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Most of my bandannas are old and worn so I'd be in for one if we go in that direction.
Until next time...be well.
snapper
Until next time...be well.
snapper
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Happy Start of March of Dimes to Fight Polio (1938)! 🧑🦽🚶🪙
CanoeTripping.net Shirts, Hats or Other Merchandise
- Thread starter Glenn MacGrady
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Glenn, I'm not sure but will ask if the bonfire merchandise has generated any revenue for the sailing club. The website indicates that fundraising via merchandise sales is possible and they have options both for non-profits and individuals.
I'd really like a couple of window stickers! One for the barrel and one for the car.
For a fund raiser, my SAR team had printed brightly colored hankies with all kinds of outdoor wildlands information and safety tips on them. A neighboring fire rescue/EMT team shared in much the same theme, changing only the specific team logo printed on them. In quantity they cost us $4.10 each to buy including material and printing, and are selling nicely at $10. People do not complain as the dollars go for a recognized good purpose.
I'm pretty much convinced that a product with many different size needs and fabric preferences, such as shirts especially and even hats, would be too complicated to administer, particularly if they are something that we all have many of anyway or that tend not to fit.
So, that leaves products of one size, one material, and easy to ship. I suppose a bandana would meet those requirements. There should be other products, too. Recall that one of the motivating ideas was something to identify CTN'ers at gatherings, but that may not that important since we're so spread out geographically and not necessarily of the gathering kind.
Also keep in mind that I am NOT the person who will administer this program, whatever it is. I do enough—hours a day for 688 consecutive days now without a break, and none in sight. A volunteer would be needed.
I'm also quite disinclined to connect merchandise sales to the fund raiser I will need in the fall. I simply don't believe that folks who won't contribute once every two years to a fund raiser will be motivated to do so for a bandana or whatever, which then costs money and time to ship out to everyone who contributes and who probably would have contributed anyway. We collected enough money from our September 2021 fund raiser to pay our debts, repay my personal investment, and keep this site operating for two years, after I cut the operating costs over 50%. While we have lost one of our biggest financial supporters with the death of Barry Rains (Waterdog), I expect the membership to donate enough in our next fund raiser without any connection to merchandise or raffles.
Nevertheless, if someone wants to arrange to have some sort of site-related merchandise permanently available for purchase at a reasonable price—whether giving the site a cut or not—we can continue to think about it.
So, that leaves products of one size, one material, and easy to ship. I suppose a bandana would meet those requirements. There should be other products, too. Recall that one of the motivating ideas was something to identify CTN'ers at gatherings, but that may not that important since we're so spread out geographically and not necessarily of the gathering kind.
Also keep in mind that I am NOT the person who will administer this program, whatever it is. I do enough—hours a day for 688 consecutive days now without a break, and none in sight. A volunteer would be needed.
I'm also quite disinclined to connect merchandise sales to the fund raiser I will need in the fall. I simply don't believe that folks who won't contribute once every two years to a fund raiser will be motivated to do so for a bandana or whatever, which then costs money and time to ship out to everyone who contributes and who probably would have contributed anyway. We collected enough money from our September 2021 fund raiser to pay our debts, repay my personal investment, and keep this site operating for two years, after I cut the operating costs over 50%. While we have lost one of our biggest financial supporters with the death of Barry Rains (Waterdog), I expect the membership to donate enough in our next fund raiser without any connection to merchandise or raffles.
Nevertheless, if someone wants to arrange to have some sort of site-related merchandise permanently available for purchase at a reasonable price—whether giving the site a cut or not—we can continue to think about it.
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2013
- Messages
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- 444
I know we've been discussing bandannas of late but would anyone be interested in buffs? I do volunteer work for a hiking club and they gave all their volunteers buffs in recognition of the work they do. I can't imagine they'd be that expensive and the club was able to have the organization's logo on them too. If you think it would be worthwhile, I'd be happy to look into what the costs might be. Just let me know.
That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.
snapper
That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.
snapper
I'm new to the site but glad to have found it. Thanks for the work that you do, Glenn. I will gladly contribute to the fall fundraiser.
Glenn, Is there a way that you can make the site's original banner image files available? Or any other applicable canoetripping.net brand images/fonts? The banner image is pretty low rez and wouldn't necessarily make for a very good physical printing.
Glenn, Is there a way that you can make the site's original banner image files available? Or any other applicable canoetripping.net brand images/fonts? The banner image is pretty low rez and wouldn't necessarily make for a very good physical printing.
I’ll be sorry when my shirt wears out so that would be my vote, but I understand the issue with sizes. I’d be down for whatever you come up with.
The low resolution of the banner is a problem, but I have none other than what is above. I took an entirely black & white pencil sketch image that a previous administrator, @Robin, had found somewhere, and colorized the left half and added some bordering. The following thread discusses some of the history of the bannner:
Interpreting the CTN logo picture, plus some history of it
While the site was down for the migration from vBulletin to Xenforo plus customization for a week at the end of August 2021, I gave a lot of thought and effort to what I wanted to do, if anything, with the site logo/picture. Originally, the site had a picture of Willis Brown's canoe, which...
www.canoetripping.net
If Robin knows the source of a higher resolution copy of the original image, maybe that could be edited into a higher resolution form of banner we currently have.
I'll look around but I doubt if I have anything that could be helpful.
