Hi Alan,

Thanks for your last post (/m26) to the Voluntary Gas Tax QuickTopic page.

I like your idea of asking the Union of Concerned Scientists to host the VGT. That would be great, if they're up for it. And I think the other option you mentioned is good too: using a Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund. I had given up on that when I heard that the minimum incremental deposit was $1,000. I'm glad you checked further and found out that they do in fact accept smaller checks.

> We need to greatly increase the number of VGT
> participants if it is to have significant impact
> and to be worth spending time and effort on
> sustaining.

Yup, I agree.

> What exposure in media has actually been achieved?
> Is this low number a sign of lack of publicity or
> of basic stinginess of many drivers?

So far, there's really been very little media exposure. There have been a couple of newspaper articles, but we've never made a big effort to get press coverage about the project. We've also never made an effort to advertise the project, or to get any coverage in newsletters or mailing lists. Up to now we've grown almost entirely just by word-of-mouth alone. I'm sure we'd get more participants if we began to make people aware of the project.

But I'm not sure how many more people would sign up. Most people feel that gas is already too expensive, and paying an additional tax is the last thing they want to do. I think the whole idea of the gas tax is inherently unpopular. The project could still grow to have thousands of members, but I think it would take some real work to get it there.

The first step was just to get the project up and running. We've done that. It seems like the next step would be to start working on getting more exposure, either through press coverage, or advertising, or through some partnership with an organization like the Union of Concerned Scientists.

What we need now is someone who's interested in stepping up to lead the project into that next phase. Unfortunately, I'm not the right person for that job. I'm glad to have had a role in getting the project started, but I don't want to undertake this next phase, for a few different reasons. Partly it's that I don't have experience doing PR or advertising, and partly it's that I'm pretty introverted and people-shy, but the main thing is that I started a new job last year and that's eating up most of my time and energy these days.

I'm hoping that you or one of the other current members might be interested in taking over for me now, and taking on the two tasks that the project is faced with: the task of getting broader exposure for the project, and the task of finding a new home at a tax-exempt organization, like the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund or the Union of Concerned Scientists. I'd be happy to stay involved and help out in little ways. I can keep providing the web hosting for the gastax.org web site, and I can provide a little bit of funding to help cover overhead costs for the next year or two. And I think Jeffrey is game to keep doing the day-to-day operations, maintaining the member database and doing the bookkeeping and sending out the regular mail messages.

Would you be interested in stepping up your involvement and trying to shepherd the project through these next couple years? I'll also post this message to the QuickTopic list, where other people can see it, in case there are other people who are interested in getting more involved.

Happy New Year,
  Brian
  skinner@gumption.org