Art Scholarship honoring Alizée

[FanDeAliFee]

Originally Posted by Ben

You guys can do what you want on your own, but the forum cannot be involved in this. We don't solicte money. Collecting for the autographed CDs was a rare occurance. Our shop is handled by a third party. If you want to donate, then just donate, no need to put a "tax" on something else. I appreciate that you're trying to help, but this isn't the way.

To minimize the confusion which is likely afoot, here is the text of a PM I will soon send to each of the known recipients of the autographed CDs.

<hr>

I regret to inform you that the logistics of the Art Scholarship for Alizée's arts school in Ajaccio will be executed in a way I never imagined. I feel OBLIGED to make every effort not to disappoint the DOZENS who pledged money in one of the two recent fundraising polls, now closed.

I am a newcomer here, but there is someone we all know and trust among us at Alizée America whom I have asked to serve as treasurer of the fundraising effort. When he consents, with Ben's leave, I will write you one last time, telling you how to participate OUTSIDE the aegis of Alizée America. Ben writes us: <i>You guys can do what you want on your own, but the forum cannot be involved in this.</i>

Some of you may not know that Ben approached me to promote Alizée and Alizée America, without explicitly delimiting my authority, and I consented. The Fundraisers, whose incremental progress was always immediately documented in moderated public forums, and PMs copied to Ben, were part of my response.

I would like to think Ben never meant to waste my time, and that he believes I never meant to exceed my authority. In light of recent events, I resign from further activity as an agent of Alizée America. For the last year, as a private individual, I have undertaken occasional, casual promotion of Alizée and see no reason this activity will end.

A large group of people includes many types among its number. I think that among the many young people here (I'm in late middle age) we can find what today in China they call those with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Emperor_Syndrome"><i>Little Emperor Syndrome</i></a>. This phenomenon did not originate in China, and one might argue an early outbreak was seen in a REAL future emperor of Imperial Rome, Titus Flavius Vespasianus. His father, a much less pampered man, found reason to tell his son that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pecunia_non_olet">PECUNIA NON OLET</a>.

For the sake of complete transparency, I will ask Ben's leave to post his reply to the publicly posted Game Plan proposal I redundantly PMed to him. Look for it at: <a href="http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5643"><i>Art Scholarship honoring Alizée</i></a>

[SimonH]

Originally Posted by Ben

Sorry to be negative, but I also don't think this is the best way to show our gratitude or appreciation. As said before, that would best be done by investing our time (not money) in promoting Alizée in the United States, and by buying her merchandise / attending her concerts whenever possible.

You guys can do what you want on your own, but the forum cannot be involved in this. We don't solicte money. Collecting for the autographed CDs was a rare occurance. Our shop is handled by a third party. If you want to donate, then just donate, no need to put a "tax" on something else. I appreciate that you're trying to help, but this isn't the way.

One word, "Professional"!

[Ben]

Originally Posted by docdtv

Some of you may not know that Ben approached me to promote Alizée and Alizée America, without explicitly delimiting my authority, and I consented. The Fundraisers, whose incremental progress was always immediately documented in moderated public forums, and PMs copied to Ben, were part of my response.I would like to think Ben never meant to waste my time, and that he believes I never meant to exceed my authority.

Doc, I was under the impression that you were too busy and declined the offer to join the forum promotions team. Sorry for the misunderstanding, but if I thought you had accepted, we would have added you to the staff and discussed our plans further. Hence I assumed these posts about a grant or scholarship weren't serious, just ideas being tossed about. It's also sometimes hard to tell when you're joking or not.

I can't have people sending money for something like this through the forum or to me personally. No matter how good the cause, to an outsider it would look like those scam emails asking to wire money to a Nigerian bank. Donations are a necessary evil because of our $2000+ a year costs, but I don't promise any kind of compensation for them, and certainly don't want to expand our fund raising further. Sorry if you feel I wasted your time, but that's the reality of the situation. Again, we're all still very appreciative of your involvement in getting the autograph session!

[Roman]

Well, I'm sorry to not have Ben's support since I trust him above anyone else here and because without an identity, it's harder to do this stuff and less appealing to do so. We are again reminded that this is simply a forum site where people can gather, but is not and never was an actual fan club. Anyway, Ben has given his reasons for things and this is not a direct promotion anyway the way I see it (indirect, yes).