Forgive me if I'm getting a little out over my skis here, but I went ahead and mocked up a t-shirt on bonfire.com using the one posted by lowangle al as the design template. See below. On the back it just says "CanoeTripping.net" printed in a small font between the shoulder blades. Doing it this way, we could make t-shirts, long sleeve tees, sweatshirts and tank tops in a variety of colors, all available on-demand and no one has to handle inventory/shipping or collecting payments. Stickers, bandanas and buffs are not options, as far as I could tell.
There are three options: 1) Setting up a fundraiser on bonfire.com is pretty easy if CanoeTripping.net is a 501c3. Selling 30 shirts might raise a couple hundred bucks and Bonfire will cut a check and mail it wherever. If CanoeTripping.net isn't formally organized, then 2) we could simply list the t-shirts at cost so that members could have the option to buy merchandise on-demand (no hassle at all once the design is done). Alternatively, 3) anyone with a google account could set up a CanoeTripping.net "store" through bonfire and then collect the modest profits before contributing them to Glenn thereafter. I'd be happy to set it all up and hand it off either way, but I don't think I'm the right person for collecting any funds in the latter option. Glenn, I'll look to you for guidance.
Before doing the mock-up, I also tried to clean the logo up a little bit in Photoshop/Lightroom; enhancing the resolution and making the background transparent. I'll post that PNG file on the other Logo thread referenced above but I think I would still go a little further with that editing process before going to press because there's still a bit of white background mixed up in the tree line.
I'm relatively new here, so forgive me if I'm going too far, I just really appreciate the community here and the insight I've gained since joining and would be glad to make a small contribution. -Steve
There are three options: 1) Setting up a fundraiser on bonfire.com is pretty easy if CanoeTripping.net is a 501c3. Selling 30 shirts might raise a couple hundred bucks and Bonfire will cut a check and mail it wherever. If CanoeTripping.net isn't formally organized, then 2) we could simply list the t-shirts at cost so that members could have the option to buy merchandise on-demand (no hassle at all once the design is done). Alternatively, 3) anyone with a google account could set up a CanoeTripping.net "store" through bonfire and then collect the modest profits before contributing them to Glenn thereafter. I'd be happy to set it all up and hand it off either way, but I don't think I'm the right person for collecting any funds in the latter option. Glenn, I'll look to you for guidance.
Before doing the mock-up, I also tried to clean the logo up a little bit in Photoshop/Lightroom; enhancing the resolution and making the background transparent. I'll post that PNG file on the other Logo thread referenced above but I think I would still go a little further with that editing process before going to press because there's still a bit of white background mixed up in the tree line.
I'm relatively new here, so forgive me if I'm going too far, I just really appreciate the community here and the insight I've gained since joining and would be glad to make a small contribution. -Steve
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I like that, but I would prefer no writing on the back. Like our secret "cold handle frying pan handshake", folks in the know would id that image right away.
Pseudonym, I appreciate your interest in helping, but I have decided to postpone this entire topic until after the fall fund raiser. I don't want anything to interfere with that or to reduce anyone's incentive to donate.
As to some other details, please do not submit this site's banner or logo to any third party or internet site. It's not trademarked by us, and hence any site could simply take it and start putting it on their own products. If our logo/banner is "on" the Bonfire website somehow, please get it off. Thank you, again.
We are not a tax deductible 501(c)(3) organization, nor will we ever be. Nor are we or will we be a corporation. Both would involve legal paperwork, annual fees, disclosures of donors, and much other legal complexity and state and federal regulation. For nothing. Only the super wealthy can now deduct charitable contributions under current tax law.
I, personally, am not going to be involved in any way with the administration of a site merchandise store. I have more than enough to do to keep this site active and growing. And I would probably hesitate to give that responsibility to anyone else except under certain conditions.
Finally, if we ever do anything with our logo/banner on a product, it will not be to replicate an older logo that was on former products. It will be our current logo. All on the front, if it's a t-shirt. BTW, I like the bandana idea more than t-shirts, but have not decided or concluded anything about the product(s).
To repeat, I have an interest in this topic, subject to the conditions I just pointed out, but am postponing the topic until after a successful fall fund raiser. For that reason, I am locking this particular thread from further discussion.
As to some other details, please do not submit this site's banner or logo to any third party or internet site. It's not trademarked by us, and hence any site could simply take it and start putting it on their own products. If our logo/banner is "on" the Bonfire website somehow, please get it off. Thank you, again.
We are not a tax deductible 501(c)(3) organization, nor will we ever be. Nor are we or will we be a corporation. Both would involve legal paperwork, annual fees, disclosures of donors, and much other legal complexity and state and federal regulation. For nothing. Only the super wealthy can now deduct charitable contributions under current tax law.
I, personally, am not going to be involved in any way with the administration of a site merchandise store. I have more than enough to do to keep this site active and growing. And I would probably hesitate to give that responsibility to anyone else except under certain conditions.
Finally, if we ever do anything with our logo/banner on a product, it will not be to replicate an older logo that was on former products. It will be our current logo. All on the front, if it's a t-shirt. BTW, I like the bandana idea more than t-shirts, but have not decided or concluded anything about the product(s).
To repeat, I have an interest in this topic, subject to the conditions I just pointed out, but am postponing the topic until after a successful fall fund raiser. For that reason, I am locking this particular thread from further discussion.
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