SUNDAY JOINT, 12-10-2023: “I OPENED UP MY FAVORITE NEWSLETTER AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY FUNDRAISER!”
A Letter from Matt Warshaw, Executive Director of Encyclopedia of Surfing
Surfers, surf culture aficionados, fellow travelers—the 2023 EOS fundraiser is ON and if you want to skip to the business end of this message, click here to donate.
Last week we pushed the big red launch button on EOS 2.0, and bringing that new and massively upgraded version of the site to life pretty much sucked all our time and attention in 2023.
All our money, too. EOS is slightly underwater.
Nothing perilous. I understand website peril and this is not it. We are settled in. In fact, EOS turned 10 in September (the 2013 launch video is a blast), which is practically vintage in internet years. The site is here to stay. The plan is for EOS to outlive us all.
But we did just outspend the 2023 budget, and without a thermometer-busting fundraiser, 2024 will see a reduction in work hours—not mine, but those of the three people who build EOS with me. That means fewer new pages. And less time spent on the EOS Archive project, which you may recall as the headliner from last year’s fundraiser. The Archive is a new stand-alone website, but it will use the same basic architecture, and many of the same components, as EOS 2.0, so we have made progress. But we are nowhere near as far down the track on the Archive as I’d like to be, and while the #1 goal is to keep staffing and work hours at current levels, I’d like to give more time and attention next year to the Archive project as well.
So, getting down to it:
BUY TWO OR THREE MORE EOS GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS
If you work for a company with a matching gift program, sign up anddouble your donation.
If you have a friend who has a friend who can whisper in MacKenzie Scott’s ear that EOS is a good time, philanthropically speaking, let’s make that happen and don’t forget to mention EOS is a registered 501(c)3 so her donation is tax deductible.
Anything along these lines is appreciated.
Thanks for reading, everybody, and thank you for supporting EOS. We are building the future of surf history!
Matt