Wow, Bob -- looks like nearly a 2 hour task to summarize all of that.
I think the Forum members already know the long-term goal for the Jesse West endowment. Bob, Eric, and I have a long-term plan to develop a graduate research assistantship, with most emphasis on small impoundment research. We also get a short-term return on the endowment of about 5% per year, which lets us help students now as we keep our eye on the bigger prize. Obviously, the current economy hasn't helped.
Bob is our master fundraiser. It was his idea to start the silent auctions at the conferences. Last year, he raised extra money with the auctioning of "guest passes" for his place after the conference. This year, his weight loss idea really added to our total. We'll have a silent auction at PB III as well, and two of the previous student awardees will be there to help. CORRECTION: WE NOW WILL HAVE THREE STUDENTS THERE WHO HAVE BENEFITTED FROM THE JESSE WEST ENDOWMENT.
From December of 06 to March of 09, we cracked 40K! We'll obviously bump that again nicely this year. It appears that slow and steady wins the race!
I hope you guys either don't mind or perhaps actually appreciate hearing an udpate such as this one. Fund-raising is a funny (two-edged?) task, but with a goal like ours, I hope you like hearing the details.
