Purchasing a New Sim

At the RA meeting today we agreed to move ahead with the purchase of a new sim for the project, by selling land (bound by covenants) and investment bonds to cover the cost. We will be moving quickly on the process with the goal of freeing ourselves from paying an additional month of land-use fees.

The purchase of and move to our own land marks a milestone in the evolution of our project, similar to the groundbreaking, the transition to a provisional government, the completion of our constitution, and our first elections. However, this milestone is different in that our original open membership will be replaced with land-based citizenship. That is, one will have to own, lease, or work on the land in order to have citizenship. Because of this change, many of you will not be making the transition to the new sim with the group. Thank you for all you have contributed to this project (we'll send out IMs when it's OK to remove land-use donations.)

For those who are interested in owning their own sim with reduced land-use fees and the benefits of continuing on in the experiment, please contact one of the group officers or me directly. For those who have spare L$ to purchase bonds, to help us raise the money to purchase our new sim, the same goes.

Thank you! More information will follow shortly.

~Ulrika~

The order for the new sim is in. We should have an estimated delivery date within the next few days. The goal is to have the new sim online just before the end of the month so we can transition from land-use payments to the sim payment without overlap.

Currently there are three partners in the sim cooperative and we'll be looking for more soon. Stay tuned for details -- the website and advertising campaign will begin before the middle of this week.

~Ulrika~

Contact with the elusive Lindens has been made. I predict delivery between the 29th of April and the 6th of May.

~Ulrika~

YES!! (lol)

I'm sorry, my "borrowed computer" (my usual one is being repaired) is painfully slow, and I have been "delayed" in almost anything I usually do with a computer, until I get it back. So, I've just been posting meaningless stuff

Let's see how my next weekend goes, I'd like to comment and write a bit about things like "Citizen's Bills of Rights", finally read about the many links in Wikipedia about the "legal" model for people to "own" land in the private sim, and, basically, do all my homework that has been delayed so many weeks. I really do apologise...

But it's really great to know things are rolling! I've not received any comment about the $$ needed for the project - I guess I should make sure that in about two weeks I'll need to start worrying a bit about that, right? Well, you know how to get in touch with me, Ulrika and Sudane - even if I don't reply to your emails (I can't launch the mail program without crashing this computer), I still read them...

Gwyn! Great to hear from you! Getting worried you were lost in the highlands.

Hope the computer gets fixed soon. We all surely know the desperate feeling of having your access to the outer world fail, not to mention your livelihood.

I'll email our Linden contact on Monday to see when they'll have Anzere copied over. If it's on or before the 30th of April, we'll all be able to drop our tier without paying for an extra month.

The total cost of the server will be $1033 including the man-hour of time required to copy over Anzere. When the new Neualtenburg website is up in a day or so (and is reviewed by other members), we should start selling land immediately, having new citizens send their payment to Sudane (we'll discuss this more shortly). If we have no new partners by the time the bill is due, it will cost $344 apiece (and $65/month starting 1 month after the purchase). I have been given the go ahead at home to hold more than 33% if one of you feels that is too high for you. As new members purchase land we will then receive funds back for our initial investment, including monthly fees (if it takes more than one month to sell off the land).

If you would like, for the initial offering I would amenable to providing a return on investment for those who are shouldering the initial costs (in the grand tradition of capitalism). Although, after we're sold out, I'd like the land sales to operate not for profit.

~Ulrika~

Ulrika, I think I'll survive for a month, lol

Of course, it's in my personal interest that the land sales go well and allow us to at least pay the recurring fees. I think that it's not too far fetched to believe that this will happen quickly enough

I don't feel that it complicates matters to have the funds that we put in, hoping or expecting to get back, understood as "bonds", whether they pay interest or not. By putting in the funds that we do expect to pay as a purchase/transfer/deeding from Neualtenburg, putting those in as our purchase of our land under the deed; and then putting in additional funds needed to keep the enterprise afloat as bonds; I feel makes it more clear the status of each batch of money.

Sorry if my sentence got a little "run-on" . I'm just trying for my usual financial clarity here. Our investment ought to be what we put in for the long haul. The part we're hoping to get back should be a "bond" or a "loan" or whatever; different thing.... different account.

Sudane