Hi Dear Sponsors,
First off, we made our goal of 300 sponsors by March 31st! In fact, on the 31st we had exactly 500 sponsors. Thank you all so very, very much for continuing to support Borderlands in 2019!
Second, and perhaps equally importantly, I handled something badly in the last note that I sent and I want to apologize. The first line of that note was, "We're heading up to the March 31st deadline to have 300 sponsors and I'm confident we will make it."
That was deceptive and I feel badly about it. The implication was that there was some question whether we would make it to 300 or not. That wasn't the case. After having done this for five years now, by March 7th (when I sent that note) I knew damn well that we were going to hit 300 by the 31st.
Since the beginning of all this in 2015, I've always steered clear of turning sponsorships into something that we're trying to "sell" to people. Sponsoring Borderlands has always been a matter of choice and preference. Really, at heart, it's been a matter of belief; belief that what we do here is something valuable and worthy of support.
My opening line last month wasn't consistent with that. Nor was it consistent with my ideal of being upfront and direct with you all. On one hand, my position at Borderlands is that of a small business owner, just like any other. But, on the other hand (and in a way that I'm still figuring out how to quantify), I feel that I'm responsible for a private trust. You and the hundreds of people like you are only reason that Borderlands still exists and, every year, you put your trust in me to keep Borderlands going, not just in the physical sense but also in the intangible ways that make it unique. An essential honesty and lack of salesmanship is one of those intangibles.
And, on the gripping hand, I sure as hell shouldn't try to manipulate you into being a sponsor.*
None of the foregoing is anything I wasn't aware of, in a general way, but now I have better understanding of what is right and appropriate action on my part. With that understanding, I don't believe that I'll make this sort of mistake again. I truly hope you'll accept my apology for it this time.
The third thing I want to mention is the annual General Meeting last month. It was shorter than usual (to the great pleasure of those attending) but we covered some interesting stuff. Unfortunately, it's not going to be practical for me to give a full brief this year. But, I can share some of the hard figures about sponsorships this year and some of the other high points. For any of you who like to keep track of trends, here are a few figures. On March 31st last year we had 532 sponsors, in 2017 it was 634 and in 2016 it was 613. So, it looks like the total number of sponsors is dropping but not, to me, by a concerning amount. Also for comparison, last year the total number was 635; 2017 was 699, and 2016 was 679. Again, a downwards trend the last two years and, again, not concerning. It'll be interesting to see what happens next year.
Another interesting number is that, of the current 507 sponsors, 318 of them have been sponsors every single year since 2015. That figure is part of the reason that I'm not so concerned with the downward trend of overall numbers. Barring any big surprises, I'll keep doing this as long as we've got 300. And it doesn't look like we're going to drop under that number for a long while.
I mentioned last month that we've got the sponsors' forum about ready to go. We discussed a bunch of details about it at the meeting and we're just about to sign up the first group of people to play around with it. We'll be sending out invitations to all of your either this month or the next. If you're not interested, please feel free to just delete the invitation. But, if you're at all inclined, please give it a try. I think that it'll be a nice and fun element of sponsorship for everyone. Oh, and if you have privacy concerns (like me) - your email will not be viewable by other users, the whole thing is invite-only and password protected so it won't be searchable on Google, and there is no requirement that you use your real name (though I'd encourage it since this is meant to be an addition to meat-space interactions, rather than a substitute).
Again, thank you all for supporting Borderlands into 2019. I hope that it will be a great year for us all.
All Best,
Alan
PS If you don't know what the hell I mean by "on the gripping hand" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gripping_Hand .
Upcoming Sponsor Events
The truncated version:
(1) Thursday, April 25th, 7:00 pm - Sponsor preview of "Avengers: Endgame" courtesy of SF in SF: Balboa Theatre, 3630 Balboa St, San Francisco, CA 94121
(2) Friday, April 26th, 8:00 pm - Roller Skating at The Church of 8 Wheels, 554 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94117
(3) Friday, May 31st, 7:00 pm - New Horizons talk with sponsor (and NASA geologist) Orkan Umurhan, Borderlands Cafe
(4) Saturday, June 22nd, 7:00 pm - Sponsor Social at Borderlands Books and Cafe
(5) July 2019, date to be determined - San Francisco Ghost Hunt Walking Tour
The expatiated version:
(1) Thursday, April 25th, 7:00 pm - Sponsor preview of "Avengers: Endgame" courtesy of SF in SF, Balboa Theatre, 3630 Balboa St, San Francisco, CA 94121 - SF in SF is hosting a sneak preview of "Avengers: Endgame"! <snip>
(2) Friday, April 26th, 8:00 pm - Roller Skating at Church of 8 Wheels, 554 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94117. As you may have guessed, we have LOVED our past two outings to the Church of 8 Wheels. We're back again and we'll be renting the private corner in the rear so we will have a place to congregate and leave our belongings. Housed in the 119-year-old former location of Sacred Heart Church, The Church of 8 Wheels welcomes anyone over the age of 18 to Friday night disco. Admission is $10.00 and skate rentals are an additional $5.00. Personal skates and roller blades are allowed and should weather dictate layering, there is a coat check at the door. There is also a snack bar within the Church. Please feel free to bring as many friends as you would like. http://www.churchof8wheels.com/.
(3) Friday, May 31st, 7:00 pm - New Horizons talk with Orkan Umurhan, Borderlands Cafe. Please come and join us for a return visit from our very own resident NASA geologist (and sponsor!), Orkan Umurhan, as he regales us with the latest and greatest from the New Horizons Mission to Pluto! Among other things, Orkan says "Talk will include -- the New Horizons flyby of Ultima Thule. I will describe all the preparations that went into discovering and then flying by an object the size of SF. I will describe what we saw, how we saw it and what it the object means about the origins of the solar system." For a sneak peek at what New Horizons is about, feel free to check out NASA's website: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/newhorizons/main/index.html
(4) Saturday, June 22nd, 7:00 pm - Sponsor Social at Borderlands Books and Cafe. Our annual summertime soiree with yummy food, yummy conversation and especially yummy door prizes. Bring some food or drink to share and join us for a great time!
(5) July 2019, date to be determined - San Francisco Ghost Hunt Walking Tour: From their website <https://www.sfghosthunt.com/>, "The original San Francisco Ghost Hunt Walking Tour, SF's first ghost tour, is a historical walking tour of the Pacific Heights neighborhood, one of the few neighborhoods to survive The Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906. You'll walk a mile on tree-lined streets in a safe residential area with fine Victorian architecture. You'll learn about real historic names of San Francisco — how they lived, how they died, and the reports of their hauntings ever since. We don't make it up. We just report it. You'll enjoy 90 minutes to 2 hours of guaranteed unearthly fun!" We'll have more details about this event soon.
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