So, I don't fault him for not liking this particular effort, especially if people aren't really supporting this site which allows everyone to communicate or even buying Alizée's albums and singles (though I suspect most of the people donating to this do that stuff too), not to mention avoiding the appearance of possible scams, though if it was site supported, I don't think it would appear that way. This place has been here for 4 years and some of us well know what contributions Ben himself has made. I'll just suggest that I think people want to be involved in something significant and this appealed to our sensibilities. I for one, had considered it myself in the past.

The other thing is, docdtv, I don't know what Ben said to you, but I don't know you from Adam and it looked like you just came up with all of this out of nowhere (and apparently did). That's fine, though having Ben introduce it would have been better. In the past promotional efforts haven't gone so well. I guess you are good at convincing or something. (new album out helps a lot!) Anyway, obviously improper assumptions were made and this does need to go through a trusted party. And if you have really pertinent information, once again, I suggest not salting it so heavily with all the waxing loquacious (and strange joking?). I know it's hard.

This kind of thing will probably never happen again; so maybe it's a moot point to discuss how it should be handled. This can turn to email pretty soon depending on who's involved. But for now, if it will continue, we should be able to talk about it and that's what this site is for, talking; so... ? Assuming this actually goes forward, will it be an "Alizée fans gift to the arts" simply or what? Hopefully some of the people I have sent direct messages to will start talking to me. If we can work this out, I'm still in.

I think this just needs to be worded right. I see nothing wrong with celebrating it on Alizée fan forums and contacting people so that they can participate and say to them, 'we are donating some money to this school in honor of Alizée to promote the performing arts. We felt inspired and were reminded by the nearing 10th anniversary of the song which started the Alizée odyssey which has thrilled millions over all of these years. This is a gesture to celebrate 10 years of Alizée and show support for dance and song.' But, not send that to random "press" who's only interest is in making a story out of it and would be inclined to think, why are you telling me? what do I care? If it was 10,000 € and a big celebration was being organized, that might be a different story and would likely seem incommensurate with her level of popularity, though for a die hard fan, that means nothing. We love what we love and to the degree that we love it and nothing should convince us otherwise. But, already we can see how controversial it is on this very forum. And apparently if this was motivated by the desire to promote this web site, then that was a big miscalculation obviously. I think the initial idea was better for that and still think it wasn't a "bad" idea even if people didn't want to support it.

And to be honest, I think there is a certain appeal to supporting children still learning there and giving them a chance to do something that Alizée herself is no longer doing much of, actual performance. Actual performance or creation of product of some kind is what I'd like to see happen. I hope she will do concerts, but it's far from certain if there will be or if I'll be able to attend them anyway. Oh, and again, I think if it is given we'll probably have to just leave it up to the school to use however they see fit, but that can be discussed later anyway. I just don't want us to get too aggressive about it. That would have been one reason to involve Alizée. If she had paid enough attention to her fans, she would have known Ben and these things could have been routed through those two and everyone would have at least a semi-trusted party to communicate with. Anyway, she's too busy or whatever.

[FanDeAliFee]

Originally Posted by Ben

...I can't have people sending money for something like this through the forum or to me personally. No matter how good the cause...

I don't think the people who pledged large amounts of money thought I was anything but serious, and I was. Yet I am someone people have only known for a few months, and never in a commercial relationship.

In contrast, as I noted in a post now long ago, Ben and Scruffy had established a modest track record for collecting money (including through PayPal) and delivering the goods promised (CDs). That's why I thought people would trust a fundraiser under the aegis of AAm. Without this precedent, I would not have thought the effort was worth my time.

Checks and postal money orders work just as well as Paypal to transfer money reliably. Scruffy believes in the Scholarship effort and I hope he will consent to be its treasurer, because he is someone everyone here trusts. Upon his affirmative reply, we will move the discussion off-site. I have no desire to abuse Ben's always-kind hospitality here.

After the dot-com bust, lots of free hosting opportunities dried up. But in recent years, a wealth of such resources have flowered again. Even before YouTube, which now supports ever-better quality media, for years I often exploited the generosity of Google Video (which no longer accepts new content, yet maintains the old stuff.) Likewise there are plenty of offers to host for free generic Web pages, threaded discussions, and so on.

Perhaps one reason people are reluctant to donate to support AAm costs in the face of these opportunities, is that they don't understand the burden of migrating the existing Website and the skillset of AAm users. My 2 cents is that you should cover costs by hosting third-party ads, which people can turn off by paying an annual subscription fee, a model which works well for wikispaces.com.

I never imagined that acting alone, I could do anything to help Alizée and her artistic partners remain and thrive in the entertainment business. For a while, I held the idle hope AAm might help promote new methods of financially supporting recording artists like her. Now all that is left are the hopes I raised among those who pledged to the Scholarship fund. I will do everything I can to see their trust is not betrayed and then quietly attend to many non-AAm matters.

