-- 
in publisher postings, job postings, and EMU support.  Our goal for 
the next few years is to maintain and even increase services, so that 
LL can maintain its services to the discipline and its ability to 
support and train students.  

If you would like to help us in this effort, please make a contribution 
of any amount at:

https://linguistlist.org/donation/donate/donate1.cfm

Your donations are heartily appreciated by all of the Linguist List crew.

Sincerely,
-Helen

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This Year the LINGUIST List hopes to raise $67,000. This money will go to help 
keep the List running by supporting all of our Student Editors for the coming
year.

See below for donation instructions, and don't forget to check out Fund 
Drive 2012 site!

http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2012/

There are many ways to donate to LINGUIST!

You can donate right now using our secure credit card form at  
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For all information on donating and pledging, including information on how to 
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http://linguistlist.org/donation/

The LINGUIST List is under the umbrella of Eastern Michigan University and as 
such can receive donations through the EMU Foundation, which is a registered 
501(c) Non Profit organization. Our Federal Tax number is 38-6005986. These 
donations can be offset against your federal and sometimes your state tax
return (U.S. tax payers only). For more information visit the IRS Web-Site,
or contact your financial advisor.

Many companies also offer a gift matching program, such that they will match 
any gift you make to a non-profit organization. Normally this entails your 
contacting your human resources department and sending us a form that the 
EMU Foundation fills in and returns to your employer. This is generally a
simple administrative procedure that doubles the value of your gift to
LINGUIST, without costing you an extra penny. Please take a moment to check if
your company operates such a program.

Thank you very much for your support of LINGUIST!

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LINGUIST List: Vol-23-1356	
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