SignWriting List
November 10, 2000
Hello Everyone!
I have been writing "end-of-the-year" grants, which are a requirement
as a part of my work. For the past two weeks, I have been thinking
about technical matters in my head...(I want so much to do the
technical work on the invention)....while being forced to face the
practical necessities of raising money to pay the bills!
Here in the US, we have something called "non-profit-status". It is a
part of US law. US citizens are able to deduct donations from their
taxes. So a "tax-deductible" organization like ours, which is a
non-profit, asks people to donate to our organization. The people who
donate can subtract that donation from their taxes next year. And our
organization then has money to help Deaf education. The donor wins,
and our organization wins - we call that a "win-win situation" ;-))
Sooo...before the end of the year, all of the non-profits in the US,
are very busy sending out requests for donations. And in our case, I
am the one who does that. So, from October to December, I am sending
out requests every week. The small amount of money that comes in,
helps pay our telephone bills, internet costs, domain name
registrations, and purchases of supplies and software.
This week I wrote 12 small grants - The grants include a cover letter
plus a small proposal, and I sent those 12 envelopes to 12 small,
local San Diego foundations that help hundreds of non-profits like
ours ;-)
So that is what I have been doing. And now finally, I can sit down
and enjoy reading your messages, and really respond - I look forward
to it!
I am so glad that Stefan answered one of the last questions about
direction of fingers - that was a perfect question for Stefan, since
I know Stefan already established rules for that - Thanks for
answering that, Stefan!
We are all so fortunate to have the internet...Do you realize how
lucky we are? Teachers and signers in Brazil are asking questions to
the SignWriting List....a forum of 24 countries....and answers and
comments are coming from Norway, Germany, the US...and I am sure
other countries too...thank goodness we can communicate so well and
so deeply together.
There will always be differences in the way writing systems are used
in different countries, because of the difference in cultures and
language, but do not let that discourage you. That is human and
necessary, since language is ever-changing. The exciting fact is,
that in the case of SignWriting, it will be more international as
time goes on, than most writing systems, because it is so young a
writing system, and in this early historic stage, we are intensely
communicating on the internet...
Imagine how different it could be - Without the internet, we
certainly would not know each other!
This is Friday night here in San Diego, and I hope to answer your
technical questions this weekend - I look forward to it!
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone...and thanks once again for making
the SW List so lively!!
--
Val ;-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Valerie Sutton
Visit the SignWritingSite:
https://www.SignWriting.org
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