[Junkmale]

Doc,

I don't think anyone here is trying to 'diss' your idea and efforts in getting it up and running? Allthough, Ben can speak for himself, it looks to me that he just dosen't want to get involved in the admin side of it? Which is understandable.
It would be a great pity if you let this put you off from visiting AAm as your input to the site is a valuable one. Over the years there have many many ideas for promotion started. Some have worked out others haven't. That's just the way it goes and dosen't mean that your idea is either good or bad.
I wish you good luck with it allthough i won't be involved myself. It looks like there is a fair bit of support for it and i hope it's a success but please don't let it desend into 'me against AAm' contest. Nobody wants that and it would be a great shame if it did.

[Roman]

ScruffyDog is not available at the moment. I'm not sure when he will be. Just letting you know. Anyway, I don't expect it to be long and we have time yet.

[FanDeAliFee]

Originally Posted by Junkmale

Doc,

I don't think anyone here is trying to 'diss' your idea and efforts in getting it up and running? Allthough, Ben can speak for himself, it looks to me that he just dosen't want to get involved in the admin side of it? Which is understandable.

I agree, Junkmale. And I don't chastise Ben for not wanting to stretch himself thinner, or create/extend a precedent.

Originally Posted by Junkmale

It would be a great pity if you let this put you off from visiting AAm as your input to the site is a valuable one.

Thank you for the kind remarks. Alizée and her crew have been working very hard in recent months to promote their efforts and I wanted to do what little I could to join the Big Push. Other people here at AAm have also tried to work hard, translating lyrics into English, voting in the French radio station poll and in many other ways. VVVACCPLPNLY may feel I don't appreciate his efforts, but it was from the thread he started that I got the notion to cast the scholarship endowment as a celebration of A's ten years in showbiz, a gimmick which might bring A a little more French TV time. And even Bigdan, who seems to think people shed too many tears for Corsicans, helped me by demonstrating the wonderful poster potential of the ML video, as a metaphor for the Mufraggi school scholarship.

But as I wrote someone BEFORE the new logistical issue emerged, after the scholarship is done, I need to let AAm go fallow.

Originally Posted by Junkmale

I wish you good luck with [the scholarship]... It looks like there is a fair bit of support for it and i hope it's a success but please don't let it desend into 'me against AAm' contest. Nobody wants that and it would be a great shame if it did.

The e-mail I wrote recruiting Scruffy to act as treasurer ended with these words:<blockquote><i>P.S. I would like to think this spinoff process will in no way injure
the camraderie at AAm. Different strokes for different folks!</i></blockquote>

Originally Posted by Roman

ScruffyDog is not available at the moment. I'm not sure when he will be. Just letting you know. Anyway, I don't expect it to be long and we have time yet.

Thanks for the assist, Roman. Scruffy wrote me he will be AFK for about a week. I guess we will have to be patient for his reply to my treasurer service request. It's too bad he didn't get it before departing.

If someone is looking for a hobby, perhaps he might try to learn more about the Mufraggi school and write up his findings here.

[VVVACCPLPNLY]

While I dislike you somewhat doc, I don't disagree with an idea I believe in just because it's instigator is a person I personally disagree with. Professionally, I strongly support the idea of third party advertising. I understand some people hate it. But with a site like this, where most members are young and not able to pay money for what they may believe there is no restitution for, it may eventually become necesarry. And for us regular users, I hope they will be able to scroll just a bit farther down for Alizée's sake. It is easy to ignore a google or other legitimate site ad, if below it is something you care for. I support this 100%.

[jung_adore_ALIZEE]

Originally Posted by docdtv

My 2 cents is that you should cover costs by hosting third-party ads

Originally Posted by VVVACCPLPNLY

While I dislike you somewhat doc, I don't disagree with an idea I believe in just because it's instigator is a person I personally disagree with. Professionally, I strongly support the idea of third party advertising. I understand some people hate it. But with a site like this, where most members are young and not able to pay money for what they may believe there is no restitution for, it may eventually become necesarry. And for us regular users, I hope they will be able to scroll just a bit farther down for Alizée's sake. It is easy to ignore a google or other legitimate site ad, if below it is something you care for. I support this 100%.

I think I've already stated this before, but Third party ads kill sites. Why make a site slower just for a few extra bucks? With the modest traffic that comes through here the ads would never pay for the decrease in speed or the hinderences it causes.

Regards,

Jung