Subject: Dear CCL Subscribers -- Your coordinator has news...

From: Jan Labanowski <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 15:03:17 -0400 (EDT)

Dear Friends 
(you may not like me, but I like you, oh well... most of the time)...

First... 
I am taking off for a month, and I will not be able to peek at CCL.
This means: SEND ALL comments/special requests to [email-masked],
so my dear associates can help you (or at least will do the best effort)...
All other stuff goes where it was going before, i.e., to 
   [email-masked]
Do not sent anything to [email-masked], since I may, or may not have any
Internet access, and even if I have, it will be over slow phone line,
so be considerate...

There is the second, more important issue:

I need your comments on our supporting pages. When you start from
   http://www.ccl.net
then click on "Supporting" under "About CCL" in the left navigation bar,
or go directly to:
   http://www.ccl.net/chemistry/aboutccl/supporting
You need a password to get there -- really easy.
   User ID: ccl
   Password: ccl
Just type ccl twice in the boxes.

It is password protected so only subscribers of CCL can look at it,
and so it is not indexed via search engine robots.

It is still a draft, and DO NOT SEND MONEY!!! (I know, you are all dying
to send me cash, but hold for a month, please...). I need to be in town
to process the income, so PLEASE WAIT UNTIL I AM BACK.

I have a few great favors to ask. Please send mail to [email-masked].

  1) Comment on the supporting pages, tell us how to make them more
     persuasive, so people will give CCL their last pair of pants
     (yes, I am kidding...).

  2) Tell me if you will be supporting CCL. You do not have to...
     I value your participation. You do not have to support CCL
     to access CCL Web site and participate as a subscriber. 
     However, I HAVE TO KNOW, IF I CAN COUNT ON ANY SUPPORT FROM YOU!!!
     CCL is free and should stay this way, since its success is broad
     participation.     

  3) Tell us about new, possible ways of supporting CCL. Note, 
     we are giving you something in exchange. The UNIX account,
     CDs with archives, or exposure, are all quite tangible
     benefits. We do not want to beg, we want to earn it. If you
     know about some other attractive ways of supporting CCL, let
     us know. We really want CCL to stay forever, and it will only
     happen if it can pay its bills, and has some rainy day fund. 

  4) Please, consider supporting CCL. If I do not have a grass-root
     support, I am not sure how I will be able to sustain CCL in a long
     run. OSC helps a lot and is supporting CCL through all these years.
     But it would be SO MUCH EASIER FOR ME AND MY STUDENTS to know that
     CCL has a security cushion. Note, I am not paid a penny for
     managing CCL. This is good and bad... I can claim that it is
     my community service. But at the same time, I cannot say that
     maintaining CCL is a priority. If it does not pay my salary,
     it is not in my job description. It is that simple.

  5) Please consider supporting CCL. I could hire more students,
     and more experienced students (e.g., Graduate Research Assistants),
     if I had some control over the CCL budget. CCL is not free...
     CCL actually costs OSC a good chunk of cash. I feel uneasy
     requesting CCL support from my management, because I have to
     prove again and again that it is a useful site and it is needed
     for our users. But eventually the taxpayer supports the CCL.
     And taxpayer (who elects politicians, who select supervisory bodies)
     may say "No". I strive to keep CCL an international community, but
     it is US taxpayer who pays the bill.

  6) Please consider supporting CCL. Only if you are supporting CCL,
     we have a clue that what we do here is useful and that CCL has
     value. I know that you need it, since you use it. We have
     a lot of hits to our archives, the CCL discussions are going on
     for more than 9 years now. Those who post to CCL, or who
     provide us with free software to CCL archives are the real heros.
     Without them, there would be no CCL in the first place. However,
     some of you may be getting more than you give. Please consider
     support CCL. Found a job? Found a good postdoc? Found a good 
     literature reference? Got a clue how to solve it after searching
     CCL archives? Do a fast calculation, and check how much you would
     have to pay for a head hunter, for an advertisement in the journal,
     for searching commercial databases, or for hiring a consultant...
     These are only examples... I did not mention software archives,
     finding people, learning what is hot, and what is not, etc., etc...

So, please let us know what we need to do to get some support, and 
consider supporting CCL. Try all the forms and pages, tell us how
to improve them, and we will do...

Yours
Jan

Jan K. Labanowski            |    phone: 614-292-9279,  FAX: 614-292-7168
Ohio Supercomputer Center    |    Internet: [email-masked] 
1224 Kinnear Rd,             |    http://www.ccl.net/chemistry.html
Columbus, OH 43212-1163      |    http://www.ccl.net/