$$$ for WPI vote daily now in Vivint Round 2!

[helen41]

I agree, Eric. It's all in the planning!

 

[Sasha]

I'm sorry to hear that that kind of thing is going on, muffin - it's just appalling. I agree with you that people should just vote for whichever charity they want without feeling pressured.

 

[Dolphin]

I think I'm going to switch the four votes I control back to the WPI after tomorrow - I imagine that if the National ME/FM Action Network were going to get the vote out that they would have done so on or before this matching donation period.

 

[frenchtulip]

Vivint's latest posting on Facebook--Wildcard drawing!

See Vivint's latest posting on Facebook. After grand prize and regional winners are determined, all remaining charities which have received over 5,000 votes will be entered in a wildcard drawing. Two lucky charities will win $25,000 each.

Nat'l ME/FM Action Network has over 7,000 votes. I am wondering if we could possibly get enough votes for the IACFS/ME to get them into the wildcard drawing. They have 166 votes, at present, I think.

 

[frenchtulip]

At present there are only 41 nonprofits with over 5,000 votes, although some which are close will no doubt work hard to get votes and make the cut. Even if 10 more organizations should get the needed votes to qualify, there's a reasonable chance for a nonprofit to win. (51 minus the 6 big winners = 45 divided by 2) Of course, many organizations may push hard for this opportunity.

 

[eric_s]

Sounds like something we should think about. We would need to give them around 200 daily votes. I wonder though if the "hard-core" National ME/FM Action Network voters would switch over to the IACFS/ME (and to the Nightingale Foundation, if possible). I don't want to be defeatist and i have been voting for the Action Network for weeks now, but it is looking increasingly difficult for them to win in their region. I really want them to win next year and think we should work on this (if there is a Vivint Gives Back Project next year), but we also have to be realistic. It might be the smarter choice at this moment to get the WPI the 100'000$ (and also that's not for sure yet) and try to get the other 3 into this drawing.

 

[Dolphin]

National ME/FM Action Network needs c.800/day more than Light and Love Home-Vancouver

For simplicity, assume that the gap between Light and Love Home- Vancouver and National ME/FM Action Network doesn't change before the end of today.

That would mean the National ME/FM Action Network would need to make up 26729 - 7671 = 19058 over the last 24 days of voting.
That is to say they would need to get an average of 794 per day more than Light and Love Home- Vancouver to draw level.

 

[helen41]

I think I am finally willing to back away from ME/FM, but I think at this point my votes are wasted on WPI. I love the idea of working to get one more of our groups into the draw. Those are good odds.

 

[helen41]

Nightingale has 299 votes right now, compared to 167 for IACFS. I think we should support Nightingale for a few reasons. They do very good work, and many members are refusing to support IACFS at this point. This might be a stretch to get them up to 5000, and we don't need the dissention.
There have been complaints that support has not been available to Canada. That would resolve some of those issues as well.
I would love to see us all pull together and have a winner and 2 groups in the draw. This is exciting!

Aug 4
my words were misleading. I went back and looked, and the dispute I was referring to was about gathering votes at the beginning of the contest. It was not people criticising IACFS. I am sorry for giving wrong info.

 

[eric_s]

I will also change my vote from tomorrow on, even though i'm not really happy about it. Why do you think members would not vote for the IACFS/ME? I think we badly need an organisation like the IACFS/ME, i see this as something very important. Agree that it's exciting, these contests have a lot of potential for us.

 

[eric_s]

You know what we could do? For 3 or 4 days or so everybody will vote for who they like better and then we check who got more votes, the IACFS/ME or Nightingale. I will then go for who got more votes and maybe others will do the same. Or have a poll, but there everybody can vote, not only people who will actually vote in the contest and also not everybody might take it.

 

[frenchtulip]

We have 1 vote left at our house today. I was unaware of the criticism of the IACFS/ME, but it does seem like a good organization--is international and involves over 500 ME/CFS researchers and clinicians who unselfishly volunteer their time to try and help us. On the other hand, Dr. Hyde has worked very hard for us for so many years and his organization has nearly 300 votes already.

I just saw your post, Eric. That's a good idea to see which organization seems to be preferred for the next few days and stands the best chance of getting to 5,000 votes.

 

[helen41]

I agree that they do excellent work, I simply chose Nightingale because I think that they do good work, but won't generate strong emotions in the community.
I sent an email to Vivint a while ago asking if I could post on a vote wall asking for support, but making it clear there will be no trade of votes. I didn't get a response, but I can't see how that could be considered wrong. I wouldn't do it for WPI at this point, just in case, but I think it is worth trying.
I have posted a message in one place and will do another tomorrow asking on behalf of Nightingale. I don't know if there will be an impact on the numbers or not. If the consensus is that IACFS is the better choice, I will change my request, but wanted to get todays votes in while we decide

 

[helen41]

You know what we could do? For 3 or 4 days or so everybody will vote for who they like better and then we check who got more votes, the IACFS/ME or Nightingale. I will then go for who got more votes and maybe others will do the same.

excellent idea. I am happy to go with the concensus

 

[WillowJ]

I tried to donate to the Canadian charity during the matching promotion and was told I could not use my card for this donation (I do not have, nor do I intend to get, a paypal account; I do not trust paypal). They started the screen off by automatically listing my country as Canada. Do they think only Canadians want to donate to a Canadian charity?

 

[eric_s]

That's strange, donations to the IACFS/ME don't go through PayPal and also when i donated to the National ME/FM Action Network during the first matching period you just had to provide your card details, it was not via PayPal. Maybe someone with a PayPal account could make the donation for you and you pay it back. I would do it, but i guess a bank transfer from the US to Switzerland would cost too much for it to make sense. You could send me the money in a letter though. If you want to to that, we can do it, but it's almost 4 in the morning here and i don't want to stay in front of the pc much longer, so you would have to tell me now... and i see you're not online anymore. Or just donate to another charity.

 

[WillowJ]

oh, donate to another charity, good thought. thanks! I came here and saw there were others now, but I didn't even think of that in regards to donating. thanks also for being willing to trade a donation for a check in the mail.

Funny, they deducted the amount I tried to give to ME/FM Action Network from my matching total even though that did not complete.

I tried IACFS/ME and that worked.

I didn't think I voted yet, but it shows "voted". maybe I did and forgot, hehe. I'm really out of it this week, been doing too much.

 

[WillowJ]

it took my card the regular way this time, too, not trying to take my card through paypal

 

[Dolphin]

Thanks to anyone who has donated.

 

[cfs info]

The use of paypal is so Canadians donating to a Canadian charity can get a tax receipt. Without this we wouldn't get a take receipt and our donations would be lower. You don't have to create a paypal account. It just has to flow through them.

FYI the charities had to do work to set up the paypal. Nightingale did not make the effort to do this. It appears they have minimal interest in this contest from information I've heard via Vivint. As such, I'd recommend you support IACFSME with your votes if you plan to change. The conference is still in need of funds and it's important this conference is a success.