Trading something like acorns for "free" seeds sounds good to me if it sounds good to Dave! (Perhaps then, if someone contributed 20 pkts of unusual seeds, they could be given extra seed-acorns in return, to use themselves or give away.)
I was assuming that each donor who sent OUT seeds to new ATP members would have to send a Tree mail to some central person who would subtract that many packets from that member's allotment, and publish it to other donors.. That seems like a lot of work! I didn't b ring that up because I wouldn't volunteer until after I retire!
Here's another possibility, that shifts most of the work on to Dave
Dave: would it be desirable to create a seeds-for-postage databas, to trac k how many pkts have been sent out and how many members are entitled to ask for?
Jonna suggested:
- Existing members - 10 free packets a year (Not more than 5 packets from one person)
- New members - 30 packets once (Not more than 10 packets from one person)
- All members must pay postage.
- Make exceptions for people in special situations.
This idea is based on a finite number of volunteer "seed donors" who would list seeds they had multiple pkts of, available to ATP members free for postage. I was thinking, use a specific name for a "Category" within their Plant List.
Database features:
1 - one record for each member, listing how many "pkts for postage" they are entitled to request
2 - all those member records would be visible to every "donor" so they check for excessive seed-greed
3 - each member's own record would be visible to THAT member (or maybe public?)
4 - populate the record with "30 pkts available to request" when they join,
5 - for everyone, add 10 pkts (or increase the number up to a max of 10) once each year
6.a - allow "seed donor members" to reduce the # of entitled pkts when they send seeds out
6.b - or the seed donor submits a request to a moderated queue: "I sent N pkts to Susan, so deduct N from her record"
Other features:
- a page of links to donors' Plant List Categories with the exact name "Seeds For Postage"
- anyone who creates a Plant List Category with the exact right name would be added automatically to the page of links,
- (or do that only by request to Dave or a moderator)
- a way to enter and track requests for specific seeds from specific donors
- maybe a way to track "in the mail" and "received"
- maybe a voluntary Address database
The basic use case would be:
new member is allotted 30 pkts.
new member scans many donors' lists of "Seeds for Postage"
new member requests 1--10 pkts from one donor
* donor checks the SFP database to be sure that he/she has not already requested 300 pkts
donor agrees & confirms availability & gets address
* donor deducts that many pkts from that member's record in the SFP database
member sends postage
donor sends seeds
(donor checks "in the mail" in the data base)
member receives seeds
(member checks "received" in the database.)
(Repeat for next donor. Some donors with unusual amounts of spare time they can donate might volunteer to be "super-donors" and hold bulk seed from other donors, to centralize the postage when people request pkts.)
Upkeep:
1. Donors would have to keep their "Seeds For Postage" categories up to date, or at least list
"# pkts left when last updated mm/dd/yyyy"
I think that could go into the comment field of the plant, but it might tend to get lost amongst the description and cultural info. How do you feel about the "Seeds For Postage" Category and display page having extra fields and columns for "3 left" and "date counted"?
2. Maybe the address needs to be part of the database record, to catch the one seed-greedy person in a million who would rejoin 10 times under the same name to get 300 pkts of seeds. Of course, paying postage would cost them 23 cents per pkt - perhaps enough in itself to deter hypothetical scammers!
